Due to US President Joe Biden’s most recent budget proposal and the failure of “crypto-bank” Silvergate, Bitcoin briefly fell below $20,000 before bouncing back to hover just above. A potential hindrance for the cryptocurrency industry is the liquidation of Silvergate and a proposed 30% tax on electricity costs. News Sorce

Different central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) have been connected to current fiat payment systems in a pilot test by SWIFT. The testing revealed that Swift’s test interlinking solution can satisfy central and commercial banks’ requirements for CBDC interoperability, ensuring CBDCs can be used successfully in cross-border transactions. Over 110 central banks are currently looking into the use cases of CBDCs, and the OMFIF Digital Monetary Institute anticipates that 24% of central banks will develop a CBDC solution within the next two years. News Sorce

The US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) reiterated its position that stablecoins and ether are commodities and should be regulated by the agency. When suing the founder of FTX, Sam Bankman-Fried, in December, the CFTC claimed that certain digital assets, including Ether, Bitcoin, and Tether, are commodities. Behnam’s remarks have solidified his position on Ether’s classification and refute Gary Gensler’s assertion that “everything other than Bitcoin” is a security. As each competes for regulatory control of the cryptocurrency industry, the divergent perspectives of the market regulators could pave the way for conflict. Jeremy Allaire, the founder and CEO of Circle, has criticized the SEC’s crypto crackdowns and thinks stablecoins should be regulated by a different agency. News Sorce

On March 8, as markets reacted to U.S. Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s testimony, Bitcoin fell under the $22,000 mark. In response to the news, Ethereum fell as well. Earlier in the day, ETH briefly broke out of a crucial area of support at $1,550. Bulls in ETH will probably try to buy more of this week’s price decline. News Sorce

The Federal Reserve’s hawkish comments and the SEC’s crackdown on centralized staking are to blame for today’s decline in the cryptocurrency market. Centralized exchanges received a warning from Gary Gensler, Paxos received a notice from the SEC, and New York regulators ordered Paxos to stop issuing BUSD. Bitcoin miners saw a 50% increase in revenue, but leading cryptocurrency investors predict further sell-offs. Investors may think about holding off until there are indications that US inflation has peaked or until the Fed announces gradual interest rate increases.

Brad Garlinghouse, CEO of Ripple Labs, claims that the SEC’s enforcement-centric approach to regulating cryptocurrency is not a healthy way to regulate an industry and that the United States is falling behind other nations in developing a regulatory framework that permits an industry to grow while safeguarding consumers. News Sorce

Avanza Group and the Pakistan Banks’ Association (PBA) have agreed to work together to establish a blockchain-based know-your-customer (KYC) platform. The project is a component of the State Bank of Pakistan’s efforts to improve the nation’s infrastructure for preventing money laundering and terrorist financing. Blockchain technology is used by Avanza’s e-KYC platform Consonance to allow banks to standardize and exchange customer information over a “decentralized and self-regulated network.” With the help of the information gathered from the KYC checks conducted by other participating institutions, banks will be able to evaluate both their current and potential customers. In order to promote financial inclusion, this should reduce onboarding expenses and enhance the consumer experience while creating an account. News Sorce

The Wall Street Journal said that Tether has connections to organizations that falsified documents and utilized dummy firms to acquire bank accounts. Tether has refuted this claim. Tether referred to the charges in the article as “stale allegations from a long time ago” and said they were “wholly incorrect and deceptive,” noting that it was a “proud” partner with law enforcement and worked with authorities both domestically and overseas. Tether and Binfinex were contacted by Cointelegraph for comment, but neither party responded. According to a report in the Wall Street Journal, Tether and Bitfinex made an effort to go around the banking system by submitting fictitious sales invoices and contracts for each deposit and withdrawal. Additionally, they had ties to a company that is suspected of using money laundering techniques for terrorist organizations and employed a variety of methods to get through regulations.Over the past few months, Tether has been the target of numerous accusations of misconduct. Most recently, the company was forced to play down a separate WSJ piece that claimed four men owned 86% of the company. Additionally, it had to address “FUD” resulting from a WSJ investigation published in December about its secured loans and made a commitment to avoid lending money from its reserves. News Sorce