JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s U.K. division, Chase UK, is putting the brakes on cryptocurrency-related payments, Bitcoin.com reports. Come October 16, any Chase UK customers attempting to make a bank transfer or card payment linked to crypto will find themselves thwarted.

A representative from Chase verified the email’s legitimacy to Bloomberg and shed light on their stance. Coindesk’s Sandali Handagama also reported on the Chase UK email on Tuesday prior to Bloomberg’s confirmation.

“We’ve seen an increase in the number of crypto scams targeting U.K. consumers, so we have taken the decision to prevent the purchase of crypto assets on a Chase debit card or by transferring money to a crypto site from a Chase account,” the Chase spokesperson revealed.

Chase made its move after a series of regulatory overhauls in the United Kingdom within the past six months. For instance, the U.K. Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) introduced new guidelines for the crypto industry. Concurrently, the payments powerhouse Paypal has briefly suspended U.K.-based crypto transactions, pointing to these regulatory adjustments.

Bitcoin.com reports that Skybridge Capital founder Anthony Scaramucci has explained why he is still bullish on bitcoin. Emphasizing that every Wall Street firm is going to have a bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) in their arsenal that they will sell to their clients, he predicted: “The next 10 to 20 years are remarkably bullish.” He added: “If you got your bitcoin, I wouldn’t sell your bitcoin, you made it through winter.”

He cautioned that headwinds are still in the macro environment, including higher interest rates, an enforcement-centric Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) chairman, and negative sentiment around crypto adoption. Nonetheless, he remains optimistic about BTC, stating: “As wealth is created in society, a portion of that wealth is going to get chipped off for digital assets, most likely bitcoin.” He also reiterated his long-standing view that “Bitcoin is better than gold.”

Scaramucci further expects the approval of bitcoin exchange-trading funds (ETFs) to be a game changer. 

David Hirsch, who runs the agency’s office that handles crypto enforcement, says that apart from Coinbase and Binance, there are other exchanges and DeFi straying from the law, CoinDesk reports. 

“We’re going to continue to bring those charges,” said Hirsch, who said the regulator has a number of other businesses on its radar that are operating in similar ways to Coinbase and Binance. His agency is already embroiled in a number of complex crypto cases in federal courts, and – as seen in its effort to appeal a recent Ripple ruling – not always with complete success.

Hirsch said the SEC’s interest in crypto goes well beyond the high-profile exchanges.

"We're going to continue to be active as to intermediaries,” he said. “That can be brokers, dealers, exchanges, clearing agencies or any others who are active in this space, are within our jurisdiction and not meeting their obligations, either through registration or failure to provide adequate or complete disclosures.”

Hackers have apparently compromised a wallet belonging to billionaire investor Mark Cuban, stealing a number of cryptocurrencies, Bitcoin.com reports. The owner of the Dallas Mavericks NBA team, who confirmed the breach, has been able to transfer the remaining digital funds to U.S. crypto exchange Coinbase.

Cuban confirmed the hack of his wallet to the crypto news outlet DL News. “I went on Metamask for the first time in months. They must have been watching,” he said, adding: “I’m pretty sure I downloaded a version of Metamask with some shit in it.” The wallet crashed several times.

In a later transaction, around $2 million worth of USDC was also sent to a different wallet. Cuban revealed that he had transferred the remaining assets to Coinbase Custody. He also said that he locked his non-fungible tokens (NFTs) on Opensea and transferred all his polygon, too.

According to Insider Monkey, the United Arab Emirates holds the largest ownership of crypto with 27.67%. The use of cryptocurrency is legal in the country, and government regulations are also favorable towards blockchain technology. Almost 28% of the total population in the country owns crypto.

Vietnam comes in second place with 18.73%. The rapid digitization of the economy explains the surge in crypto ownership across the country.

Third place goes to Saudi Arabia with 17.53% crypto ownership while Ukraine comes in fourth with 15.72%. The fifth place goes to the United States with only 13.7%.

