UK Economic Secretary Andrew Griffith says the collapse of FTX and other crypto-native businesses “reinforces the case for timely, clear and effective regulation”.
Cryptocurrency exchange FTX suffered one of the fastest corporate bankruptcies in history recently despite backing from world-leading VCs and CEO Sam Bankman-Fried’s ties to Washington.
It is alleged that FTX loaned billions of dollars to sister company Alameda Research, which was effectively gambling on crypto prices, and did not possess sufficient liquidity to cover its users holdings on the exchange.
When concerns were raised about FTX, it triggered a run on the exchange which quickly led to its demise. The funds of many users have been frozen as a result.
Speaking at TheCityUK’s National Conference in Edinburgh, Griffith said: “Yes, there are questions about the future of crypto, but we’d be foolish to ignore the potential of the underlying technology.
“We’re driving forward this agenda, and I continue to chair the crypto-engagement group to hear from industry and share progress.
“The Financial Services and Markets Bill already enables us to establish a framework for regulating crypto assets and stablecoins in the UK, and we will be consulting on a world-leading regime for the rest of the crypto-asset market later this year.”
Cryptocurrency shorts
Fleek, a Web3 developer platform, has raised $25 million in Series A funding led by Polychain Capital. It enables web hosting and storage on several different Web3 protocols and will launch in 2023.
Italy is planning to introduce a 26% levy on crypto profits larger than €2,000 at some point in 2023.
Payments giant Stripe is facilitating fiat-to-crypto payments for companies in dozens of countries via a customisable widget that can be embedded directly into a decentralised exchange, NFT platform, wallet or decentralised app.
CyVers has raised $8m in funding led by Elron Ventures. It is developing Web3 security for centralised, decentralised finance and smart contract applications which detects suspicious behaviour and intercepts crypto attacks across blockchains.
Crypto prices
The overall market cap of the 21,900 coins is at $852 billion at the time of writing (7am UK), a 1% decrease in the last 24 hours.
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.