TON News and Crypto Regulation Updates from June

?? The Fed met in late June, noted slowing inflation, and planned to cut rates once in 2024. A further rate cut to 4% (from the current 5.25%) is scheduled for next year. Nevertheless, according to the current information, whether the rate will be lowered or not will depend on the state of the US economy.

2️⃣1️⃣ 21Shares has sent its Solana Trust application to the SEC. 2025 will probably see more crypto ETFs, like Solana and Ripple.

? Donald Trump is gaining support from crypto enthusiasts in the US. He received $1 million each in donations from the Winklevosses (Gemini) and Kraken's Chairman Jesse Powell. Along with rate cuts, Trump's election could draw more liquidity into the market.

? Gary Gensler has promised in Senate to approve an Ethereum ETF by the end of Summer. Currently the SEC has requested amendments on existing ETF applications. Bloomberg analysts predict that approval in S1 form awaits us after 15th of July.

?? The UAE will ban crypto payments. This information is based on new CBUAE framework on payments, which allows only dirham-based stablecoins for crypto payments.

?? Nigeria provided a new round of crypto regulation… and the local SEC requested new registrations from all VASPs operating in the country within 30 days.

?? New MiCA framework stablecoin regulation goes into power this July. This caused the depeg of USDT from the US dollar. Tether currently doesn’t have a license in the EU and will be temporarily delisted from European exchanges. The EURT stablecoin doesn’t have a license, either.

?? This June in Uzbekistan, local citizens have been convicted and prosecuted for illegal crypto exchanges. One of them provided p2p deals on Binance and another the illegal exchange of Notcoin.

?? IFAC's Financial Services Regulatory Committee has reviewed and approved Toncoin (TON) for trading on licensed exchanges in Kazakhstan. Moreover, USDT holdings on TON reached $520 million and the TVL of TON DeFi $700 million.

? Telegram mini apps have demonstrated their increasing popularity with 150 million users of Hamster Combat, 30 million on Blum and 60 million on Notcoin.

?? Filipino residents will be able to pay for state services in TON-USDT. This is the result of a partnership between TON, Tether and UQUID.

*✈️ *TON reached $8 level again? This market move is probably due to news of upcoming investments from Pantera Capital, based on leaks that the company will organize a special fund to buy more TON.

? Also today, TON DEX Ston.Fi exceeded 1,000,000 users. Great numbers!

*?Russia tests new KYC system to track crypto exchange*

? The Bank of Russia and the local Financial Intelligence Unit are developing a KYC system to identify the connection between customers' crypto transactions and fiat bank transactions. Five major banks are participating in tests.

? Cryptocurrencies have legal status in Russia and it’s legal to own crypto. However, crypto payments are banned and crypto exchanges are in the gray zone. The purpose of this initiative is to increase government control over exchange transactions in order to prevent possible capital flight and tax evasion.

*? TON cuts fees*

? TON blockchain validators voted to reduce transfer fees by 2.5 times. This is another step in direction of mass adoption, which brings TON blockchain closer to key competitors such as BNB Smart Chain, Solana, Tron.

? Of course, in the short term this decision will reduce the profitability of validators, but in the long term - due to the inflow of liquidity on the TON blockchain everyone will benefit from it. And NOW it’s cheaper to transfer USDT or buy/sell tokens on TON).

?? Donald Trump: "more and more people want to pay with bitcoin"

? The US presidential candidate said, in an interview with Fox News, that professional regulation is needed for bitcoin. Trump said that his favorite currency is the dollar, but he is not against crypto and is ready to defend the interests of crypto investors. The politician's point of view is important, because he is considered the favorite in the presidential race by all polls.

*⛔️ Russia has stopped QIWI bank
❌* Meanwhile, QIWI was one of the most popular fiat gates for crypto exchange in the country. This is the first license revocation by the Bank of Russia in the last year and a half. Experts call as a probable reason - the fight against illegal settlements within the country. Bank of Russia said in a statement that QIWI "violated AML legislation".

? Trust Wallet bringing mass adoption closer?
? The world's most popular Web 3 wallet has begun public testing of its SWIFT update, which makes it possible to transact in any of 200 available cryptocurrencies.

? As part of the update, starting February 26th, Trust users will be able to access a simplified version of the wallet for beginners, without secret phrases and other complicated functionality. This is an important step in solving common difficulties in using cryptocurrencies.

*?? Spot Bitcoin ETF: the first application in Hong Kong!*

? According to Tencent News, Chinese investment company Harvest Hong Kong has applied to the local regulator (SFC) to launch a spot Bitcoin ETF. As the market continues to grow, other companies that want to to follow suit include Venture Smart Financial Holdings, Samsung Asset Management and at least seven others.

? Meanwhile, two Bitcoin futures ETFs - from Samsung Asset Management and the CSOP Bitcoin Futures ETF - are already trading in Hong Kong as of December 2022. There is also an Ethereum futures ETF from CSOP in Hong Kong.