A widely followed crypto analyst is warning that Bitcoin plummet on account of one potential factor, reports The Daily Hodl.

In a new strategy session, DataDash host Nicholas Merten tells his 512,000 YouTube subscribers that Bitcoin could decline by more than 60% from its current value if Apple’s market cap continues to decline.

According to Merten, a plummeting Apple market cap will cause Bitcoin, as well as other equities, to collapse along with it. Apple reached a $3 trillion market cap in July but has declined to $2.79 trillion at time of writing.

We can’t live in some fantasy world where if Apple is contracting from a $3 trillion company to a $1.5 trillion company that that is not going to have some impacts on Bitcoin. And I got to tell you… that that will have a bigger impact on Bitcoin than any halving event, any Bitcoin ETF, any narrative you can think of.

If that scenario plays out, I’m not saying it’s a guarantee, but I think it’s a likely scenario. If that plays out, you can easily see Bitcoin coming down here to new lows at around $10,000 to $12,000… 

There’s a reason when Apple drops $200 billion in market cap we got to listen to that. Those small percentage declines, while they seem small, are magnified when you consider Apple’s valuation and the weighted impact it’s going to have on other equities like Microsoft, the FANG (Facebook, Amazon, Netflix and Google) stocks, and even the broader stock market as a whole and even cryptocurrencies, from Bitcoin to your favorite altcoins.

A Bitcoin price correction down to $22,000 is becoming increasingly likely, as BTC derivatives have begun to exhibit bearish tendencie, Cointelegraph reports. 

The price chart of Bitcoin leaves little doubt that investor sentiment has worsened since Grayscale’s much-hyped legal victory against the United States Securities and Exchange Commission on Aug. 29 and the SEC’s subsequent postponement of multiple spot BTC exchange-traded fund (ETF) requests.

The central question remains whether the prospects of an ETF can outweigh the growing risks.

Former SEC chair Jay Clayton suggested that U.S. securities regulators will likely approve a Bitcoin ETF during an interview with CNBC on Sept. 1, CryptoSlate reports. 

Clayton nevertheless said he was not surprised that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) had postponed decisions on various pending Bitcoin ETFs.

He went on to explain that “the job for the SEC is a challenging one.” Clayton explained that when cryptocurrency first emerged, the securities regulator had to handle offerings that were clearly not compliant with securities laws. But now, the SEC has to deal with broader crypto offerings, including some that have “clearly shown promise.”

Clayton declined to say whether he would approve a spot Bitcoin ETF if he remained in charge of the SEC but stated that Bitcoin is not a security.

Clayton also expressed optimism about upcoming ETF approvals in light of the fact that the SEC has previously approved Bitcoin futures ETFs

Bitcoin’s trading volume hit its lowest level in almost five years this month as investors keep waiting for reasons to jump back into the market, CNBC reports. 

An analysis of CryptoQuant data from both spot and derivatives exchanges shows the total volume of bitcoin held on all exchanges fell earlier this month to its lowest level since 2018 and has struggled to rebound.

As of Aug. 26, bitcoin trading volume on all exchanges sat at 129,307 BTC, according to CryptoQuant. Earlier in the month, on Aug. 12, it fell to 112,317 BTC, its lowest level since Nov. 10, 2018. It’s now off the March high of 3.5 million BTC by about 94%.

Published on Aug. 17, CoinGecko’s report revealed that only 65 countries are profitable for solo Bitcoin miners, based solely on household electricity costs. Among these, 34 countries are in Asia, while Europe only has five. 

However, solo Bitcoin miners find themselves at odds with the worldwide average of household electricity costs. 

“The average household electricity cost to mine one Bitcoin is $46,291.24, which is 35% higher than the average daily price of 1 BTC in July 2023 ($30,090.08),” the report stated.

The report identified Italy as the costliest country for household Bitcoin mining at $208,560.33 per Bitcoin. As of the time of publication, this indicates that the cost of mining one Bitcoin in Italy is the equivalent to the value of approximately eight Bitcoins.

