Pharmacies in Ukraine are embracing digital payments amid the ongoing war, with a major local pharmacy chain enabling payments in cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin (BTC). ANC Pharmacy, one of the biggest pharmacy chains in Ukraine, has partnered with Binance Ukraine to debut cryptocurrency payments via contactless crypto payment service Binance Pay. Starting from Jan. 3, ANC Pharmacy enabled its customers to proceed with instant payments while purchasing pharmacy products online, the pharmacy chain officially announced on Tuesday. ANC Pharmacy operates more than 1,000 pharmacies across Ukraine, running its own online pharmacy service. According to an official announcement, Binance Pay payments will …

As liquidity issues surround the Digital Currency Group (DCG), Three Arrows Capital (3AC) founder Su Zhu made a Twitter thread containing allegations against DCG and FTX. However, the founder immediately got called out by the crypto community for blaming others and not taking accountability. In the thread, Zhu alleged that DCG had a role in the collapse of LUNA, now called Terra Classic (LUNC). Zhu claimed that the venture capital firm conspired with the FTX exchange to attack LUNC and made a profit by doing so. The 3AC founder also said that instead of restructuring from losses due to the …

Lee Jung-hoon, the former chair of the South Korean cryptocurrency exchange Bithumb, was found not guilty on Jan. 3 by the 34th Division of the Criminal Agreement of the Seoul Central District Court. Jung-Hoon was on trial under accusations of violating the Act on the Aggravated Punishment Of Specific Economic Crimes due to fraud. The case has been ongoing since October 2018, when the former chairman allegedly defrauded 100 billion won ($70 million) during negotiations for the acquisition of Bithumb from Kim Byung-gun, chairman of the cosmetic surgery company BK Group. Jung-hoon could’ve faced an 8-year sentence had he been …

The Securities Commission of The Bahamas (SCB) has denied FTX debtors’ claims and expresses concern that the investigation has been ‘impeded.’ According to a statement released on Jan.3, The Securities Commission of The Bahamas (SCB) has had to correct material misstatements made by John J. Ray III, the representative of the United States-based FTX debtors, in press and court filings. The document stated that the Chapter 11 Debtors had “publicly challenged” the Commissions calculations of digital assets transferred to digital wallets under the Commission's control in Nov. 2022. It argued that these statements were based on “incomplete” information and the …

A 25-year-old crypto investor who traded nearly $2 billion (3 billion Australian dollars) worth of crypto in 2021 ran his crypto empire from the comfort of his parent’s home in Sydney, Australia, according to public records. The young gun in question, Darren Nguyen, has not spoken about the achievement of his small trading business PO Street Capital, though an article from The Australian on Jan. 2 has instead highlighted such via public filings. Registered at his parent's house in Guildford, Sydney, Nguyen’s crypto business took home 10.41 million AUD in after-tax profit in the fiscal year ended Jun. 30, 2021, …

Circle's chief strategy officer and head of global policy, Dante Disparte, believes that the turmoil in the crypto sector over the last year could mark the handover of crypto technology to more durable companies and "steadier hands" in 2023. In a Jan. 2 post for The World Economic Forum (WEF), Disparte highlighted the growing use of crypto in the financial services sector and opined that the ongoing bear market and exchange collapses may ultimately be a boon for the industry, paving the way for "responsible, always-on internet finance." "Just as it took the dot-com bubble bursting in the early 2000s …

Bitcoin (BTC) had a bumpy ride throughout 2022, along with the rest of the digital asset market. The cryptocurrency began the year exchanging hands around $46,700 and is currently trading over 64% down at $16,560 at the time of writing. Consequently, the coin’s market capitalization took a tumble from around $900 billion on Jan. 1, 2022 to end the year at around $320 billion. While Bitcoin’s drop in price could be attributed to the extraordinary circumstances that the entire cryptocurrency market has been through this year, it is important to reevaluate the 2022 price predictions made by various market entities. …

Days before the year's end, Italy's Senate approved its budget for 2023 on Dec. 29, 2022, which included an increase in taxation for crypto investors — a 26% tax on capital gains on crypto assets trading over 2,000 euros (approximately $2,131 USD at time of publication .) The approved legislation defined crypto assets as "a digital representation of value or rights that can be transferred and stored electronically, using distributed ledger technology or similar technology." Previously, crypto assets were treated as foreign currencies in the country, with lower taxes. As reported by Cointelegraph, the bill also established that taxpayers will …

Jan. 2 “marks 47 days since Genesis halted withdrawals,” Cameron Winklevoss, cofounder of the cryptocurrency exchange Gemini, pointed out in an open letter to Barry Silbert, CEO of the Digital Currency Group (DCG), which owns Genesis. Winklevoss went on to make a blunt appraisal of DCG’s business practices. According to the letter Winklevoss posted on Twitter, Genesis owes Gemini $900 million for funds Gemini lent to it as part of the Gemini Earn program. “For the past six weeks, we have done everything we can to engage with you in a good faith and collaborative manner in order to reach …

The United States economy could be in for an upset. Data from a Wall Street Journal survey revealed financial experts expect the country to face an economic downturn this year. Over two-thirds of economists at 23 major financial institutions that do business with the Federal Reserve believe the U.S. will have a “shallow” or “mild” recession in 2023. Two of the surveyed institutions predict a recession for the following year. The research included big names in the financial services sector, such as Barclays PLC, Bank of America Corp., TD Securities and UBS Group AG. Collectively the Federal Reserve was named …

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has shared some bullishness for the year ahead, including reaching a new milestone for rollup scaling as per the Ethereum roadmap. The Ethereum developer also confirmed the rollout of the Ethereum Improvement Protocol (EIP) 4884 sometime in 2023, which had been removed as part of the upcoming Shanghai upgrade package set for March. Responding to a Dec. 31 post from former chief technology officer of Coinbase, Balaji Srinivasan, asking users what they were bullish for in 2023, Buterin said he was looking forward to reaching the “basic rollup scaling” milestone as outlined in the Ethereum roadmap. …

2022 was a watershed year for crypto venture capital, as investors poured tens of billions of dollars into blockchain-focused startups despite the overwhelmingly bearish trend in asset prices. Is the VC-dominated crypto funding model good for the industry? Only time will tell. Cointelegraph Research is still in the process of tallying all the funding figures for the year, but 2022 easily outpaced all other years in terms of total capital raised and deals completed. VC inflows were above $14 billion in each of the first two quarters before receding to just under $5 billion in the third quarter — still …