The Securities Exchange and Commission of Thailand has a license to an asset-backed token offering service based on the Ethereum blockchain. Fraction, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Hong Kong-based fintech firm Fraction Group, has received a license allowing it to list and trade tokens for fractional ownership of physical or digital assets, the firm announced Thursday. The license was granted through the Thai SEC’s official portal for initial coin offering established back in 2018. The license lays out the foundation for Fraction’s upcoming service for asset digitization and fractionalization, referred to as an initial fraction offering (IFO). The firm …

Maxime Bernier, founder and leader of the People's Party of Canada, has said he supports the adoption of cryptocurrencies in the country. In a Tuesday tweet, Bernier said cryptocurrencies are “another new and innovative way” to counter the actions by central banks, which he claimed are “destroying our money and economy.” The Canadian politician has criticized the Bank of Canada for “printing money” and called out Prime Minister Justin Trudeau for his economic policies. Bernier, a former cabinet minister known by some as Mad Max, has been outspoken in his criticism of vaccine mandates in Canada at a time when …

Bybit, one of the world’s top cryptocurrency derivatives exchanges, will halt some of its services to South Korean users ahead of a licensing deadline. The exchange officially announced on Friday that it will discontinue Korean language support from its platforms as well as its official South Korean community on social media. The suspensions will take effect starting on Monday. "Korean traders may still use Bybit products and services. These products and services just won't be offered in the Korean language any more," a spokesperson for Bybit told Cointelegraph. Bybit will remove the functions ahead of a Sept. 24 deadline for …

As cryptocurrency investments get more popular in Russia, the country’s central bank is actively working to curb perceived suspicious crypto activity as well as block some crypto purchases. The Bank of Russia has started working with local banks to make them halt payments to cryptocurrency exchanges in order to protect customers from “emotional” purchases of crypto. Sergey Shvetsov, the first deputy governor at the Bank of Russia, argued that the new measures aim to protect Russian investors from potential losses in case the cryptocurrency market “crashes to zero,” local news agency RIA Novosti reported Wednesday. The latest anti-crypto move comes …

Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren, known by many as an outspoken cryptocurrency skeptic in the United States government, criticized outages at exchanges and high transaction fees during periods of price volatility. In a Tuesday hearing of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs with Securities and Exchange Commission chair Gary Gensler, Warren claimed the crypto industry had fallen short on providing solutions for financial inclusion in the United States. She mentioned the price drops among cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) last week, saying “$400 billion in market value disappeared” while many users reported problems accessing major exchanges …

President Joe Biden has tapped acting chairperson of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) Rostin Behnam to assume his position on a permanent basis and two others to fill vacant commissioner seats. In a Monday announcement from the White House, President Biden said he planned to nominate Behnam — who has been serving as lead at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission since former chair Heath Tarbert left in January — in addition to Kristin Johnson and Christy Goldsmith Romero. All must be confirmed by the Democrat-controlled Senate. According to her faculty profile at the Emory University School of Law, Johnson …

Just a week after Bitcoin (BTC) became legal tender in El Salvador, President Nayib Bukele has admitted that the rollout of the state Bitcoin wallet was too much of a challenge. Chivo, El Salvador’s official Bitcoin wallet, has temporarily disabled new registrations and halted app downloads for new smartphone models due to ongoing issues with the app, Bukele said on Twitter late Monday. “Both things will be enabled until the application has no errors,” the president noted, adding that the Chivo team expects to resume registrations and downloads in a couple more days. “The technical errors of the Chivo wallet …

Democrats in the United States House of Representatives have proposed tax initiatives that could affect crypto users to fund a $3.5 trillion spending package. According to a document released by the House Committee on Ways and Means on Monday, the proposal would increase the tax rate on long-term capital gains from the existing 20% to 25% for “certain high-income individuals.” A surtax of 3.8% on net investment income would seemingly apply to the proposed changes, bringing the U.S. capital gains and dividends tax rate to 28.8% for wealthy crypto users. In addition, the tax plan would add digital assets to …

Amid massive growth of the stablecoin market, the United States Treasury Department has reportedly discussed potential regulation for private stablecoins. The Treasury conducted several meetings last week to examine the risks of stablecoins for users, markets or the financial system as well as to learn about their benefits and consider potential regulation, Reuters reported on Sept 10. “The Treasury Department is meeting with a broad range of stakeholders, including consumer advocates, members of Congress and market participants,” Treasury spokesman John Rizzo said. Citing three anonymous sources familiar with the matter, the report notes that one of the Treasury’s meetings took …

The government of El Salvador will reportedly exempt investors from paying a capital gains tax and an income tax on Bitcoin (BTC), according to a presidential legal counsel. Javier Argueta, a legal adviser to President Nayib Bukele, is looking to encourage foreign investment through major tax breaks on Bitcoin, Agence France-Presse reported on Sept. 10. “If a person has assets in Bitcoin and makes high profits, there will be no tax. This is done obviously to encourage foreign investment,” Argueta said, adding that El Salvador will impose no taxes on “either the capital increase or the income.” Argueta reportedly noted …

The year 2021 will probably go down the history books as one of Bitcoin’s (BTC) most interesting years, given its recent uptake by billionaires and adoption by mainstream institutions, not to mention El Salvador’s move to make it legal tender. In El Salvador’s case, it almost seems as if the whole world is watching this experiment to see whether it will be a success or a total failure for the Central American nation. With Sept. 7 marking the official implementation of Bitcoin as a legal tender in El Salvador, a wave of protests in the country against the move has …

The Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority, or FINMA, announced their approval for regulated Swiss exchange SIX to launch a digital asset marketplace and central securities depository built on distributed ledger technology on Friday. Initially intent on launching in the latter half of 2019, the Six exchange was slowed from progressing its ambitions by regulatory hurdles. Although no specific date of launch was announced on Friday, it is expected that after this challenge has been negotiated, customers will be able to experience the exchange's offerings in the near future. In February this year, 21 Shares launched the world’s first Polkadot exchange-traded …