With digital assets becoming more intertwined with the traditional financial system, regulators around the world have been ramping up oversight efforts.

While the month of June was characterised by China's clampdown on Bitcoin mining, the overarching theme of July could very well be Binance getting caught in the regulators’ crosshairs. Throughout this past week, the way in which regulators have been gunning after Binance has been noteworthy. As a reminder, we've so far seen regulatory action from the US, UK, Japan, Cayman Islands, Singapore and Thailand, as well as a ban from Ontario, Canada by the OSC.

Since it launched in 2017, Binance has grown into one of the biggest and most popular exchanges. In the UK alone, the Binance app has been downloaded more than 1.8 million times so far this year. Globally, the exchange accounts for 69.7% of legitimate centralised spot exchange volume. By comparison, Coinbase only accounts for 8%, followed by FTX at 4.3%, and Kraken at 4.1%.

However, according to the blockchain analysis firm Chainalysis, Binance still sees significant illicit activity. For this sector to continue growing as a legitimate and institutional-grade asset class, adopting common standards of regulatory compliance by exchanges such as Binance is a must. Simple as that.

Below is our weekly roundup of industry news. If you’d like to get in touch with us about any of our products or services, we look forward to hearing from you. Just send us a note.

This week's top stories

Morgan Stanley buys over 28,000 shares of Grayscale Bitcoin Trust

Morgan Stanley has purchased 28,289 shares of Grayscale Bitcoin Trust through its Europe Opportunity Fund, according to a SEC filing. Morgan Stanley has been increasingly active in the cryptocurrency space in recent months to meet growing demand from its clients. Earlier this year, it was the first major US bank to offer crypto exposure to its high net-worth clients. Read more

Robinhood's S-1 goes public, detailing big surge in its crypto business unit since the start of 2021

Brokerage app company Robinhood's S-1 filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) was released on Thursday as part of the firm's bid to go public. The S-1 showcases Robinhood's strong crypto offering performance, showing that for the three months ending March 31, 17% of the company's total revenue was derived from transaction-based revenues earned from cryptocurrency transactions, compared to 4% for the three months year ended December 31, 2020. Read more

Binance's troubles grow as Thailand files criminal complaint — similar warnings by Cayman Islands, UK, Japan

A growing number of regulators worldwide have come after Binance. Thailand’s Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filed a criminal complaint against the crypto exchange after the authorities in the Cayman Islands, the UK., and Japan issued similar warnings on Binance and related companies. Concern at banks over investment scams and fraud involving crypto exchanges may also impact Binance. Britain's Natwest Group last week capped the daily amount customers can send to exchanges, including Binance. Read More

In case you missed it

⚡️Crypto exchange Huobi bans Chinese residents from trading derivatives.

⚡️George Soros’ hedge fund given permission to trade Bitcoin.

⚡️Iran’s Ministry of Industry issues 30 licenses to crypto mining farms.

⚡️Polygon to launch an all-purpose blockchain dubbed Avail.

⚡️Tom Brady and Gisele Bündchen take equity stake in crypto firm FTX.

⚡️Ethereum Classic devs announce upcoming hard fork.

⚡️UK bank NatWest limits amount users can transfer to crypto exchanges.

⚡️13 more crypto firms withdraw licensing applications in the UK.

⚡️Deutsche Boerse acquires majority ownership of Crypto Finance AG.

⚡️Cathie Wood’s ARK Invest is readying the first bitcoin ETF with 21Shares.

⚡️Visa makes five strategic crypto hires and placements.

⚡️FINRA orders Robinhood to pay $70m over ‘signifcant harm' to customers.

⚡️1inch to launch dollar-pegged stablecoin with ICHI.

⚡️UK chancellor names CBDC on list of financial reforms for Treasury.

⚡️Scaramucci's SkyBridge Capital to launch private Ethereum fund.

⚡️SoftBank invests $200m in Brazilian crypto exchange Mercado Bitcoin.

⚡️JPMorgan analysts bullish on Ethereum and staking economy.

From Copper

Algorand integrates Copper’s digital asset custody solution to support growing ecosystem

Last week, we announced to have been selected by Algorand to provide secure custody and a robust trading environment for ALGO, the native token of the Algorand blockchain as well as Algorand Standard Assets (ASAs). We're looking forward to supporting the ecosystem of 700 organisations building on their advanced blockchain infrastructure and growing this space together. Full details

Bitcoin: Bollinger Bands

The second report of our brand new Technical Analysis series looks at Bollinger Bands, asking how successful of an indicator is it? After delving into the daily and hourly charts, we found some rather interesting data. Read the full report here.

June Regulator Roundup

Last month, Bitcoin was the target of a regulatory offensive in China which triggered a market-wide slide that wiped out 50% in value from the $2.6T peak in crypto market cap. On the other side of the world, we saw the tiny country of El Salvador favour a radically more supportive approach to digital assets by introducing a legal tender status for Bitcoin. The June recap of our monthly regulator roundup is now available to read on our website.