On June 30, European Union policymakers hammered out an agreement on what will become the first major regulatory framework for the cryptocurrency industry. The Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) legislation will make things more challenging for crypto exchanges and stablecoin issuers operating in Europe. Under the new regulations, stablecoin issuers such as Tether and Circle will...Read More
Leading cryptocurrency lending platform BlockFi has secured a money services license in the state of Iowa, allowing the company to offer stablecoins trading and instant ACH transfers to local customers. We’re excited to announce that we’ve received our Money Services License in Iowa. Iowa residents can now trade stablecoins on our platform and instantly transfer...Read More
India’s largest crypto exchange by value – CoinDCX – has extended the withdrawal restrictions that have been in place since May 13 until further notice. It said these extreme steps are necessary to implement enhanced compliance and risk frameworks. After many investors took to social media to express their frustration over the pausing of withdrawals at...Read More
Charles Hoskinson – CEO of Input Output Global (IOK) and founder of Cardano – testified to the U.S. House Subcommittee on Commodity Exchanges, Energy and Credit on Thursday. He provided congress with information about the utility of blockchain, and what responsible regulation of the technology and industry could look like. The Benefits of Transparency In...Read More
US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chair Gary Gensler has sought a formal cooperation between financial agencies to regulate the crypto assets effectively. One Rulebook for Crypto Trade According to a news report in the Financial Times, Gensler said there should be one rule book so that bad actors don’t make use of regulatory gaps and...Read More
Singapore is often considered one of the world’s most open economies, but its relationship with the crypto industry in recent times has been inconsistent. The fintech policy chief believes the city-state will be “brutal and unrelentingly hard” on any bad behavior. Crackdown on Bad Behavior in Crypto While speaking to Financial Times, Sopnendu Mohanty, Monetary...Read More
The Blockchain and Crypto Assets Council (BACC) has asked the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) to restore the UPI service to Indian crypto exchanges. In a letter, it requested a meeting with the inter-bank retail payments and settlements body to discuss and understand its concerns around the crypto trade, media reports said. “We asked for...Read More
U.S. Congress issued another letter to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on Thursday with more educational material on proof of work. This time, however, it came with a positive spin – and was co-signed by a handful of crypto bulls, rather than skeptics. The Promises of Proof of Work The letter calls on the EPA...Read More
The government of Kazakhstan has approved guidelines for a pilot program that will foster cooperation between some banking institutions and cryptocurrency exchanges in the Astana International Financial Center (AIFC). Crypto Exchange to Open Bank Accounts According to the official announcement, second-tier Kazakhstani banks now have the green light to offer bank accounts and other financial...Read More
Digital assets exchange Huobi will close down its Thailand operations permanently with effect from July 1, 2022. A unit of the Seychelles-based company, Huobi Thailand, ran into trouble with the local watchdog in February-March 2021 when it was red-flagged for violation of regulations. Huobi Shuts Down Thai Ops “Due to the decision of the board...Read More
Chris Philp – digital minister of the United Kingdom – revealed that the Johnson administration plans to turn the country into a “global crypto hub” while reiterating a cautious stance regarding the potential crimes within the digital asset space. In a radio interview with Bloomberg on Wednesday, the minister stated that the government would push...Read More
In an interview with Axios, Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) commissioner Christy Goldsmith Romero urged Congress to close the regulatory gap on cryptocurrencies. Responding to the recent plunge that has drained over $400 billion out of the crypto market within days, she said the unregulated sector shares similarities with some parts of the financial sector...Read More
While it’s still early to speculate if Brazil is following in El Salvador’s footsteps, the latest proposal demonstrates the country racing towards meaningfully regulating the crypto industry as adoption reaches a pivotal stage. The latest bill, presented by Federal Deputy Paulo Martins on June 10, seeks to add Bitcoin (BTC) and other cryptocurrencies as a...Read More
BlockFi is far from having a peaceful season. Not only the crypto industry is suffering the hits of a bear market, now the crypto lending platform is facing a nearly $1 billion fine imposed by the State of Iowa which could have played a role in a recent decision to cut down its workforce to...Read More
The five leading cryptocurrency exchanges in South Korea – Upbit, Bithumb, Coinone, Korbit, and Gopax – will reportedly set up a joint consultative body that will oversee the local digital asset market, scheduled to go live during the second half of 2022. Trying to Prevent Another Accident Like Terra A local media revealed that Korea’s...Read More
