HSBC Holdings – the largest banking institution in the United Kingdom – will reportedly purchase Silicon Valley Bank UK Limited (SVB UK) for £1 ($1.20). Silicon Valley Bank made the headlines last week, revealing liquidity issues and balance sheet holes. This triggered huge panic among venture capital firms, who reportedly advised investors to withdraw their...Read More
The London-based fintech company that allows cryptocurrency trading – Revolut – saw a 33% spike in its revenue in 2022, said the firm’s CFO. Its positive results come in spite of the crypto market decline last year and the overall unfavorable macroeconomic conditions. A ‘Strong Momentum’ Mikko Salovaara – Revolut’s CFO – revealed to Reuters that...Read More
HSBC, Nationwide Building Society, and other banking heavyweights in the UK are reportedly implementing a new set of restricting rules aimed at purchasing cryptocurrency. The move comes amid a chaotic year for the crypto industry, which witnessed the failure of several industry giants. Same Old Song According to a Bloomberg coverage, the biggest banking institution...Read More
The United Kingdom’s crypto and fintech industries saw investment dry up in the latter half of 2022 amid a combination of turbulent macroeconomic conditions and record-high inflation. Businesses in the region completed a total of 591 fintech deals in 2022, compared to 724 in 2021. The Fintech Trajectory According to Bloomberg, the data comes from...Read More
A British pensioner living in Nottinghamshire parted with $207,000 after becoming a victim of a bitcoin romance scam. The police managed to restore some of the stolen funds and warned people to be extra vigilant with online dating due to the rise of similar frauds. The Latest BTC Romance Scheme The Nottinghamshire police said a woman...Read More
Wybo Wiersma – a 40-year-old Dutchman who studied at Oxford’s St Cross College – will serve a 54-month prison sentence for stealing £2,156,000 (more than $2.6 million) using a cryptocurrency scheme. UK detectives linked the scam to the man who used the pseudonym Norbert van den Berg in his malicious website and university coursework. ‘Greed...Read More
According to an investigation by The Bureau of Investigative Journalism and the Observer, more than 168 shell companies in the United Kingdom are suspected of operating fraudulent crypto or foreign exchange trading schemes, around half of which are potentially linked to pig-butchering scams. In fact, these organized crime groups were found to be using the...Read More
The government of the United Kingdom is willing to strengthen the rules on the local cryptocurrency sector to prevent another adverse event like the FTX collapse. The recently-appointed Prime Minister – Rishi Sunak – is known as an advocate of blockchain technology, arguing the country should emerge as “a global cryptoasset technology hub.” People’s Protection...Read More
UK’s Charity Commission announced inquiring into a charity called – Effective Ventures Foundation over its ties with FTX. According to the official press release, the charity reported its association with FTX as a serious incident because the bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange was its “significant funder.” The non-ministerial department asserted that trustees submitted an RSI and sufficiently...Read More
The London-based cryptocurrency platform – Luno – will reportedly trim the size of its team by over 330 people. It adds its name to the growing list of industry players dismissing staff due to the bear market, including Coinbase, Crypto.com, Bybit, Huobi, Gemini, and more. According to CNBC coverage, Luno will reduce its headcount from...Read More
Jo Johnson – the brother of the UK’s former PM, Boris Johnson – reportedly resigned from his advisory role in Bifinity (a payments technology company launched by Binance). The world’s largest cryptocurrency platform has had several brushes with British regulators over the past few years. Despite the tension, the company aims to become a registered...Read More
Global regulators have been railing against crypto over the past month, and their wild condemnations are becoming more extreme. The latest to make one of these ludicrous accusations is incoming FCA chair Ashley Alder. On Dec. 14, he told politicians that crypto platforms were “deliberately evasive,” facilitated money laundering at scale, and created “massively untoward...Read More
The latest bank to clamp down on crypto in the UK is Santander. Over the weekend, it was reported that the retail bank is planning to block real-time payments to crypto exchanges in 2023. The bank is claiming to be protecting customers from scams. The crypto blockade will include in-branch, mobile, and internet banking for...Read More
The United Kingdom High Court shut down the cryptocurrency firm PGI Global for allegedly running a fraudulent scheme. The company promised investors returns of up to 200% if they purchased digital assets through its platform, but consumers never received such profits. The Latest Crypto Scam in the UK? According to an official press release, the...Read More
A ray of light for the crypto industry has emerged amidst all the recent economic and political turmoil in the United Kingdom. Parliament convened on Oct. 25 to discuss a proposed Financial Services and Markets Bill for economic recovery following the country’s exit from the European Union. Several amendments to the bill were proposed, including...Read More
