CRYPTO POLICY

The historic deal with U.S. authorities did not include a settlement with the SEC, which means the regulator can still pursue whatever legal action it plans against the exchange, including moving forward with a lawsuit it filed against Binance and its then-CEO Changpeng Zhao in June.

The court filing comes a few days after a court sided with the U.S. Department of Justice and prohibited the crypto mogul from leaving the U.S. until his sentencing.

After BlackRock submitted another amended prospectus last week, VanEck followed suit with its fifth amendment, showing a unique Bitcoin ETF ticker, HODL.

While BlackRock's Bitcoin ETF listing pushed the value of Bitcoin to a new high, Fidelity's listing did not have the same impact on the price of the "king of crypto."

District Judge Richard Jones of the Western District of Washington sided with the Department of Justice on Thursday and decided not to allow Zhao to return to UAE until his sentencing.

Binance filed the application for an operating license with Abu Dhabi Global Market last November. The exchange withdrew it on Nov. 7.

The ongoing discussions include "substantive details, some of which are usually discussed near the end of an ETF application process," a report has claimed.

During closed-door discussions, Montenegro's Justice Minister Andrej Milovic reportedly mentioned his plans to extradite Do Kwon to the U.S., where is facing multiple criminal charges.

Not everyone was pleased with the latest development in the cryptocurrency industry and Dimon was one among them. He said he would close the industry down if he had the power.

Bukele said that it has never been El Salvador's objective to sell its Bitcoin and while he confirmed that they are well aware the crypto asset's price will fluctuate, he underlined that it does not impact the country's long-term strategy.

Late last month, the Montenegrin High Court announced that it has "approved the extradition" of Kwon as requested by his home country South Korea and the U.S.

Industry experts and ETF analysts scrutinized the amended prospectus and discovered that BlackRock had seeded its ETF on Oct. 27. It was the same month when the crypto community found the Bitcoin ETF ticker of the firm listed on the website of the Depository Trust and Clearing Corporation.

Over the past weeks, Bitcoin continued to rally, pushing its value up on the anticipation that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) would soon announce the country's first-ever spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund.

While the act is viewed as operational or part of the process before its launch, for some, it is a positive indication that the U.S. will have a spot Bitcoin ETF very soon.

A report attributed the surge to "a culmination of various factors, including a notable shift in the dynamics of the futures market compared to the spot market."

It is not yet clear whether prosecutors want to move forward with the ex-crypto mogul's second trial in March, where he will be tried for five charges.

On the eve of the potential approval of multiple spot Bitcoin ETF filings, rumor has it that the major issue now concerns whether the SEC would allow in-kind creations.

With the authorization, the crypto exchange platform that has more than 80 million global users, can now offer UK-localized e-money products.

Although timelines on the approval of spot Bitcoin ETF filings are uncertain, Grayscale said it remained "focused on uplisting GBTC to NYSE Arca as a spot Bitcoin ETF."

During a hearing at a Manhattan court last Thursday, lawyers for Kwon said that unnamed whistleblowers, one of them from Jump Trading Group, had helped federal regulators in building their fraud case against the Terra co-founder.

Some market makers already knew about the historic settlement agreement roughly a couple of months before it took place, as per a Bloomberg report.

U.S. Chief District Judge Robert Shelby ordered the major Wall Street regulator to explain the statements it made while implementing and maintaining a temporary restraining order (TRO) against the crypto project DEBT Box.

Aside from charges in the U.S. and in his home country, Kwon could be facing another class-action lawsuit in Singapore.

In an interview with a crypto blogger, mob enforcer-turned-informant Gene Borrello talked about Bankman-Fried and his condition inside the Brooklyn Metropolitan Detention Center as he awaits his sentencing next year.

Circle CSO Dante Disparte said the firm cannot be involved in such activities as it is subject to regulatory regimes and laws centered on money laundering and countering terror financing.

FTX's stakes in these trusts would be sold in a manner that increases their value and does not impact the broader digital investment market, the court filing read.

Bloomberg Intelligence ETF analysts predict that there is a 90% likelihood that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission will approve the much-awaited spot Bitcoin ETF applications by Jan. 10.

Binance had previously made an announcement on this matter in August, stating that it would "gradually" phase out support for the stablecoin after the stablecoin issuer, Paxos, was ordered to stop minting the coin earlier this year.

With BlackRock's revised in-kind model proposal, it remains to be seen if the SEC would change its mind.