1-UK, Colombia crypto exchanges fined by TD Bank
FinCEN found that TD Bank facilitated bank transactions worth over $1 billion from two overseas cryptocurrency sites.
TD Bank’s recent collapse may be linked to two unidentified cryptocurrency startups in Colombia and the UK.On October 10, the US unit of TD Bank settled for more than $3 billion in penalties and accepted limits on its expansion trajectory. The payment related to criminal groups’ improper money laundering monitoring.
According to a FinCEN report filed on October 10, TD Bank’s transfer volume was linked to two unknown bitcoin businesses. The transfer volume exceeded $1 billion. Unknown firm “Customer Group C.” processed the transactions. This firm handles “sales finance and real estate industries.”
Group C customers transacted over $1 billion with TD Bank over the relevant period. Over 90% of the monies received originated from a UK cryptocurrency exchange, and over 60% were sent to a Colombian financial institution that offers virtual asset services.
According to FinCEN, the client group made over $100 million in wire transfers per month, most of which “facilitated apparent third-party cryptocurrency trading” in “high-risk” jurisdictions like Colombia, China, and the Middle East.
TD Bank processed over $650 million in funds for “Customer Group C,” an international bitcoin trading company.
FinCEN said this book “significantly deviated” from client onboarding information.
An worldwide bitcoin trading platform gave Customer Group C around $650 million at this time. TD Bank didn’t know the monies’ purpose, originators, or source.”
TD Bank completed transactions, including $420 million to a “financial institution offering cryptocurrency services in the high-risk jurisdiction of Colombia.” This was done despite the money’s uncertain origins.
TD Bank briefly experimented with bitcoin. Cowen Digital was founded in March 2022 by US-based independent investment bank TD Cowen to provide institutional investors with exposure to the cryptocurrency industry via sixteen crypto assets, including Bitcoin and Ethereum.
The reason of TD Cowen and Company’s June 2023 cryptocurrency division dissolution was not revealed.
In August 2022, TD Bank Group bought Cowen Bank for $1.3 billion. The deal was completed in March 2023, three months before the crypto wing’s closing.
After a year of cryptocurrency company failures, the US was in financial and regulatory turmoil in 2023.
2-A China ‘Tsunami’ Hits Crypto As Bitcoin Price Breaks $65,000
China’s monetary stimulus announcement fueled a BlackRock-driven boom. Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies rose in value.
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Bitcoin prices have above $65,000, a figure not seen since September. MicroStrategy founder Michael Saylor revealed a $100 trillion “endgame.”
JPMorgan analysts’ surprising bitcoin price estimate has traders betting on a persistent shift away from China equities and into bitcoin and cryptocurrencies.
“Markets are probably taking a disappointing China stimulus to be positive news for bitcoin,” said Orbit Markets co-founder Caroline Mauron in a Bloomberg interview. “Capital rotation from bitcoin into Chinese equities was understood to be previously weighing on crypto prices,” she said.
On Saturday, China’s Finance Minister Lan Foan pledged to “significantly increase” the government’s debt to revive the stagnating economy. He did not specify the stimulus package’s magnitude.
Jefferies Europe chief financial analyst Mohit Kumar told Reuters, “We got little over the weekend, but our expectations were low. I expect further fiscal stimulus this year and in the future.”
In the beginning of the month, analysts David Brickell and Chris Mill advised traders to “expect fireworks”. They said in their newsletter that China unleashing “a tsunami of liquidity” and the Federal Reserve lowering interest rates will boost bitcoin prices to new highs.
However, market experts worry that the Chinese government’s lack of openness may shorten the market rise.