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Top cryptocurrency exchange Binance to end Visa debit card program in Europe

The world’s leading cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume says Binance Card services will stop working in the European Economic Area (EEA) in December.

Binance notes that customer accounts will not be affected. The exchange encourages European customers to transition to Binance Pay, the company’s crypto payments technology.

Binance first launched the card in Europe in September 2020, allowing its customers to use the crypto assets in their exchange accounts to spend and transact at over 60 million locations worldwide.

The exchange did not provide a reason for the card’s closure, although the company has faced a number of regulatory issues in jurisdictions around the world this year.

Binance announced its exit from the Canadian market in May, citing new stablecoin regulations and limits on investors that the exchange said made doing business in the country “unsustainable.”

In June, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) sued Binance, the company’s CEO Changpeng Zhao, and Binance.US, alleging that the companies were violating securities laws.

In August, a Mastercard spokesperson told Reuters that the payments giant was ending its partnership with Binance.

In September, Binance said it would sell its entire Russian business to local cryptocurrency exchange CommEX, claiming that operating in the country no longer seemed compatible with the company’s business model. No specific details were provided.

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Binance Crypto Exchange Reveals Fears Ahead of MiCA Regulation

Binance may be about to withdraw all stablecoin offerings from its crypto exchange platform for European investors. The news sparked fears about the potential losses the EU crypto market could suffer if Binance validated and followed through with the motion.

Binance will remove all stablecoin offerings in Europe

A prominent executive at Binance, one of the world’s largest crypto exchanges, has revealed a new development that has shaken the crypto community. Marina Parthuisot, head of legal at Binance France, revealed in an online public hearing organized by the EBA that Binance fears it will have to withdraw the majority of its stablecoin offerings for the European market by June 2024.

Parthuisot revealed that the decision was taken to comply with the regulatory restriction that will soon be enacted in Europe by Crypto Asset Markets (MiCA). He stated that European markets could be affected by the loss of stablecoin offerings, which represents a considerable disadvantage for investors when transacting in cryptocurrencies.

“Our goal is to close all stablecoins in Europe on June 30th. This could have a significant impact on the European market compared to the rest of the world,” said Parthuisot.

MiCA, a European regulatory framework and banking authority, implemented a law that would subject stablecoin issuers to strict licensing and compliance regulations.

Elizabeth Noble, MiCA team leader at the European Banking Authority (EBA), stated that the regulatory system has not introduced additional requirements or restrictions on stablecoin offerings in the EU. However, the initial law will be enacted next year.

“There is no transition agreement for these types of tokens [stablecoins]. The rules will apply from the end of June next year,” Noble said.

Regulatory crackdown on cryptocurrency exchange Binance

Binance has been facing several regulatory hurdles since this year. The cryptocurrency exchange was sued by the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), which filed more than a dozen charges for allegedly misleading investors and operating an unregistered exchange.

In addition to US SEC limitations, Binance has also exited several countries due to regulatory issues.

The cryptocurrency exchange has delisted a significant number of cryptocurrencies from its exchange platform over the years, including major cryptocurrency trading pairs as well as altcoins like Tron, Helium, and others.

As the cryptocurrency industry continues to evolve, regulatory compliance plays a vital role in shaping the cryptocurrency industry and Binance’s proactive response to MiCA regulations is a demonstration of its commitment to maintaining a secure and sustainable crypto ecosystem.

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Worldcoin (WLD) could face UK regulatory investigations

The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), a body that focuses on data protection in the United Kingdom, has revealed that it plans to investigate the Worldcoin project, according to a Reuters report on July 25.

Worldcoin, launched on Monday, July 24th, has faced criticism mainly due to its iris scanning feature.

The project offers WLD coins to people who scan their irises. As stated on their website, the new orbs will be available in over 35 cities in over 20 countries, with London among one of those cities.

“We take note of the launch of WorldCoin in the UK and will be carrying out further investigations,” the Information Commissioner’s Office said.

