Britain’s tax agency is inviting contractors to provide a tech tool to help Britain’s tax agency combat crypto cybercriminals. What the agency wants The technology, which Her Majesty’s Revenue & Customs (HMRC) posted on Jan. 17 in an open contract call worth 100,000 pounds sterling, should gather intelligence through cluster analysis. The HMRC’s Cybercrime team hopes this will help them correlate crypto-asset transactions with service providers. As opposed to free online tools and human analysis that exist, HMRC reportedly believes a commercial product would help the agency illuminate the blind spots that currently allow criminal activity to fester. HMRC wants …

Following the session that took place last August, a three-judge panel from India’s Supreme Court reconvened once again this week to discuss the much-hyped Crypto v. RBI case. During the last hearing, the Supreme Court had asked the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to clarify its position as to why exactly it enforced a nationwide banking ban on the country’s crypto market, as well as to discuss the seemingly unconstitutional nature of its aforementioned move. Ever since the RBI decided to go ahead and issue its controversial prohibition order, a number of public and industry-led petitions have been filed by …

On Jan. 10, the European Union’s 5th Anti-Money Laundering Directive (5AMLD), was officially signed into law. The legislation will give sweeping powers to compliance organizations and law authorities. However, aside from tracking dirty money to offshore paradises, the law brings about a series of restrictive demands on crypto companies in a way never seen before. This development cuts into the notion that, in the past, the world’s richest people comfortably diverted money across borders through a financial framework that operates firmly in a legal grey area, which has long lingered in the public consciousness. Until 2016, it seemed as if …

Suspected crypto con artists are once again using the likeness of British financial expert Martin Lewis to defraud unsuspecting victims. In 2019, Lewis settled a defamation suit against Facebook for similar Bitcoin (BTC) scam adverts. Instagram says deceptive advertisements have no place on its platform and plans to continue improving its detection protocols for such content. Social platforms have been known to censor crypto-related content, instituting blanket bans on crypto ads on several occasions. However, Facebook has recently relaxed this policy amid the roll-out of its own digital currency project. The social media giant is one of the main backers …

Britain’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) now monitors anti-money laundering (AML) and counter terrorist financing (CTF) for companies carrying out cryptocurrency-related activities. According to an official announcement published on Jan. 10, FCA will supervise whether United Kingdom-registered businesses engaged in crypto asset-related operations are compliant with relevant regulations and requirements. List of requirements to crypto businesses Further in the announcement, FCA set forth a list of requirements for cryptocurrency-related businesses, which includes the identification and assessment of risks in regards to AML and CFT, development of policies and controls to eliminate risks associated with AML and CFT, conduction of customer due …

Bitcoin (BTC) scam ads featuring the likeness of Martin Lewis have continued to appear on social media despite Lewis’ previous efforts to prevent such illegal practices. After the British financial expert settled a defamation lawsuit against Facebook for showing unendorsed fake Lewis crypto ads in 2019, new scam adverts have now been spotted on Facebook-owned Instagram. Reported by Twitter user @peterfinn5252 on Jan. 7, the scam Instagram ad shows Lewis’ face to promote a fake article pretending to be published by major British national daily tabloid The Mirror. The fake article is titled “Martin Lewis Lends a Hand to British …

Law enforcement requests to cryptocurrency exchange Kraken hit their highest ever volume in 2019, rising 49% to 710 as compared with 475 the previous year. The data was revealed in a tweet from the exchange on Jan. 6, which included a snapshot taken from the new 2019 Transparency Report from Kraken’s compliance team. Screenshot, 2019 Global Law Enforcement Requests. Source: @krakenfx American, British and Danish agencies the most proactive As the snapshot reveals, Kraken received a total of 710 information requests from global law enforcement agencies in 2019, marking a sharp increase as compared with both 475 in 2018 and …

A United Kingdom national, and alleged member of “The Dark Overlord” hacking collective, has been extradited to the United States to face charges. According to an announcement from the U.S. Department of Justice on Dec. 18, the charges relate to the purported theft of sensitive information from companies in the St. Louis area, and threats to release this information unless a ransom was paid in Bitcoin (BTC). Justice across international borders Nathan Wyatt, 39, pled not guilty to charges of aggravated identity theft, threatening to damage a protected computer, and conspiring to commit those and other computer fraud offenses, and …

United Kingdom-based cryptocurrency data and wallet provider Blockchain.com has added a British pound gateway to its crypto exchange, The Pit. On Dec. 19, Xen Baynham-Herd — executive vice president of product at Blockchain — told Cointelegraph that with Brexit on the horizon, the exchange has seen a record number of first-time deposits from U.K. users. The Pit’s new gateway will now allow users to purchase crypto using British pounds via the U.K.’s Fast Payments Scheme — an infrastructure designed to provide near-instant transaction settlement times for payments between different British banks. This should ostensibly significantly improve U.K. users’ deposit and …

London-based cryptocurrency exchange Coinfloor will delist all cryptocurrencies but Bitcoin (BTC) to focus on Bitcoin only services in January. The United Kingdom’s oldest crypto exchange will delist all cryptos including the second-biggest altcoin Ether (ETH) and Bitcoin Cash (BCH) in conjunction with the 11th anniversary of Bitcoin’s launch on Jan. 3, 2020, Coinfloor said in a blog post on Dec. 17. Bitcoin is the only cryptocurrency that is proven so far, Coinfloor CEO says Obi Nwosu, CEO and founder of Coinfloor, said that Coinfloor’s move comes in line with the company’s vision to focus on cryptocurrencies that are “proven” so …

Fidelity Investments’ cryptocurrency branch Fidelity Digital Assets is expanding to the United Kingdom. “We plan to provide our services to European institutional investors through our U.K.-registered entity, Fidelity Digital Assets, Ltd,” a Fidelity Digital Assets representative told Cointelegraph on Dec. 17, saying: “We recognize that the regulatory requirements for service providers in the digital assets space is evolving, and we intend to comply with all applicable requirements in the U.K. and elsewhere as we continue to globally expand our services to the institutional investment community.” The move into the U.K. will provide European businesses, such as hedge funds, the opportunity …

Multi-asset investment platform and social network eToro is allegedly planning to launch a debit card in the second quarter of 2020. On Dec. 9, Business Insider reported that the United Kingdom-based digital asset trading platform’s 12 million users will be able to spend their earnings via a debit card, planned for launch in Q2 of next year. The service will reportedly launch in the UK firt. However, other details about this planned debit card launch remain unclear. EToro’s global head of PR & communications, Amy Butler, confirmed to Cointelegraph that the company is indeed working on a debit card launch, …