Copper Technologies, a cryptocurrency custody company supported by British multinational bank Barclays, has retracted its crypto license application in the United Kingdom.
On December 20, Copper withdrew its registration application with the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority, stating it will now concentrate on international locations under its new CEO, the firm confirmed to Cointelegraph on Friday.
Chaired by former UK chancellor Philip Hammond, Copper is one of the largest crypto enterprises in the UK and has reportedly secured millions in investments from Barclays.
Copper’s former CEO Dmitry Tokarev, who founded the company in 2018, stepped down in October, with banking veteran Amar Kuchinad assuming the role of global CEO.
Bankrupt Cryptopia exchange distributes $225M to hack victims
The liquidators of the bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange Cryptopia have begun distributing millions to users impacted by a hack that occurred nearly six years ago.
On Dec. 20, Cryptopia’s liquidating firm, Grant Thornton, announced the commencement of distributions to over 10,000 verified account holders affected by the 2019 hack.
Over the past two days, verified account holders of Bitcoin and Dogecoin have received crypto distributions totaling at least 400 million New Zealand dollars ($225 million), according to the liquidator.
These payouts represent a significant milestone in Cryptopia’s liquidation process since Grant Thornton launched the Cryptopia claims portal in 2020.
Tornado Cash dev wants charges dropped after court said OFAC ‘overstepped’
Roman Storm, the co-founder of Tornado Cash, a cryptocurrency mixing platform, requested a United States federal judge to dismiss his criminal charges, following an appeals court's ruling that sanctions against the platform's smart contracts were illegal.
In a motion filed on December 18 in a Manhattan district court, Storm referenced a recent opinion by the Fifth Circuit Appeals Court in a separate case, which determined that the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) had overstepped its authority in sanctioning Tornado Cash’s smart contracts. This opinion, he argued, clearly demonstrates that all three counts of the indictment are fundamentally and legally flawed.
He highlighted that the opinion significantly affects his charge of conspiring to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), a key law in the US sanctions framework, as the appeals court concluded that the smart contracts are not the 'property' of a foreign national or entity and therefore cannot be blocked under the law.
The Fifth Circuit stated that Tornado Cash’s smart contracts are immutable and accessible to anyone, including sanctioned North Korean hackers, while the creators are unable to prevent their use, noting: 'Mr. Storm could no more choose to stop them than he could choose to stop the sun from rising.'
