itBit has obtained it banking license and Dogecoin has been adopted as an official national currency. Here are the cryptocurrency highlights of week 19.
- Cryptocurrency exchange itBit has been approved as New York State Trust company. As a result of the charter itBit will be regulated like a bank, meaning that the exchange will be subjected to audits of states and the required capital levels in case of failure. Dollar accounts will be protected by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. It could be considered a milestone in Bitcoin history, as itBit is now the first fully regulated digital currency exchange in the U.S. The itbit has been updated accordingly.
- Ripple Labs is facing a much less positive first time event, as it has been fined $700,000 by the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) due to its failure to register with FinCEN despite operating a money services business, and because it also failed to “implement and maintain an adequate anti-money laundering (AML) program”.
- Bitcoin is coming to the Middle East and North Africa region now that Dubai-based startup BitOasis has announced a new Bitcoin buying platform aimed at consumers in this area. Of course, people in this region already had access to Bitcoin, but the new platform can make acquiring the digital currency a lot more affordable as expensive international wire transfers are no longer required.
- Dogecoin is now the official national currency of micronation Kingdom Of Enclava. The Kingdom is situated at the Croatia–Slovenia border, and was founded on 23 April on an unclaimed land area of about 100m². Despite the small area, the micronation has already granted 130 citizenships.
- The price of Bitcoin keeps heading up, closing in the green for the third week in a row. This week the value of a single coin has increased by $6 or 2.5 percent to its current exchange rate of $241.
