Nigeria’s crypto community has praised Europe’s Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA) stablecoin rules as a positive development, saying it is important for jurisdictions to prioritize their interests regarding crypto projects, thereby protecting their local currencies.

In an interview with Cointelegraph, Nigerian data and policy analyst Obinna Uzoije shared his thoughts on what the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) can learn from Europe’s MiCA. He highlighted the numerous 

 A joke cryptocurrency token based on Joe Biden plummeted on Friday after the incumbent president debated Donald Trump in their first presidential debate of the election cycle on Thursday.

Following the debate, the Jeo Boden (BODEN) coin plunged over 32% to trade around $0.08, CoinGecko data showed.

Biden’s performance at the debate can be described as substandard, at best. He seemed winded, rushing through facts with jumbled speech and missed words. He even spoke incoherently at times.

Appare 

 The approval of spot Solana exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in the United States has the potential to drive the price of SOL up 9x, according to crypto market maker GSR Markets.

In a recent report released on June 27, GSR Markets identified Solana as one of “crypto’s big three” and examined the likelihood of Solana becoming the next spot cryptocurrency ETF to receive regulatory approval in the US.

The report coincided with VanEck’s filing to launch a spot Solana ETF, which took many by surprise. 

 WASHINGTON, June 27 (Reuters) - Democratic U.S. President Joe Biden and his Republican rival Donald Trump took the stage on Thursday night for a debate that offered voters a rare side-by-side look at the two oldest candidates ever to seek the U.S. presidency.
Here are some of the major takeaways:
HOARSE AND BUGGY

Viewers learned little new about where both candidates stood on the main issues, but arguably that is not why many tuned in.
The leading question going into the debate was how the two 

 In the editorial, Morgenstern emphasizes that Trump’s campaign is particularly compelling to BTC and crypto advocates, in general, drawing parallels with global pro-bitcoin leaders, which underscores his dedication to a decentralized financial ecosystem. Meanwhile, Morgenstern critiques the Biden administration for its adversarial stance towards the cryptocurrency industry, highlighting initiatives like “Operation Choke Point 2.0” and proposals for prohibitive taxes on BTC mining 

 The government warned betting companies that failing to comply with the new rules could result in a fine of up to 234,750 Australian dollars ($155,000). 

 The alert comes after agencies, including the Cyber Security Agency of Singapore, the Singapore Police Force and the Personal Data Protection Commission, recently received several complaints from victims of the cyberattack.

Primary targets of Akira ransomware

Prior investigations conducted by the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation found that Akira ransomware has been targeting businesses and critical infrastructure entities. 

 In the nearly two-hour long presentation at Apple's annual developer conference, executives including CEO Tim Cook touted how voice assistant Siri would be able to interact with messages, emails, calendar, as well as third party apps. Siri will be able to write emails and change the tone of voice to suit the occasion. 

 President Joe Biden on Friday summoned Americans to a defense of democracy, calling on the ideals of the Army Rangers who scaled the cliffs of Pointe du Hoc 80 years ago to warn against a drift toward authoritarianism and drawing an implicit contrast with rival Donald Trump. 

 Solana-based GME coin (GME), a memecoin paying tribute to the 2021 short squeeze of GameStop and not to be confused with GME stock, has surged by over 150% in the past 24 hours to reach $0.029 on June 7.

Interestingly, the price exploded after Keith Gill, also known as Roaring Kitty, announced his return to YouTube on June 7 after a three-year hiatus. 

 Over 100 former US law enforcement officials penned a letter to Secretary Blinken, calling on the State Department to take stronger action to free Tigran Gambaryan, a Binance executive detained in Nigeria.

It comes just a day after 16 members of Congress sent a similar letter, adding to the State Department’s pressure.

The letter highlighted Gambaryan’s role as a family man with two young children. It also points to his decade-long US Internal Revenue Service Special Agent career. Axios report 

 CoinDesk caught up with Mersinger to discuss the Cain and Abel rivalry between the CFTC and U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), how her agency decides which enforcement actions to pursue and her views on a variety of issues, including the CME possibly getting into the spot bitcoin market, the emerging world of betting markets and Washington D.C. traffic. 

 On May 16, 2024, a majority of lawmakers in the United States Senate passed a Congressional Review Act (CRA) to review the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Staff Accounting Bulletin No. 121 (SAB 121). 

U.S. Senators passed H.J.Res. 109 with 60 to 38 votes, an exceptional rate for the U.S. Congress.

