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.