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 …

At the end of November, news surfaced that Russian cryptocurrency users, who have been operating in a regulatory gray zone, could soon be at risk as the nation’s financial authorities reportedly join forces to outlaw the use of digital assets as a payment instrument. Shortly after, the country’s interior ministry confirmed rumors that it was on track to developing a legal framework for confiscating digital assets, which could come into effect as soon as 2021. Finally, the head of Russia’s main financial intelligence agency, the Federal Financial Monitoring Service, has also spoken unfavorably before parliament about the prospects of legalizing …

Earlier this month, many blockchain media outlets, including Cointelegraph itself as well as Decrypt, Beincrypto and LedgerInsight, reported that Tunisia had become the first country to digitize its national currency on a blockchain platform. But that news was incorrect. The story was originally was broken on Nov. 7 by two Russian state-owned news agencies, Tass and Iz.ru, which also highlighted that the Russian blockchain platform Universa was assisting the Central Bank of Tunisia, or BCT, in the task. By Nov. 11, the BCT denied all claims regarding the development of a central bank digital currency. Specifically, the bank declared that …

The CEO of Brazilian cryptocurrency firm Grupo Bitcoin Banco has claimed 25,000 Bitcoins (BTC) — a staggering $209 million as of press time — on a tax filing, while also saying his firm is unable to pay out customer funds as the result of a hack. The tax document was shared with Cointelegraph by an individual close to Brazil’s tax authority, the Department of Federal Revenue (RFB), who asked to remain anonymous for security reasons. According to the document, the exchange’s CEO, Claudio Oliveira,claimed his crypto holdings in a 2018 filing with the RFB. Although the document is genuine, it …

United States boxing legend Mike Tyson has denied a connection with the cryptocurrency project Fight to Fame, which is suspected of financial fraud. He announced it in a Twitter post on Aug. 15: “I am not involved with Fight to Fame or their countdown website, nor will I be involved with anything related to Fight to Fame now or in the future. Any media reporting my current involvement isn’t accurate.” The information about the project first appeared in the media back in April this year. Why, however, it was only recently that Tyson publicly denied its involvement in the activities …

Here at Cointelegraph, we were as shocked as everyone else in and around the crypto-sphere when we learned about the abrupt closure of stalwart crypto media outlet CCN. Established at around the same time as Cointelegraph and CoinDesk, CCN spent years competing for the crypto audience. However, just a couple days later, as many others, we were relieved to hear that CCN was back — although we couldn’t help but feel sceptical regarding several aspects of the story and puzzled by so many questions swirling around it. How come a key player in our own industry could go down overnight …

In the crypto industry, there are many examples of how a conflict of interest has led to a company split. Perhaps, the largest ones are the forks of bitcoin (BTC), bitcoin cash (BCH) and the Ethereum (ETH) network. As a rule, the reason lies in disagreements related to the philosophy of the project, its development or financial components. Various views on how the platform should be managed led to the conflict of interest at the headquarters of MakerDAO. It all started with the fact that Andy Milenius, the company’s chief technology officer, left the project, as reported by Cointelegraph on …