Meanwhile, Lebanon’s household electricity rates allow individual miners to generate one Bitcoin for just $266.02. Based on this data, this is approximately 783 times cheaper than the cost to mine a Bitcoin in Italy, priced at $208,560.33.

Iran followed, with a production cost of $532.04 per Bitcoin. However, despite Iran legalizing Bitcoin mining in 2019, the country has since banned legal operations on several occasions, citing stress on energy grids during winter.

Source: Cointelegraph

In a bold and groundbreaking move, Michael Saylor’s MicroStrategy revolutionized corporate finance by embracing Bitcoin (BTC) as its primary treasury reserve asset in 2020. 

This visionary decision, announced exactly three years ago, sent shockwaves through the business world, solidifying MicroStrategy’s position as a trailblazer in the realm of digital assets.

The move was made as part of MicroStrategy’s first-ever investment in Bitcoin, with the business intelligence firm acquiring 21,454 BTC for roughly $250 million, or $11,653 per coin. 

MicroStrategy’s bet on Bitcoin can be characterized as a resounding success, demonstrated by substantial returns on investment and a notable positive influence on the company’s stock price.

Since August 10, 2020 – the day MicroStrategy unveiled its Bitcoin-focused strategy – MicroStrategy’s (NASDAQ: MSTR) shares surged 206%, from around $123 per share to today’s price of over $375 per share. 

Source: Finfold

After years of rampant speculation and frantic tea-leaf reading by cryptocurrency fans—and Dogecoin fans in particular—tech billionaire Elon Musk coldly put to rest any prospects of Twitter (or X) launching its own crypto token, Decrypt reports. 

The news came not in a formal announcement, or even a Twitter post, but in a reply to another user.

"Elon Musk and

Earlier this week the U.K.’s Information Commission Office (ICO) was asked about Worldcoin launching in the U.K. and said publicly it would be “making enquiries”, before issuing some boilerplate warning that: “Organisations must conduct a Data Protection Impact Assessment (DPIA) before starting any processing that is likely to result in high risk, such as processing special category biometric data. Where they identify high risks that they cannot mitigate, they must consult the ICO.”

Fast forward a few days and France’s data protection authority, the CNIL, has followed the ICO’s remarks with even more specific expressions of concern, as first reported by Reuters — out-and-out questioning the legality of what Worldcoin is doing. The French authority also revealed it’s already been actively investigating Worldcoin.

“The legality of [Worldcoin’s data] collection seems questionable, as do the conditions for storing biometric data,” a CNIL spokesperson confirmed by email, adding: “Worldcoin collected data in France, and the CNIL initiated investigations.”

Read full article on Techcrunch 

Russian President Vladimir Putin has approved a bill providing the legal basis for the implementation of Russia’s central bank digital currency (CBDC), the Tass news agency and other Russian media reported. The new federal law introduces a third, digital form of the national currency, the ruble, after cash and non-cash (bank) money.

Putin’s signature opens the door for using the CBDC named “digital ruble” as a means of payment and for other transfers in the Russian Federation. These will be free of charge for citizens while businesses will pay a 0.3% commission on the amount transferred.

Transactions with the digital currency will be processed through a dedicated information system — the digital ruble platform. Under the law, the Central Bank of Russia (CBR) is the sole issuer of the CBDC and will be the only operator of its payment system.

Source

Kuwait’s supervisory authorities, including the Central Bank of Kuwait, the Capital Markets Authority, the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, and the Insurance Regulatory Unit, have jointly issued circulars to address the use and recognition of virtual assets within the country, Arabian Business reports. 

The circulars are in accordance with the recommendations set forth by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) in Recommendation No. 15 to combat money laundering and the financing of terrorism.

The circulars explicitly bans the use of virtual assets as a tool or means of payment and prohibit any transactions involving cryptocurrency for payment purposes.