In global news this week, the European Central Bank weighs in on fractured crypto regs, China's digital wallets come to Qatar, Amazon brings buy now/pay later to Egypt, and more.

The nine banks in the group are experimenting with lending, secondary market and payments activities on the Provenance blockchain as they seek ways to perform basic banking tasks more efficiently.

The Singapore-based crypto lender that announced a freeze on withdrawals on Monday said it has signed a tentative agreement to be acquired by rival Nexo.

FTX US, the crypto exchange co-founded by the billionaire Sam Bankman-Fried, signed an agreement with BlockFi that includes an option to purchase the crypto lender for as much as $240 million. 

"It's probably the only asset class where maybe the client knows more than the advisor right now," Maxwell Lane, head of product for Flourish, said at Financial Planning's Invest conference.

FTX, the digital-asset exchange co-founded by Sam Bankman-Fried, is nearing an agreement to buy BlockFi after extending a credit line to the beleaguered crypto lending platform, according to people familiar with the matter.  

The number of active cryptocurrency users at Bank of America has declined by more than half amid the prolonged rout in the digital-asset market.

An accounting bulletin from the markets regulator is making it harder for bank regulators to give banks clarity in how they can provide crypto custody services. 

Vast Bank, Silvergate Capital and Northern Trust are among the banks that continue to build out digital-asset services, undeterred by extreme volatility in digital coin prices.

In its semiannual risk report, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency said it was working to provide clarity on the legality and soundness related to digital assets.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. eliminated underbanked households from its regular survey of the banking system during the Trump era, but the agency is now reversing that decision.

Allowing “stablecoin banks” access to the benefits of a bank charter without the obligation to carry federal deposit insurance creates moral hazard on steroids.

Michelle Bond, CEO of the Association for Digital Asset Markets, says she will compete as a Republican in a bid to succeed House Financial Services Committee member Lee Zeldin after he leaves Congress in 2023.

Gary Gensler has a message for people pouring money into crypto on promises of high returns: beware.

The layoff is another sign of a worsening crypto downturn that’s shaved off hundreds of millions of the total cryptocurrency market value.

Two big names in crypto are cutting jobs as the digital currency market continues to spiral downward.

The crypto lender Celsius Network’s shock announcement that it’s freezing withdrawals sparked a rush by companies in the digital-assets sector to reassure markets about the health of their operations.

The institution is the latest to partner with NYDIG to let customers buy and sell bitcoin within the bank's channels.

Lauded as the first step toward comprehensive regulation of digital assets, the package hits at the heart of a critical debate between banks and fintechs: Who gets a Fed account?

PayPal Holdings will let users transfer certain cryptocurrencies to other customers, exchanges and external wallets, a new service that’s part of the company’s effort to boost use of its app.