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Binance Russia buyer tightlipped on owners, denies CZ involvement

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Amid growing skepticism about CommEx — the mysterious buyer of Binance’s Russian division — the newly launched firm has continued denying Binance’s ownership involvement.

On Sept. 29, CommEx issued an open letter to the community, reiterating that the company is not owned by Binance, which announced its exit from Russia by selling the firm to CommEx.

“Although we do not disclose our UBO, we want to make it clear that we are not owned by Binance,” CommEx wrote on its website. A spokesperson for CommEx declined to comment to Cointelegraph about the reasons it won’t share any information about its owners.

“We are a vibrant and efficient start-up team, made up of dozens of passionate individuals from diverse backgrounds,” CommEx said in the announcement, adding that some of its core members are former Binance veterans.

The CommEx announcement said the firm has been developing its platform for six months, during which time it onboarded some ex-Binance employees. “This has allowed us to learn from Binance’s product and operations experiences, establishing indirect connections with them,” CommEx added.

The announcement confirms that former team members of Binance’s division in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) are part of CommEx, despite Binance having no ownership in the exchange.

Former employees at Binance CIS will join or may have already joined the new firm, Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao said on X (formerly Twitter) on Sept. 28. “We think that is a good thing,” he added.

In addition to hiring some ex-Binance employees, CommEx has taken things like design, application programming interfaces, or APIs, and even terms of use from Binance. “We asked for this to ensure a smooth user experience,” CZ wrote.

The Binance CEO also stressed that CommEx does not provide services to users based in the United States and Europe. CZ noted that European and U.S. residents will face intellectual property and Know Your Customer blocks when trying to access CommEx. “This is a term we asked for in the deal,” CZ stated.

According to data from CommEx representatives in the firm’s official Telegram group, CommEx users can trade without completing KYC checks for up to 2 Bitcoin (BTC), or about $54,000.

Related: Binance successor in Russia: Everything you need to know about CommEx, so far

CommEx’s unwillingness to disclose information about its owners, paired with having ex-Binance employees and similar website design and APIs, has fueled chatter about Binance being the company’s owner in disguise.

Adam Cochran, a partner at venture capital firm Cinneamhain Ventures, believes that CommEx is “just another shell company by Binance.”

On the other hand, some crypto observers believe that such a move would undermine Binance’s whole decision to leave Russia. “Obviously U.S. authorities could quickly determine if the new owners were simply straw men for Binance. This would make the situation look even worse than if Binance just held onto the business,” Lesperance & Associates founder David Lesperance told Cointelegraph.

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Cryptocurrency

BTC price holds 6% gains as Bitcoin battles for ‘crucial’ $28K support

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Bitcoin (BTC) passing $28,000 hints at bullish sentiment, but reclaiming it for good is essential, analysis says.

In an X (formerly Twitter) post on Oct. 17, Yann Allemann and Jan Happel, co-founders of on-chain analytics firm Glassnode, described the $28,000 mark as a “critical milestone” for the BTC price.

Glassnode: “Keep an eye out” for $28,000

After snap volatility, which caused Bitcoin to hit $30,000 for the first time since August, the largest cryptocurrency has managed to preserve some of its gains.

At the time of writing, BTC/USD is circling $28,500, per data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView — still up around 6% since the weekly open.

For Allemann and Happel, the pair is now at a defining crossroads.

“The crypto market is hinged on BTC’s ability to breach and consistently maintain a value north of $28k,” part of their commentary stated.

$28,000 has formed a battleground ever since Bitcoin first crossed it in early 2021, and liquidity has traditionally surrounded it as bulls and bears fight to secure control over long-term trajectory.

Data from the trading suite DecenTrader, among others, confirms that the status quo remains despite recent BTC price moves, with $28,000 lying in a zone between major longs and shorts of varying leverage.

Bitcoin liquidity data. Source: DecenTrader

“While this pivotal milestone was momentarily attained on futures, the spot market price peaked at $27.98k earlier today. It’s evident just how crucial this price point is in the larger scheme,” Allemann and Happel added.

“The rapid movements and these price thresholds aren’t just numbers. They signify investor sentiment, market dynamics. Keep an eye out for the 28k level.”

