United Kingdom Introduces Bill to Clarify Crypto's Legal Status

United Kingdom Introduces Bill to Clarify Crypto's Legal Status

The UK government has introduced a bill in Parliament aimed at officially recognizing crypto assets, including NFTs and Real World Assets (RWAs) as a new type of property. If passed, this would create a third category of property, giving digital assets personal property rights under English and Welsh law. Before this crypto tokens were not classified as either "things in possession" or "things in action."

The bill is part of the UK’s broader effort to attract crypto businesses and position itself as a leader in the global digital asset industry. Currently, crypto contributes £34 billion annually to the UK economy. Supporters of the bill, like Minister Heidi Alexander, believe this law will clarify ownership rights and push for further innovation in Great Britain.

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Friend.tech Team Sold $52 Million in Six Months

Once again in the spotlight, we have the Web3 social platform Friend.tech. This time it has faced rug pull allegations after the team relinquished control of its smart contracts, locking its system and raising concerns over its future. The platform, which allows users to trade shares of social media influencers, saw its FRIEND token drop by 26% following the team's decision to burn administrative control recently.

Critics, such as pseudonymous analyst Waleswoosh, have labeled the project a "Ponzi," noting that creators promised extravagant rewards and the team profited over $52 million. Blockchain analytics also reveal that the team sold over 19,000 ETH during a six-month period, causing further suspicion. Despite the allegations, the Friend.tech team has denied plans to shut down the app.

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The AI Crypto ASI Alliance Adds Fourth Member

The Artificial Superintelligence Alliance (ASI), formed by SingularityNET, Fetch.ai, and Ocean Protocol, is set to add a fourth member, Cudos, pending a community vote. Cudos, a decentralized cloud computing provider, will join the Alliance if the vote passes, contributing additional computational resources to the group. The partnership would also feature a token merger between Cudos and Fetch’s FET token.

The Alliance aims to move away from centralized cloud providers, such as Amazon, by leveraging decentralized computing. The vote is scheduled for September 19-24, and if successful, will further expand the Alliance’s decentralized AI infrastructure. Leaders from both Cudos and Fetch.ai see this as a step forward in democratizing access to AI technologies.

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PancakeSwap Launches Telegram Bot For Price Predictions

Decentralized exchange PancakeSwap has launched a new Telegram bot allowing users to predict BNB price movements in 5-minute intervals. The bot, introduced on September 11, extends PancakeSwap's existing decentralized prediction market feature to the popular messaging platform. Users can place predictions with as little as 0.001 BNB, and correct guesses will earn a share of the prize pool.

PancakeSwap aims to DeFi more accessible by integrating such features with easy-to-use platforms like Telegram. The launch includes a promotional giveaway of $4,444 in rewards for users participating on September 22. With its trading volume exceeding $1.2 trillion, PancakeSwap is one of the largest DeFi projects and continues to explore AI-driven solutions for a better trading experience.

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Data of the Day

A recent Chainalysis report revealed that Central & Southern Asia and Oceania (CSAO) is the third-largest crypto region globally, with $750 billion in asset inflows between July 2023 and June 2024. Indonesia leads the region with $157 billion in received value, while India remains a top global player in crypto adoption despite regulatory hurdles.

Seven of the top 20 countries in Chainalysis’ Global Adoption Index are from CSAO, with India, Indonesia, and Vietnam ranking particularly high. In addition, Singapore has seen increasing crypto payments for merchant services, highlighting the growing retail adoption of digital assets.

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More Breaking News

• Indodax, a crypto exchange in Indonesia, has suffered an estimated $20.5 million loss due to a security breach, making the platform temporarily inaccessible.
• Caroline Ellison's lawyers argued that her part in FTX's fall should not result in jail time and instead that she should get a supervised release.
• The CFTC's Office of Customer Outreach has partnered with various organizations to raise awareness about "pig butchering" crypto scams.
• Bitcoin's mining difficulty reached an all-time high of 92.7 trillion, a 3.6% increase, following a record hash rate of 694 EH/s over the past week.
• CleanSpark is acquiring seven bitcoin mining facilities in Tennessee for $27.5 million, adding 5 EH/s to its hashrate, which represents a 22% increase in capacity.

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