First Mover Americas: Coinbase Registers With Central Bank of Spain

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Crypto exchange Coinbase (COIN) has registered with Spain’s central bank to provide exchange and custody services, the company announced Monday. Registration with the Bank of Spain is a mandatory step toward offering crypto-related services, and registered firms have to comply with the country's anti-money laundering standards. While the country does not yet have a licensing regime for crypto firms, Spain will be required to implement one under the European Union's recently finalized MiCA regulation for crypto issuers and service providers set to take effect in 2024.

Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder of collapsed cryptocurrency exchange FTX, has renewed a request for temporary release from jail during the course of his trial, according to a letter from his lawyers to the judge overseeing the case filed late Monday. The request saga started in August, when his release on bond was revoked and he was locked up after a judge ruled he'd probably tried to tamper with witnesses. On Sept. 12, Bankman-Fried's request to overturn that decision was denied. An appeals court rejected an attempt to overturn the ruling on Sep. 21.

The global economy may not be ready to face the worst-case scenario of the U.S. interest rate rising as high as 7% with stagflation, according to the CEO of investment banking giant JPMorgan (JPM), Jamie Dimon, Bloomberg reported on Tuesday. Since March 2022, the Federal Reserve has raised the benchmark borrowing cost by 525 basis points to the 5.25%-5.5% range to tame inflation. The so-called tightening cycle was partially responsible for last year's crypto market crash. According to Dimon, the Fed may have to keep raising rates to subdue persistent inflation and impending increases will likely be more damaging to the global economy.

- Omkar Godbole