Most Wanted ‘Cryptoqueen’, Galaxy’s Buyback, Delayed CBDC + More News

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Sumejja Muratagić-Tadić

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Sumejja Muratagić-Tadić

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Sumejja is a freelance copywriter from Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, who delights in pulling things apart to see how they work. That does not necessarily mean she puts them back together; she's...

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Last updated: 

June 25, 2023

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Crime news

• Ruja Ignatova, the founder of the Ponzi scheme OneCoin, has been added to Europe’s list of most wanted fugitives by the European Union Agency for Law Enforcement Cooperation (Europol). The so-called ‘Cryptoqueen’ is suspected of being the “driving force and intellectual inventor” of OneCoin, which “induced investors all over the world to invest in this actually worthless currency,” per the listing. Also, a reward of up to EUR 5,000 (USD 5,200) is offered to any crucial information leading to an arrest of the perpetrator.

Investment news

• Investment management company Galaxy Digital announced it has received approval from its Board of Directors to submit a notice to the Toronto Stock Exchange in order to purchase up to approximately 10.6m ordinary shares (10% of the company’s public float).
• Crypto software platform Exodus reported first-quarter revenue of USD 15.4m, a decrease of 35% year-over-year from Q1 2021, ending the quarter with more than USD 120m in liquid assets. The processed volume at the exchange provider was USD 730m during this time, down 49% from USD 1.4bn in Q1 2021.
• Metaverse navigation engine project Lighthouse raised USD 7m in a seed round co-led by Accel, BlockTower, and Animoca Brands. The funding will be used to grow Lighthouse’s engineering and community teams, expand the universe of worlds it partners with, and launch its platform in Summer 2022, they added.
• Crypto-powered payments platform BVNK raised USD 40m in a Series A funding round led by Tiger Global. The project says that it is looking to further expand its senior team with hires in the product, engineering, and commercial operations.

CBDCs news

• The Central Bank of Chile delayed its plans for a central bank digital currency (CBDC) saying that the issuance of a digital Chilean peso requires a deeper analysis of the benefits and risks. The bank promised a new report toward the end of the year.
• The Bank of Israel said it had received public support for its plans to possibly issue a digital shekel on grounds that it would help the economy by supporting innovation in the payments system, per Reuters. They added that they still have not made a final decision, but that the responses “indicate support for continued research.”

Regulation news

• The US Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) unanimously voted to begin a project to review the accounting for exchange-traded digital assets and commodities, the CEO of analytics platform MicroStrategy, Michael Saylor, reported in a tweet.

Exchanges news

• FTX.US announced that it has applied for a trust charter with the New York Department of Financial Services to operate in New York and bring FTX US markets to NY users. The company has also appointed Marissa MacDonald to serve in the role of Chief Compliance Officer for the New York State company.

Mining news

• Bitcoin (BTC) miner Iris Energy had a revenue of USD 15.2m during the first quarter of this year, which is down 24% from USD 20m the previous quarter, but was up more than five-fold from USD 2.8m a year earlier. Fiscal third-quarter adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) were USD 7.3m, falling 49% from USD 14.3m last quarter.