What the numbers say: Bittrex co-founder and CEO Richie Lai announced Friday that the cryptocurrency exchange would shut down U.S. operations, stating that the regulatory environment in the U.S. had made it "not economically viable" to continue in the country. Its Bittrex Global platform will continue to operate. Friday afternoon, Bittrex's 24-hour trading volume approached $20.6M, according to CoinGecko. For comparison, Gemini's volume for the same period was about $22.8M. Coinbase's volume was around $1.4B. Relevance: The Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control and Financial Crime Enforcement Network fined Bittrex $53M over sanctions violations. Recent enforcement actions by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) have affected Genesis Global Capital, Gemini Trust Co., and Kraken, contributing to the adverse conditions Lai referenced. Brands that should care: Regulatory scrutiny as federal and state standards continue to emerge pose questions about compliance and legal ramifications for exchanges and other businesses in the crypto space. Meanwhile, even exchanges that may have benefited from FTX's collapse must contend with the skepticism it invited to the industry. We're testing new content formats in Inside.com newsletters. Do you want to see more coverage like this? Respond to this email and let us know.
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Tesla CEO Elon Musk requested the dismissal of a $258B Dogecoin (DOGE) lawsuit that alleges him of conducting a Ponzi scheme to support the popular cryptocurrency. In the filing, Musk's lawyers defined the lawsuit as a fanciful work of fiction. More: - The lawyers said the case is based on Musk's harmless and often silly tweets about Dogecoin.
- They also stated that Musk's statements in his tweets were too vague to support fraud.
- The filing pointed out that supporting a legal cryptocurrency with a $10B market cap through tweets or funny pictures is not unlawful.
- Musk's lawyers also underlined that Dogecoin cannot be classified as a security, rejecting the plaintiffs' claims.
- In the lawsuit, plaintiffs claim that Musk deliberately caused Dogecoin's price to jump over 36,000% in two years before allowing it to plummet.
- The lawsuit named Musk-led companies, including Tesla, SpaceX, and The Boring Company, in addition to Musk himself.
- The defendants include Dogecoin Foundation, a non-profit organization providing support for Dogecoin, and it also seeks the dismissal of the lawsuit.
Zoom Out: - Especially in 2021, Elon Musk paved the way for Dogecoin to increase in value through his Twitter posts many times.
- Musk's companies, Tesla, SpaceX, and The Boring Company, also supported the popular cryptocurrency by accepting it as a payment method for several commercial products and services.
- Despite all the backlash, in 2022, Musk tweeted that he would continue supporting DOGE wherever possible.
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U.K. banks have recently started showing an intent not to work with crypto-related firms by rejecting applications, freezing accounts, and imposing more paperwork, according to a recent report from Bloomberg citing sources familiar with the issue. British banks' anti-crypto approach was reportedly heightened with the U.S. banking crisis triggered by the consecutive collapses of Silvergate Bank, Silicon Valley Bank (SVB), and Signature Bank within one week in March. More: - The report pointed out that some crypto firms had to issue a complaint with the government since the local banks' anti-crypto approach was exacerbated.
- London-based crypto startup SavingBlocks' founder, Edouard Daunizeau, stated that seven of nine local banks rejected his application for a bank account.
- Daunizeau added that the other two lenders asked for additional documents with details on how the firm tracks the client activity.
- Joe David, a co-founder of fellow crypto-focused firm Nephos Group, also said money transfer platform Wise froze his company's accounts for three months in November, claiming that the firm violated the terms and conditions.
- After an inquiry, a Wise spokesperson implied that they do not support crypto-related businesses and are actively freezing the accounts of clients involved in such activities.
- Many U.K.-based banks, including HSBC, Nationwide, and NatWest, also limited crypto trading for their clients over the last several months.
- The U.K. Financial Conduct Authority, the country's financial regulator, has seen crypto as a high-risk asset class for many years despite U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's push to make the country a global crypto hub.
Zoom Out: - In February, HSBC, the U.K.'s largest bank, restricted its customers from buying crypto assets using credit cards.