BTC/USD 1-day chart. Source: TradingView

Road to Bitcoin halving contested

As Cointelegraph reported, predictions over what the future will bring for Bitcoin both before and after its next block subsidy halving in April 2024 differ considerably.

Related: Mining BTC is harder than ever — 5 things to know in Bitcoin this week

In an interview last month, DecenTrader co-founder Filbfilb eyed BTC price galvanizing itself for upside during Q4, possibly reaching $46,000 by the halving.

Some well-known market participants, however, remain risk-averse. Among them, popular trader Crypto Tony and others are betting on a pre-halving return to $20,000 for a final local bottom.

“Many can scream they are long right now and caught that move, but if your not taking profit here at resistance your doing something wrong,” he told X subscribers about the recent surge.

“I personally will not be long unless we flip that $28,500 level into support.”

BTC/USD annotated chart. Source: Crypto Tony/X

This article does not contain investment advice or recommendations. Every investment and trading move involves risk, and readers should conduct their own research when making a decision.

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Ripple job posting hints at possible IPO, XRP community says

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Fintech payments company Ripple released a new job posting on Oct. 16 for a shareholder communications senior manager across multiple locations in and outside the United States. The job posting prompted many crypto enthusiasts to label it as an official hint about the company’s plans to go public.

The job posting outlines that the role will require direct communication with shareholders — a concept generally associated with publicly traded companies. The chosen candidate would be responsible for developing and implementing communication and relationship management strategies for “existing and prospective investors, current shareholders, and financial analysts.”

The job description emphasizes the candidate’s need to create strategic plans specifically suited for situations like “M&A [mergers and acquisitions], investments, liquidity events, and other high-impact moments.“

The role includes creating investor-focused materials like “presentations, fact sheets, case studies, and analyses“ to inform and educate potential investors about the company’s prospects and performance — a necessary component of the initial public offering (IPO) preparation process. The responsibilities of the post also include maintaining a shareholder database and managing routine communications like quarterly updates.

Related: How are crypto firms responding to US regulators’ enforcement actions?

Many XRP (XRP) proponents and the pro-Ripple community on X (formerly Twitter) are referring to the job posting as a hint that there may be an IPO. Some key executives from the company have also alluded to the possibility that Ripple might go public but haven’t given any indication of timing.

The crypto-focused payments company has recently been in the limelight due to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) lawsuit alleging XRP is a security. Ripple scored a major win in the lawsuit in July when a judge ruled that XRP is not a security in terms of sale on digital asset exchanges.

Key Ripple executives have claimed that even though the SEC lawsuit has cost them many business opportunities in the U.S., most of its remittance business lies outside America.

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Banks’ crypto exposure must be disclosed — BIS’ Basel Committee

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The Basel Committee on Banking Supervision of the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) released a consultation paper on Oct. 17, proposing to make it compulsory for banks to disclose their crypto exposure.

The Basel Committee comprises central banks and financial authorities from 28 jurisdictions and is a forum for regulatory cooperation on banking supervisory matters. The latest consultation paper is based on the disclosure guidelines in the final prudential standard on how banks should handle their exposure to crypto assets released in December 2022.

The consultation paper aims to set a standardized “disclosure table and set of templates for banks’ crypto-asset exposures,” with a proposed implementation date of Jan. 1, 2025. The Basel Committee has opened the proposal for public comment until Jan. 31, 2024, after which the results will be published on its website.

Under the new proposed regulations, banks would be required to provide quantitative data on exposures to crypto assets and the corresponding capital and liquidity requirements. Banks would also be required to offer qualitative data on their activities linked to cryptocurrencies.

Additionally, banks would be required to offer information on the accounting classifications of their exposure to crypto assets and liabilities. In its proposal, the committee claimed that using a uniform disclosure format will encourage the application of market discipline and lessen information asymmetry between banks and market participants.

Related: Ripple joins BIS cross-border payments task force

The committee also reviewed crypto assets and bank exposure in June. At the time, the committee didn’t delve deeply into the topic, mentioning only that it was focusing on permissionless blockchains and the eligibility criteria for “Group 1” stablecoins.

The BIS has been actively involved in crypto consultations and examining the regulatory aspect of decentralized technology. Recently, the BIS and a handful of European central banks published details of a concept to develop a system to track international flows of cryptocurrencies.

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