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Top Stories This Week

‘The Great Accumulation’ of Bitcoin has begun, says Gemini’s Winklevoss

Recently renewed optimism for an approved Bitcoin spot exchange-traded fund (ETF) is igniting “The Great Accumulation Race” for Bitcoin, according to industry pundits. Over the past week, Fidelity, Invesco, WisdomTree and Valkyrie have followed investment giant BlackRock in applying for a Bitcoin spot ETF with the United States Securities Exchange Commission, which some analysts believe is the reason for Bitcoin’s price surge in the past days.

Binance.US solves USD withdrawal issues but warns it won’t last long

Crypto exchange Binance.US informed customers that it has resolved U.S. dollar withdrawal issues after working with its banking partners, though it warned the relief may not last. The exchange suspended dollar deposits and notified its customers of an incoming pause to fiat withdrawal channels on June 9, amid its ongoing battle with the SEC. Binance.US has encouraged customers that have a failed withdrawal attempt to resubmit their requests. Any remaining USD balances held in customer accounts will be converted into Tether at a future date.

Atomic Wallet gives major update on hack but questions remain unanswered

Atomic Wallet users have been left wanting more answers, despite the decentralized wallet provider finally releasing a full “event statement” about the June exploit — which some estimate has run up to $100 million in losses. In the statement, Atomic didn’t point to what exactly led to the exploit, only laying out the four most “probable” causes, including a virus on user devices, an infrastructure breach, a man-in-the-middle attack or malware code injection. According to the company, “less than 0.1%” of app users were affected, but the figure is still rebuffed by many online.

UK government moves forward on financial markets bill for potential regulation of crypto

Lawmakers in the United Kingdom are moving forward with legislation that could help support the adoption of crypto in the country. First introduced to the U.K. Parliament in July 2022, the Financial Services and Markets Bill was aimed at ensuring the country maintained its place in the financial world following Brexit, including granting authority on digital asset regulation. The bill went through a third reading in the House of Lords, one of the final stages in passage before considering any additional amendments and being signed into law.

Fed sees stablecoin as form of money, wants ‘robust’ role in its oversight, Powell says

The U.S. Federal Reserve Board sees payment stablecoins as a form of money, Chair Jerome Powell said on June 21 when addressing Congress about the proposed stablecoin bill. Powell took a position that runs contrary to that of SEC chairman Gary Gensler. Last year, Gensler spoke at a Senate Banking Committee hearing saying that stablecoins may require registration and regulation with the SEC. Gensler has also consistently stated that all cryptocurrencies, except Bitcoin, are securities.