| Bitcoin | $55,039 | 7 day: +16% | | Ethereum | $1,958 | 7 day: +6.9% | | All crypto | $1.68T | 7 day: +15% | | Bitcoin dominance | 61% | 7 day: +0.7% | Prices as of 2:35 p.m. EST
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 Bahamas Mastercard (NYSE:MA) launched a central bank digital currency (CBDC) prepaid card in the Bahamas. The card is a collaboration with a digital payment platform, Island Pay. Note that Tether's (USDT) primary bank is located in the Bahamas. More: - Bahamas residents can use the card as a payment option at any Mastercard-accepting location, converting digital Sand Dollars into Bahamian fiat currency.
- The collaboration between Mastercard, the Central Bank of the Bahamas, and Island Pay will allow people to use the Bahamian "Sand Dollar" CBDC.
- Island Pay is an e-money institution operating in the Caribbean and Latin America.
- The executive VP of the $335B payments company, Raj Dhamodharan, said he would deliver "strong consumer protection and regulatory compliance."
- The central bank of Bahamas ran a Sand Dollar pilot in 2019 in Exumas and Abaco Islands before its deployment in October 2020. A Sand Dollar and the Bahamian Dollar have the same value and protections. Both are pegged 1:1 with USD.
More liquidity for Tether: - China's Deltec Bank, custodian of most of Tether's (USDT) assets that back its global stablecoin, is located in the Bahamas.
- Tether is at the heart of the largest lawsuit in cryptocurrency history and an ongoing New York Attorney General investigation.
- Deltec Bank has been involved in various money-laundering investigations, including funds related to Nicolás Maduro of Venezuela. (Deltec denies wrongdoing.)
- The Central Bank of the Bahamas outsourced the development of its Sand Dollar to southeast Asia, signing an exclusive contract with a Singaporean company called NZIA Limited to build the currency.
- According to John Rolle, governor of Bahamas' central bank, the Mastercard announcement will encourage more fintech companies and programs to collaborate on Sand Dollar infrastructure "to access foreign currency and other alternatives."
Click to tweet the following text (you can edit it before sending): $MA @Mastercard released a prepaid card using the #CBDC of the #Bahamas with @IslandPay -- NOTE: $USDT Tether's primary bank is located in the Bahamas (China's Deltec Bank) Mastercard 
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Tetragon (TFG.L) accused Ripple of "misstating terms" of its equity agreement in a bid to cease Ripple's crypto transactions until it returns Tetragon's $175M investment. - Tetragon Financial Group's attorney said this week that Ripple is using "word games" to duck Tetragon's bid.
- During a virtual hearing between the two parties, Ripple's counsel told Delaware's Vice-Chancellor Morgan Zurn that the terms of stock redemption are not valid until it is proven in court whether XRP is a security.
- The multi-billion asset management company was the lead investor in Ripple's $200M Series C funding round.
- Tetragon's legal representatives accused the defendants of playing word games to avoid an injunction bid that would restrict Ripple's use of its available funds and assets.
- In Delaware court, Vice-Chancellor Zurn previously accepted Tetragon's bid when it filed a lawsuit against Ripple, prompted by the SEC complaint. He issued a temporary restraining order against Ripple Inc. on Jan. 18.
- The temporary restraining order instructed Ripple to maintain a "net-zero" position in sales and purchases of its XRP, as stopping acquisitions altogether would have been a "heavy-handed" decision, according to the Vice-Chancellor.
- Tetragon agrees with the SEC that Ripple organized the XRP ICO in an "information vacuum" by sending misleading information and numbers to participating investors.
Click to tweet the following text (you can edit it before sending): $TGONF Tetragon's attorneys say Ripple $XRP misstated terms of their shareholder agreement in a bid for a court injunction. Law360
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 North Korean Banknotes The U.S. Dept. of Justice indicted three North Korean computer programmers involved in over $1B worth of cyber crimes planned by the military. - Prosecutors say the three programmers ⏤ Jon Chang Hyok, Kim Il, and Park Jin Hyok ⏤ tried to steal more than $1B from financial institutions and companies in a series of global cyberattacks allegedly orchestrated by the North Korean military.
