Month: March 2026

Russia Restricts Crypto Trading Under New Regulations

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Russia’s government has approved a package of draft bills that would channel domestic crypto trading through licensed intermediaries and sharply limit retail access. The Finance Ministry said Monday that the government had approved a package of draft bills on the legalization of the circulation of digital currencies and digital rights in Russia. “Under the new regulatory framework, transactions involving digital currency without regulated intermediaries are prohibited,” the ministry said. The package would tighten state oversight of digital assets while preserving limited access for non-qualified investors and broader access for qualified…

Standard Chartered Venture Arm Backs Keyrock at $1.1B Valuation

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Crypto market maker Keyrock secured Series C funding at a $1.1 billion valuation in a round led by SC Ventures, the venture building and investment arm of Standard Chartered. In a Tuesday announcement, the Brussels-based company said the new capital will be used to strengthen its balance sheet, expand its product offering and pursue acquisitions as it scales its global footprint. Existing investor Ripple also participated in the round. “Our latest funding round is a signal of intent for the future,” CEO Kevin de Patoul said, pointing to plans to…

F2Pool Co-Founder’s 2,900 BTC Condo Sells for 7 BTC

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Bitcoin mining pioneer Wang Chun said he sold a condominium in Pattaya, Thailand, for 7 Bitcoin, a fraction of the 2,900 BTC he paid for the property in 2015, highlighting the steep opportunity cost of early crypto spending. The F2Pool co-founder disclosed the transaction in a Tuesday X post. Chun bought the apartment in North Pattaya when Bitcoin (BTC) traded at roughly $270, valuing the purchase at around $785,000 at the time, and around $470,000 at today’s prices, a decrease of roughly 40%. “In 2015, I purchased this Naklua condo…

Nakamoto Sells $20M Bitcoin, Exits Metaplanet at Loss in Q1

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Nakamoto, the Bitcoin treasury company formerly known as KindlyMD, sold $20 million worth of Bitcoin in March and cut a large portion of its Metaplanet stake at a loss during the first quarter of the year. The company, chaired by David Bailey, sold roughly 284 Bitcoin (BTC) for $20 million, implying an average price of about $70,400 per coin. At the end of 2025, Nakamoto valued its Bitcoin at $87,519 per coin, when it held 1,625 BTC worth $142.2 million, suggesting that the sale came at a 20% discount to…

Google warns Bitcoin encryption could break with fewer quantum resources than expected

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As quantum computing advances, the cost of attacking Bitcoin may drop sharply. In a new analysis, Google warns that crypto assets such as Bitcoin and Ethereum could be vulnerable to quantum attacks much earlier than previously estimated. The study shows that quantum machines running Shor’s algorithm could solve the 256-bit Elliptic Curve Discrete Logarithm Problem (ECDLP) securing most blockchains with fewer qubits and gates. Google researchers estimate that 1,200–1,450 logical qubits and 70–90 million quantum gates could break Bitcoin’s 256-bit encryption in minutes, executable on less than 500,000 physical qubits…

Dubai Sets Crypto Derivatives Rules, Allows Retail With Leverage Cap

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Dubai’s Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (VARA) has introduced a new regulatory framework for crypto exchange-traded derivatives (ETDs), laying out how licensed crypto companies can offer the products in the emirate. In a Tuesday announcement shared with Cointelegraph, the framework, set out in Version 2.1 of VARA’s Exchange Services Rulebook, outlines requirements covering client suitability, leverage and margin controls, asset segregation, disclosure standards and regulatory intervention powers. VARA said the framework applies to licensed virtual asset service providers (VASPs) offering exchange services in Dubai.  The update puts more formal guardrails around…

Lawmakers Press CFTC to Warn Federal Employees About Event Contracts

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At least 42 Democratic lawmakers have written the US commodities regulator and the US Office of Government Ethics, demanding that it warn federal employees not to use inside knowledge to trade in prediction markets. The letter, addressed to Commodity Futures Trading Commission Chair Mike Selig and the Office of Government Ethics, was prompted by “multiple incidents” that have fueled “speculation about possible insider trading in prediction markets by federal employees,” according to the letter.  “We ask that the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the Office of Government Ethics circulate executive…

KuCoin’s Parent Company Agrees to $500K Civil Penalty to Resolve Charges

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KuCoin’s parent company will pay $500,000 to resolve CFTC charges, marking a fraction of the $300 million it previously agreed to pay the DOJ over similar charges.  The parent company of KuCoin will pay a $500,000 civil penalty to settle a case by the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission alleging it operated an unregistered offshore commodities exchange. In an announcement on Monday, the CFTC said that the US District Court for the Southern District of New York had entered a consent order against KuCoin’s parent company, Peken Global Limited, which…

Google Says Quantum Computers Can Crack Crypto Faster

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New research from Google shows that quantum computers could require far less power than previously thought to break the cryptography that secures cryptocurrency blockchains.  Google’s new research, released on Monday, estimates a quantum computer could crack the cryptography protecting Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) using fewer than 500,000 physical qubits, based on its current assumptions about hardware capabilities. A qubit is the basic unit of a quantum computer.  The researchers compiled two quantum circuits to test on a superconducting-qubit, cryptographically relevant quantum computer (CRQC), reporting that it was a “20-fold…

Bitmine’s Increased ETH Accumulation Streak Continues for 4th Week

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Bitmine Immersion Technologies has extended its Ether buying streak into its fifth week, scooping up 71,179 Ether in its largest weekly purchase of 2026 so far.  The roughly $147 million Ether (ETH) buy represents a jump from Bitmine’s previous weekly average of $93 million to $103 million, the company said in a statement on Monday. Last week, Lee said Ether is in the final stages of the mini-crypto winter and said this was a key reason the company has been maintaining its aggressive Ether buying over the past few weeks.…