Italian watchdog, Dubais largest bank warn against cryptocurrencies

In other cryptocurrency news, Italy’s market watchdog Consob said on Thursday that cryptocurrency exchange Binance, the world's biggest exchange by spot trading volumes, is not authorized to carry out activities in the European country.

The regulator said last month that the uncontrolled spread of cryptocurrencies was a cause for concern and warned savers to “adopt the utmost caution” when transacting in crypto assets. A Binance spokesperson told Reuters its website did not operate out of Italy and that the Consob notice had no direct impact on its services.

Cell phone carrier T-Mobile faces a lawsuit over allegations it failed to safeguard against a SIM swap scam that cost one customer a $55,000 loss in Bitcoin.

Plaintiff Richard Harris said T-Mobile’s misconduct included its failure to adequately protect customer information and hire the appropriate support staff. He alleged this violation of federal and state laws led to his loss of 1.63 bitcoin, according to CoinDesk.

France proposed Tuesday that EU governments give the responsibility of regulating cryptocurrencies to the pan-European markets watchdog, the Paris-based European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA), instead of national regulators, the Financial Times reported.

The French markets regulator has also called for the ESMA to be given more power to regulate the crypto industry, Bitcoin News reported.

Emirates NBD, Dubai’s largest bank, has cautioned against investing in Bitcoin or other digital currencies, deeming them too volatile.

“This high level of volatility will have to subside substantially for cryptocurrencies to be universally accepted in our society, for portfolio managers to accept cryptocurrencies in their portfolios and for investors in general to be able to ascribe a fair value to them,” Georgio Borelli, the bank’s head of asset allocation and quantitative strategies, told Arabian Business.