Ripple has acquired a preliminary crypto asset service provider (CASP) license in Luxembourg, making it compliant with the European Union’s Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) regulations ahead of a July 1 deadline. In a statement on Tuesday, Ripple said that once its CASP is finalized, it would be able to provide regulated cryptoasset services to financial institutions and businesses across the 30-member European Economic Area (EEA). Combined with Ripple’s existing EU Electronic Money Institution (EMI) licence, the CASP license means that European banks, fintechs, and businesses can access Ripple’s full cryptoasset and stablecoin payments infrastructure through a single integration, the company said. The two licenses, when finalized, will make Ripple fully…
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Irony abounds as infamous ‘sandwich’ bot exploited for $7.7M
Jaredfromsubway.eth MEV bot suckered into giving away millions
An infamous “sandwich” bot was exploited for $7.7 million in a hack dripping with irony. Jaredfromsubway.eth is a maximal extractable value (MEV) bot that specializes in sandwich attacks, in which an attacker sees a trade waiting to be executed and makes the same buy directly before the trade and sells immediately after it. The way it works is that the sandwiched trade raises the price of the cryptocurrency being bought, letting the bot sell at a profit. For example, if a buyer sets a $100 trade, it will jack the price up to $101. So the automated sandwich bot buys directly in front of the original trade, which now pays…
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Alchemy Launches AgentCard, a Visa Payment Card for AI
AgentCard will support crypto payments
Blockchain infrastructure provider Alchemy is partnering with Visa to launch AgentCard, a new payment method for AI agents designed to let them operate in the real world. Using agents from any provider, the virtual Visa card will let users’ AI agents ”book a vacation, order groceries, or renew a subscription on a consumer’s behalf, without the consumer ever touching a checkout screen,” Alchemy said in a statement. The AgentCard features built-in spending controls, including merchant category restrictions, per-transaction limits, and customizable budgets, all configurable at startup or in real time. “The hardest part of deploying an agent today has nothing to do with intelligence, it is getting the agent set…
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BitGo Offers Exchanges MiCA Access As Deadline Looms
Crypto custody firm offers licensed infrastructure before July 1 deadline
Crypto custody firm BitGo has launched a crypto-as-a-service platform designed to help exchanges meet the European Union’s Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) regulations. With the EU’s July 1 deadline for MiCA compliance fast approaching, firms without MiCA licenses won’t be able to continue serving customers after that date. In an X post, BitGo CEO Mike Belshe said that instead of leaving customers high and dry during licensing delays, firms that are “still waiting on approval, or [would] rather use licensed infrastructure than build it yourself, we can help keep you moving safely and compliantly.” BitGo Europe is already MiCA-licensed through Germany’s BaFIN regulator, which oversees crypto exchanges, custodians, and token issuers,…
