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Some 882 people were detected crossing the English Channel on Tuesday, the Home Office has said.

It is the highest number on a single day so far this year.

The total number of arrivals by small boats in 2024 now stands at a provisional total of 12,313, which is 18% higher than the total at the equivalent point last year, when it was 10,472.

It’s also 5% higher than the total at this stage in 2022, which was 11,690.

On Tuesday, 15 boats were detected, suggesting an average of about 59 people per boat.

Having 15 boats cross in a single day has only happened twice in the past year – the last occurrence being in September last year.

There were 29,437 arrivals across the whole of 2023, down 36% on a record 45,774 arrivals in 2022.

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Crypto self-custody is a fundamental right, says SEC’s Hester Peirce

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Crypto self-custody is a fundamental right, says SEC's Hester Peirce

Hester Peirce, a commissioner of the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and head of the SEC’s Crypto Task Force, reaffirmed the right to crypto self-custody and privacy in financial transactions.

“I’m a freedom maximalist,” Peirce told The Rollup podcast on Friday, while saying that self-custody of assets is a fundamental human right. She added:

“Why should I have to be forced to go through someone else to hold my assets? It baffles me that in this country, which is so premised on freedom, that would even be an issue — of course, people can hold their own assets.”

Privacy, SEC, Freedom, United States, Self Custody, Bitcoin Adoption, ETF
SEC commissioner Hester Peirce discusses the right to self-custody and financial privacy. Source: The Rollup

Peirce added that online financial privacy should be the standard. “It has become the presumption that if you want to keep your transactions private, you’re doing something wrong, but it should be exactly the opposite presumption,” she said.

The comments came as the Digital Asset Market Structure Clarity Act, a crypto market structure bill that includes provisions for self-custody, anti-money laundering(AML) regulations, and asset taxonomy, is delayed until 2026, according to Senator Tim Scott.

Related: SEC to hold privacy and financial surveillance roundtable in December

Exchange-traded funds (ETFs) challenge Bitcoin’s self-custody ethos

Many large Bitcoin (BTC) whales and long-term holders are pivoting from self-custody to ETFs to reap the tax benefits and hassle-free management of owning crypto in an investment vehicle.

“We are witnessing the first decline in self-custodied Bitcoin in 15 years,” Dr. Martin Hiesboeck, the head of research at crypto exchange Uphold, said.