Zodia Custody, the institutional crypto custody firm co-owned by British banking giant Standard Chartered, Japanese financial group SBI Holdings, and Northern Trust, a leading provider of financial services, is launching a custody platform in Hong Kong.

The Bank of England’s Deputy Governor Jon Cunliffe has revealed that the central bank received more than 50,000 responses in its consultation on a digital version of the pound.

Popular cryptocurrency exchange Kraken is set to share some user data with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) next month, following a court order it received back in June.

Top stories in the Crypto Roundup today:

• Standard Chartered-Owned Crypto Platform Expands to Hong Kong
• Bank of England Receives Over 50,000 Responses on Digital Pound Consultation
• Kraken to Share User Data with IRS Next Month After Court Order
• Grayscale’s Bitcoin Trust Discount Narrows to 12.6% Amid Rising Bitcoin ETF Optimism

Standard Chartered-Owned Crypto Platform Expands to Hong Kong

Zodia Custody, the institutional crypto custody firm co-owned by British banking giant Standard Chartered, Japanese financial group SBI Holdings, and Northern Trust, a leading provider of financial services, is launching a custody platform in Hong Kong.

Zodia Custody’s CEO Julian Sawyer announced the move, saying that the company’s custody platform is well-suited for Hong Kong, where demand for digital assets is mainly driven by institutional investors instead of retail customers.

Sawyer also noted that Hong Kong’s crypto-friendly policies are in line with Zodia’s vision, as the city aims to become a digital asset hub. Zodia has been expanding its presence in Asia, offering its services in Japan, Singapore and Australia in the past few months.

He added that while there are “absolutely clients in all of those four markets who want to do things,” there are also a “lot of other clients and prospects outside those four jurisdictions that want to come in on the institutional side.”

Zodia is set to gradually start its services in Hong Kong, supporting a limited number of digital assets at first. The firm is in talks with the Hong Kong Monetary Authority and Securities Commission on getting licensed.

Bank of England Receives Over 50,000 Responses on Digital Pound Consultation

The Bank of England’s Deputy Governor Jon Cunliffe has revealed that the central bank received more than 50,000 responses in its consultation on a digital version of the pound.

Privacy, programmability, and the future of cash were the main issues raised by the respondents, Cunliffe said at a Federal Reserve Board conference in Washington, D.C. The consultation was launched in February and ended in June.

The Bank of England has said that a central bank digital currency (CBDC) will likely be needed, although it hasn’t yet decided on the issue. Cunliffe noted in his speech that digital pound users would have the same level of privacy they currently have in electronic payments, and added that the BoE wouldn’t see people’s data.

Respondents revealed concerns surrounding the central bank making the digital pound programmable and limiting its functionality, something Cunliffe said wouldn’t happen. He also added that the BoE has recently legislated to ensure the availability of physical cash in response to concerns that a CBDC could create a two-tier system between cash and digital money.

Cunliffe said that a discussion paper on how the central bank would regulate major stablecoins will be released “very soon,” and suggested that more decentralized models could be ruled out by regulations.

The central bank, he said, will “require a legal entity that can be identified as the payment system operator and held responsible for the end-to-end management of risk.”

Kraken to Share User Data with IRS Next Month After Court Order

Popular cryptocurrency exchange Kraken is set to share some user data with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) next month, following a court order it received back in June.

In an email the trading platform sent to affected U.S. users, Kraken noted it “expects to share information covered by the court’s order in early November 2023.” The move is a result of a legal battle between Kraken and the IRS that started in May 2021, when a U.S. federal court authorized the tax agency to serve a John Doe summons on the exchange and its subsidiaries.

According to the IRS, Kraken did not cooperate with the summons, and in February of this year, the tax agency then asked a court to let it enforce the summons. A federal court told Kraken in June to give the IRS user data.

Per the June order, Kraken has to give the IRS profile and transaction data for customers who did more than $20,000 in transactions in any year from 2016 to 2020. This data includes names, birthdates, tax IDs, addresses, phone numbers, email addresses, and transactions for those five years.

The IRS notably sought more extensive information, which included IP addresses, employment details, sources of wealth, net worth, and banking information. Kraken noted in its email it successfully convinced the court to “substantially reduce” the number of affected clients and the amount of data.

Grayscale’s Bitcoin Trust Discount Narrows to 12.6% Amid Rising Bitcoin ETF Optimism

Following positive market developments in October, the total assets under management (AUM) for digital assets products saw a 6.73% spike to $31.7 billon, marking the first increase since July 2023. AUM for products based on Bitcoin climbed 11.1% to $23.2 billion to now have a 73.3% market share, up from 70.5% in September.

This trend is further highlighted by the diminishing Grayscale discount, which shrank to its smallest at 12.6% on October 18th. The narrowing gap between the Trust's market price and its Net Asset Value (NAV) mirrors the escalating optimism towards the endorsement of a spot Bitcoin ETF.

Dig deeper into the world of cryptocurrency trading with CCData’s latest Digital Asset Management Review.

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.