In a fresh development, Morgan Stanley CEO, Ted Pick has said that the bank wishes to examine if it can act as a crypto transactor while keeping its regulatory obligations intact. To do so, the New York City-headquartered bank plans to ramp-up discussions with US lawmakers in the coming months.  

The crypto order creates a working group to advise the White House on digital asset policies and will include the involvement of key federal agencies, like the Treasury Department, Justice Department, Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.

The Singapore High Court has approved WazirX’s financial restructuring scheme, contingent on at least 75 percent of creditors voting in favour. If approved, WazirX will initiate the reimbursement process within ten business days of the scheme’s effective date.

On January 21, the US District Court for the Western District of Texas reversed OFAC’s sanctions against Tornado Cash. The US Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) levied sanctions against the platform in 2022 for allegedly becoming a solution for money launderers to move illegal funds around.

i2 Group has partnered with blockchain data firm Chainalysis to integrate blockchain to its link analysis platform, named Analyst’s Notebook. Chainalysis said this will allow cybersecurity experts using the Analyst’s Notebook to gather detailed insights on suspicious crypto-related activities.

The overall crypto market cap dropped by 2.57 percent in the last 24 hours. Bitcoin and Ether registered losses on Thursday, January 23. Owing to the ongoing market volatility, majority cryptocurrencies including Dogecoin, Cardano, and Chainlink found themselves trading in losses on national and global exchanges.

Brian Moynihan, the CEO of BoA, said in a CNBC interview Tuesday that once the crypto rules were more defined, virtual assets could be classified as real fintech tools that could be integrated into existing businesses.

BIMTECH has designed Bimcoin to facilitate secure and transparent transactions within the institute’s internal ecosystem for students, administrators, and vendors. Unlike conventional financial systems, Bimcoin leverages blockchain’s decentralised nature, ensuring transparency, and incorporating programmable features such as smart contracts, the institute said. 

The US SEC has created a task force to develop a regulatory framework for crypto assets. The task force will help lawmakers as they draft crypto-related legislation while coordinating with other federal bodies, such as the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, as well as state and foreign agencies.

The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) of the EU has asked crypto-asset service providers (CASPs) to put such procedures in place that can assess the compliance of ARTs and electronic money tokens (EMTs) with MiCA. Those found to be non-compliant must be restricted from being circulated, the ESMA has said.