A Hong Kong lawmaker is advocating for the special administrative region to leverage China’s ‘one country, two systems’ policy by incorporating Bitcoin into its national reserve.
Here are the latest updates from the world of crypto over the past few days
A Hong Kong lawmaker is advocating for the special administrative region to leverage China’s ‘one country, two systems’ policy by incorporating Bitcoin into its national reserve.
Wu Jiexhuang, a member of Hong Kong’s Legislative Council, mentioned to the state-owned newspaper, Wen Wei Po that Hong Kong might examine the market effects of spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) based in the United States.
Jiexhuang highlighted how smaller countries like El Salvador and Bhutan have incorporated Bitcoin into their strategic reserves, along with some US states.
He also mentioned how US President-elect Donald Trump’s proposal to designate Bitcoin as a strategic reserve asset could greatly influence traditional markets.
The Securities Commission (SC) of Malaysia has ordered the cryptocurrency exchange Bybit to halt its operations in the country, alleging that the company is operating an unregistered digital asset exchange (DAX).
The Malaysian securities regulator announced that it had instructed Bybit to deactivate its website, mobile applications, and any other digital platforms within 14 business days. Additionally, the regulator ordered the exchange to cease distributing its advertisements to Malaysian investors and shut down its Telegram support group for Malaysians. The Securities Commission of Malaysia explicitly instructed Bybit CEO Ben Zhou to make sure the company adheres to all the directives.
On December 27, 2024, the commission verified that Bybit had met its requirements.
The announcement comes after Bybit revealed its decision to cease operations in France. On December 17, 2024 the exchange had indicated that it would discontinue its withdrawal and custody services for French clients beginning January 8, 2025, due to heightened regulatory oversight by French financial regulators, reports CoinTelegraph.
The Blockchain Association is challenging the United States Internal Revenue Service’s (IRS’) recent cryptocurrency regulation through a joint lawsuit.
On December 27, 2024, the US IRS released final regulations mandating brokers to report digital asset transactions, thereby broadening the current reporting requirements to encompass front-end platforms, such as decentralised exchanges (DEXs). Scheduled to be implemented in 2027, the regulations require brokers to report the total revenue from cryptocurrency and other digital asset sales, along with details about the taxpayers participating in these transactions.
Kristin Smith, CEO of the Blockchain Association, wrote in a post on X (formerly Twitter) on December 28, 2024 that the Blockchain Association and the Texas Blockchain Council have filed a lawsuit against IRS in reaction to the new regulations.
“Today we’re taking action, filing a lawsuit that argues that today’s broker rulemaking violates the Administrative Procedure Act, and is unconstitutional. We stand with our nation’s innovators and will continue working to ensure the future of crypto – and decentralised finance (DeFi) – is here in the United States,” added Smith.