Из жизни альткоинов

HashKey Group, a prominent Asia-based cryptocurrency financial services firm, has successfully obtained Virtual Asset Service Provider (VASP) registration approval from the Central Bank of Ireland through its European arm, HashKey Europe Limited (HEL).

This milestone marks a significant step in HashKey’s global expansion strategy, as it is “HashKey Group’s first VASP license fully compliant with the EU’s Fifth Anti-Money Laundering Directive (AMLD5).

Strengthening Global Regulatory Footprint

The VASP registration allows HashKey Europe Limited to offer a suite of regulated services, including virtual asset-to-fiat and virtual asset-to-virtual asset exchange, custodial crypto wallet services, and facilitating virtual asset transfers between accounts.

Prior to Ireland, HashKey had already secured regulatory licenses in financial hubs like Hong Kong, Singapore, Japan, and Bermuda, showcasing a strategic focus on aligning with “strong regulatory frameworks” worldwide.

According to the announcement, HashKey Europe Limited’s registration with the Central Bank of Ireland signifies the “firm’s readiness” to comply with European Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and Counter-Terrorist Financing (CTF) regulations.

The registration ensures that HashKey operates within a “well-defined legal and regulatory environment,” which is crucial for building investor confidence and facilitating institutional adoption of digital assets.

The approval comes at a time when global regulatory scrutiny on virtual asset providers is intensifying, highlighting the need for crypto firms to align with international compliance standards.

HashKey’s strategy revolves around establishing regulated entities in key markets, creating a global infrastructure capable of serving institutional and retail clients while mitigating regulatory risks.

Furthermore, HashKey’s blockchain innovation, including the recent launch of its Ethereum Layer 2 HashKey Chain on the mainnet, highlights the company’s focus on developing scalable and efficient blockchain infrastructure.

These technological advancements complement its global compliance approach, ensuring secure and transparent service delivery across jurisdictions.

Expanding Service Portfolio And Market Influence

HashKey Group’s portfolio encompasses a range of business divisions, including HashKey Exchange, HashKey Global, HashKey Capital, HashKey OTC, HashKey Cloud, and HashKey Tokenisation.

This diverse range of services positions the firm to cater to varying market needs, from asset management and exchange services to blockchain infrastructure and tokenization.

The VASP approval in Ireland not only enhances HashKey’s presence in Europe but also aligns with the broader goal of supporting the “sustainable growth” of the virtual economy.

In its official statement, HashKey emphasized its commitment to compliance, delivering value-added services, and “fostering trust” within the Web3 ecosystem. The company wrote:

HashKey Group remains dedicated to supporting the sustainable growth of the virtual economy by ensuring compliance with international regulations, delivering value-added services, and fostering trust within the ecosystem.

Featured image created with DALL-E, Chart from TradingView

In a move to bolster its presence in the European market, Backpack Exchange, a crypto trading platform established by former employees of Sam Bankman-Fried’s FTX and Alameda Research, has acquired the European entity of the defunct FTX exchange for $32.7 million. 

As earlier reported by Bloomberg, this acquisition aims to expand Backpack’s derivatives offerings in a region where the regulated crypto derivatives market is increasingly gaining traction.

FTX EU’s Bankruptcy Claims Transferred

FTX EU was one of the units that fell under bankruptcy proceedings following the collapse of the exchange in 2022. As part of the acquisition deal, Dubai-based Backpack will assume responsibility for distributing court-approved bankruptcy claims totaling approximately €53 million ($55 million) to affected FTX EU customers.

The FTX estate had previously pursued legal action to recover millions from the original owners of FTX EU. However, this lawsuit was ultimately dropped as part of a settlement that facilitated the sale of the unit to its co-founders, Patrick Gruhn and Robin Matzke, who then sold it to Backpack.

This acquisition is particularly noteworthy as FTX EU holds a MiFID II license, allowing it to offer crypto derivatives trading within the European Union. 

The transaction has received approval from the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission, paving the way for Backpack to operate legally in the region.

