Tel Aviv Stock Exchange to Let Nonbank Members’ Customers Trade Crypto, Two Hackers Arrested in France, $70M in BTC and ETH Donated to Ukraine

Get your daily, bite-sized digest of cryptoasset and blockchain-related news – investigating the stories flying under the radar of today’s crypto news.__________

Exchange news

The Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE), the operator of Israel’s public equity trading platform, plands to expand authorized activities to allow customers of its nonbanking members to trade crypto. Per the press release, “the proposed structure will enable the customer to deposit money (Fiat money) that are designated for investment in crypto currency and withdraw monies originating from those currencies.”The former CEO of BitFlyer Yuzu Kano plans to return to his position and lead the company to an initial public offering, seeking to end a dispute with current management and other shareholders over control of the startup, according to Bloomberg. Kano’s proposal is set to go before shareholders in a scheduled meeting next month.

Legal news

French police arrested two people who were allegedly behind an attack on the decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol Platypus. Per a tweet, the police also seized approximately $222,000 worth of crypto.

Investment news

As of February 2023, almost $70 million in crypto has been donated to addresses provided by the Ukrainian government since the start of the war, blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis found. The majority of donations were made in bitcoin (BTC) and ethereum (ETH). On the other hand, as of now, the number of pro-Russia organizations the firm identified has grown to around 100, with nearly $5.4 million in donations received. “However, those donations have waned over the course of the year,” Chainalysis said.Alpha Blue Ocean (ABO) announced the launch of a new private investment firm, ABO Digital, that will provide alternative financing solutions to early-stage and high-growth companies in the digital asset space. Per the press release, the firm will leverage “ABO’s experience as a structured Private Investments in Public Equity (PIPE) investor with more than $2 billion in executed financing commitments globally over the last five years.”

Regulation news

While the Reserve Bank of India has been pitching for an outright ban on the use of crypto, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the Financial Stability Board (FSB) are set to formulate a technical paper to attain a coordinated global approach for the regulation of cryptoassets as proposed by the Indian Presidency of the G20, The Hindu reported. The paper will be presented for consideration at the next meeting of G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors scheduled in October, it added.“We are very much in favor of regulating the world of digital money,” the IMF managing director Kristalina Georgieva said in an interview with Bloomberg. She added that this is “a top priority” for the FSB, the IMF, and the Bank for International Settlements (BIS). However, “if the regulation is slow to come and cryptoassets become a higher risk for consumers and potentially for financial stability,” banning cryptocurrencies “should not be taken off the table,” said Georgieva.

Web3 news

Messaging protocol Push Protocol announced the launch of its new group chat feature for Push Chat, its Web3 messaging app. The notifications for Push Chat are built off of Push Protocol’s existing notification infrastructure, it said. Users can create online communities either directly on the Push dapp or by adding Push Chat into their own dapp. “This feature opens up a world of possibilities for applications for DAOs, NFT communities, gaming, and more,” it added.Blockchain infrastructure provider Theta Labs announced a new partnership with ABS-CBN, a major content company in the Philippines. Per the press release, Theta will be the Web3 video infrastructure partner to power ABS-CBN’s various business units and its digital collectibles NFT business. It added that three projects have been finalized and are set to release in the coming months. ABS-CBN will also be utilizing Theta’s Video API, allowing them to explore the potential of Web3 technology.The Hashgraph Association, the not-for-profit accelerating adoption of the Hedera network, partnered with telecommunications operators Orange to launch the AGV High-Speed Accelerator in Morocco. Together, they will provide co-funding to entrepreneurs, start-ups, enterprises, government projects, universities, and academic institutions, while their  co-investment model will serve the development and implementation of DLT, blockchain, and fintech solutions, said the announcement.