The group will add a representative of the EC and representatives of the national central banks. The experts will meet at least every three months and will start their activities in November.

The European Central Bank had revealed the complete staff of the Market Advisory Group for the issuance of the digital euro this week. These are 30 high-level professionals who will give advice to the Eurosystem on the design and distribution of this asset.

In a statement released to the press, the bank indicated that the appointment came into effect after the approval of the investigation phase of the digital euro project by the Governing Council.

As the bank specifies, the now members of the group have extensive knowledge of the retail payments market in the euro area, and they would act in a personal capacity from an “industrial perspective. Likewise, they will instruct on how the digital euro could add value to all the agents of the diverse payments ecosystem in that region.

The ECB highlights that, in the group, there will be a representative of the European Commission (EC) and representatives of the national central banks of the Eurosystem. The group will arrange meetings at least quarterly, beginning in November of this year.

Europeans and the Digital Euro

Europeans are not newbies regarding the issue of the digital euro. They have already thought about it. A consultation led by the ECB of 8,221 citizens unveiled the requirements around the asset: privacy in payments, security, and continental reach.

At least 41% of the citizens and entities that participated chose privacy as the main feature that the currency should have; 17% consider that safety is the most important; and 10% maintain that the priority is that it can be used throughout the continent, as this newspaper reported.

A town in Spain reports that it will launch a pilot version of the digital euro so that the citizens can know first-hand how this asset will work.

In any case, the ECB highlights that the research group, which includes various colleges and high-level public institutions, will study how this momentous change from euros in banknotes to digital currency would receive acceptance from society.

The Current Members of the Euro Digital Market Advisory Group

Among the advisers hired by the ECB are representatives of companies that play a role in the bitcoin industry, blockchains, and cryptocurrencies.

One of them is Antonio Macías Vecino, head of the Payments Discipline at BBVA; A bank that already has bitcoin features and services in the European Union (EU) and Latin America.

One of the members is Fanny Solano, Director of Digital Regulation and Retail, Transparency and Implementation, CaixaBank, which has already applied tests with a bitcoin platform.

Another member of the group is Nils Beier, The current Accenture’s CEO, Strategy and Consulting, who has also played a vital role within the crypto ecosystem.

On the other hand, representatives from several well-known businesses, including Societe Generale, Nordea, the Netherlands Payments Association, and the Associazione Bancaria Italiana, are members.

By: Jenson Nuñez

The USDT operator said it would leverage the technology of Notabene to meet FATF compliance standards. The news arrives at a time of increased regulatory pressure for stable coins.

The stable coin issuing company USDT has joined efforts with the Notabene firm to combat financial crimes in transactions with digital currencies.

The company reported the trial partnership in a statement Tuesday. According to Tether, the agreement will allow the company to use the software of Notabene to fight against money laundering in cross-border transactions. The startup provides technology for cryptocurrency exchanges to help them identify their users and track transactions.

The connection with a firm like Notabene will aid Tether in its quest to comply with the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) travel rule, which needs financial institutions to exchange customer information by both senders and recipients of relevant transactions. This news got reported by the company through a statement shared on its Twitter account.

Tether Intends to Comply with FATF Standards

The FATF, a Paris-based global money-laundering watchdog, expanded its guidelines for cryptocurrency compliance to include exchanges and issuers of stable coins referred to as Virtual Asset Service Providers or VASPs.

The entity has determined that VASPs must adhere to the same rules as regulated financial institutions, including the Travel Rule, which advises companies to exchange customer-specific information between counterparties for transactions with a value of more than a certain amount.

These measures intend to help nations and service providers prevent money laundering, terrorist financing, and compliance with sanctions laws. Commenting on the new agreement, the chief compliance officer of Tether, Leonardo Real, focused his thoughts on the importance of working with other industry vendors.