- British bank Nationwide also stopped letting customers purchase cryptocurrencies with credit card payments to crypto exchanges, limiting the daily limit of debit-card purchases to $5,965 for crypto assets.
- In March, NatWest similarly joined other British banks limiting payments to crypto exchanges by restricting the daily payments to £1,000 ($1,218) and monthly payments to £5,000 ($6,090).
- Other British banking giants that put restrictions on crypto trading for U.K. customers include Barclays, Banco Santander, and Lloyds Banking Group.
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Japan Financial Services Agency (JFSA), the country’s financial market regulator, has published a warning letter for several foreign crypto exchanges. The agency has claimed that the exchanges operate in the country without proper registration. More: - The crypto exchanges in the letter include Binance, Bybit, Bitget, BitForex, and MEXC Global.
- JFSA accused these exchanges of violating the country’s fund settlement laws by conducting crypto asset exchange business without registration.
- In 2020, the agency enacted new regulations mandating crypto exchanges to register with it and obtain a license to operate in Japan.
- BitForex and Bybit were previously served formal warnings by the JFSA for the same offense in 2020 and 2021, respectively.
- Binance, the largest crypto exchange by trading volume, similarly faced a warning by the JFSA in 2021 for operating in Japan without registration.
Zoom Out: - Last year, Binance acquired Sakura Exchange BitCoin (SEBC), the JFSA-registered crypto exchange service provider, to prevent any further legal action.
- Earlier in 2023, crypto exchange Coinbase halted its operations in Japan, citing a severe market downturn and rising volatility.
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Yuga Labs, the firm behind the famous Bored Ape Yacht Club and CryptoPunks NFTs, has appointed the former Activision Blizzard executive Daniel Alegre as its new CEO. Alegre officially departed from the gaming giant to join Yuga Labs on April 1. More: - In his Twitter post related to the matter, Alegre pointed out that he is very excited about this new chapter of his career.
- Alegre carried out the position of president and chief operating officer at Activision Blizzard.
- At the gaming giant, Alegre oversaw the operations related to many popular video games, including Call of Duty, World of Warcraft, Diablo, and Candy Crush.
- Yuga Labs' new CEO also previously worked for the tech giant Google in several leadership positions for over 16 years.
- Yuga Labs first announced the name of its new CEO in December last year.
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Blockchain security company PeckShield's recent report has shown that NFT thefts declined by over 30% in March. Malevolent actors stole $10.9M of NFTs last month, down from $16.2M of NFTs stolen in February. More: - The report pointed out that half of the stolen NFTs were sold on NFT marketplaces within just two hours.
- Blur became the marketplace most preferred by NFT thieves, with a 74.9% rate.
- OpenSea also hosted 19.5% of stolen NFTs.
- Blur's large portion was attributed to its strong growth overall in Q1.
Zoom Out: - Another recent report from Web3 data platform DappRadar has revealed that NFT trading volumes hit $4.7B in Q1, with a 137.04% increase compared to the previous quarter, reaching the highest levels since Q2 of last year.
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- The leading cryptocurrency, Bitcoin (BTC), became the best-performing asset in Q1 2023, with a price increase of around 72%.
- Decentralized exchange (DEX) Uniswap's spot market volume surpassed $70B for the first time since January 2022, beating the popular crypto exchange Coinbase for the second consecutive month.
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 |  | Doga is a tech and science editor who has been writing news for nearly 10 years. She worked for leading tech platforms and mainstrem media channels as an editor and presenter throughout his career. Then, she carried her know-how to more than one platform. She is a part-time cat lover and binge-watcher, and also fond of science, space, and emerging tech. She always has a story to tell. She is a bit addict to the laughter and -unfortunately- the '90s culture. |  | | Editor | Aaron Crutchfield is based in the high desert of California. Over the last two decades, he has spent time writing and editing at various local newspapers and defense contractors in California. When he's not working, he can often be found looking at the latest memes with his kids or working on his 1962 and 1972 Fords. | |
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