- The trio executed several attacks on financial institutions and companies, including the Sony Hack of 2014, the WannaCry ransomware attack of 2017, and the Bangladesh bank heist of 2018.
- The indictment names two programmers who leveraged crypto's popularity for their intricate attacks.
- Prosecutors accused the group of marketing a cryptocurrency called the Marine Chain Token, which channeled investors' funds to the North Korean government rather than the shipping industry.
- The FBI, Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), and Treasury shared an advisory about crypto-malware made in North Korea known as "AppleJeus."
Click to tweet the following text (you can edit it before sending): U.S. DoJ indicts three computer programmers who stole over $1B for the #military of #NorthKorea via #cyberattacks. Law360
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The SEC and the New York Attorney General (NYAG) filed complaints against Coinseed for defrauding investors out of $1M. - They alleged on Wednesday that the company sold unregistered securities, among other violations.
- NYAG Letitia James tweeted on Feb. 17 that she requested a judge of the Supreme Court of the State of New York to shut down the Coinseed platform for misappropriating investors' money.
- According to the filing, Coinseed executives also levied hidden markup fees on crypto transactions.
- The executives misled investors into buying worthless digital assets by asserting, among other things, that they had an experienced management team.
- The SEC accuses Coinseed and its CEO Delgerdalai Davaasambuu, the sole board member of the company, of violating the Securities Act of 1933 by selling unregistered Coinseed tokens (CSD) worth a minimum of $141,000.
- Davaasambuu owns an 80% stake in Coinseed.
- He responded to a Law360 complaint, saying that he's "100% sure" that the accusations are false and that Coinseed left New York in 2019.
- Founded in 2017, Coinseed claimed just 5,000 active customers and an average daily volume of $50,000.
Click to tweet the following text (you can edit it before sending): Coinseed @coinseedapp faces SEC and NYAG #lawsuit. Regulators allege that Delgerdalai Davaasambuu defrauded investors and sold unregistered securities. Law360
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 Central Bank of Nigeria Local media suggests the Nigerian SEC will delay new cryptocurrency regulations in the wake of the central bank's blanket ban. The Nigerian cryptocurrency community has been turning to peer-to-peer exchange platforms to continue trading. More: - Given that the Nigerian central bank has ordered banks and other financial institutions to suspend all accounts dealing with virtual assets, according to Guardian Nigeria's Feb. 12 report, the SEC sees less need to regulate the industry.
- The Nigerian SEC clarified that it would put all individuals and products affected by the Central Bank of Nigeria's circular on hold until they can open bank accounts within the country's banking system, as part of the SEC regulatory incubation framework.
- The Central Bank of Nigeria released a letter signed by the Director of Banking Supervision, Bello Hassan, mentioning that regulated banking institutions should remember that crypto dealing and almost all crypto transactions are still prohibited in Nigeria.
Click to tweet the following text (you can edit it before sending): Nigerian SEC sees less need for crypto regulations amid blanket central bank ban on #crypto Coindesk
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- Cryptocurrency company Blockchain.com raised $120M from investors led by GV (Google Ventures), Lightspeed Venture Partners, and Access Technology Ventures.
- Coinbase named a former executive from Stripe, Melissa Strait, as its new chief compliance officer on Wednesday. The move follows a string of legal hires ahead of going public.
- Russia's central bank plans to introduce two "models" of its digital ruble.
- Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said bitcoin is a "high speculative asset" and suggested that any regulatory action against the digital currency must ensure that "it is not used as a vehicle for illicit transactions."
- China's ongoing digital currency electronic payment (DCEP) rollout is live at certain ATMs. Two Beijing branches of the state-owned Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) allow customers to convert digital yuan to physical cash, and cash to digital yuan.
- Austria's Financial Market Authority has called for tighter regulations on digital currencies. The regulator says that fake offerings of cryptocurrencies are shifting to "dubious" platforms amid market hype.
- Bermuda has launched a pilot to test its CBDC, allowing users to purchase Gosling's rum with the digital fiat.
- Chinese crypto mining company Ebang International (NASDAQ:EBON) has closed its previously announced $70M follow-on offering.
- Bitcoin payment processor BitPay has entered into a settlement agreement with the U.S. Treasury. It will pay $500,000 for violations between 2013 and 2018 of digital currency remittances to nations under U.S. sanctions.
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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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