Thailand Bans ‘Depository Services’, Chinese Court Says Investors Can Trade Crypto, Coinbase-BR Partnership + More News

Get your daily, bite-sized digest of cryptoasset and blockchain-related news – investigating the stories flying under the radar of today’s crypto news.
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Regulation news

• Thailand’s Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has banned crypto companies from offering staking and lending services. According to a press release, the decision to ban “depository services”, which includes paying returns to depositors, was made to protect traders from the risks associated with crypto lenders.
• SBI Digital Markets, a subsidiary of the digital asset arm of Japan’s financial services giant SBI Holdings, has been granted a Capital Markets Services (CMS) license to offer securities and futures trading services in Singapore, per an announcement. It plans to launch an institutional-grade digital asset securities platform that would allow traditional financial service operators to “capture growth opportunities” driven by the cryptoasset market.

Legal news

• The Beijing Number One Intermediate People’s Court ruled that investors can trade cryptoassets, despite China’s ban on digital asset services, but that they should be treated as virtual assets and not act as a currency. The ruling was made in a case involving a crypto loan in litecoin (LTC) with a promise of paying interest in digital currencies.
• A US bankruptcy judge approved an order to appoint a neutral third party to examine the finances of troubled crypto lender Celsius (CEL), Bloomberg reported. The examiner will, among other things, look into how Celsius stores its crypto and whether various account types are commingled, court papers show. The examiner has not yet been selected.
• The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has sued a Chicago-based crypto merchant for an unregistered securities offering. They charged Chicago Crypto Capital LLC, its owner, Brian Amoah, and former salesmen Darcas Oliver Young and Elbert ‘Al’ Elliott for allegedly defrauding investors during their unregistered offering of crypto asset securities, said the document. The SEC seeks injunctive relief, disgorgement with pre-judgment interest, and civil penalties.
• The United States Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) today issued sanctions against 10 people and two companies associated with a ransomware group tied to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC)—and blocked their Bitcoin (BTC) wallet addresses as well. Per an indictment, these individuals have been accused of conspiracy to commit fraud and related activity in connection with computers, intentional damage to a protected computer, and asking for monetary compensation in BTC.
• Controversial Australian computer scientist Craig Wright told a Norwegian court on Wednesday that he “stomped on the hard drive” that contained the “key slices” required to grant him access to Satoshi Nakamoto’s private keys, making it “incredibly difficult” to cryptographically prove he is the creator of Bitcoin, CoinDesk reported.

Exchange news

• Coinbase has partnered with fintech firm Broadridge Financial Solutions (BR) to improve buy-side liquidity for traders, according to a press release. The partnership will enable interoperability between Coinbase Prime and Broadridge Trading and Connectivity Solutions’ NYFIX order-routing network.
• Coinbase users will be able to see which US politicians are “crypto-friendly” with a new in-app tool, CEO Brian Armstrong announced on Twitter. “Over time, we want to help pro-crypto candidates solicit donations from the crypto community (in crypto). We’ll also expand to get more geographic coverage in global elections, and add data on various candidates running for office (not just current elected officials),” he said.
• FTX Europe today announced that it has received approval from the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC), to operate as a Cyprus investment firm (CIF) allowing the company to fully own the local investment firm it previously acquired.

Payments news

• “Bitcoin-as-a-payment-network” infrastructure company OpenNode intends to test a bitcoin payment processing and payouts solution via the Central Bank of Bahrain Regulatory Sandbox. Per the press release, OpenNode is currently active in more than 160 countries around the world, and it intends to provide the infrastructure to help Bahrain grow its economy.

Gaming news

• SKYPLAY Inc. announced the beta release of its blockchain platform, SKYPlay and eP2E (easy Play to Earn) game, CoinGrid. SKYPLAY Inc. listed its cryptocurrency, SKP (SKYPlay Token) on MEXC and ProBit Global, with the press release adding that the company will continuously develop and publish a series of eP2E games based on the Ethereum (ETH) layer 2 blockchain, the Polygon (MATIC) network, while it also has plans to release two more games within this year in addition to CoinGrid, which was launched together with the SKYPlay platform.

Mining news

• China-based crypto mining-pool services provider Poolin, which halted all withdrawals from its PoolinWallet on the back of liquidity problems, will be issuing IOU tokens corresponding to that value, they said in an announcement. They will release IOU tokens against users’ initial holdings at a 1:1 ratio. With the option of unlimited withdrawal, the pool added, the users “could withdraw their IOU-tokens at any time [and the] withdrawal request will be approved quickly and automatically.”
• MicroStrategy executive chairman Michael Saylor fired back at what he called “misinformation and propaganda” about the environmental impacts of proof-of-work (PoW) Bitcoin mining. Among other things, Saylor claims it is the “cleanest industrial use of electricity and is improving its energy efficiency at the fastest rate across any major industry.” He added that Bitcoin is “far less energy intensive than Google, Netflix, or Facebook, and 1-2 orders of magnitude less energy intensive than traditional 20th century industries like airlines, logistics, retail, hospitality, and agriculture.”
• Cryptocurrency mining company RRMine Global has relocated its headquarters to Singapore from China, where it ceased sales and marketing a year ago amid Beijing’s forceful crackdown on cryptocurrency-related activities, the South China Morning Post reported. The company, which provides Filecoin mining and storage services, said the decision stemmed from “tightened restrictions on cryptocurrency usage in the mainland”, as well as “the fact that China’s Web3 strategy is going in a different direction”.

NFT news

• Likvidi, a regenerative finance (ReFi) company, has announced the launch of its Origins Collection. Holders of Origins non-fungible tokens (NFTs) can earn tokenized carbon credits which they can use to offset their carbon footprint. The NFTs will be available on Carbonstore, Likvidi’s new retail ReFi platform, they said in a press release shared with Cryptonews.com.

Investment news

• The Solana Foundation, Everstake, and the Ministry of Digital Transformation of Ukraine are holding a panel discussion on Ukraine’s crypto fundraising at a conference at the Harvard Club of New York City, USA, on September 17. Per the announcement shared with Cryptonews.com, the panel discussion “Crypto Aid for Ukraine: Using Blockchain to Raise USD 60M to Protect Ukraine” is devoted to raising awareness of Aid For Ukraine. By now, nearly USD 55M of the raised funds has already been spent on first aid kits, UAVs, anti-war media campaigns, and other procurements.
• Crypto-native technology start-up Portofino Technologies has raised over USD 50 million in equity funding from Valar Ventures, Global Founders Capital, and Coatue. Portofino is building high-frequency trading (HFT) grade technology for digital assets, said the announcement.

Career news

• Chiliz, the owner of blockchain-based sports fan rewards platform Socios.com, appointed Julian La Picque as Chief Financial Officer (CFO). La Picque joins from blockchain platform Covantis, where he also served as CFO. The Web3 technology company is preparing for the Q4 launch of Chiliz Chain 2.0 (CC2) — the new layer 1 blockchain for the sports and entertainment industry, said the announcement.