An Outlook of Increased Regulatory Pressure

The company is trying to comply with FATF guidelines, and it stands in contrast to the recent controversial events the company has faced. Earlier this month, Tether received a wave of criticism after a Bloomberg report highlighted that the company had billions of dollars in Chinese debt products when the Evergrande crisis shook international markets.

On the other hand, the issuer of the stable coin and its sister company Bitfinex got fined by the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) for $ 42.5 million for misrepresenting documents about the endorsement of USDT. These latest investigations and accusations by regulators have prompted criticism from the community alleging a lack of transparency from Tether.

Notabene brings innovative technology to monitor cryptocurrency transactions in real-time.

This technology makes the blockchain more transparent and allows regulators to track cash flow. In particular, Tether will apply Notabene’s technology to detect whether it can transmit identifying data for customers on other VASPs.

Tether stated that they are dedicating a lot of effort to keep up with the new policies and to helping to shape them. Tether sees this alliance as an opportune time to foster cooperation through traditional and digital channels to create better services for clients globally.

By: Jenson Nuñez

President Nayib Bukele revealed the new acquisition of BTC through his Twitter account. Bukele claimed that they acquired”the dip,” referring to the recent decay in the Bitcoin price.

El Salvador’s president, Nayib Bukele, revealed a new acquisition of 420 bitcoin, about $ 25 million, for his country’s reserves. The Salvadoran president unveiled the information to the public through a tweet on his account @nayibbukele.

This operation would be the fifth purchase announced by Bukele since the law that made bitcoin legal tender in El Salvador came into effect. With this new purchase, the reserves of the Central American country amount to 1,120 BTC, about $ 66 million at the current price.

Bukele’s tweet says it was a long wait, but it was worth it. This tweet referred to the recent purchase of the first cryptocurrency.

An expression that usually appears in the bitcoin space is “buy the fall.” This expression serves to denote that price declines are the best moments to purchase cryptocurrency. Bitcoin has corrected 12% after setting a new all-time high of $ 66,930 per unit on October 20.

Two Previous Purchases

On September 7, 2021, the date the Bitcoin Law came into force in El Salvador, President Bukele revealed two purchases of at least 200 BTC each.

Subsequently, two other acquisitions for 150 BTC got announced. The most recent, carried out on September 19, coincided with a price decline that took it to $ 45 thousand per BTC.

At that time, he complimented the ad with another tweet where he says: “They can’t beat you if you buy in the fall.”  Some hours after revealing the first 200 BTC purchases, Bukele highlighted that El Salvador had added another 200 bitcoins to its accounting. The second purchase also came to be known with another message on the popular social network.

Although the president did not reveal the method he applied for the acquisitions, the Mexican exchange Bitso publicly thanked Bukele for the purchase made. The exchange house shared on Twitter: “Thank you for your purchase, Mr. President!”

It is unclear whether the investment came effective by the Central Reserve Bank of El Salvador or if the operation was an investment managed directly from the presidency.

Bukele’s announcement came a day before El Salvador formalized the execution of the so-called Bitcoin Law. As of this Tuesday, September 7, the State will become the first in the world to recognize BTC as legal tender, along with the US dollar.

Its acceptance in commercial establishments will be mandatory, with some exceptions, and the dollar will keep being the unit of account. Both users and businesses will have the option of keeping their BTC or turning them into dollars.

So far, none of the announcements about bitcoin purchases arrived by more details than the amount of the trades. This situation has generated criticism for the opacity in the management of Bitcoin reserves within El Salvador.

By: Jenson Nuñez

There was an auction for at least 10 BTC, with bids surpassing $ 60 million. The auctions ended on Wednesday.

According to official reports and publications, a considerable amount of bitcoin, seized in criminal proceedings for illicit activities, got auctioned in Germany this week.

The Ministry of Justice of North Rhine-Westphalia, in that European nation, revealed the activity both at a press conference and on the official website.

The assets got sold in small amounts of up to 0.1 BTC and, the final instance was to deliver these assets to the highest bidder under the modality of a paper wallet. The private keys and addresses that were necessary to manage got physically located.

