Binance halts onboarding of new UK users

Crypto exchange Binance will stop accepting users in the United Kingdom as of 5:00 pm local time on Oct. 16.

According to Binance’s announcement, the move came after the country’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) imposed legally binding requirements on its partner Rebuildingsociety.com Ltd (REBS) on Oct. 10. Among other items, the ruling prohibited REBS from ad promotions soliciting Binance goods and services.

Existing Binance users in the U.K. will retain their services. However, the exchange clarified that “any new products and services will not be made available during this interim period.” Various products such as gift cards, Binance Academy, Binance Research, Binance Feed and Referral Bonus available on the Binance international platform are currently unavailable on its U.K. platform.

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South Korean exchange Upbit gets initial license nod from Singapore

The Singapore entity for Upbit, South Korea’s largest exchange by volume, has been given in-principal approval for a Major Payment Institution (MPI) license in Singapore.

On Oct. 16, Upbit Singapore said the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) gave the in-principle license nod, allowing it to continue with digital payment token services to institutional investors while awaiting its full license.

Upbit Singapore founder and CEO Alex Kim said in a statement that the firm was founded in 2018 but called the recent approval a strategic milestone for it to deepen its local presence.

Azman Hamid, the firm’s compliance chief, said the approval reflects its commitment to building its businesses in Singapore. “We will contribute to further establish Singapore as the leading hub for the next generation of financial businesses,” he added.

A potential full approval for Upbit would see the exchange join a total of 15 crypto firms with full MPI digital payment token serve licenses from MAS.

In October alone, the Singaporean entities for Coinbase, Ripple and Sygnum Bank all received license approvals from MAS — pushing the number of MAS-licensed digital payment token service firms to 15.

On Oct. 2, Coinbase received full approval for its MPI license, with crypto trading firm GSR scoring in-principal approval for its MPI the same day. Swiss crypto bank subsidiary Sygnum Singapore scored its full MPI license a day later and Ripple received its full MPI on Oct. 4.

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Mastercard announces successful wrapped CBDC trial results

Mastercard has completed a trial involving wrapping central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) on different blockchains, similar to wrapped Bitcoin (wBTC) and wrapped Ether (wETH).

According to the Oct. 12 announcement, the trial was conducted with the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) and the country’s Digital Finance Cooperative Research Centre CBDC, along with participation from Cuscal and Mintable. In a live environment, Mastercard said the solution allowed a CBDC owner to purchase a nonfungible token (NFT) listed on Ethereum in a live environment. “The process ‘locked’ the required amount of a pilot CBDC on the RBA’s pilot CBDC platform and minted an equivalent amount of wrapped pilot CBDC tokens on Ethereum,” the payment processor wrote.

The solution utilizes Mastercard’s Multi Token Network, introduced in June 2023, integrating payment technology with blockchains. “Together with Mastercard, we have identified a use case whereby digital currencies and NFTs can easily be linked, potentially stamping out fraud and theft, ending the loss of documentation and records, and unleashing new possibilities for commerce,” commented Zack Burcks, CEO and founder of Mintable.

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Binance rolls out self-trade prevention for spot and margin trading

Cryptocurrency exchange Binance is scaling its tools to prevent unnecessary trading fees associated with unintentional self-trades.

Binance will fully roll out the self-transaction prevention (STP) function for all spot and margin trading users on Oct. 26, the firm announced on its blog on Oct. 11.

Following the integration, the “expire maker” STP mode will be the default mode for all trading pairs and orders on Binance’s spot and margin trading platforms.

Once the STP feature is live, users will be able to check what orders have expired due to the STP function on the Binance official website, Binance App and Binance Desktop App through the transaction history page, the announcement notes.

Introduced in January 2023, Binance’s STP functionality is designed to block the execution of an order if it would result in a self-trade. The function targets application programming interface (API) traders, who set up specific programs to execute trades automatically with an exchange’s trading engine.

Self-trading occurs when an API user or a group of related users trade with themselves, intentionally or unintentionally. The STP enables API traders to avoid accidental self-trading transactions, helping users prevent unnecessary fees associated with such transactions.

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Sam Bankman-Fried trial: former Alameda CEO Caroline Ellison to testify

The second week of the criminal trial for former FTX exchange CEO Sam “SBF” Bankman-Fried continues on Oct. 10, with all eyes on the testimony from key witness Caroline Ellison.

Ellison is a former romantic partner of SBF and the former CEO of the FTX-affiliated hedge fund Alameda Research, which also filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in November 2022.

The former Alameda CEO had lived with Bankman-Fried, along with other FTX executives, in the Bahamas for a period of time.

Given Ellison’s former positions, she was a part of Bankman-Fried’s inner circle. In her testimony, prosecutors and the presiding judge over the case, Lewis Kaplan, expect her to provide details regarding the shuffling of customer funds between FTX and Alameda Research.

The main focus of the trial thus far has been the alleged fraudulent use of customer funds to repay FTX debtors.

Particularly anticipated will be Ellison’s commentary on a meeting in November 2022, during which she admitted to employees of Alameda that Bankman-Fried had given her the go-ahead to use funds for the purposes mentioned above.

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Bitcoin analysts look to November as price action looks to mirror past cycles

itcoin’s ongoing sideways price action could flip bullish as early as November if it behaves similarly to previous cycles leading up to a halving event, according to market observers.

On Oct. 10, crypto analyst Miles Deutscher cited a chart from CryptoCon, noting that the recent patterns for Bitcoin are similar to those seen in previous cycles.

“This is typical sideways price action that occurs from Q2-Q4 in pre-halving years.”
He added that Nov. 21 has historically been a key pivot point for Bitcoin's price to begin trending upward as it heads to the next halving.

For example, following six months of sideways trading in mid-2015, BTC prices starting gaining ground around November. Likewise in 2019, markets spent most of the year flat before taking off around the end of the year.

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