Cryptocurrency roundup for November 24: Japan to launch digital Yen next year, New York imposes a two-year mining ban on cryptos, and more

The Japanese central bank will start testing a proof-of-concept digital yen early in 2019. A central bank digital currency will be put through a stress test by the Bank of Japan and a number of unnamed financial institutions. The functionality of deposits and withdrawals as well as what transpires without internet connectivity will be tested. The choice to legally adopt a digital yen will be made in 2026. The majority of developed nations are working to create some sort of government-backed digital currency, and several, like China and Nigeria, have already launched public wallets. Read details here

According to a New York Federal Reserve advisor speaking at a London event on Tuesday, stablecoins may provide central banks with a faster route to creating their own digital currency. Antoine Martin, a financial stability advisor at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, stated that central banks could support stablecoins by allowing them to be backed one-for-one with balances in a central bank account, as opposed to issuing a retail version of their digital currency.

More than a dozen users of the Sam Bankman-Fried-backed Alameda Research-backed 3Commas cryptocurrency trading platform claim the platform exposed their login information, allowing hackers to escape with more than $6 million in user assets. The CEO of the company has dismissed these claims as "false rumours," claiming that people who lost their money were victims of phishing, which means they unintentionally gave their login information to an exploiter. Artem Koltsov, deputy chief technology officer of 3Commas, refuted the firm's categorical assertion that every user who lost money was a victim of input theft or phishing. Details here

Block Earner, a fintech company based in Sydney, has been the target of civil penalty actions brought by the Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC), which contends that the fintech offered unlicensed financial services. Block Earner's cryptocurrency-asset-based products USD Earner, Gold Earner, and Crypto Earner, according to ASIC, should have had a license because they were managed investment schemes. According to ASIC, Block Earner was required to have the proper Australian Financial Services licenses since the three products were avenues via which clients may make financial investments. Continue reading

Bo Shen, a founding partner of Fenbushi Capital, said that an incident on Nov. 10 resulted in the theft of different crypto assets valued at $42 million from his private crypto wallet. About $38 million worth of the tokens were purchased with the stablecoin USDC. According to on-chain data from the wallet, the remaining stolen assets included tokens for tether (USDT), uniswap (UNI), reputation (REP), and liquity (LQTY). Shen wrote in a tweet that early on November 10 EST, "a total of 42M worth of crypto assets, including 38M in USDC, were taken from my personal wallet ending in 894. More here

Elon Musk, the new owner of Twitter, denied a claim that Sam Bankman-Fried, the disgraced founder of FTX, contributed $100 million to Musk's acquisition of Twitter. Musk just tweeted "False" in response to a Business Insider report that claimed SBF owned a $100 million interest in the newly private Twitter. The report from the freshly created news site Semafor which was the subject of the Business Insider article stated that Musk had encouraged SBF to "roll" his existing Twitter stock into the business, which was about to go private under Musk's control. Full story here

A two-year ban on new licenses for proof-of-work (PoW) cryptocurrency mining businesses that use carbon-based fuel was enacted by New York Governor Kathy Hochul. According to a memo accompanying the bill, the law will prohibit the issuance of Environmental Conservation Law licenses for two years to proof-of-work cryptocurrency mining enterprises that are operated through electric generating facilities that use a carbon-based fuel. In June of this year, the New York State Senate enacted Senate Bill S6486D, which had been approved by the New York State Assembly in April. Continue reading.

According to CoinGecko, the price of Bitcoin has recovered a little ground since yesterday, when it reached a two-year low.
> The biggest cryptocurrency in the world fought its way back beyond $16,000 and was trading at $16,498.99 on Wednesday, 4.9% higher than the previous day.
> Tuesday saw a perfect storm of high-profile bankruptcies, regulatory pressure, and short selling causing Bitcoin to drop to its lowest position since November 2020.
> By Wednesday, though, most significant coins were trading in the green, and the market was on the rise.
> The value of all cryptocurrencies was $862 billion, up 5.9% from the previous day.
> Over the last day, Ethereum increased by 7% to reach $1,163.91.
> Dogecoin, meanwhile, increased by over 10% to $0.08176.