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The Supreme Court of India has reportedly given the Indian government four weeks to come up with cryptocurrency regulations before making its ruling on pending crypto cases. The court was set to hear the petitions against the crypto banking ban by the central bank this week. Government Given a Deadline The Indian supreme court reportedly addressed the matter regarding cryptocurrency today, Feb. 25. According to Twitter account Crypto Kanoon, a platform for blockchain regulatory news and analysis, the court gave the government four weeks to come up with a clear regulatory framework for cryptocurrencies. After that time, the court will make a decision on the crypto banking ban by the country's central bank, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). Crypto Kanoon tweeted: Supreme Court has granted 4 weeks to Indian government as the final opportunity to bring about a policy (rules and regulations) on cryptocurrencies. he last time the supreme court addressed the crypto case was on Jan. 17 when...

Bitfinex has recovered 27.7 bitcoin stolen by hackers in August 2016, the company said on Monday. The coins, worth around $106,000 at the time of writing, represent only a small fraction of the total BTC stolen. U.S. federal law enforcement agencies recovered the bitcoin and returned it to the cryptocurrency exchange. Recovered BTC to Be Distributed in Cash to Customers In 2016, Bitfinex hackers made off with 120,000 BTC, valued at about $72 million at the time, in one of the biggest ever thefts from a cryptocurrency exchange. Bitfinex said in statement that it will return the recovered bitcoin to more than 5,000 victims of the heist in cash. The exchange, the world's 17th largest, with trading volume of $443 million in the last 24 hours, said it will convert the returned BTC to dollars before distributing the money to its customers. The exchange detailed how it had worked with unnamed law enforcement agencies from the U.S. and Europe, according to a Reuters report, "to provid...

A recent report published by the Bank of Spain states that Bitcoin is a solution for the creation of a system without censorship. This is in contrast to public comments made by most central bankers who are prone to attack cryptocurrency with little insight into why it is needed.    Explaining Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash to Bankers Banco de España, Spain's central bank and supervisor of the Spanish banking system, recently published a report aiming to explain how Bitcoin works. The document details the functions of the cryptocurrency, as well as analyzing its strengths and weaknesses from the point of view of the established financial order. It also explains that the best way to understand the aims of the new system is by consulting the original Bitcoin whitepaper written by Satoshi Nakamoto. The report mentions that according to Nakamoto the world needs "an electronic payment system based on cryptographic proof instead of trust, allowing any two willing parties to transact di...

Nearly half of millennial traders have more faith in cryptocurrency exchanges than they do in traditional ones. They are also enthusiastic about the prospect of traditional financial institutions offering crypto assets. That's according to a new survey which shows a "generational shift" where millennials "place their faith in the power of technology and open networks."  The Beginning of a Generational Shift The survey by U.S.-based investment platform Etoro interviewed 1,000 online traders. It found that 43 percent of millennial online traders trust crypto exchanges more than they do U.S. stock exchanges. 93 percent of millennials surveyed also said that they would invest more money in crypto if it were offered by traditional financial institutions such as TD Ameritrade, Fidelity, or Charles Schwab. Even among millennials who don't trade crypto, one third said they would trust crypto over the stock market. Guy Hirsch, Managing Director of Etoro U.S. said: We...

India's supreme court has set a new date to hear the petitions against the cryptocurrency banking ban by the country's central bank. Meanwhile, the crypto community in India is campaigning on social media for "positive regulations" and the rollback of the banking ban. New Supreme Court Hearing Date Indian Court Moves Crypto Hearing, Community Calls for Positive RegulationsThe Supreme Court of India has reportedly set a new date to hear the petitions against the crypto banking ban by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). The central bank issued a circular in April banning all regulated financial institutions from providing services to crypto businesses. Banks complied and closed accounts of crypto exchanges by July. A court document circulating on Twitter on Thursday indicates that the supreme court has scheduled Jan. 15, 2019, as the date it will revisit the crypto case. The court originally scheduled to hear the case on Sept. 11 but continually postponed it. Then, on Oct....

There's good news and bad news for traders monitoring onchain data for signs of a market revival. The number of daily transactions has been rising for months, suggesting that BTC is being used for more than merely speculative purposes. Daily trade volume remains sluggish, however, suggesting another bull cycle is still some way off. BTC Passes 350K Transactions per Day The average number of daily transactions on the Bitcoin Core blockchain has been rising steadily since mid-2018 and recently surpassed 350,000. Save for a wild day in late 2017, when BTC notched a record 490K transactions, and the opening weeks of 2018, which saw major spikes, Bitcoin is seeing more sustained usage than ever. With Lightning Network taking a small but growing number of transactions offchain, along with Liquid, Blockstream's inter-exchange settlement layer, the actual number of onchain transactions would otherwise be higher stll. Network usage does not necessarily correlate with price, and it is co...

The Indian government panel tasked with drafting crypto regulation is reportedly worried that cryptocurrencies could destabilize the rupee if they are accepted as payments. Its concern came to light despite evidence that cryptocurrencies do not currently pose a threat to financial stability. Impact on the Rupee The Indian government committee tasked with developing the regulatory framework for cryptocurrencies is reportedly "obsessed" with the impact they may have on the rupee if they are allowed to be used in payments, Quartz India reported. The committee is headed by Subhash Chandra Garg, Secretary of the Department of Economic Affairs. "If bitcoin and other digital currencies are going to be allowed to be used for payments then whether it will end up destabilising the fiat currency is a major concern" for Garg's panel, the publication quoted an unnamed representative from the crypto ecosystem who recently met with the ministers as saying. "The overall im...

The drama surrounding Canadian cryptocurrency exchange Quadrigacx continues to intensify, with a recent report by Zernoncense claiming that the exchange has no identifiable cold storage reserves and that it has never held more than 1,000 BTC in customer funds. Report Refutes Claims of Quadrigacx Owner's Widow The report finds numerous assertions made in the affidavit submitted to Canadian courts on Jan. 31 by Jennifer Roberston, the wife of the exchange's allegedly deceased chief executive officer, Gerry Cotten, to be false. The findings have been informed by analysis of Quadrigacx's BTC and ETH wallets. As the wallet addresses for Quadrigacx "were not widely known," the report relies on deposit information given to customers that was aggregated from Reddit. The author notes that the findings are not guaranteed to represent "a factual truth," however, comparisons between Quadrigacx and the withdrawal practices of known solvent exchanges shows "highl...