Lithuania Financial News

By Michael Holden

By Andrius Sytas

NATO was created to deter Soviet tanks and missiles in Europe. Now it is also in the business of deterring China’s global ambitions, spurring concern among some members about mission creep and accusations by Beijing of inciting confrontation.

Biden has two main jobs on Ukraine at next week's NATO summit, but there's a hitch: they take him in opposite directions. The US president will arrive in Lithuania late Monday on a mission to stoke NATO support for Ukraine while simultaneously pouring cold water on dreams of quickly bringing Ukraine into the alliance.

Nato summit to be held in Lithuania’s capital Vilnius as South Korea, Japan, Australia, and New Zealand are planning to meet on the sidelines of the summit to discuss how to respond to Beijing’s aggressive attempts to change the status quo in the South and East China Seas. All eyes are set on the July 11-12 summit as for the first time all leaders of Nato's four Asia-Pacific partners—Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand—will be attending. The four, collectively known as AP4, are currently tagged as ‘partners across the globe’ by Nato. The North Atlantic alliance will “formulate an individually tailored partnership programme (ITPP) with all four countries in order to upgrade its partnership with them to a higher level,” according to Tokyo-based Nikkei Asia. To support its move for South and East China Seas, Beijing is reportedly engaged in power projection, military build-up and hybrid and cyber operations. To counter China’s aggression in the region, Nato wants to strengthen its engagement with its Asia-Pacific partners step by step. After the ITPPs are finalised, Nato will open a liaison office in Japan in 2024. Nato will use the liaison office as a hub for cooperation with South Korea, Japan, Australia and New Zealand. China, which is closely watching Nato’s activity in the Indo-Pacific region, recently warned that South Korea will not gain anything by participating in a summit that shows hostility towards Beijing.

Joe Biden has scheduled a diplomatic trip to Europe this month with stops in the United Kingdom, at the NATO summit in Lithuania and for meetings in Finland, the White House said Sunday. Biden is set to depart July 9 for «engagements» with the UK's King Charles III and Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, the White House said in a statement.

European Union leaders are set on Friday to commit to reducing the bloc's dependence on China and debate how to strike the balance between "de-risking" and engaging in areas such as climate change. «This is the million euro question,» Latvian Prime Minister Krisjanis Karins told reporters on his arrival at the two-day summit in Brussels on Thursday. «We need to de-risk and that means being able to step back to some degree because geopolitically the apparently growing relationship between China and Russia is a potential problem for all of us,» he said.

Debit cards offered through crypto payment service Wirex may stop functioning in the European Economic Area (EEA), according to a June 23 email the company sent to some of its customers. The threat of stoppage was triggered by Lithuania’s central bank revoking the license of UAB PayrNet, Wirex’s card provider.

Lithuania is building a huge tech campus — Europe's largest — in the capital of Vilnius, as it looks to become the new tech capital of the Baltics.

The European Union debit card provider for Cryptopay has lost its Electronic Money Institution (EMI) license, according to a June 22 email sent to its customers. The company recommends to EU cardholders that they should immediately spend or transfer funds from their cards. Funds held in the app’s accounts are safe, Cryptopay told Cointelegraph.

Cryptocurrency exchange Binance said it will leave the Netherlands after the company's application to register under the Dutch crypto authorization regime was rejected.

The company has failed in its bid to secure a virtual asset service provider (VASP) license in the Netherlands.It is not accepting new users with immediate effect and, from 17 July, existing users will not be able to make purchases, trades or deposits.Binance stresses that it is already compliant with EU standards on the prevention of money laundering and financing of terrorism as evidenced by its registrations in other EU countries, including France, Italy, Spain, Poland, Sweden and Lithuania.However, according to CoinDesk, it is facing money laundering troubles in France, where the authorities are investigating the firm.The probe relates to Binance potentially illegally operating as a digital asset service provider before it received regulatory approval last May.In addition, prosecutors tell CoinDesk, the investigation concerns possible "aggravated money laundering by taking part in investment operations, concealment and conversion, the latter being carried out by perpetrators of offenses having generated profits".In the US, the SEC has sued Binance and its CEO Changpeng Zhao, alleging a host of securities law violations and accusing the world's largest crypto exchange of engaging in an "extensive web of deception".

Binance’s US branch, Binance.US, was deeply unprofitable in 2022 and lost as much as $181 million for the year, a new filing made by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has revealed.

As cryptocurrencies increasingly fall under the purview of global tax authorities, digital bank Revolut has integrated an automated tax reporting service for its users.

Bitget has pledged $10 million for the development of the Fetch.ai ecosystem, the cryptocurrency derivatives exchange announced on April 27.

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Cryptocurrency trading platform BitGet has officially registered as a service provider in Lithuania, allowing the Seychelles-based firm to operate in the European country.

Crypto-friendly fintech Revolut is reportedly having some issues related to its recently released annual report for the year ending December 2021.

Adoption of cryptocurrencies and services based on cryptocurrencies is continuing to gain traction, with an increasing number of businesses bridging the gap between conventional financial (TradFi) solutions and decentralized financial (DeFi) solutions.

The mainstream adoption of crypto and crypto-based services continues, as more companies are bridging traditional financial (TradFi) solutions with decentralized financial (DeFi).

Cryptocurrency exchange Binance announced plans on Jan. 18 to enhance its local presence in Poland while remaining compliant with local regulations.