Today in Crypto: Indonesia to Launch Crypto Exchange, India’s Exchanges Lost 81% of Trading Volume, UK’s National Crime Agency Forming a ‘Crypto Cell’

Get your daily, bite-sized digest of cryptoasset and blockchain-related news – investigating the stories flying under the radar of today’s crypto news.
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Exchange news

• Indonesia plans to set up its own crypto exchange this year, Bloomberg reported. As part of a broader financial sector reform, the Financial Services Authority will assume regulatory power over the assets over the next two years, by which time the exchange should be set up, the Commodity Futures Trading Regulatory Agency said.
• India’s tax rules on crypto, which went into effect last April, have pushed traders to foreign exchanges. Companies like Binance and Coinbase got 67.6% of the crypto market share in India as of October 2022, up from 50% in November 2021, according to a report by New Delhi-based think tank Esya. Indian exchanges including WazirX, CoinSwitch, and CoinDCX lost 81% of their trading volume between July and October, Esya said.

Crime news

• The UK’s National Crime Agency is recruiting a group of law enforcement officers to investigate crypto crimes. “The NCCU Crypto Cell will be dedicated to a proactive cryptocurrency remit with the right tools and capabilities to target UK based subjects along with supporting colleagues with specialist advice and guidance,” said a job advert posted on the government’s website.

Regulation news

• Three US regulators – the Federal Reserve, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) – issued a joint statement on cryptoasset risks to banking organizations. “The events of the past year have been marked by significant volatility and the exposure of vulnerabilities in the crypto-asset sector,” it said. The “key risks” associated with the sector and its participants, which banking organizations should be aware of, include scams and fraud, legal uncertainties, volatility, contagion risk, etc.
• The Israeli Securities Authority (ISA) proposed a framework for regulating digital assets. More specifically, the regulator proposed amendments to three existing financial laws to include digital assets, and once authorized and published, the new crypto laws will be enacted after six months.

Legal news

• The law firm of Kirby McInerney LLP announced that a class action lawsuit had been filed in the US “on behalf of those who acquired [crypto-friendly bank] Silvergate Capital Corporation […] securities between November 9, 2021 through November 17, 2022,” said a press release. The lawsuit alleges that the company made false and/or misleading statements and/or failed to disclose that its platform lacked sufficient controls and procedures to detect instances of money laundering; its customers had engaged in money laundering in amounts exceeding $425 million; and it was reasonably likely to receive regulatory scrutiny and face damages, including penalties and reputational harm, said the announcement.

Adoption news

• Taipei’s mayor-elect Chiang Wan-an said during a conference that in Taiwan’s blockchain-powered future, “everyone will have the chance to be heard,” Rest of World reported. Leu Jang-hua, the country’s minister of digital industries, added that investing in blockchain technology would bring cybersecurity and empowerment to Taiwan, which has laid the foundation to become the region’s crypto haven despite the market downturn.

Mining news

• Bitcoin (BTC) miner TeraWulf’s management team invested over $15 million of their personal capital in the company, said Chairman and CEO Paul Prager in an open letter. Among the priorities for 2023, Prager highlighted achieving the target of 49,000 operating miners in Q1, expanding the suite of grid services they offer to the market, and optimizing the earnings power by executing the company’s recently announced cost-cutting initiatives.
• CleanSpark released its monthly bitcoin production update for December 2022, saying that it set its daily production record of BTC 22, and ended 2022 with BTC 4,621 mined in the calendar year. The company funded growth and operations through the sale of BTC 517 in December at an average of approximately $17,000 per BTC. The sales equated to proceeds of approximately $8.7 million, said an announcement.

NFT news

• The Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) and mobile-first platform Virtualness announced that Virtualness would exclusively power a digital experience for basketball fans to discover, explore, collect, trade, buy, and own moments in the games via branded digital collectibles. Use cases for these non-fungible token (NFT) collectibles range “from commemorative, topical, gamification to unlocking unique fan experiences,” the announcement said.