The Nevada Department of Business and Industry revealed that Prime Trust, a crypto custody company, is facing significant shortfalls in customer funds, making it incapable of honoring all customer withdrawal requests this month.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has stressed the need for regulatory measures on cryptocurrency in specific nations, and suggested that a total ban might not be the most beneficial solution.

SAP, the German software behemoth and the largest non-American software company by revenue, has begun experimenting with US Dollar Coin (USDC) for cross-border payments.

Top stories in the Crypto Roundup today:

• Crypto Custody Firm Prime Trust Faces Customer Funds Shortfall, Regulator Says
• IMF Urges Countries to Regulate Crypto, Not Ban It
• SAP Experiments with USDC for Cross-Border Payments
• Crypto Market Movers – BCH, STX, MKR

Crypto Custody Firm Prime Trust Faces Customer Funds Shortfall, Regulator Says

The Nevada Department of Business and Industry revealed that Prime Trust, a crypto custody company, is facing significant shortfalls in customer funds, making it incapable of honoring all customer withdrawal requests this month.

The Financial Institutions Division (FID) of the Department, a body that supervises state-regulated trust companies has issued an order demanding that Prime Trust cease all activities breaching Nevada regulations.

The company's overall financial health, according to the FID, has “deteriorated to a crucially deficient level,” with the company now “operating at a substantial deficit.” The firm, according to FID, was unable to honor customer withdrawals over a “significant liability” on its balance sheet.

The order further says Prime Trust “failed to safeguard assets under its custody and is unable to meet all customer withdrawals."

The FID expressed concerns about Prime Trust's ability to operate effectively and voiced allegations of the company failing its fiduciary duties. According to the order, Prime Trust had a negative stockholders' equity position exceeding $12 million at the close of March 2023.

Hours after BitGo, another cryptocurrency company, announced the termination of its planned acquisition of Prime Trust, the order was published on the Nevada regulator's website.

IMF Urges Countries to Regulate Crypto, Not Ban It

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has stressed the need for regulatory measures on cryptocurrency in specific nations, and suggested that a total ban might not be the most beneficial solution.

A report focused on Latin America and the Caribbean revealed the IMF's perspective on different approaches local governments have employed to address the adoption of cryptocurrencies and Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs).

Bitcoin has been recognized as legal tender in El Salvador since September 2021, while the Bahamas led the charge as the first nation to introduce its own CBDC, known as the Sand Dollar, in 2020.

Countries such as Brazil, Argentina, Colombia, and Ecuador, which are in the midst of establishing cryptocurrency regulations, were identified by the IMF as being among the global leaders in adopting digital assets.

The IMF said that while some countries “ have completely banned crypto assets given their risks, this approach may not be effective in the long run.” Instead, it suggested the region should “focus on addressing the drivers of crypto demand, including citizens’ unmet digital payment needs, and on improving transparency, by recording crypto asset transactions in national statistics.”

SAP Experiments with USDC for Cross-Border Payments

SAP, the German software behemoth and the largest non-American software company by revenue, has begun experimenting with US Dollar Coin (USDC) for cross-border payments.

In an announcement, SAP has cited the challenges small and mid-sized businesses often face when transferring money internationally, suggesting these can be addressed through "digital money" and blockchain technology.

SAP is now offering its customers the opportunity to receive USDC as "play money" in order to experiment with the payment method. The test won’t run on Ethereum or involve actual ERC-20 tokens, but will instead be conducted on a separate blockchain.

The pilot program doesn't permit customers to make payments with USDC but allows them to receive a portion of the cryptocurrency along with an invoice. SAP suggested this would help them "experience how fast, affordable, and reliable cross-border payments could look."

Crypto Market Movers – BCH, STX, MKR

Several tokens are leading the charge in the last 7-day period. Some of these are well-known cryptocurrencies with more liquid trading pairs, so we’ll be focusing on these over low-cap cryptos that may have higher percentage changes.

Bitcoin Cash (BCH) -Bitcoin Cash is a cryptocurrency that was created in August 2017 as a result of a hard fork of the Bitcoin blockchain. It is a decentralized, peer-to-peer digital currency that is based on the same underlying technology as Bitcoin, but it has a number of differences that make it unique.

Stacks (STX) - Stacks (STX) is the native token of the Stacks blockchain, a layer-one blockchain built on top of the Bitcoin blockchain. The Stacks blockchain is designed to enable developers to create decentralized applications (dApps) with smart contracts, tokenize assets, and build digital marketplaces.

Maker (MKR) - MakerDAO is an open-source project on the Ethereum blockchain and a Decentralized Autonomous Organization created in 2014. The project is managed by people around the world who hold its governance token, MKR.

State of the Crypto by Top Tier Exchange Volume

Build your project with CoinDesk Data

Terms | Privacy

13 Charles II St, SW1Y 4QU

London, UK

This email may include advertisements by third parties. None of the advertised or promoted products and services have been verified or approved by us and this email is not any endorsement by us of the third party or of their products or services.