Louisiana lawmakers are considering a cryptocurrency business licensing bill. It would require businesses in the space to pay a fee to obtain a license from the state.

A hacker is looking to sell data that was allegedly stolen from Ledger, Trezor, KeepKey, and Bnktothefuture. Ledger and Trezor have denied the leaked databases match their own.

Tyler Winklevoss, co-founder of the Gemini exchange, has said competition between stablecoins will heat up once Wall Street moves into the decentralized finance space.

Top stories in the Crypto Roundup today:

• Louisiana Lawmakers Consider Crypto Business Licensing Bill
• Hacker Attempts to Sell Data Allegedly Stolen From Ledger, Trezor, and KeepKey
• Stablecoin Competition Will Heat up Once Wall Street Embraces DeFi, Tyler Winklevoss Says

At the time of writing, bitcoin (BTC) is trading at $8,846.96 (-4.52%) with a daily Top Tier volume of $3.65 bn. As for ether (ETH), it is trading at $203.93 (-2.82%) with a daily Top Tier volume of $859.06 million. The MVIS CryptoCompare Digital Assets 10 Index is currently tracking at 2,927.96 (-1.78%).

Louisiana Lawmakers Consider Crypto Business Licensing Bill

The lower chamber of Louisiana’s state legislature has approved a measure that will create a framework to license cryptocurrency businesses if passed and signed into law. The legislation, which according to public records is sponsored by state Rep Mark Wright, looks to create a process by which companies that focus on cryptocurrencies can obtain a license in the state.

It would also create a definitional language for cryptoassets exchanges and terms related to “virtual currency.” If passed, the bill would see crypto businesses apply with the state’s Office of Financial Institutions (OFI), subject their executives’ “experience, character and general fitness” to an investigation, and pay a non-refundable registration fee among other requirements.

OFI has reportedly projected it will charge a $2,000 application fee and $1,000 for annual renewal. Registrants licensed by states with comparable regimes would not need a Louisiana license.

Speaking to CoinDesk Andrew Hinkes, a lawyer with Carlton Fields, said the bill appears to derive from the Virtual Currency Business Act (VCBA), a licensure regime from the Uniform Law Commission (ULC) that came as a result of a multi-year effort dating back to 2015.

Hacker Attempts to Sell Data Allegedly Stolen From Ledger, Trezor, and KeepKey

Online monitoring portal Under the Breach has revealed a hacker is trying to sell customer information that was allegedly stolen from major cryptocurrency hardware firms Ledger, Trezor, and KeepKey, as well as the investment platform Bnktothefuture.

The hacker reportedly got the data via an alleged Shopify breach that allowed it to steal email addresses, home addresses, and phone numbers. The breach didn’t leak any passwords, according to Under the Breach.

Under the Breach documents the hackers’ databases include the information of an alleged 80,000 customers, and was the same person the breached the Ethereum forum back in 2016. Reacting to the alleged leak Ledger has said on social media its e-commerce team is “checking these allegations by analyzing the so-called hacked DB, and so far it doesn’t match our real db [database].”

Trezor also denied the situation, writing:

“There are rumors spreading that our eshop database has been hacked through a Shopify exploit. Our eshop does not use Shopify, but we are nonetheless investigating the situation. We’ve been also routinely purging old customer records from the database to minimize the possible impact.”

A Shopify representative, speaking to news.bitcoin.com, said the e-commerce giant investigated the claims and found “no evidence to substantiate them.”

Stablecoin Competition Will Heat up Once Wall Street Embraces DeFi, Tyler Winklevoss Says

Gemini co-founder and early cryptocurrency adopter Tyler Winklevoss has, in an interview with The Defiant, predicted competition between stablecoins will heat up as soon as Wall Street moves into the decentralized finance (DeFi) space. He said:

“When Wall Street wants to start investing in decentralized finance, they'll need a currency. When a decentralized [Real Estate Investment Trust] pays off a dividend or a stock, is it going to pay it to investors in Ether? Probably not because of the volatility, but in a stablecoin.”

In the interview, the Winklevoss twin noted that the cryptocurrency space isn’t currently offering a killer app driving adoption outside of the community, but noted interest yields in the space are now “super important” given the wider zero interest rate environment.

Tyler also criticized existing stablecoin projects, saying these “put their own cash deposits to goose up the assets under management to give this perception that it's bigger than it is.”

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