Market Watch | Bitcoin | $15,382 | 7 day: +11.6% | | Ethereum | $452 | 7 day: +17.4% | | All crypto | $445b | 7 day: +12.6% | | Bitcoin dominance | 64.1% | 7 day: -0.1% | Prices as of 5 p.m. EST
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Eris Clearing LLC, the clearing arm of Eris Exchange, receives CFTC approval to clear fully-collateralized swaps. - Eris Clearing LLC obtained approval from the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) on an Amended Order of Registration.
- Eris Clearing is now allowed to clear fully-collateralized swaps for authorized futures.
ErisX: - Chicago-based ErisX is a cryptocurrency derivatives platform within the Eris conglomerate.
- As of May 2020, ErisX had launched Ether (ETH) and bitcoin (BTC) physical futures contracts subsequent to securing its BitLicense from the New York State Department of Financial Services (NYDFS).
- ErisX is one of the first U.S-based exchanges to offer physically-settled ETH futures contracts.
- According to NYDFS, businesses offering certain digital asset services to New York-based residents must acquire a BitLicense to operate, even if the business' headquarters is outside of the state.
- NYDFS has granted BitLicenses to Eris Clearing, Coinbase, Robinhood, BitStamp, Tagomi, and Paxos. (Paxos issues Binance USD, and Paxos Standard, and Paxos Gold. Paxos also underpins Paypal's conditional BitLicense.)
Coindesk 
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A judge sentenced a former Microsoft (NASDAQ:MFST) engineer to nine years in prison for involvement in bitcoin-related tax fraud. - Volodymyr Kvashuk, a Ukrainian Microsoft engineer, was sentenced to nine years in prison by a U.S. District Court in Seattle on Monday, for his involvement in a fraudulent activity affecting Microsoft. He was also ordered to pay $8,344,586 in restitution to Microsoft.
- Kvashuk stole more than $10m worth of digital gift cards.
- He used a bitcoin "mixing" service to disguise his identity and the source of his funds.
- He obtained authorization to "test" Microsoft's online retail sales platform, but he then illegally used his privileges to steal the digital gift cards, which he liquidated on third-party marketplaces.
- Kvashuk used his other colleagues' email accounts to complete fraudulent transactions worth millions of dollars.
- He bought a $1.6m lakefront home along with a $160,000 Tesla vehicle using the profits he made by laundering gift cards.
- He transferred a total amount of $2.8m of bitcoin proceeds into his bank account and described the bitcoin as gifts received from relatives.
- The U.S. District Court in Seattle convicted Kvashuk on Feb. 25 for his involvement in 18 federal felonies, including wire fraud and money laundering.
- Apart from defrauding Microsoft, Kvashuk also misled the government by filing false tax returns.
Forbes
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A U.S. District Court orders a $900,000 fine for Breonna Clark and Venture Capital Investments Ltd for involvement in a crypto ponzi scam. - The U.S. District Court of Colorado ruled a final judgment against the defendants for their harm to more than 72 victims.
- The plaintiff was the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), which filed a civil enforcement action against the defendants on Jan. 14 in the U.S. District Court of Colorado.
- The final judgment orders require Clark and Venture Capital Investments Ltd to pay $450,302 to the victims, a penalty of the same amount, and CTFC's legal costs.
- Apart from financial penalties, the defendants were permanently banned from registering with the CFTC.
Coindesk
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 Waiting on Coinbase Japan Coinbase begins the hiring process in Japan after four years of planning. - The largest U.S-based cryptocurrency exchange is hiring employees in Japan, according to CEO Brian Armstrong.
- The exchange properly announced Coinbase Japan two years ago, with Nao Kitazawa appointed as its CEO. However, Coinbase left out many necessary details, then delayed for years.
- Coinbase received an investment of $10.5m in 2016 to begin serving Japan from Mitsubishi UFJ Capital, Bank of Tokyo Mitsubishi, and others.
- Coinbase has been working with the Japanese Financial Services Agency (JFSA) to secure its licenses and approvals.
- On Mar. 2, Coinbase exchange joined a Japanese self-regulatory organization called the Japan Virtual Currency Exchange Association (JVCEA) as a second-class member. Japan's FSA allows the JVCEA organization to manage certain aspects of the country's digital asset industry. JVCEA members can make rules for local exchanges and take disciplinary actions in the event of violations.
- Coinbase's website now lists job openings. Coinbase still does not list Japan as one of its supported nations for customers.
- Coinbase has a holding page for its Japanese offering.
Coindesk
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 PayPal CEO Dan Schulman PayPal CEO Dan Schulman will support central bank digital currencies (CBDCs). - The CEO of PayPal (NASDAQ:PYPL) said that government-backed digital currencies are "unavoidable" during PayPal's Q3 earnings conference call.
- The $214b payment processor said it onboarded 15.2m new users on its platform during Q3.
- Last month, PayPal announced a "conditional BitLicense" from the New York State Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) care of Paxos Trust Company, a full BitLicense holder.
- PayPal now allows cryptocurrency purchases within the U.S. PayPal app and website.
- Supported cryptocurrencies for U.S. customers include bitcoin, Ethereum, Bitcoin Cash, and Litecoin.
- Writer's note: Bitcoin Cash is undergoing a contentious hard fork soon. Litecoin often goes months without any development and at times was controlled by less than a dozen people. If you are interested in learning more about these two smaller altcoins, just hit "reply" and say yes!
Law360
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QUICK HITS - At the Norwegian Finance Payments Conference on Nov. 5, Deputy Governor of Norges Bank Ida Wolden Bache stated that the Norwegian government is not planning to launch a central bank digital currency (CBDC) soon.
- New Jersey State senator Nellie Pou sponsored a new bill titled Digital Asset and Blockchain Technology Act on Nov. 5.
- U.K. police issued a warning against a cryptocurrency scam targeting Paypal involving spoofed, PayPal-looking emails.
- One first-time founder just raised $1,400,000 after finding an early market signal from this website.*
- Oracle platform Razor Network raised $3.7m in seed founding with participation from SBF's Alameda Research (more on SBF in yesterday's edition), Borderless Capital, IOSG Ventures, and others.
- Chinese credit card processor UnionPay is branding a prepaid mobile card with Danal (064260.KQ) to encourage South Korean tourism to mainland China.
- Japan's $5.7t financial giant Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (8306.T) will launch "a high-speed, large-capacity payment network service using a blockchain platform in 2021" (translated from Japanese).
- Hiring trend: Vettery reports 53% of employers are open to remote work while only 12% market this benefit, download remote hiring guide for insights.*
*This is sponsored content.
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 |  | Written and curated by wide-eyed bitcoin watcher since $1, Aaron Wise. Streaming headline junkie, Associated Press fanboy, eye-strained news terminal watcher, 2017 founder of Cryptocurrency Newsfeed. Temporarily based in Florida while awaiting the construction of cryptopia. |  | | Editor | Written and curated by Eduardo Garcia in New York. Eduardo is writing an illustrated book about climate change that will be published by Ten Speed Press, an imprint of Penguin Random House. Bylines in The New York Times, The Guardian, Slate, Scientific American, and others. In one of his previous lives, Eduardo worked as a Reuters correspondent in Latin America for nearly a decade. | |
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