Meanwhile, Worldcoin’s native WLD token, which is listed on several cryptocurrency exchanges including Binance, Huobi and OKX, will not be available to US residents or US residents or incorporated companies, nor will they be able to access them, meaning that the token is not listed on Coinbase.

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Binance will help the South Korean city of Busan increase

cryptocurrency adoption and develop a blockchain ecosystem
Binance is helping the South Korean city of Busan “increase cryptocurrency adoption in and out of the city”. The global cryptocurrency exchange will also support the development of the city’s blockchain ecosystem and the Busan Digital Asset Exchange.

Binance Signs Memorandum of Understanding with the City of Busan

Cryptocurrency exchange Binance announced on Friday that it has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the metropolitan city of Busan. Busan, located at the southeastern tip of the Korean Peninsula, is the second largest city in South Korea, with approximately 3.4 million inhabitants.

“As part of the agreement, the City of Busan will receive technological and infrastructure support from Binance for the development of the city’s blockchain ecosystem and the promotion of the Busan Digital Asset Exchange,” Binance explained.

“Another form of cooperation between the two parties will be the sharing of the order book”, added the company, adding that it will establish a presence in Busan by the end of the year.

Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao (CZ) said, “We are happy to work with the City of Busan to bring about tangible blockchain-related developments that benefit and support the city’s innovation efforts.” The executive opined:

Through our industry-leading position and technology expertise, combined with the City of Busan's strong support of the blockchain industry, we hope to help increase cryptocurrency adoption in the city and beyond.

“We look forward to our close cooperation with the city to support the establishment of digital asset exchanges and various blockchain industries,” added Zhao.

Busan Mayor Heong-Joon Park commented:

With this agreement, we are one step closer to establishing the Busan Digital Asset Exchange as an integrated global platform for digital assets.

“By making Busan a specialist blockchain city that attracts global attention, we will fuel a new growth engine for the local economy and make it a global digital financial hub,” he added.

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The most profitable buy signal in Bitcoin has just been activated

The latest trend in Bitcoin’s “hash tape” indicator has just formed a pattern that has historically been a buy signal for the cryptocurrency.

Bitcoin hash tape buy signal deactivates when miner capitulation comes to an end

As one analyst explained on Twitter, the capitulation phase of BTC miners appears to have ended today after 71 days.

Before trying to understand what the “hash tape” indicator does, it’s best to first take a look at the “hash rate” metric.

Hashrate is a measure of the total amount of computing power connected to the Bitcoin blockchain by miners. During bear markets, the income of some miners drops so much that running their trades becomes unprofitable for them. At such times, your only option is to take your machines offline, which records a downward trend in hashrate.

In previous bear markets, troughs often occurred during these periods of miner capitulations, where large numbers of miners quickly go offline due to low income.

One indicator to identify these periods of miner capitulation is hash tapes. Conceived by the aforementioned analyst Charles Edwards, this metric uses two different moving averages of the hashrate, the 30-day MA and the 60-day MA, to observe changes in miner behavior.

Here is a chart that shows the trend of Bitcoin hash tapes in recent years:

The 30-day SMA hashrate appears to have surpassed the 60-day SMA version | Source: Charles Edwards on Twitter

As you can see in the chart above, the capitulation periods of Bitcoin miners are marked with the hash ribbon indicator.

Whenever the 30-day MA version of the hashrate drops below the 60-day MA line, miners are assumed to be starting a capitulation phase.

A break above the 60-day MA by the 30-day MA, on the other hand, implies an end to the capitulation of these chain validators.

When this type of capitulation occurs that ends in the crossing of hash tapes, a buy signal is triggered for the cryptocurrency.

But even among these buy signals, there are some that are especially profitable. These signals are formed after miner capitulations that occur more than 2 years after any halving event.

Today, hash tapes once again painted the historic pattern of the buy signal as the miner’s latest capitulation series came to an end after 71 days. It has also been over 2 years since the last halving, which following the previous trend would suggest that this is one of those rare “most profitable” buy signals for Bitcoin.

BTC price

At the time of writing, Bitcoin price hovers around $21,300, down 13% from last week.