Today in Crypto: FTX EU Enables Withdrawal Requests, Ex-Binance.US CEO Lawyers Up, Cardano to Enable Access to EVM Contracts from Any ADA Wallet

Get your daily, bite-sized digest of cryptoasset and blockchain-related news – investigating the stories flying under the radar of today’s crypto news.
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Exchange news

• The European arm of FTX, FTX EU, launched a website to allow European customers to submit withdrawal requests. The new website is ftxeurope.eu, and will not offer any services or products, other than allowing customers to claim their fiat balances, Finance Magnates reported, citing an FTX Europe email. FTX EU only became available in March 2022, and the exchange collapsed soon after, in November.
• Former Binance US CEO Catherine Coley hired an attorney to advise her in the US Commodities Futures Trading Commission (CFTC)’s lawsuit against Binance, Reuters reported, citing “a person with direct knowledge.” Coley is being advised by James McDonald, a partner at New York law firm Sullivan & Cromwell, the person said.

Blockchain news

• Cardano users will soon be able to access Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) contracts using any ADA wallet, through an upcoming feature on Milkomeda, a network that connects blockchains to EVM contracts. “Milkomeda (Cardano’s EVM layer) is launching a feature allowing EVERY Cardano user to use EVM contracts directly from ANY Cardano wallet,” tweeted Sebastien Guillemot, CEO of Milkomeda. “This will instantly make Cardano one of the largest EVM chains by user count [and] it will be the largest EVM chain with staking rewards fully operational,” he added.
• Gaming-optimized blockchain Oasys announced that the global video game giant Nexon officially joined as the latest node validator in the blockchain’s network. “Alongside Japanese telecommunications and technology conglomerates KDDI and SoftBank, Nexon becomes the third of four new validators to be unveiled as Oasys validators this year, and will pledge its support towards stabilising and growing the Oasys ecosystem,” it said.

Regulation news

• Denmark’s Supreme Court issued a statement on Thursday, according to which individuals who profit from the sale of Bitcoin (BTC), acquired through purchases, donations, or mining, will be subjected to strict tax policies. These purchases were made for speculative purposes, it argued, and are not exempt from taxation.

NFT news

• Argentinian low-cost airline Flybondi is issuing e-tickets as non-fungible tokens (NFTs), according to multiple reports. Called “Tickets 3.0”, the technology runs on the Algorand (ALGO) blockchain and is an expansion of its existing relationship with NFT ticketing company TravelX. NFT tickets sold by Flybondi can be renamed, transferred, and sold.
• Domain and digital identity platform Unstoppable Domains said that it is combining AI and digital identity with a new feature, AI Art, that allows everyone to create and mint their own AI avatars. For $14.99, people can create 200 unique avatar images to download, it said. Users can also mint their favorite into an NFT profile picture (PFP) which will be featured in the Unstoppable: AI Art NFT Collection, and use them across social platforms.

Investment news

• Regulated blockchain platform Swarm released trading activity data for the first month since launching tokenized public stocks and bond ETFs on February 24, showing an 11% rise in platform users, 3 product sellouts, and almost 7% more growth than it had experienced in the 6 months prior. There was a strong demand for the assets, it said: Swarm sold out products on three occasions, with iShares US treasury bond 1-3 year ETF selling out on the first day of trading, Tesla stocks on February 28, and Apple stocks on March 13.