OTC’s Weekly Retrospect 03/04–07/04/2023

Each week we bring you a round-up of the most important Bitcoin and virtual asset-related stories making waves in the cryptosphere.­­­­

Major news stories this week;

1. Binance Asked to Provide More Information as Dubai Tightens Screws Against Crypto Entities
2. EU Imposes Strict Unhosted Wallet Rules and Expands AML Obligations For DeFi and NFTs
3. Bitcoin White Paper is Apparently Hiding in Apple’s Modern macOS
4. Binance Australia’s Derivatives License Cancelled Following Request by Exchange
5. European Banking Federation Lays Out Its Digital Euro Vision in New Paper

Story Summaries;

1. Dubai’s Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (VARA) has reportedly asked Binance to share more information about the crypto exchange’s ownership structure and its auditing procedures. According to reports, Dubai regulators are still keen on fostering innovation but without comprising the security of users’ funds. The collapse of the crypto exchange FTX prompted Dubai regulators to ask for more information from crypto license applicants.
2. Members of the European Parliament’s Economic and Monetary Affairs and Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs committees approved three pieces of draft legislation that will overhaul Europe’s AML/CFT framework. Among the measures contained in the draft legislation are strict requirements on cryptoasset service providers (CASPs) to identify the users of unhosted wallets. Under the proposals, where a CASPs customers’ transact with an unhosted wallet, the CASP would need to identify the counterparty behind the unhosted wallet for all transfers over 1000 euros ($1,086).
3. Satoshi Nakamoto’s original white paper laying out the Bitcoin network is seemingly hiding within every modern version of the operating system for Apple’s Mac computers. An April 5, a blog post from technologist Andy Baio revealed that a PDF of the Bitcoin white paper has “apparently shipped with every copy of macOS since Mojave in 2018.”. By default, Virtual Scanner II shows a photo, but when Baio changed the media type from “Photo” to “Document,” Nakamoto’s white paper appeared.
4. The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) has cancelled Binance Australia’s derivatives license, according to a press release on Thursday. The move comes following a request from Binance on April 5. Binance Australia, an arm of the world’s largest crypto exchange by trading volume, will close all of its customers’ open derivatives positions by April 21. The platform had just 104 users as of yesterday, noted Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao in a tweet. Binance’s spot crypto exchange in Australia will continue to operate, he added.
5. The European Banking Federation (EBF), which describes itself as the voice of Europe’s banking industry, has shown support for a digital Euro in a newly published paper. The document also makes a few suggestions on how it should operate. The paper, published on March 28th, analyzed the digital Euro’s privacy and stability. These are the two most crucial points that commercial banks care about. It also highlights the role the private sector will play in the success of a digital Euro.

And that’s all for this week’s news! Wishing you a great weekend ahead!