In addition to the outstanding support for H.J.Res. 109, the vote was highly bipartisan, 51-49 in favor of Democrats. According to Senator Cynthia Lummis, the vote represented a new mileston 

 The timing of the bull run remains a mysterious and highly debated topic. Predictions about its onset, current status, and conclusion are constantly made and speculated upon. Currently, BTC is trading at $66,900, showing a 10% increase in value against the U.S. dollar over the past week. This price is approximately 10% below the all-time high of $73,794 per unit, reached on March 14, 2024. Some believe that the peak has already been reached and no further highs are expected, while others argue t 

 Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s anti-cryptocurrency crusade is facing pressure from her own party.

Dozens of Democrats, including Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, have broken with her in recent days and supported an effort to undo SEC guidelines that critics say discourage banks from holding digital assets. The Democrats defied not only Warren, but also President Joe Biden, who is threatening to veto the rollback. The rift may grow further next week when the House takes up sweeping, industry-backe 

 Donald Trump has fixated on the idea he can expand the map in a general election that’s likely to be decided in six swing states. He has touted his rally attendance in New Jersey as evidence that he could flip the deep-blue stronghold. And he has mused about winning Virginia. 

 Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders assumed a podium on a recent spring morning in Arkansas, her familiar voice instantly evoking her pugnacious press conferences under Donald Trump. That day, there were no reporters to spar with, nor culture wars to wage, only a few dozen Arkansans who’d come to applaud millions in ongoing state grants for playgrounds and parks. “When my kids were younger, we could plan a huge trip just to find out that our kids would prefer to actually play on a jungle gym or a swing 

 The White House is not pleased over French President Emmanuel Macron’s decision to invite a representative of Russia’s government to attend next month’s celebration of the 80th anniversary of the D-Day invasion, two administration officials told POLITICO. 

 UNI was trading around $11.60 ahead of the Wells Notice and plummeted in the aftermath.
It has found its footing at just over $7 but hasn’t shown much of a rebound.
This is an excerpt from The Block’s Data & Insights newsletter. 

 Crypto exchange Kraken is planning for all ‘eventualities’ after portions of MiCA regulations go into effect this year. 
This could include pulling Tether from its European market, a Kraken executive said. 
Kraken may follow OKX, which pulled Tether trading pairs in Europe in March as stablecoin regulation loomed. 

 On May 15, Thomas Massie, a Republican member of the United States House of Representatives, posted on X, inquiring whether he should introduce legislation to abolish the U.S. Federal Reserve. The poll garnered over 115,000 votes, with a significant 86% majority opting to “end the Fed.” 

 South Korean retail investors were piling into local digital-asset exchanges in greater numbers well ahead of the global crypto boom that drove prices to record highs in early 2024.

Active users of registered exchanges in the country increased by 390,000 to 6.45 million by the end of 2023, according to the semi-annual report on crypto-asset businesses published by the Korea Financial Intelligence Unit (KOFIU). 

 Antonio Juliano, the founder of decentralized crypto exchange dYdX, is stepping down as CEO of the main company responsible for building the major crypto trading platform.
In a blog post Juliano said he will become chairman and president of dYdX Trading Inc. Ivo Crnkovic-Rubsamen takes over as its head. 

 Billionaire investor and “Shark Tank” star, Mark Cuban, has taken to social media to voice his concerns about the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) approach to cryptocurrency regulation. In a series of posts, Cuban criticizes the SEC for stifling innovation and causing harm to businesses in the crypto industry. He contrasts the U.S. regulatory environment with that of Japan, which he praises for its supportive stance towards cryptocurrencies. 

 The initial proposal by Ark Invest, led by prominent investor Cathie Wood, and 21shares had outlined a plan where the trust could engage in staking—leveraging assets to support network operations and earn rewards. Staking, a common practice in the operation of blockchain networks like Ethereum, allows participants to earn rewards, typically in the form of cryptocurrency, for validating transactions and supporting the network’s security. 

 Veteran trader and renowned chartist Peter Brandt has forecasted a severe crackdown by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), and the U.S. Treasury on cryptocurrency staking. 

 Unlike paid shills of yore, "key opinion leaders" invest in the projects they promote on social media. In return for buzz, they can sell tokens sooner than other investors. 

 The UK government has revoked the student visa of a Palestinian student who lost relatives in Gaza after she spoke at a demonstration at the University of Manchester. 

Dana Abuqamar, a law student who heads the Friends of Palestine Society at the University of Manchester, said the UK government revoked her visa on “national security” grounds, after claiming she was a risk to public safety. 

 Stand With Crypto – an advocacy group started by Coinbase last year – will start gathering cash from more than 400,000 members to give to favored congressional candidates. 

