Crypto Mastercard, French CBDC Experiment, Fake Digital Yuan + More News
Get your daily, bite-sized digest of cryptoasset and blockchain-related news – investigating the stories flying under the radar of today’s crypto news.
Payments news
- Payments giant Mastercard has granted London-based digital payments firm Wirex principal membership status, making it “the first native cryptocurrency platform” to be granted the membership. According to the press release, this enables Wirex to issue payment cards directly to consumers.
- The G20 will unveil a new cross-border payments plan by October, said the Russian Central Bank. According to Ria Novosti, the Central Bank said that the G20’s plan will aim to improve cross-border payments’ “efficiency, speed and accessibility.” The Central Bank said that G20 financial chiefs agreed to the measure during talks this weekend and also discussed the wider use of stablecoins.
CBDC news
- The Bank of France has selected eight companies in order to experiment with a central bank digital currency (CBDC): Accenture, Euroclear, HSBC, Iznes, LiquidShare, ProsperUS, Seba Bank, and Société Générale – Forge. The experiments should start in coming days and are esimated to last for several months.
Exchanges news
- There has been a sharp rise in phishing attacks targeting users of the Japanese crypto exchange BTCBox, the trading platform said. It added that the attacks involved emails containing bogus claims about BTCBox accounts needing “urgent attention” – and links to sites that can farm personal data.
- Binance burned nearly 3.48 million binance coin (BNB), currently worth USD 61.2m, in their 12th quarterly BNB Burn. According to the announcement, this is the biggest BNB burn ever recorded, in terms of BNB and fiat volume.
- The Ontario Securities Commission (OSC) has accused Canada-based crypto trading platform Coinsquare of wash trading between July 2018 and December 2019, with wash trades allegedly representing over 90% of the reported trading volume. Per the OSC, approximately 840,000 wash trades were conducted with an aggregate value of around BTC 590,000 (USD 5.4bn).
Regulation news
- Anatoly Aksakov, the head of the Russian Duma financial committee charged with drafting the nation’s crypto laws, insisted that new regulation will be ready by autumn – despite over two years of delays. Per Ria Novosti, Aksakov underlined his dedication to have the bill in force by January 1, 2021. The Russian Duma’s current session ends on July 23.
- The UK government announced a consultation that seeks views on a government proposal to bring the promotion of certain types of cryptoassets within scope of financial promotions regulation. “The measure is intended to enhance consumer protection, while continuing to promote responsible innovation,” they said.
Crime news
- Fake digital yuan scammers appear to be active in China. Per a Tencent-operated media outlet, scammers are particularly active on social media – where they have formed bogus Central Bank Digital Currency “test groups” in an attempt to dupe unsuspecting victims out of their cash.
- On July 17, BTC 2.89, or 22% of the funds obtained last week by the Twitter hackers, were sent to an address believed to be part of a Wasabi Wallet, crypto-focused risk management firm Elliptic said. The hackers will now be focused on how to cash-out the BTC, which the company finds will likely be attempted through one or more crypto exchanges.
- The perpetrators of a USD 249 million crypto mining fraud ring have been given jail time in South Korea. Per Yonhap, an unnamed 43-year-old man was sentenced to two years and six months in prison after promising to return investors’ stakes plus 60% in a fraudulent mining pool sting.
