Japan’s top securities regulator will warn cryptocurrency exchange Binance that it must cease operating in the country without a license or face enforcement action.

Citing a person familiar with the matter, Nikkei reports that Japan’s Financial Services Agency (FSA) will issue a formal warning to Binance, which has allegedly begun expanding operations into Japan without permission from the regulatory agency.

Headquartered in Hong Kong and bootstrapped through an initial coin offering (ICO) last year, Binance has quickly emerged as one of the world’s most popular cryptocurrency exchanges. At present, Binance ranks as the world’s largest cryptocurrency trading platform, with a 24-hour volume of nearly $1.9 billion.

Binance has its own utility token — BNB — and the exchange operator has announced that it has begun development on its own public blockchain, which will be used as the foundation for a decentralized exchange (DEX). The BNB price fell by approximately 10 percent from its intraday high following the initial report, although its 24-hour performance is still in positive territory.

Binance has said that intends to apply for an FSA license, but the fact that it expanded its operations into this jurisdiction without regulatory approval could attract more scrutiny to the company’s application.

As a base reference - BTC has fallen -54.73% from ATH

Monero - 52.6%
Litecoin - 53.68%
Ethereum Classic - 56.07%
OmiseGo - 56.5%
VeChain - 59.43%
Ethereum - 59.62%
NEO - 61.21%
Lisk - 64.90%
EOS - 66.76%
Stellar - 71.64%
Dash - 73.02%
IOTA - 74.89%
Bitcoin Gold - 75.71%
Qtum - 80.62%
Ripple - 81.53%
Cardano - 83.44%
NEM - 85.53%
TRON - 86.88%
Bitcoin God - 87.52%

Do people think we've hit the bottom?
Have we seen the worst of the bloodbaths?

Haven't you just described what Coinbase is trying to do? Become a bank?

Only they are starting with the cryptocurrency wallets and will likely add current accounts and loans later, after they've floated on the stock market and raised a lot of capital.

I'm surprised the existing banking system can't see what is coming.

In the next few months, we will be building a full-fledged German bank account that will come with a German IBAN, BIC along with a real debit card from MasterCard. Bitwala accounts will be fully regulated by The Federal Financial Supervisory Authority of Germany (BaFin) (current application pending), meaning your funds up to €100,000 will be guaranteed, in our case by the deposit guarantee scheme of German banks.

You will be able to buy and sell cryptocurrencies alongside managing your daily expenses and setting up direct debits.The best of both worlds, all in one place.

The new Bitwala account will come with a debit card that is linked to your account (no more bitcoin prepaid cards!). This means that the balance on your Bitwala account will be immediately available on your Bitwala contactless debit card as well. Having the new card will also mean that you will have much lower fees and higher spending limits. No more top-ups or card loads necessary!

It seems that Samsung is developing an ASIC chip for mining, and they are talking to Apple with a view to producing a low cost mining rig. If this happens, what effect do you think it will have on the crypto markets?

Apparently Venezuela has already raised $735 million from it's pre-sale:

Apple's co-founder Steve Wozniak confirms he has sold all his Bitcoin.

See the full part here: https://www.investopedia.com/news/steve-wozniak-has-sold-his-bitcoin/

As I have said several times, all the whales are getting out. They know the party is over.

As large financial institutions fight cryptos, small banks are helping cryptocurrencies thrive in Europe. Many large banks around the world have opted to take a tough stance against the purchase of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. This move has helped fuel FUD around the crypto community but a few small banks in Europe have opted to act in contrary to this and instead they are offering their investors access to cryptos without major hurdles with some also offering advice on ICOs.

The banks that are helping cryptocurrencies thrive in Europe include Falcon Bank and Vontobel, both swiss based. They are joined by Germany’s Fidor Bank and Liechtenstein’s Bank Frick in providing such services.

It’s interesting how currently the banking system is fractured. Due to their volatility, many major banks have opposed cryptocurrencies purchases and this is something that has been expected. Add the fact that they offer a direct threat to the existence of these institutions and you see why these large banks are not big fans of cryptos.

Speaking with the financial times, Edi Wögerer, chief executive of Bank Frick said;

“There are risks involved but there are also really big opportunities, we know what to do from a security perspective, so this is a big opportunity for banks like us.”

Unexpectedly: criticism of Bitcoin in Sweden

Nordea Bank AB took up arms against the Crypto-currency.
Bloomberg reports that the largest Nordea bank in Sweden and the whole of Northern Europe sent a memorandum to its employees with a ban on trading Bitcoin and other crypto-currencies.

Unexplained, but true: Bitcoin in Sweden is not loved by everyone!
Nordea Bank AB has imposed a ban on operations with crypto-currencies after the bank's board reached a conclusion about the unregulated nature of the crypto-currency market. However, Nordea stated that the bank's updated policy includes transitional provisions for personnel with existing crypto-currency reserves and "permits certain exceptions". In other words, employees who already own Bitcoin are allowed to keep their savings in a crypto-currency form.

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Well yes, I'm talking regular people rather than business.

If decentralised exchanges were fully automated and 100% bulletproof, then there's no reason for businesses to go anywhere centralised. I've no idea whether they will be. I was referring purely to retail.

If we ever get a full on IoT economy going there'll be trillions of transactions per day. I'd assume going through a third party for that would be incredibly cumbersome.

but this really made me think long and hard... could it be possible that the halving of the block reward impacts the price of bitcoin in significant ways? i mean when you fast forward 4 years after the blockchain was born, in 2013, it went from being as low as ~$14 to astonishingly rising as high as $1,100+ all within the same year. and fast forward another 4 years to 2017, we see another astonishing jump in the price, with lows being under $900 and highs surging past $19,000 in the same year.

Decentralised exchanges will rise at the same time as centralised exchanges run by competent and regulated operators. It's getting there on both fronts but not quite yet.

For better or worse most will flock to the places that hold their hands. At the same time they'll drive out the people who are either dodgy or simply wish to remain close to crypto's original intentions.

In that case they'll be widely used but never fully mainstream. I think they'll be the decentralised Linux to the centralised Windows.