Binance launches Sharia-compliant staking product

Korean Banks Impose Crypto Exchanges to Maintain a Reserve of at Least 3B KRWIn a significant step towards regulating the cryptocurrency market and ensuring the safety of virtual asset users, South Korea’s Federation of Banks (KFB) has collaborated with financial authorities and virtual asset exchanges to establish the “Guidelines for the Operation of Real Name Accounts for Virtual Assets.” The KFB, as a group of banks and financial institutions, facilitates cooperation between its members and promotes the development of the financial industry.Photo by rc.xyz NFT gallery on UnsplashThe guidelines come as a response to the increasing need for stronger money laundering prevention measures and standardization in the crypto industry. The first step towards this was taken in 2018 when crypto exchanges became obliged to establish a real name account at a bank in order to provide Korean Won (KRW) deposit and withdrawal services to their customers. Currently, the exchanges that won such bank accounts are Upbit, Bithumb, Coinone, Korbit, and Gopax.However, this policy brought with it a set of challenges, including differing practices among various cryptocurrency exchanges, leading to inconveniences for users. Additionally, varying user protection measures, such as reserve requirements, caused confusion in the market.3 billion KRW in reservesTo address these issues, the new guidelines aim to clarify how banks operate cryptocurrency real-name accounts and bolster overall security. One of the key changes is the requirement for crypto exchanges to maintain a reserve of at least 3 billion KRW ($2.36 million). This reserve fund serves as a precautionary measure to address potential financial losses resulting from hacking incidents or system failures at crypto exchanges.Furthermore, the guidelines mandate banks to manage deposit and withdrawal limits by categorizing user accounts into limited and normal accounts. A limited account will not be converted to a normal account, which grants higher deposit and withdrawal limits, until the user’s transaction purpose and the source of funds are verified.Enhanced due diligenceIn addition, banks will perform annual enhanced due diligence (EDD) for individual account holders. This thorough review will encompass users’ identification, transaction purposes, and the origin of funds.User asset segregationTo safeguard users’ funds, crypto exchanges will be required to ensure that customer deposits are held separately or placed in trust. Regular due diligence at crypto exchanges will also be conducted by banks, with mandatory visits occurring at least once a month. Moreover, third-party services will be engaged to perform independent due diligence every quarter on crypto exchanges, providing an additional assessment of their operations.The official launch of these new guidelines is scheduled for January of next year. However, the requirement of depositing at least 3 billion KRW will come into effect earlier, starting in September of this year. Additionally, the implementation of guidelines for expanding deposit and withdrawal limits is anticipated in March of next year.

Recent developments relative to governance of the CRO token, a native token belonging to the Cronos blockchain, have proven controversial, with many in the community unhappy with the actions of Singapore-headquartered Crypto.com.Photo by Markus Winkler on UnsplashProposal controversyThe controversy surrounds a proposal put forward by Crypto.com, which originally developed the Cronos blockchain in 2021, to mint 70 billion CRO tokens. The move would effectively roll back a CRO token burn that took place in 2021. The governance process applicable to the proposal meant that CRO token holders could vote on the proposal between March 2 and March 16. For the majority of that voting period, the outcome appeared to be uncertain. The “yes” vote had a narrow lead, but it would have been insufficient to reach the required 33.4% quorum of eligible votes. Exceeding the quorumHowever, at 14:00 UTC on Sunday, a last-minute influx of 3.35 billion tokens tipped the balance firmly in favor of the proposal while well exceeding the minimum turnout as 70.18% of eligible votes were cast. 61.18% voted in favor, with 17.61% against. Many CRO token holders who opposed the proposal are aggrieved at the manner in which this late voting surge came about. It’s understood that these last-minute votes came from blockchain validators controlled by Crypto.com. Crypto.com is understood to hold in the region of 80% of the voting power. In exercising that voting clout, many CRO holders feel that it has undermined the will of the community. Some commentators believe that increasing the token supply will result in a loss of trust in the project, damaging investor confidence going forward. Earlier this month, Crypto.com CEO Kris Marszalek responded to community pushback against the proposal. Marszalek suggested that the proposal ties in with an overall strategy for the success of the Cronos blockchain and its CRO token in the long term.  He pointed to four items that are relevant in achieving success for an altcoin like CRO. These included finding product-market fit, the need to redeploy free cashflows, successfully launching exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and participating in reserve-building initiatives.  ‘Free to vote and free to sell’The strategy relies upon building demand in order to achieve longer-term success. On X, Marszalek wrote: “People who do not agree that this is the right approach are free to vote & free to sell. We will stay laser focused on building towards new ATHs [all-time-highs].” In another X post on March 19, the Crypto.com CEO outlined that the company generated $1.5 billion in revenue in 2024 while servicing the needs of 140 million users on the platform. The company spent $700 million on branding, user acquisition and user incentives in 2024. Its operations turned a net profit of $300 million.  Crypto.com has also made further headway on the compliance front over the course of the past week. The company received licensing approval in Dubai to offer derivatives from the Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (VARA). On March 17 the company announced that it had successfully achieved Virtual Asset Service Provider (VASP) registration with the Argentine regulator.