The person who stole unreleased songs by Ed Sheeran and other musicians has been sent to prison for a year and a half. He sold at least two of Sheeran’s songs on the dark web in exchange for bitcoin. Jailed After Selling Unreleased Songs The investigation began in 2019 when several musical agents complained to...Read More
The inflation rate in the United Kingdom surpassed 10% for the first time in the past 40 years. Local economists warn that the figures could rise to 11% in the following months, driven by soaring food and fuel prices. What does it mean for Bitcoin, though? Unseen Inflation in the Last 40 Years The past...Read More
Curtis Warren – a British drug lord who was found guilty of smuggling cannabis – is due to be released from prison next month. The authorities, though, will supposedly put him back behind bars for five years if he uses WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, or interacts with cryptocurrencies, including bitcoin. Strict Measures to Stay on the...Read More
The Canadian rapper, singer, and actor Aubrey Drake Graham (better known as Drake) bet a little over $600,000 worth of bitcoin on the English soccer team Arsenal to beat Leeds United and on FC Barcelona to win “El Clasico” against Real Madrid. Unfortunately for him, the club from the Spanish capital defeated its biggest rival...Read More
The financial technology company – Revolut – received regulatory approval from the UK’s top financial watchdog (the FCA) to offer cryptocurrencies to local consumers. A few weeks ago, the regulator argued that the firm needs to improve its internal structure and auditing process to obtain such a license. The FCA Finally Said ‘Yes’ The European...Read More
The top financial regulator in the United Kingdom – the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) – reportedly said that the cryptocurrency platform FTX does not have the necessary license to provide products or services in the country. The trading venue has been on a roll in the past several months, despite the market declines. Earlier this...Read More
Queen Elizabeth II passed away yesterday (September 8) at the age of 96, after wearing the British crown for 70 years and 214 days. The death of the longest reigning monarch in the UK’s history was met with sorrow all over the globe, but it also attracted the crypto community. Hours after the news, memecoins...Read More
UK digital bank Revolut has come under the regulator’s scrutiny for inconsistencies in its auditing process. Citing sources familiar with the matter, FT reported that the Financial Reporting Council (FRC) criticized an audit by accountancy firm BDO of an unidentified “financial services provider” as “inadequate.” The FRC further revealed that the “risk of an undetected...Read More
The United Kingdom finally has a new Prime Minister of the United Kingdom in the face of Liz Truss, who spoke positively about the cryptocurrency industry several years ago. To become the UK’s next PM, Truss was chosen over Rishi Sunak (Chancellor of the Exchequer from 2020 to 2022), who also favors digital assets. Earlier...Read More
The United Kingdom’s Office of Financial Sanction Implementation (OFSI) has included “cryptoassets” in a list of assets that must be frozen if they belong to a person or company who is facing sanctions. These developments come as the list of sanctioned Russian entities continue to increase. Eye on Sanctioned Accounts, Breaches As per the new...Read More
One of the oldest soccer clubs in the UK – Oxford City – will reportedly allow fans to purchase match tickets, food, and beverages in bitcoin instead of fiat currency. The initiative will see the light of day following a multi-year partnership between the team and the digital asset exchange CoinCorner. Over the years, the...Read More
In 2013, James Howells – a citizen of Newport, Wales – mistakenly threw away his iPhone-sized hard drive containing 8,000 BTC. To find his lost possessions (worth around $169 million as of now), the 36-year-old man reportedly came up with an $11 million master plan involving robot dogs and artificial intelligence-powered machines. A Needle in...Read More
One of the largest banking institutions in the United Kingdom – Barclays – is reportedly one of the investors in Copper’s latest financing round and will purchase a stake in the company. The initiative could be considered a surprise since the global cryptocurrency sector is in a state of significant decline, while many UK authorities...Read More
5ire – a London-based layer one blockchain firm – secured a $100 million fundraiser, boosting its valuation to $1.5 billion. Becoming a Unicorn in Less Than a Year 5ire’s latest fundraiser was led by SRAM & MRAM Group (a leading international conglomerate headquartered in London). The company vowed to use the Series A financing to...Read More
The UK Treasury Committee has launched an inquiry into the risks and opportunities posed by crypto-assets to businesses and consumers. According to the official note, the inquiry is requesting evidence related to the potential impact of distributed ledger technology (DLT) on financial institutions, including the central bank and financial infrastructure. The Treasury also seeks to...Read More
