- The Kraken exchange offers traders the first dirham trading pairs after the recent licensing in the United Arab Emirates
- The Central African Republic follows El Salvador in introducing Bitcoin as legal tender
- Fort Worth, Texas, becomes the first city to mine cryptocurrency.
- Cuba issues licenses to individuals/organizations wishing to operate digital assets
- Deus Finance suffers another lightning loan exploit in less than two months, losing more than $13.4 million this time.
Here are the top headlines of the last month in the areas of crypto regulation, adoption, mining and crime.
Kraken became the operating device in the United Arab Emirates, while Bybit introduces the crypto options trading
Following the wave of licensing of crypto companies in the Middle East, Kraken announced on April 26 that it was approved by the Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM) to operate as a regulated crypto exchange in the United Arab Emirates. The approval means that Kraken meets the requirements of ADGM’s Financial Services Regulatory Authority (FSRA) and is now the holder of the Financial Services Permission (FSP) license.
Kraken said it would open a store in Abu Dhabi, becoming the first exchange approved to allow investors to directly trade UAE dirham pairs with Bitcoin, Ether and several other tokens.
Elsewhere, Singapore-based crypto exchange Bybit launched crypto trading options last week to supplement its inherent perpetual and expiring futures contracts. The Options and Perpetuals were originally launched for USDC and are available to investors via a portfolio margin. Users who use the new product could speculate on the price of an underlying asset and settle their speculative transactions with USDC in the future.
Crypto Adoption: CAR Accepts a legal Bitcoin means of payment, Buenos Aires is considering crypto tax payments
The adoption of cryptocurrencies has taken another leap after the Central African Republic (ZAR) became the second country after El Salvador to introduce a legal Bitcoin means of payment. The Proposal to introduce crypto was unanimously adopted by the legislature and entered into force by the President on April 27 placed. The law created a provision to gain BTC in utility alongside the CFA franc.
An official statement from the chief of staff of the CAR president explained that the introduction of Bitcoin gave the country a chance to benefit from a number of new opportunities. The President, President Faustin-Archange Touadéra, refer Bitcoin after its introduction as a universal money.
In South America, the mayor of the Argentine capital Buenos Aires plans to accept tax payments in cryptocurrencies. Mayor Horacio Rodriguez Larreta highlighted a 12-point plan in a virtual presentation he gave last Monday. The “Buenos Aires+” plan aims to transform the capital into a digital center.
The taxation structure is expected to be introduced in the coming months. After the adoption, all taxes paid in crypto would not be settled in crypto, but in pesos through leading crypto companies.
Fort Worth Gains First Mover Status as Crypto Mining City
Fort Worth, a city in crypto-friendly Texas, has announced plans to start mining crypto soon after the city Council voted unanimously last Tuesday to approve this small experimental program led by Mayor Mattie Parker. The approval of the project has been bundled with a number of other crypto-friendly measures, reported MSN last week.
The Texas city plans to engage in crypto mining with the Antminer S9 rigs donated by the Texas Blockchain Council, TBC. Mining activities would take place in the controlled environment of the Information Technology Solutions Department’s data center at Fort Worth City Hall. The rigs would be hosted on a private network to mitigate potential risks.
Mayor Mattie Parker noted that without the donation of miners, the city would have remained neutral towards Bitcoin. However, she admits that crypto is likely to play a significant role in the future.
The adoption of Fort Worth represents a continuation of the state’s pro-crypto stance as it is the fifth largest city in Texas. In contrast, while Texas relies heavily on mining cryptocurrencies, New York is pursuing a ban on mining Bitcoin for climate reasons.
From Cuba to India: Developments Around Crypto Regulation
The Cuban central bank announced last Tuesday that it plans to issue licenses to virtual asset service providers. The move is seen by many as part of the embargoed island’s efforts to circumvent U.S. sanctions. According to an official notice in the Official Gazette, Banco Central de Cuba (BCC) will transfer licenses to domestic and international organizations/individuals.
This imposed the obligation on those who wanted to operate virtual assets to obtain a license with a one-year validity and a conditional extension option. The BCC stated that it would check the legality, characteristics and socio-economic benefits of a project before granting it a license.
“It will take time. It must not be rushed “, was the message conveyed by India’s Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman during a speech on crypto regulation at Stanford University last week.
Sitharaman stated that avoiding haste would help to ensure that thoughtful judgment is used to control the misuse of crypto assets – terrorist financing and money laundering. The finance minister also clarified that the government will continue to advocate for innovation and support more distributed ledger efforts as it recognizes the huge potential in this burgeoning scene.
Deus Finance was hit Again by a $13.4 million DeFi Lightning Loan Exploit
The Blockchain Security Company PeckShield announced last Thursday that Deus Finance has become the victim of a second exploit within two months. The attacker was able to capture $ 13.4 million after emptying the pools. A thread from PeckShield found that the attacker used a known route to manipulate the price Oracle, which reads out the StableV1 AMM – USDC/DEI pair via a flash loan.
This is similar to a mid-March attack in which an attacker stole Deus Finance stablecoin DAI and Ether worth about $3 million. The course of the attack was that the perpetrator borrowed USDC worth $ 143 million in a flash loan and thus exchanged 9.5 million DEI. Consequently, the price of the DEI stablecoin pegged to the USD rose above the usual rate of $ 1.
Through further price manipulation, the attacker then secured 71,400 DEI to borrow more than 17.25 million, and achieved $ 13.4 million in repayment of the loan. They then tunneled the profits through Tornado Cash, a mixing protocol that was often used to disguise the trail of stolen crypto assets.
Flash loans remain a controversial form of credit due to the risk they carry for DeFi.
