Amid the ongoing growth of the cryptocurrency lending industry, major crypto wallet service Blockchain.com launches a new lending product for all users, not just institutions. After first launching an institutional crypto lending desk in August 2019, Blockchain.com is now rolling out its crypto lending service to all users across more than 180 countries, the United Kingdom-based firm announced to Cointelegraph on March 10. Borrow allows users to borrow Paxos Standard against Bitcoin at the launch The new lending product from Blockchain.com, dubbed Borrow, allows to users borrow Paxos Standard stablecoin (PAX) against Bitcoin (BTC) directly from the platform’s native cryptocurrency …

In 2007, Lebanese-American essayist, statistician and risk analyst Nassim Nicholas Taleb introduced the world to the notion of a “black swan.” A black swan is Taleb’s metaphor for large, unexpected events that wreak havoc across finance, science and technology. Thirteen years on, the world is reeling from its latest black swan in the form of coronavirus, with London Blockchain Week as the latest event in crypto to feel the effects. With public events being canceled around the world and with many people reluctant to travel until the Covid-19 scare blows over, event organizers at the summit must adapt to keep …

How worried should international regulators be about the cryptocurrency industry? Not overly, a British financial crime expert has claimed. Therese Chambers — director of retail and regulatory investigations at the United Kingdom’s Financial Conduct Authority — made the argument at the New York University School of Law on March 5, in a speech entitled “The Advancement of Digital Assets and Addressing Financial Crime Risk.” No longer radical? In her address, Chambers acknowledged that the premise of blockchain “comes from a libertarian strand of ideology which eschews identity checks and advocates digital privacy.” Regulators like the FCA, she continued, thus expect …

Day One, March 5 The world has a fever. A fever for blockchain. But that’s not the only infectious substance in the room. The spectre of the spiralling Coronavirus crisis looms large over today’s conference in the United Kingdom. London has sold out of hand sanitizer and some of blockchain’s biggest names are fist-bumping and elbow-tapping at London Blockchain Week to avoid hand contact. Although the summit is about extolling the virtues of blockchain, coronavirus is the elephant in the room. And there’s certainly room for an elephant in the cavernous main hall of 8 Northumberland Avenue, in the beating …

A UK financial watchdog hastily retracted an official warning about Kraken after apparently confusing the exchange with online scammers — but a similar warning about BitMEX remains active. On March 3, the United Kingdom Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) published a notice on its website cautioning citizens that the second-largest U.S. cryptocurrency exchange by volume, Kraken, is not authorized to operate in the U.K. The warning stated the company is “targeting people in the UK”: “We believe this firm has been providing financial services or products in the UK without our authorization. Find out why to be especially wary of dealing …

Investing in cryptocurrencies will always receive some skepticism from officials who started in traditional markets. Today in London, Andrew Bailey expressed this sentiment, arguing anyone putting money into Bitcoin should be prepared to lose the shirt off their back. Bailey gave his thoughts on the cryptocurrency to members of the U.K. Parliament at a Treasury Select Committee hearing on Mar. 4. In a video available to Cointelegraph, Bailey reiterated his past warnings on Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies as a whole before stating: “If you want to buy Bitcoin, be prepared to lose all your money… [Bitcoin] has no intrinsic value.” The …

A whistleblower has revealed the existence of a 200-employee Ukrainian Bitcoin (BTC) trading scam that netted $70 million in 2019. The whistleblower outed the scam by providing footage and internal company documents to Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter, which reported the news on March 1. The scam predominantly targets investors based in Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom by using fake news articles advertised on Facebook and some mobile game platforms. The stories feature interviews with celebrities who purportedly made a killing by investing in crypto — including Gordon Ramsey, Hugh Jackman and Martin Lewis. Ukrainian company Milton Group accused …

Jon Cuncliffe, the deputy governor for financial stability of the United Kingdom’s central bank, the Bank of England (BoE), has warned that the emergence of a cryptocurrency economy may weaken or eliminate bank credit issuance. In a speech delivered to the London School of Economics on Feb. 28, Cunliffe predicted that the integration of stablecoins on social media platforms could lead to people putting much of their money currently held with banks into stablecoin wallets, warning: “In such a world, and depending how and whether stablecoins were backed with other financial assets, the supply of credit to the real economy …

United Kingdom-based digital bank Revolut has raised $500 million in a fresh funding round and tripled its valuation to hit $5.5 billion. This, as the Financial Times reported on Feb. 25, makes the crypto-supporting app one of Europe’s most valuable fintech firms. Since late 2017, Revolut’s app has enabled its users to complete transactions in cryptocurrencies that include Bitcoin (BTC), Litecoin (LTC), Ether (ETH) and XRP. In Dec. 2018, the firm received a banking license in Lithuania, paving the way for a transition away from prepaid cards toward offering a fuller suite of banking services. Valuation equals erstwhile record for …

The team behind Brave Browser thinks that Google has an unfair competitive advantage due to its massive trove of user data. In a submission filed with the United Kingdom’s consumer protection agency, Brave argued that the country’s failure to enforce European data protection laws gives Google an unfair advantage. Brave’s stance In an interview with Cointelegraph, Dr. Johnny Ryan, Brave’s chief policy and industry relations officer, insisted that it’s not about the competition between Chrome and Brave, but enforcing the laws that protect consumers: “RTB [Real-time-bidding, an auction for online ads] is the biggest data breach in the world, personal …

While the crypto community is talking about “altcoin season,” one of the world’s oldest crypto exchanges is calling BS on everything that is not BTC. After turning into a Bitcoin (BTC)-only exchange, the United Kingdom’s oldest cryptocurrency exchange Coinfloor is now expanding its consumer BTC services. Focused on Bitcoin, the world’s first ever cryptocurrency, Coinfloor is launching a range of new consumer-oriented investing and trading services in order to make Bitcoin easy for everyone, the firm said in an announcement shared with Cointelegraph on Feb. 19. Coinfloor wants to reduce stress of buying Bitcoin As part of its “no BS” …

On Feb. 11, ePayments Systems Ltd, a United Kingdom-regulated electronic money institution, suspended all online payment activity at the request of the Financial Conduct Authority, the local regulator. Upon “agreeing” with the watchdog, ePayments froze all of its customers’ accounts, blocked their prepaid cards, and banned new account openings “until remedial action has been undertaken to the satisfaction of the FCA.” According to the customer notice published shortly after the incident, the decision to halt business was made after a regulatory review of the company’s Anti-Money Laundering systems. During the inspection, the FCA reportedly identified “a number of weaknesses which …