EU officials reach agreement on AML authority for supervising crypto firms

The European Council said it had agreed on a partial position of a proposal to launch a dedicated Anti-Money Laundering Authority, or AMLA. According to the regulatory body, the AML body will have the authority to supervise “high-risk and cross-border financial entities” including crypto firms — “if they are considered risky.”

BREAKING: Grayscale launches legal challenge to Bitcoin spot ETF rejection

Grayscale Investments, a digital currency investing services company, has launched a legal challenge against the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) after being denied its application to convert its Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) into a spot-based Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF).

Cardano’s Vasil hard fork proposal submitted: Countdown commences

Cardano (ADA) blockchain developer Input Output Hong Kong (IOHK) has submitted an update proposal to hard fork the Cardano testnet, kicking off the countdown for the network’s Vasil mainnet upgrade. The Vasil upgrade is slated to bring “significant performance and capability upgrades” to the blockchain, providing a higher throughput, improved script performance for developers and lower costs.

Taiwan central bank governor considers interest-free CBDC

Chin-long Yang, governor of the Central Bank of the Republic of China (Taiwan), recommended a no-interest design for the country’s central bank digital currency, or CBDC. In explaining the decision, Yang said that a CBDC where interest is paid on digital asset deposits would likely become a replacement for fiat New Taiwan dollar (NT$) deposits in banks.

Lending network enables transparent credit history in Africa via blockchain partnership

African mobile banking platform Aella has partnered with Creditcoin Network to make credit histories transparent by integrating all its transactions into Creditcoin’s public blockchain. Creditcoin founder Tae Oh said the partnership brings them closer to their goal of giving the unbanked a fairer shot.