| Bitcoin | $51,099 | 7 day: -1% | | Ethereum | $1,632 | 7 day: -14.5% | | All crypto | $1.55T | 7 day: -2% | | Bitcoin dominance | 61.4% | 7 day: +0.4% | Prices as of 11:40 a.m. EST
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The CEO of Paxos plans to expand Paxos' blockchain-based clearing business by applying for a clearing license with the SEC. Paxos already settles traditional equities. More: - Paxos's CEO Charles Cascarilla said on CoinDesk TV that the stablecoin issuer and crypto exchange could soon become a clearing house, pending the SEC's approval.
- Clearing companies in the U.S. are organizations that facilitate payments and transfers of securities for exchanges. The largest clearing company is the Depositary Trust Company and Options Clearing Corporation, commonly called the "DTC" or "DTCC."
- Cascarilla believes that if Paxos joined DTC, it would be more efficient than the current market options.
- The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) is currently reviewing the New York-based company's previously submitted application to become a nationally chartered bank.
- Paxos and its Paxos Trust Company have ties with the crypto exchange Binance, which reports over $35B in daily crypto volume. (Binance's U.S. operations are a small fraction of its global traffic.)
- Last year, PayPal (NASDAQ:PYPL) picked Paxos Crypto Brokerage to facilitate U.S. users buying, holding, and selling crypto directly from their PayPal account.
Click to tweet the following text (you can edit it before sending): CEO @charlescarilla of Paxos, the stablecoin $BUSD $PAX $PAXG issuer, will apply for a U.S. clearing firm license soon. Coindesk 
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 A courtroom The attorneys representing crypto lender Cred Inc. (LBA) filed a motion to withdraw from the Chapter 11 case in Delaware bankruptcy court. - During a virtual status conference in front of a Delaware bankruptcy judge this week, Mark Pfieffer from Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney PC said that his law company wishes to stop representing Cred Inc. in the ongoing bankruptcy.
- Pfieffer mentioned that the court repeatedly asked Cred and its executives to turn over assets, yet they held and transferred them improperly.
- The attorneys said the activities of former Cred executive James Alexander were "repugnant" and cited "irreconcilable differences and professional considerations" among reasons for the withdrawal motion.
- Alexander allegedly absconded with nearly $8M in bitcoin and other crypto assets, which he transferred to a personal wallet without court permission.
- Pfeiffer will represent Alexander until he finds a local bankruptcy counsel in Delaware, or upon a U.S. bankruptcy court order.
- Alexander filed for bankruptcy right after Judge Dorsey ordered him to transfer Cred's $8M in bitcoin and cash. On March 9, 2021, Cred Inc. will face a judge in seeking Ch. 11 confirmation.
Click to tweet the following text (you can edit it before sending): Attorneys of the now-bankrupt Cred Inc. file a motion to withdraw as counsel to the chapter 11 case. $LBA Law360
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New York-based M31 Capital has filed SEC Form D to launch a new bitcoin-focused hedge fund, dubbed "M31 Capital Bitcoin Access Fund." - The intended bitcoin hedge fund, M31 Capital Bitcoin Asset Fund LP, would accept investments starting at $10,000, according to its SEC filing submitted on Feb. 23.
- M31 Capital Management LLC has offices in New York, San Francisco, Shanghai, and Seoul.
- M31 Capital already launched a digital asset hedge fund known as M31 Ventures in January 2020, which supports Ethereum (ETH) and Zcash (ZEC).
- M31 Capital operates bitcoin miners in the U.S. and China via its subsidiary, M31 Mining.
Click to tweet the following text (you can edit it before sending): Investment company M31 Capital @M31Capital submitted a Form D SEC filing for a new #bitcoin hedge fund. Law360
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DoJ indicted Bitcoiin2Gen's Serbian founder Krstijan Krstic for securities fraud and money-laundering. - Kristijan Krstic, a 45-year-old Serbian resident who founded Start Options and B2G, allegedly used a fake Twitter account to induce U.S.-based investors into purchasing investment contracts in Start Options and B2G.
- Start Options was an online investment platform that once claimed to be the largest bitcoin exchange for euro-denominated transactions.
- Between 2017 and 2018, the U.S. Dept. of Justice (DoJ) explained that Krstic was internationally laundering deposited funds to a Phillippines-based wallet, before transferring it to John Demarr, the primary U.S.-based promoter of the scam.
- According to the indictment, Krstic scammed hundreds of investors out of nearly $7M.
- The SEC charged Krstic and his accomplice John Demarr on Feb. 2.
- The SEC's filing named another accomplice of Demarr, who drafted promotional content for the Steven Seagal-endorsed ICO of B2G tokens.
Click to tweet the following text (you can edit it before sending): The U.S DoJ has indicted the founder and accomplice of Bitcoiin2Gen for operating an international crypto scam $B2G U.S. Dept. of Justice
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CoinShares released a Decentralized Finance (DeFi) indexing token on the Ethereum blockchain. The token is named CoinShares Gold and Cryptoassets Index Lite (CGI). Not yet listed on CoinMarketCap, data from CoinGecko graphs a volatile trading range this month from $61.20 to $237.22. - CGI is related to CoinShares' existing Gold and Cryptoassets Index (CGCI), which tracks a basket of crypto assets plus gold.
- Coinshares' new token will integrate Ethereum-based "wrapped" assets such as Wrapped Bitcoin, Wrapped Ether, and Wrapped Gold Token.
- Coinshares' CGI competes with incumbents like DeFi Pulse Index and BitWise's DeFi Index Fund.
Coindesk
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- A U.S. House Financial Services Committee's subcommittee will discuss crypto's use in terrorism financing during a hearing today.
- Jack Dorsey's Square (NASDAQ:SQ) 2020 earnings report reveals that the financial services company processed a total of $4.57B in gross bitcoin revenue — an increase of 785% year-over-year.
- SEC commissioner Hester Peirce ("Crypto Mom") said that federal regulators should "provide both clarity and freedom to experiment" regarding DeFi projects, in a speech for George Washington Law School.
- Sunayna Tuteja, the former head of digital assets at TD Ameritrade, joined the Federal Reserve as its chief innovation officer. Tuteja has supported bitcoin and decentralized finance publicly.
- Ark Investment Management's Catherine Wood (gaining an online moniker, "Aunt Cathie") remains "very positive on bitcoin" and comforted investors that "no market [goes] straight up."
- Germany-based bitcoin mining operator and Northern Data AG (NB2.DE) plans a U.S. listing, raising $500M via investment bank Credit Suisse (NYSE:CS).
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 |  | Curated by Associated Press fanboy, eye-strained news terminal watcher, and bitcoin follower since $1, Aaron Wise. Temporarily listening to news squawk boxes in Florida while awaiting the construction of cryptopia. |  | | Editor | Charlotte Hayes-Clemens is an editor and writer based in Vancouver. She has dabbled in both the fiction and non-fiction world, having worked at HarperCollins Publishers and more recently as a writing coach for new and self-published authors. Proper semi-colon usage is her hill to die on. | |
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