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Most important cryptocurrency news for the last 2 weeks.

Legal

Kazakhstan's central bank wants to ban all crypto exchanges and prevent residents from converting the nation's fiat currency into any form of cryptocurrency.

Chile's state-owned bank BancoEstado has dumped three cryptocurrency exchange clients, leaving them without any access to traditional banking.

Email distribution company MailChimp joined other internet corporations in attempt to restrict crypto-related contect, so it will ban marketing campaigns for cryptocurrencies and ICOs starting next month, however, cryptocurrency-related information isn't necessarily prohibited, as long as the sender is not selling, trading, storing or marketing cryptos.

An agreement has been reached between Russian, Chinese, Korean associations to file a class action against internet corporations (Facebook, Goolge, Twitter, Yandex) that imposed restrictions on crypto ads. The lawsuit will be filed in a US jurisdiction in May by the newly founded Eurasian Blockchain Association (EBA). It's not very bullish news on a short run, but it will have a huge impact on the future of cryptos, because it shows that community can unite and strike back.

Cryptocurrency decree came into force in Belarus, legalizing crypto business activities, exchange services, ICOs and mining. The decree also includes tax reductions and exemptions for crypto-related businesses for the next 5 years.

Liechtenstein is planning to release new regulations this summer to support blockchain.

China’s central bank states that the country is willing to support a global regulatory framework for cryptocurrency established by G20.

Exchanges

Japan’s Financial Services Agency (FSA) has ordered the closure of Binance, so the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange is moving to Malta which has pro-blockchain legislation. These negative news turned out to be positive in the long term, because Binance might have an access to banking soon, and new 'fiat-to-crypto' pairs will take down Coinbase dominance and decrease Tether dependency. Worth mentioning that Coinbase supports only 32 countries and Binance daily trading volume is 10-20% of Malta's GDP. For now there are no news about KYC/AML changes, but potentially Binance can lose its anonymity option even for small investors.

Shortly after that, Coinbase announced its intention to support the Ethereum ERC20 tokens on the exchange in the coming months, which will potentially give a huge boost to many altcoins.

A number of news outlets reported that Yahoo Japan is planning to buy its share in bitARG to implement a cryptocurrency exchange within one year's time, however, bitARG has not officially agreed to any deals yet.

Bitfinex exchange is planning to move to Switzerland and it also announced new trading pairs that will enable deposits and withdrawals in Japanese Yen [JPY] and British Pound Sterling [GBP]. That is a big move, because a company is being constantly accused in committing fraud, so more transparency can reduce the amount of FUD.

Bitfinex won't list Venezuelan Petro Token (PTR) because they're afraid of U.S. regulations. Previously president Donald Trump has issued an executive order banning any transactions within the U.S. involving tokens issued by the Government of Venezuela.

Wide adoption

A new partnership between Coingate and Prestashop will allow 80,000 merchants in Europe to accept cryptocurrency.

A partnership between South Korean exchange Bithumb and Korea Pay Services will make cryptos available in over 8,000 stores. This approach is fundamentally wrong, because it will introduce middlemen that will collect fees similar to banking system, but on the other hand, these two partnerships will greatly boost a wide adoption.

Bearish

The most bearish news were 'breaking' articles about a new wave of BTC sell off by Mt.Gox, but the info is based on some tweets and rumors, so it seems like clickbait and FUD. However, it could be one of reasons why the price moved down towards 6k.

A highly-anticipated LitePay payment application reportedly ceased all operations. Originally it had been set to launch on the 26th of February, so users could use Litecoin (LTC) for transactions, but the company faced problems and was accused in being a "one-man" show.

Roger Ver announced at Satoshi's Vision conference that in the next update Bitcoin.com wallet will not support BTC by default, but only BCH (Bitcoin Cash). This decision adds more tension in BTC vs BCH confrontation.

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Legal Disclaimer: I'm not a financial adviser. All the information and materials provided in this blog post are for informational purposes only, and it's not a financial or investment advice of any kind. You should consult with a licensed professional for an investment advice.