Italy’s Regulatory Body Declares Binance as Unauthorized
In recent reports, Consob, Italy’s financial regulatory body has declared Binance as “not authorized.
Consob’s Commissione Nazionale per le Società e la Borsa stated:
“Companies of the Binance Group are not authorized to provide investment services and activities in Italy.”
The announcement was posted on the regulatory body’s website and has also warned investors to “exercise the utmost caution” before engaging in any transaction involving digital assets. The government agency has also stressed the risk that comes with crypto investments. The announcement also added that Binance.com offers high-risk investments like derivatives and stock tokens.
Binance has been bracing the headlines due to its collision with regulatory bodies. In recent reports, UK FCA has issued a warning against Binance Markets Limited stating that it “is not permitted to undertake any regulated activity in the UK”.
Due to the FCA’s current action, Barclay and Santander UK have blocked payments for Binance.
The world’s leading crypto exchange has also clashed with U.S. regulatory bodies in the past. With Binance going under the scrutiny of regulatory bodies worldwide, which country will be next?
China Hash Power Decline Before Crackdown by Cambridge Data
In recent data by the University of Cambridge reveals that China’s BTC (bitcoin) hash rate has already declined by 40% even before the crackdown.
According to Cambridge data, the country’s hash rate has tremendously dropped by 75% in September 2019 before dwindling to 46% in April 2021 before the mining crackdown was implemented.
On the other hand, the hash rate in the United States has increased by four times from 4% to 16.8% for the last 18 months. The country is now the second-largest hash rate provider next to China. Other countries that have increased in hash rates are Kazakhstan’s with 8%, Russia with 6.8%, and Iran with 4.6%.
China has been implementing a crackdown on all mining farms in the country which has now spanned to five provinces which include Inner Mongolia, Xinjiang, Qinghai, Yunnan, and Sichuan. Aside from crypto mining, the authorities have stepped up to curb all crypto activities in the country including crypto trading.
In relation to this, CoinWorld is now under investigation by Beijing authorities allegedly due to its involvement in illegal token issuance in 2019. In 2017, Chinese authorities have banned Initial Coin Offering (ICO) citing fraud as reason. In an announcement posted on its website, the crypto news portal will shut down its operation for all websites and apps in the country effective immediately. As further added by the announcement, this is in compliance with provisions laid out in a document on digital assets issued by the Business Administration Department of the People’s Bank of China.
Axie Price Surges Sets Newest All-Time-High
Axie Infinity price surges setting its newest all-time-high. After recording an all-time-high yesterday at $24.37 in data by Crypto.co, AXS (Axie Infinity) has set another new all-time-high after its price rose to $29.41 today. The game token has increased by 20.17% in a 24-hr chart.
The Pokemon-inspired digital pet universe was first launched by Sky Mavis back in 2018. In just three years after its launching, AXS (Axie Infinity), the native token of the platform has immensely increased from its ICO price of only a fraction of a dollar ($0.1 ) to its current value today. The platform allows users to play and earn at the same time. They can also engage in battle through arenas, breed, and trade their digital Axie pets.
In May, CNBC released a mini-documentary titled “Play-to-Earn” which featured Filipinos of different statuses who are playing Axie. Those who were featured in the documentary include a mother, three young entrepreneurs, a recent college graduate, a pedicab driver, and an elderly married couple. It also features the first person who discovered Axie in Cabanatuan City. The virtual game is not just a source of fun for users on the platform but has also presented a source of income in a financially stricken country especially during the time of the pandemic.
According to reports, gaming tokens like ENJ (Enjin Coin), MANA, (Decentraland), and FLOW (Flow) have also recorded a significant increase in their value.
Prices of gaming and NFT-focused platforms tokens have soared despite the drop in prices of altcoins as a result of BTC (bitcoin) price swings.
AVAX Staking is Now Live in on Stake Dao
Avalanche has now entered a new partnership with Stake Dao. The partnership aims to enable AVAX (Avalanche) staking by delegation using the Stake Dao platform.
The platform utilizes PoS (proof-of-stake) as its consensus mechanism and by staking your AVAX (Avalanche) tokens, users can earn and help secure the network.
Julien Bouteloup, Stake DAO’s core contributor commented on the recent partnership.
“Stake DAO aims to work with the top teams in DeFi to innovate and push the boundaries of possibility — we’re tremendously excited to enter a close working relationship with Avalanche, expanding the usage case for their high-throughput smart contract platform, and bringing a host of new and exciting strategies to our users.”
With the growing concern on the issue of crypto mining or PoW (proof-of-work), more and more blockchain projects are now using the PoS (proof-of-stake) as their consensus mechanism. With the ETH 2.0, Ethereum blockchain has also transitioned from PoW to PoS to address the concern on the carbon footprint and scalability. PoS is now considered the best alternative for PoW.
With its growing partnership with other blockchain projects, Avalanche has become one of the fastest-growing projects in the crypto space. In recent data by Crypto.co, AVAX (Avalanche) has now a total market cap of $1,941,195,941 with its price at $11.32.
