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My Big Coin Inc founder Randall Crater was sentenced to more than eight years imprisonment and was ordered to forfeit nearly $7.7 million for committing wire fraud and making unlawful monetary transfer on 31 January. He was found misrepresenting the nature of a virtual currency called My Big Coin, claiming it was backed by gold and had a partnership with Mastercard, and defrauded investors millions of dollars. However, the prosecutor’s suggestion to impose a 13-year imprisonment was rejected by District Judge Denise Casper, saying the request went too far.

Mastercard and Crypto exchange Binance announced the launch of prepaid Binance Card in Brazil on 30 January, making it the second country in Latin America following Argentina to introduce the product. Existing and new Binance users will be able to make purchases and pay bills with crypto at Mastercard merchants. According to the press release published by Mastercard, the prepaid card is “part of the ongoing efforts toward evolving the bridge between existing financial services and the growing crypto ecosystem.” The prepaid card is now available for beta testing and is expected to be ready for Brazilians in the coming weeks.

Electric vehicle manufacturer Tesla filed its annual report to the US Securities and Exchange Commission on 31 January. According to the report, Tesla’s Bitcoin holdings recorded a $204 million gross impairment loss last year. The company also gained $64 million from Bitcoin trading, resulting in a net loss of $140 million from its Bitcoin trading activities. The company invested $1.5 billion in Bitcoin in the first quarter of 2021, but it sold 75% of the holdings in the second quarter of 2022.

As the Bitcoin price is gradually recovering from the crypto turmoil last year, this month has recorded a 50% growth in Bitcoin mining revenue through mining rewards and transaction fees when compared to last month’s figure. The revenue dropped to $13.6 million on 28 December 2022, which was the first time since October 2020. The Bitcoin hash rate has also hit a new all-time high at 300 exahashes-per-second as more miners are involved in powering and securing the Bitcoin network.

The Central Bank of Nigeria’s new measure to limit the daily and weekly withdrawal of local currency from the ATM has led to a surge in the price of Bitcoin in the country. The exchange rate of 1 Bitcoin is reportedly $38,792 on the country’s crypto exchange NairaEX, which is at a premium of more than 60% over the Bitcoin market price. The central bank’s measure aims to facilitate the adoption of digitalized cash. Nigerian citizens could only withdraw a maximum of nairas equivalent to $43.5 from ATM per day as of 9 January. They are allowed to withdraw no more than $217 per week.

South Korea’s Ministry of Justice introduced its plan to launch the Virtual Currency Tracking System on 26 January to combat money laundering and trace funds related to illegal activities. The new system is expected to be deployed in the first half of 2023 and will be used to monitor transaction history, extract transaction-related information and examine the source of funds. An independent tracking and analysis system will also be developed in the second half of this year.

Genesis Global Holdco and two of its subsidiaries, Genesis Global Capital and Genesis Asia Pacific filed for bankruptcy in the Southern District of New York on 19 January. Genesis estimated that the company had more than 100,000 creditors. Its estimation of total assets and debts as of 30 November 2022 are $5.3 billion and $5.1 billion respectively. However, the filing does not include its parent company Digital Currency Group (DCG) or its derivatives and spot trading, custody and brokerage businesses.

US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has again rejected the application to list the Bitcoin ETF on the equities exchange Cboe BZX, which is proposed to be jointly managed by ARK Investment Management and 21Shares. The first application was rejected in 2022. Although it is argued on the second application that the equity exchange has a comprehensive surveillance-sharing agreement with the Chicago Mercantile Exchange to prevent price manipulations, the SEC said the agreement did not apply to spot Bitcoin. It further explained that the exchange had not shown that there were other means sufficient to prevent fraudulent and manipulative acts and practices.

De Nederlandsche Bank(DNB), the Dutch central bank, has reportedly fined the US-based crypto exchange Coinbase $3.6 million for failing to obtain the correct registration to provide services before it began to operate in the country. The central bank alleged that the exchange did not comply with the regulations between November 2020 and “at least” August 2022. The fact that Coinbase is one of the largest crypto companies with a significant number of customers in the country has been taken into account in reaching the decision.

Credit rating firm Moody’s Corporation, which provides credit ratings for listed crypto companies, is reportedly developing a scoring system for stablecoins. The system will analyse up to 20 stablecoins based on the quality of the attestations of stablecoin reserves, which would usually be released on a monthly or quarterly basis and certified by third-party audit firms. The system is still in its initial stage and the report would not represent an official credit rating.

Ethereum software company ConsenSys announced on 18 January that it will lay off 96 staff, which represents 11% of its workforce. The company said it aimed to reduce operating expenses while increasing the strength and focus of product teams to adjust to challenging and uncertain market conditions. It has been a challenging year for the crypto industry and many crypto companies like Silvergate Capital Corp and Coinbase Global Inc are laying off staff to cut operating costs in recent months in the midst of the crypto winter.

Crypto lending firm Genesis Global Capital is reportedly planning for a bankruptcy filing as early as this week. According to the report from Bloomberg, the firm has previously warned of the possibility of a bankruptcy filing if it fails to raise funds amid a liquidity crunch. However, the plan is not finalized as the negotiation is ongoing. The company is currently charged along with crypto exchange Gemini for offering unregistered securities through the latter’s “Earn” Program by the US Securities and Exchange Commission.