Cryptocurrency

The UK financial regulator has warned that cryptocurrency exchange FTX is operating in the UK without authorisation.

The Financial Conduct Authority warned people against using the exchange.

“This firm is not authorised by us and is targeting people in the UK… [you] will not have access to the Financial Ombudsman Service or be protected by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS), so you are unlikely to get your money back if things go wrong,” it said of people using FTX in the UK.

In a bizarre twist, an FTX spokesperson told Bloomberg that phone numbers listed by the FCA do not belong to FTX and are associated with a crypto scam. FTX founder and CEO Sam Bankman-Fried subsequently tweeted a warning about this.

Fellow exchanges Crypto.com, Kraken and Gemini are among almost 40 companies registered to operate in the UK, which is taking a hard line on the unregulated world of crypto.

The FCA barred Binance from operating in the UK last year, citing a “a significant risk to consumers”. The world’s largest exchange is in the process of reapplying for UK approval.

FTX recently gained a licence to operate in the European Union from the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission.

“Securing this licence in the European Union is an important step in achieving our goal of becoming one of the most regulated exchanges in the world,” said Bankman-Fried.

eukhost managed cloud hosting: Everything you need to know

$50m backing for sustainable blockchain GRNGrid

The GRN Association has secured $50 million investment for the GRNGrid project from GEM Digital, a venture capital firm focused on digital currencies.

GRNGrid is an environmentally friendly, scalable and stable Layer 1 blockchain. Users will have the choice to only use nodes running exclusively on renewable energy for their transactions.

Aiming for launch in Q2 2023, the firm says prospective renewable energy partners which specialise in data centre and hosting facilities have shown keen interest in running Grid’s nodes as validators. 

The company says its proof-of-stake consensus mechanism is specifically designed to tackle cryptocurrency whales – investors which hold large amounts of crypto and therefore can destabilise the market with their actions – and achieve fairer distribution. 

Cryptocurrency shorts

South Korean prosecutors have asked Interpol to issue a red alert notice for Terra founder Do Kwon, said to be “on the run” after a warrant for his arrest was issued on September 14th.

American golf tour the PGA has partnered with NFT marketplace Autograph to create a dedicated platform transforming its archive of videos and player data into NFTs.

Cointelegraph editor-in-chief Jay Cassano has joined global crypto PR firm Wachsman as chief growth officer.

Indian cryptocurrency exchange WazirX is to delist USD Coin (USDC) from its platform and convert the remaining balances into the Binance-backed Binance USD (BUSD) stablecoin.

Presail has secured €3.8m seed funding led by SNÖ Ventures and featuring Kraken Ventures, Skyfall Ventures and Weekend Fund. The Norwegian startup is a management platform for Web3 presale deals.

Crypto prices

The overall market cap of the 21,000 coins is at $937 billion at the time of writing (7am UK).

Most coins are down significantly on a week ago, with the exception of Ripple’s XRP.

For round-ups of recent cryptocurrency news developments, click here.

For valuations of the top 100 coins by market cap in US dollars, plus 24-hour price change, see below.