As shown by the publication of the bitcoin auction, the offered amount was around USD 65,187.58, that is, about USD 2,845 more than the current price of the cryptocurrency.

There were auctions of 0.5 bitcoins, with offers that surpassed USD 30,895.87. There was even one, for 10 BTC, valued at USD 60,426,479.29. According to a Reddit forum, at least 215 bitcoins got auctioned by that German judicial entity.

Bitcoin Auction Details

The German state body brought all the details of the auctions. One of them highlighted that each portion of BTC would get secured in an official paper wallet of the Office of cybercrime control or ZAC NRW.

The entity clarified that the auctions ended Wednesday at noon, as they had just over 13 hours active when the information went public. Winners have to collect their BTC at the Cologne Public Prosecutor’s Office in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia.

The Office indicated that when the highest bidder in one of the auctions got chosen, and the transfer of the assets would have happened personally with the paper wallet that includes the private key necessary to manage the BTC.

In any case, the entity clarified that the delivery or transfer happened after receiving the payment at the Cologne Public Prosecutor’s Office, which had to get done before and by bank transfer.

Not the First Auction of Seized BTC

The activity led by the German Ministry of Justice is not new. In the past, auctions have already happened to get rid of bitcoins from illicit activities.

The most recent case happened in France, where the Agency for the Management and Recovery of Seized and Confiscated Assets brought at least 611 BTC valued at USD 34 million. The event counted on the massive assistance of 1,500 interested parties.

The AGRASC did not unveil the origin of the seized Bitcoins. But according to unidentified sources, these bitcoins might come from the Gatehub case, the platform that got hacked in 2019.

And last year, a series of reports highlighted that in the United States of America, the authorities auctioned at least 185,230 bitcoins from illicit activities, raising, at the time, USD 151,440,000.

By: Jenson Nuñez

The DEA is the administration in charge of investigating drug trafficking cases in the United States of America. The funds of many users of the exchange are under investigation by Dutch authorities.

At least 30 Colombian users of the cryptocurrency exchange Binance have already raised their voices regarding the blocking of their funds for weeks. Recently, the affected users got instructed by Binance support to contact the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).

In Colombia, at least 20 users reported and complained to the company, arguing that they could not access their funds. Some of them referred to their losses as life savings, so the situation was desperate.

At that time, Binance revealed a message that claimed that Dutch police sources were investigating the origin of the stored funds. These funds, in principle, could get linked to criminal activities by their previous holders, who transferred them to their Colombian peers through cryptocurrency purchase and sale operations on the exchange.

Now, the surprise for many users was that, as the days went by, messages appear to be linking the investigation to the DEA, as well as to another US agency: the ATF, known as The Bureau that fights against alcohol, tobacco, fire weapons, and explosives.

The users affected by the blockade, which today would already be more than 50 as confirmed by this medium, have a Telegram group in which they organize to take further measures.

Binance’s Responses to Users

Considering the information that appeared in the answers given from the Binance support to the queries, the suspension of accounts has to do with “profile review” by the platform’s Legal Compliance department.

Although some users got required to authenticate their identity, the issue did not meet a positive end even after this step met its completion. In addition, many people assumed that they already had the verification ready before the blockade.

They are already in contact with lawyers and even legal consultants in the United States of America to learn more about their case, to know if there is indeed an open investigation on North America and, mainly, to defend themselves to recover their access to the lost funds.

One of the messages received by a user and shared in the group highlights that Binance cannot give more information right now. These affected users must contact the DEA to receive further details regarding the situation.

Previously, one of the blocked users contacted Belastingdienst, a Dutch government agency in charge of tax and fiscal affairs, by mail and through social networks. Despite the lack of response from the entity via email, the user was lucky on Instagram and got a response in that social media.

This person received detailed instructions to get contacted by phone or email. This lack of information seems to be shady, and it is what worries this group of Colombians who want to recover their cryptocurrencies.

By: Jenson Nuñez