Pakistan Implements Ban on CryptocurrencyPakistan has moved to ban cryptocurrency once more, with the country’s Minister of State for Finance and Revenue, Aisha Ghaus Pasha disclosing the move last week.According to multiple local media reports within Pakistan, on May 16 Ghaus Pasha stated at a session of the Senate Standing Committee on Finance and Revenue, that cryptocurrencies are banned and “will never be legalized in Pakistan.”Photo by Hamid Roshaan on UnsplashFATF Grey ListGhaus Pasha supported this position by outlining that the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) had set the banning of crypto as a condition for Pakistan’s removal from its “Grey List.”FATF is an initiative of the G7 group of countries, first established in 1989. Its mandate is to develop policies geared towards combating money laundering, and most especially, terrorist financing. The FATF grey list includes those jurisdictions who are deemed to require increased monitoring relative to their efforts to keep money laundering and terrorist financing to an absolute minimum.Pakistan had found itself on the FATF grey list over the course of a number of years. That meant reputational damage on an international basis, together with loss of investor confidence. It also signals the likelihood of weaknesses in a country’s financial system and in its financial controls. The categorization would have had an impact on the country’s ability to access international finance, impacted trade relations, and involved increased compliance costs.Against that background, there may be a certain logic to the Finance Minister’s stance, despite it naturally being distasteful to those of us that support the development of decentralized systems, blockchain, and cryptocurrency. After an extended period on that Grey List, Pakistan was only removed from it in October of last year.Currency devaluationNotwithstanding that, governments in the developing world may have added incentives in banning cryptocurrencies. Their currencies are oftentimes unstable, and the Pakistani rupee is no exception. Cryptocurrencies like bitcoin find their greatest use case in countries that have their currencies devalued or economies that fall into the trap of hyperinflation relative to the sovereign currency.In Pakistan’s case, the rupee plummeted to a record low against the US dollar in January. Naturally, that hurts ordinary citizens and provides the conditions under which people are more likely to investigate decentralized cryptocurrencies. On that basis, we shouldn’t be surprised to learn that the Pakistani government’s decision to ban crypto was publicly supported by Sohail Jawad, Director of the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP).Pakistani banks are naturally following the government and the central bank’s lead, in implementing the ban. One circular obtained by CoinDesk stated: “As per regulatory instructions from the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), any remittance of foreign exchange directly/indirectly outside Pakistan to overseas foreign exchange trading, margin trading, and CFD trading apps/websites/platforms through any payment channel is not allowed/permitted by SBP and such payments are inherently risky and illegal.”Community reactionNaturally enough, the crypto community internationally and locally, is not enamored by the move. However, people who have been in the space over the last few years are accustomed to ever-changing stances taken by governments as a reaction to a technology that they simply don’t know how to deal with.Waqar Zaka, a Pakistani who works within the Web3 space commented previously on a ban that was implemented in Pakistan in 2017, only later to be found to be unconstitutional. Another Pakistani community member took to Twitter in taking a stand against the decision. Others still immediately considered how they could circumvent the ban.Crypto has always benefited from jurisdictional arbitrage, and while bans are not in any way helpful, in the longer run, they will never stop the roll out and further development of this innovation.