Armani Ferrante, the CEO of Backpack, emphasized that returning funds to customers is the company’s “top priority” following the acquisition. In an interview, he stated, “We will not serve a single user, not serving a single trade in the EU until we have the ability to return customers’ funds.” 

A Rising Star In Crypto? 

Founded in 2022, Backpack has already made a mark in the industry. Ferrante, who previously worked at Alameda Research and played a pivotal role in developing the Solana blockchain, brings valuable experience to the table.

Co-founder Tristan Yver also has a background as a former executive at FTX. Backpack secured a virtual-asset service provider license in Dubai and is currently pursuing a license to operate in Japan, having raised $17 million last year at a valuation of $120 million.

With the acquisition of FTX EU, Backpack is positioned to offer regulated crypto derivatives products, including perpetual swaps—futures contracts that do not expire—across the European Union. 

The regulated crypto derivatives market in Europe has become increasingly appealing to various crypto firms, as evidenced by Coinbase Global Inc.’s recent acquisition of a Cyprus-based brokerage unit, which also secured a MiFID II license.

“Derivatives make up an enormous amount of crypto trading volume,” Ferrante remarked, expressing enthusiasm for the opportunity to reintegrate crypto derivatives trading in the EU. 

As the market evolves, firms like Backpack are poised to play a crucial role in shaping the future of crypto trading by offering innovative and regulated products that cater to the growing demand.

At the time of writing, FTT, the defunct exchange’s native token, is trading at $3, following the broader market correction with a drop of nearly 11%. 

Featured image from DALL-E, chart from TradingView.com

Gemini согласилась выплатить $5 млн для урегулирования иска Комиссии по торговле товарными фьючерсами США (CFTC), обвинившей биржу во введении регулятора в заблуждение при попытке получить одобрение фьючерсного продукта на биткоин.

Data shows the Bitcoin Open Interest has seen a sharp increase alongside the recovery rally that the asset’s price has gone through.

Bitcoin Open Interest Has Observed A Spike Recently

As pointed out by CryptoQuant community analyst Maartunn in a new post on X, the Bitcoin Open Interest has shot up. The “Open Interest” here refers to an indicator that keeps track of the total amount of derivatives positions related to BTC that are currently open on all centralized exchanges.

When the value of this metric rises, it means that the traders are opening fresh positions on the market. As the total amount of leverage present in the sector rises when positions increase, this kind of trend can lead to more volatility in the asset’s price.

On the other hand, the indicator going down implies that the derivatives users are either closing up their positions of their own volition or being forcibly liquidated by their platforms. Such a trend may result in calmer price action for the cryptocurrency.

Now, here is a chart that shows the trend in the 24-hour percentage change for the Bitcoin Open Interest over the past month or so:

As is visible in the above graph, the Bitcoin Open Interest has recently registered a sharp positive change, which suggests that investors have opened up a large number of positions inside a short window.

The impetus behind this trend is likely to be the notable price recovery that the cryptocurrency has seen during the last couple of days. Investors find rapid moves in the asset to be exciting, so they tend to participate in more speculation than normal whenever they occur.

As mentioned before, an increase in the Open Interest can lead to BTC becoming more volatile. The reason behind this is the fact that mass liquidation events turn more probable the more leveraged positions there are in the market. Such events can be violent, with all the liquidations feeding back into the price move that triggered them.

Some growth in the Open Interest may still not be bad for the asset, but when it occurs inside a narrow window and is of a sufficiently large scale, the risk of the price being negatively affected can be considerable indeed.

As the analyst has highlighted in the chart, the latest jump in the Open Interest took its percentage change into a zone that has generally signaled trouble for Bitcoin in the past month.

Given this pattern, it now remains to be seen whether the derivatives market will have to see another cooldown before the asset’s rally can continue.

BTC Price

Bitcoin recovered above the $102,000 mark earlier, but the coin appears to have seen a pullback since then, as its price is back at $100,800.

Президент Ripple Моника Лонг рассказала о стратегических планах компании по запуску собственного стейблкоина Ripple USD (RLUSD) и поделилась прогнозом на дальнейшие перспективы альткоина XRP.