 The business account for the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, now referred to as ‘X,’ announced a new artificial intelligence (AI)-enhanced feature for advertisers called “AI Audience.” This feature enables advertisers to define their target audience in brief descriptions, after which X’s AI systems will quickly generate a relevant user pool for that target. Concerns were raised about the AI’s accuracy in identifying the correct audiences and the potential for perpetuating biases 

 less than four weeks, independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will take the stage in Austin, TX, at Consensus 2024, the world’s largest, longest-running, and most influential gathering that brings together all sides of the crypto and Web3 community. As an environmental lawyer, scion of a Democratic political dynasty, and now maverick presidential candidate, Kennedy will explain his support for cryptocurrency and self-custody. 

 The stablecoin already enjoys a dominant position in stablecoins and its integration with the TON (Telegram) network could boost it further, says Sylvia To, head of partnerships and token research at Bullish. 

 QCP Capital, one of the largest options trading desks for digital assets, won initial approval to operate in Abu Dhabi, becoming the latest crypto firm to expand in the Middle East 

 Revolut announced its new Revolut X crypto trading platform for U.K. retail users, which it claims will offer fixed low fees and easy fiat-to-crypto conversion. 

 German state-owned development bank Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau (KfW) has announced the issuance of its first blockchain-based digital bond.

This project is a significant step towards integrating crypto technology into traditional finance to transform the German bond market. 

 Second gentleman Doug Emhoff on Monday will host a half-dozen Jewish students from colleges around the country amid a wave of pro-Palestinian campus protests criticized for featuring antisemitic behavior. 

 According to current metrics, older bitcoin mining rigs are not generating the same revenue as they did before the halving, particularly with the hashprice at approximately $0.056 per terahash per second (TH/s) per day. On April 25, Luxor Technologies reported a significant decline in the prices of application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) bitcoin mining rigs, highlighting that two specific models experienced price reductions ranging from 28% to 35%. 

 Natix, a DePIN project focused on mapping data, has raised $4.6 million ahead of its token launch and airdrop on Solana.
The project has earmarked 1 billion tokens for airdropping to users. 

 Worldcoin’s developer, Tools for Humanity, wants to partner with PayPal and OpenAI, Bloomberg reports. 
However, it’s unclear how far along the partnerships are or what exactly would come of them. 
Nearly 5.1 million Worldcoin users in 120 countries scanned their irises in exchange for the cryptocurrency WLD. 

 ViaBTC sold the fourth ever “epic sat” for over $2.1 million less than a week after mining it during the Bitcoin halving. 

 The FTC’s Non-Compete Ban Is Good for the Crypto Industry
Employment contracts that stop free movement of labor conflict with an innovative industry’s open-source ethos, says Linda Jeng, CEO of Digital Self Labs, a Web3 advisory firm 

 Cathie Wood’s retail army has gone AWOL all year – even in her best-performing exchange-traded fund.

Despite a 27% rally in its biggest holding, Coinbase Global Inc., spurred by the great crypto revival, the ARK Fintech Innovation ETF (ticker ARKF) is flat this year compared to the S&P 500’s 5% gain and the tech-heavy Nasdaq’s 3% rise 

 Stacks ,an L2 protocol addressing Bitcoin’s scalability challenges and expanding its blockchain functionalities, initiated its Nakamoto upgrade on April 22, 2024. This development is set to provide developers with enhanced tools for creating smart contracts and applications, leveraging Bitcoin’s strong infrastructure. According to the Stacks team, this upgrade is a strategic move to extend Bitcoin’s utility beyond its traditional role as a digital store of value. 

 A yellow notepad with “Buy Bitcoin” written on it, which was flashed behind then-United States Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen during a 2017 congressional hearing, has sold at auction for 16 Bitcoin 
BTC
tickers down
$64,272
 — over $1 million. 

 Binance is “working as collaboratively as we can” with the Nigerian government to secure the release of its jailed financial crimes investigations chief, Tigran Gambaryan, the exchange’s chief compliance officer Noah Perlman said Wednesday. 

 Between December 21, 2023, and January 29, 2024, we surveyed 30,460 individuals aged 18 and older across all 50 states plus the District of Columbia. We included feeling thermometers for Israel, Palestine, Jews, and Muslims, asking people to separately rate how they feel about each group on a 0 to 100 scale. Every demographic group rated Jews higher than Israel and Muslims higher than Palestine. Our findings reveal that young Americans, especially Democrats, rate Israel much less favorably than 

 Nevada database glitch showing voters cast ballots when they didn’t is evidence that voting by mail is “the largest source of potential voter fraud.”