CEO Financial News

Blockchain company Ripple said Thursday it received in-principle regulatory approval to operate in Singapore, in a rare moment of good news for the cryptocurrency industry globally as it faces tightening policy back home in the United States.

An artificial intelligence firm in Spain has unveiled a number of «AI humans» that allow people to modify their voices in video games — in real time.

Moderated by deputy editor of the The Banker, Liz Lumley, speakers included Alessandro Agnoletti, group head of digital currency and DLT at Nexi, Manuel Klein, product manager of blockchain solutions and digital currencies at Deutsche Bank, Emma Landrault, vice president of J.P. Morgan Onyx Coin Systems, Daniel McLean, digital euro and business model lead at European Central Bank, and Gilbert Verdian, founder and CEO of Quant.

Bitcoin is grabbing attention once again, as it has witnessed a remarkable surge of over 11% in the past week.

The crypto industry crackdown spearheaded by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) could be put to rest by a decades-old legal doctrine, according to one of the regulator’s previous advisors. 

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In a surprising turn of events, renowned on-chain analyst ZachXBT has exceeded his initial fundraising target, amassing a staggering $1,055,233 in donations, according to Nansen data. This remarkable achievement has been made possible through contributions from various entities and influential figures within the crypto industry.

ADQ, Abu Dhabi’s sovereign wealth fund, had Wall Street investment bank Lazard in its sights earlier this year, with ambitions to take the lender private.

International Monetary Fund Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said that the agency is “working hard on a concept of global infrastructure” to make sure there is interoperability of settlements between digital currencies that are issued by national central banks, according to Bloomberg News. 

A Victorian brownstone in Washington DC linked to former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried may have been sold. 

Do Kwon, the Terraform Labs founder and CEO, has told a Montenegro court that he did not know the “fake” travel documents he was allegedly trying to leave the country with were forged – and blamed a “Chinese-named agency.”

Binance, the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange, has been ordered to repatriate and maintain within the country all its U.S. customers' assets, ensuring Binance.US users can access funds while the exchange battles a lawsuit by federal regulators.

Binance crypto exchange has decided to withdraw from the Dutch market following an unsuccessful attempt to obtain a virtual asset service provider (VASP) license from the Dutch regulator.

New York Attorney General Letitia James has successfully recovered over $1.7 million from CoinEx (COINEX) following a lawsuit against the cryptocurrency platform. CoinEx was found to be operating without the necessary registration as a securities and commodities broker-dealer and falsely representing itself as a crypto exchange. The resolution of the lawsuit requires CoinEx to refund more than $1.1 million to New York investors and pay over $600,000 in penalties to the state.

Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF), the founder and former CEO of the bankrupt crypto exchange FTX, made an effort to have several charges against him dismissed in court. 

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

Among other things, the SEC alleges that, while Zhao and Binance publicly claimed that US customers were restricted from transacting on the firm's international exchange, in reality they "subverted their own controls" to skirt this rule.Further, the SEC alleges that, while Zhao and Binance publicly claimed that the company's US exchange was created as a separate, independent trading platform for US investors, they secretly controlled Binance.US operations behind the scenes.According to the SEC, Zhao and Binance have been able to commingle customer assets or divert customer assets as they please, including to an entity Zhao owned and controlled called Sigma Chain. SEC chair Gary Gensler says: "Through thirteen charges, we allege that Zhao and Binance entities engaged in an extensive web of deception, conflicts of interest, lack of disclosure, and calculated evasion of the law."As alleged, Zhao and Binance misled investors about their risk controls and corrupted trading volumes while actively concealing who was operating the platform, the manipulative trading of its affiliated market maker, and even where and with whom investor funds and crypto assets were custodied.

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".

The National Football League is making a big play to increase lending in underrepresented communities.

LONDON — British digital bank Zopa is beefing up its management team with a couple of senior hires, as the company looks to fuel growth and prepare its business for an eventual public listing.

The South Korean crypto lending platform Delio says it is “temporarily” suspending deposits and withdrawals, as financial regulators say they are “investigating” the situation.