The Indian Supreme Court declined to consider a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) that aimed to establish regulations and a framework of guidelines for cryptocurrency trading in India.

According to a report, the bench headed by the Chief Justice of India (CJI), after listening to the plea, remarked that the petitioner’s demands are more legislative in nature. Given the petition’s character, the bench, including Justice JD Pardiwala and Manoj Misra, dismissed the plea. The Supreme Court noted that despite the petitioner filing a PIL requesting regulations and guidelines for cryptocurrency and its trading, the underlying objective is to secure bail.

Significantly, Manu Prashant Wig, the…

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BlackRock has argued that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has no legitimate reason to treat crypto futures exchange-traded funds differently from spot-crypto ETFs.

BlackRock’s plan for a spot-Ether (ETH) ETF called the “iShares Ethereum Trust” was officially confirmed on Nov. 9, after Nasdaq submitted the 19b-4 application form to the SEC on the firm’s behalf.

In its application, BlackRock called the SEC’s treatment of spot crypto ETFs into question, as it asserted that the agency based its justifications for continually denying these applications on incorrect distinctions between futures and spot ETFs.

BlackRock has argued that the U.S. Securities and Exchange…

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Nonprofit ethics group Campaign for Accountability (CfA) sent a letter to U.S. Senators Elizabeth Warren and Sherrod Brown on Nov. 9 to present them with information on the alleged use of cryptocurrency in money laundering. The letter discussed the Tron blockchain and stablecoin issuer Circle in particular.

In the letter signed by CfA executive director Michelle Kuppersmith, it is alleged that USD Coin (USDC) issuer Circle has extensive ties to both Justin Sun’s Tron Foundation (TRX) and major Wall Street investors such as Goldman Sachs, Bank of New York Mellon and Blackrock.

Kuppersmith called Circle’s connections to Wall Street “surprising” in light of its supposed lack of…

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As proposed spot bitcoin and ether ETFs continue to await the green light, other types of crypto funds are set to hit the market next week.

Ark Invest and 21Shares plan to introduce five funds that hold bitcoin futures contracts, ether futures — or both — on Tuesday and Wednesday. The firms had jointly filed for these products in August.

The first bitcoin futures ETFs launched in October 2021, and ether futures funds debuted last month. Ark and 21Shares, though entering these segments late, are now set to launch actively managed iterations of these product types. 

A third fund — the ARK 21Shares Active Bitcoin Ethereum Strategy ETF — would allocate to both BTC futures and ETH…

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The discounts at which investors pay for shares of Grayscale’s bitcoin and ethereum trusts have shrunk slowly but surely, reflecting one way optimism around spot crypto ETF approval.

Shares of the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) were trading about 11.3% below its net asset value Thursday, nearly matching the 11% discount seen on Oct. 20, according to YCharts.com.

Oct. 20 represented the first time it was in that 11% neighborhood since November 2021, when bitcoin’s price hit an all-time high of roughly $69,000. The GBTC discount was as high as about 48% as recently as December 2022, the YCharts data shows.

GBTC is not easily available to everyone. Eligible shares are quoted on the…

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Singapore-based dtcpay is launching a payment system that will use fiat and cryptocurrencies for in-store and online payments. The company mentioned Tether (USDT), Ether (ETH) and Bitcoin (BTC) in its announcement.

The company is partnering with open-source blockchain PlatON for privacy-protected digital infrastructure and Allinpay International to create smart terminals and a digital interface. Both PlatOn and Allinpay are based in China. Dtcpay and Allinpay are registered with the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) as major payment institutions.

A spokesman for Allinpay parent company Tonghua International said:

“This cooperation will […] Help merchants better adapt to the modern… Read more on Cointelegraph

Coinbase launched its Verifications platform Thursday, bringing know-your-customer policies on-chain. 

The exchange said launching identity verification on the chain protocol level increases security and transparency, providing a solution to common challenges associated with typical KYC methods. 

“Built on the [Ethereum Attestation Service’s] open standard, our verifications are public and composable,” Coinbase Cloud, the company’s blockchain infrastructure arm, wrote on X. 

Ethereum Attestation Service is a base layer where users can make declarations and add virtual signatures to information. 

“EAS enables anyone to make attestations on chain or off chain about…

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