News updates February 17, 2022

1. 30 Bitcoin Wallets Blacklisted On The Orders Of The Canadian Government

Cryptocurrencies have come under the radar in the protests taking place across Canada. The Canadian police force has allegedly issued an order to blacklist crypto wallets that are affiliated with the Freedom Convoy. The order is coming after the federal government invoked the Emergencies Act for the first time in the country.

2. UK FCA Shares Concerns on Binance-Paysafe Deal

The United Kingdom’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has shared its concerns about the recent partnership between Binance Exchange and Paysafe, a London-based multinational online payments company.

3. JPMorgan: Global Regulation Urgently Needed for Banks to Help Clients Invest in Crypto

A globally consistent crypto regulatory framework is urgently needed to allow banks to handle crypto assets on behalf of large customers, said a JPMorgan executive.

The JPMorgan executive said that new rules are urgently needed to give banks certainty in handling crypto assets on behalf of large customers who seek exposure in this asset class.

A growing number of large institutions, including hedge funds, are interested in investing and gaining exposure to the crypto asset class. According to Wells Fargo, cryptocurrency has entered the “hyper adoption phase.”

4. Top 3 Metaverse Crypto Coins Gaining The Most Price Today (LFW, XNL, WILD)

With cryptocurrency markets trading sideways today, some Metaverse crypto coins are seeing significant price gains. This article looks at the top three Metaverse coins gaining the most price today, ordered by 24-hour price growth, lowest to highest.

Legend of Fantasy War (LFW) +11%
Launching its token in October 2021, Legend of Fantasy War is a 3D turn-based Role Playing Game built on the Binance Smart Chain with Unity.

Legend of Fantasy War revolves around players assembling their army of heroes and leading them to victory using each character’s unique skills. Each character in the game is tokenized as an NFT that users can purchase on the LFW marketplace. Players can boost their NFT’s stats with various items and take on PVP battles to earn rewards.

LFW is open for users to explore, but keep in mind that you need to purchase an NFT to start playing the game. The NFT costs roughly $40, a relatively low entry price for a Metaverse crypto game.

The native token to the platform is called LFW, used as the primary utility asset on the platform. LFW has been performing quite well the past couple of weeks, and today it’s the third-highest Metaverse crypto coin gaining the most price on CoinMarketCap.

Recently, Legend of Fantasy War announced LFW Blockable co-incubation partnerships with DAOLaunch.

DAOLaunch is an innovative IDO platform that bridges the gap between investors and startups. The partnership will promote the incubation of promising blockchain projects as the platform will take them from grassroots to commercialization.

Overall, LFW is highly underrated, and with a current market cap of $3.2 million, it’s a must-watch in 2022.

You can buy LFW on PancakeSwap.

Chronicle (XNL) +15%

Launched in 2021, Chronicle is a community-powered NFT Marketplace and Metaverse coin featuring officially licensed and authenticated NFTs from iconic shows like Penn & Teller and more.

Chronicle’s mission is to deliver eco-friendly NFTs on their digital platform. Currently, users can check out their NFT dashboard and dApp that features dozens of live auctions and collections for awesome

 NFTs.Looking at the NFT dashboard, Chronicle has many similarities with the popular THETA network, which features a valuation of $3.9 billion at writing.

With a market cap of $5 million, XNL is highly underrated and could easily see significant price gains in the near future.

In recent news, XNL announced their PuppyBowl NFT auction, where the proceeds go to animal rescue:

5. Two crypto exchanges reach unicorn status in South Korea

Two of South Korea’s top cryptocurrency exchanges, Upbit and Bithumb, are among the seven local businesses that achieved unicorn status last year, the Ministry of SMEs and Startups (MSS) reported on Tuesday.

* The nation’s top four crypto exchanges dominated 96% of total deposits in the South Korean market, while exchange GOPAX is attempting to take a larger bite of the pie after completing legal requirements to conduct cash-to-crypto transactions. 

* The local digital assets market is expected to continue its popularity push, with crypto expected to play a key role in persuading younger voters in the March presidential election.

  • A survey conducted last November by a local research firm found four in 10 South Koreans in their 20s and 30s have invested in digital assets.
     
    * With seven new unicorns in 2021 — Dunamu (Upbit), Zigbang, Kurly, Bithumb Korea, Bucket Place, Daangn Market and Ridi — South Korea now has 18 companies on the list, the highest number in its history.

6. Spanish Civil Guard Busts Organization Dedicated to Laundering Money With Crypto

The Spanish Civil Guard has broken up a group that used cryptocurrencies as a tool to launder money. The organization, that operated in Madrid, supposedly lent these services to other criminal organizations. The MAUNA operations, as they were called by the Spanish Civil Guard, discovered phantom companies in several countries like Spain, Belgium, Sweden, Germany, and Lithuania that supported these actions.

Spanish Civil Guard Shuts Down Crypto Money Laundering Activity in Operation MAUNA

MAUNA, as the operation was called, discovered this criminal organization also offered these services to other, similar groups, and acted as a capital hub for laundering funds. In its beginning, the operations were carried out by a smaller number of actors linked to drug trafficking. As the operation grew, the group started changing its modus operandi to obtain a bigger part of these activities.

As a result of this crackdown action, eight individuals were detained during nine search operations in Madrid and Valladolid. Nine real estate properties were confiscated, 30 bank accounts have been blocked, and more than €300K (almost $340K) were seized. Also, several cold wallets containing cryptocurrency and goods valued at more than €1,000,000 (almost $1,136,000) were retrieved. The group also had links to several phantom companies in different countries in Europe, including Spain, Belgium, Sweden, Germany, and Lithuania.

The law enforcement operations further had the collaboration of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency, in an effort to locate the proceedings of some of the funds that were laundered by the group.

While money laundering with crypto is still a small operation compared to what is laundered with fiat currencies, these numbers increased 30% in 2021 compared to 2020 according to a report issued by Chainalysis. This means that $8.6 billion were laundered using crypto, compared to an amount between $800 billion and $2 trillion estimated to have been laundered through fiat methods.

7. French Presidential Candidate Pushes. For Tax Reform On Crypto, NFTs Crypto and blockchain are becoming an important element of the French political narrative, as indicated by recent statements by political newcomer Éric Zemmour, a popular pundit who is running in this year’s presidential election.

The far-right candidate recently tweeted his proposals on crypto after he had paid a visit to the office of hardware wallet maker Ledger. Among others, Zemmour proposes:

[Allowing] crypto asset holders to reduce their taxes by reinvesting their gains into the real economy,” and “[ending] the administrative hell for crypto industry professionals” that is caused by France’s implementation of the European Union law.

“Proposal 3: to create a fiscal regime ad hoc for NFTs … by excluding them from the regime of capital gains on digital assets.” 

The presidential candidate also urges for the promotion of the euro stablecoins development by the European private sector without waiting for the digital euro project led by the European Central Bank (ECB), "so as not to leave the monopoly of stablecoins to non-European entities."

While the latest opinion polls indicate Zemmour is the fourth most popular candidate in the upcoming April vote, with 14% of the poll voters declaring they aim to support the candidate, many observers expect the politician to establish himself as one of the leading players in France’s political landscape following the election, and potentially create his own movement that could compete for seats in the parliament.

In addition to this, Zemmour’s stance on crypto could push other candidates, including the incumbent President Emmanuel Macron who is leading in the above-mentioned polls, to modify their political position towards a more crypto-friendly approach.