SIA, an Italian company specializing in e-payment services, is working on a blockchain-based system to enable secondary credit trading. The upcoming platform will allow banks, funds and financial operators to negotiate secondary credit transactions via blockchain, SIA announced on Tuesday. A spokesperson for SIA told Cointelegraph that the company plans to pilot the platform in the second quarter, while the full-scale launch is expected in the second half of the year. SIA’s new credit trading platform is being developed in collaboration with fintech startup WizKey. The Milan-based firm is building financial solutions with a focus on structured finance products and …

European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde has repeated her insistence that global regulators need to tighten the rules to ensure Bitcoin (BTC) falls under more coordinated oversight. In an interview at the Reuters Next conference, amid an unprecedented bull market for the veteran cryptocurrency, Lagarde argued: “[Bitcoin] is a highly speculative asset, which has conducted some funny business and some interesting and totally reprehensible money laundering activity.” While Bitcoin is pseudonymous, rather than anonymous, its distributed nature and complex interaction with jurisdictional regulatory frameworks present a challenge for international authorities. During the interview, Lagarde did not reportedly refer to any …

A Wall Street Journal report published Jan. 12 claims European eToro users were given just four hours notice that the platform's margin trading services would be halted on Friday. EToro users were informed they must increase their margin collateral to 100% in an email sent at 4:46 UTC on Jan. 8. The platform closed the contracts of any European crypto trader who didn’t bolster their margin collateral to 100% by 9:00 PM. When the firm called in the margin trades, the users’ crypto was automatically converted into U.S. dollars. Amy Butler, an eToro spokeswoman, said “most traders were in the …

2020 has been a stellar year for the crypto economy, with more enterprises and institutions than ever before implementing the technology. Big announcements, such as PayPal’s decision to enable its users to buy and sell Bitcoin (BTC), have understandably dominated the headlines. However, pivotal regulatory developments across the globe have largely flown under the radar and arguably present even greater significance for crypto in the long term. Related: Will PayPal’s crypto integration bring crypto to the masses? Experts answer The importance of clear regulatory frameworks cannot be overstated, with patchy and insufficient legislation offering a major barrier to enterprises looking …

It is hard to imagine that just two years ago, the general discourse around central bank digital currencies, or CBDCs, was mainly focused on the potential and possibility of issuing them. Even in 2019, the question was about whether we need state-owned cryptocurrencies, with only 70% of central banks worldwide studying the potential of issuing a CBDC, according to a survey published by the Bank for International Settlements at the beginning of 2019. But this year, everything is indeed different. 2020 started with a major event within the financial world: the World Economic Forum in Davos, where the WEF released …

Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, has started shipping its physical Binance Visa cards in the European Economic Area. According to a Dec. 14 announcement, users in the EEA region will soon receive their physical Binance Visa cards. Customers that have already ordered the card can now complete the delivery process in their card wallet. In conjunction with debuting its physical cards in the EEA region, Binance also added Ether (ETH) support to its crypto debit card, so customers can now pay with the altcoin. “Simply transfer Ethereum to your Card wallet and drag it above the other coins to …

A number of popular U.S. dollar-pegged stablecoins exist on the crypto market. Stablecoins based on the euro also exist, but are notably less liquid, according to Zahreddine Touag, co-founder and head of trading at Paris-based market making firm Woorton. “There’s not any euro stablecoin that is very liquid,” Touag said on Thursday during a Paris Blockchain Week conference panel, noting multiple points of rationale. The most impactful reason: “It’s very costly to do a euro stablecoin,” he noted, adding: “The primary source of revenue for U.S. dollar coins are the interest rates when you replace the U.S. dollar because you …

Germany’s Bankhaus von der Heydt, or BVDH, has launched a Euro stablecoin on the Stellar network. The bank claims the token is the first of its kind to be issued by a banking institute.The EURB stablecoin, which went live today, was developed on the Stellar blockchain in partnership with tokenization and digital asset custody technology provider Bitbond. The asset, which is fully regulated and backed one-for-one with Euros, will not be openly traded on exchanges due to tight regulatory and Know Your Customer requirements. If a customer wants to acquire the stablecoin, a fiat currency transfer is held in an …

The European Commission is inviting tenders for the European Union blockchain pre-commercial procurement, or PCP. In general, a PCP is a public sector purchase of research and development services to adapt new or emerging technology to its needs. This PCP will focus on developing a novel blockchain solution that builds on the EU legal framework such as the General Data Protection Regulation, the Electronic Identification, Authentication and Trust Services regulation and the Network and Information Systems directive. The process will involve awarding several research and development contracts in parallel to existing service providers considered to offer the best value-for-money. These …

Financial authorities in Europe could form an investigation plan for a digital euro as early as next year, according to an executive at the European Central Bank. Holger Neuhaus, head of market innovation and integration at the ECB, joined the Singapore FinTech Festival 2020 on Monday to discuss the global development of central bank digital currencies, or CBDCs. During the online discussion, Neuhaus claimed that the ECB expects European financial authorities to assess whether to launch a digital euro initiative by mid-2021: “In mid-2021, the euro system will consider whether to launch a digital euro project. But just to highlight, …

The U.K. Tory Party's nemesis, Nigel Farage, has gone “full crypto.” Last Friday, Farage sat down for a video interview to discuss all things crypto with Sam Volkering, editor of Southbank Investment Research — which is, notably, the publisher of Farage's recently launched investor newsletter "Fortune & Freedom." In the interview, Farage derided the government's “funny money,” which it continues to print throughout the pandemic at warp speed, and concluded that it's therefore “crucially important” to get one's head around crypto. He has elsewhere called Bitcoin “the ultimate anti-lockdown investment” — pointedly on-brand for his newly launched Reform UK party. …

Several experts from various European banks agreed that even a proof of concept for a digital euro is four or five years away. In a panel on Monday called "Upgrading Money to the Digital Age: Introducing Digital Euro," participants agreed that the current task was primarily one of getting everyone onboard with the specifics of a digital euro, putting any real implementation well into the future. Central bank digital currencies, or CBDCs, have been an extremely popular topic of debate in recent years, but especially since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. Austėja Šostakaitė of the European Central Bank said …