The largest stock exchange in Nigeria – Nigerian Exchange Ltd. – will reportedly roll out a blockchain-enabled trading platform next year to facilitate the capital market and attract young investors. The main application of the distributed-ledger technology will be in trade settlements, the company revealed. According to Bloomberg, the exchange will partner up with a...Read More
The recent price plunge of cryptocurrencies has alarmed global authorities about the risk in some projects – like Terra’s ecosystem. In the context that regulatory overhauls targeting the industry may be around the corner, the Central Bank of Canada also voiced the urgency of imposing such rules before the sector has become so big that...Read More
Bitcoin mining is about to become way harder for US-based miners, not because of the automatic difficulty adjustments but because of local politicians. This time, the state of Washington announced a significant price increase that could make many miners consider moving to another state or even country. On June 01, Chelan County, one of the...Read More
The Japan Virtual and Crypto assets Exchange Association (JVCEA) – the country’s watchdog responsible for overseeing digital coin listings on local exchanges – would loosen up its screening process, according to a source acquired by Bloomberg. No More Tokens Screening From the people with knowledge of the matter, the self-regulated body – JVCEA – will...Read More
According to CFTC Commissioner Summer Mersinger, U.S. policymakers are moving closer to putting the agency at the helm of crypto regulation. The designation would expand the CFTC’s mandate and pave the way for it to regulate digital assets such as cryptocurrencies and non-fungible tokens (NFTs). Mersinger made the comments this week at a Reuters Commodities...Read More
Digital banks keep dealing with a lot of painful regulatory measures and impediments when applying for their operating permits; however, in this case, the Bitcoin Bank Custodia decided to deal with that issue… in a court of law. On May 7, Caitlin Long’s Bitcoin Bank Custodia filed a lawsuit against the Federal Reserve Board of...Read More
TerraUSD and its sister token LUNA Classic’s (LUNA) dramatic collapse have pushed the South Korean policymakers to call for swift crypto regulations. Call for Draft Regulation According to a new report, top officials have now asked cryptocurrency exchanges to devise guidelines with respect to the listing and delisting of digital tokens to safeguard the investors...Read More
India’s central bank is constantly engaged with the government on cryptocurrencies, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor said on Wednesday. “I can say that on all issues there is constant engagement between the government and the Reserve Bank, including the cryptocurrency issues. We have given our views to the government. Let’s wait for the...Read More
The head of the Russian parliament’s lower chamber (State Duma) – Anatoly Aksakov – presented legislation focused on cryptocurrencies and their employment inside Russia’s borders. If the bill gets approved, “digital financial actives” (DFA) won’t be accepted as a means of payment for any type of products or services inside the country. Scrap Crypto, the...Read More
Tom Tate, the Mayor of Gold Coast metropolitan, has suggested that Australians could pay their council rates, otherwise known as local property taxes, in cryptocurrency. “Why can’t we pay rates on cryptocurrency if the risk is not high?” he said. He also noted that the council will recruit a chief investment officer tasked with promoting...Read More
The National Bank of Ethiopia (NBE) clarified in a recent statement that it is still “illegal” to transact using Bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies. Citizens are encouraged to continue trading using the Ethiopian Birr. As reported by the state-affiliated Fana Broadcasting Corporate (FBC), Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies are yet to be recognized by the NBE as a...Read More
The a16z-backed Indian crypto exchange – CoinSwitch Kuber – announced the launch of an index that tracks the performance of crypto assets based on the Indian rupee rather than the US dollar. CoinSwitch CEO Kuber Ashish Singhal tweeted the latest updates regarding the newly unveiled index, the Crypto Rupee Index (CRE8). He stated that it...Read More
The San Francisco-based 401(k) provider ForUsAll is suing the US Labor Department for investigating businesses offering cryptocurrencies within customers’ retirement accounts. The company alleges that the department is infringing on customers’ rights to choose how to invest their own money. Violating the APA According to the complaint filed on Thursday, ForUsAll declares the DOL’s attack...Read More
In a first such attempt to counter lobby, the technologists wrote to the US lawmakers terming cryptocurrencies as “risky, flawed, and unproven digital financial instruments.” Counter-lobby Efforts As per the report by Financial Times, the 26 computer scientists and academics, including Harvard lecturer Bruce Schneier, former Microsoft engineer Miguel de Icaza and principal engineer at...Read More
The Turkish authorities are reportedly working on a draft bill to set up additional control over the local digital asset market. The legislation focuses on crypto exchanges, too, as they should have a minimum of 100 million liras ($6.1 million) in capital to operate on domestic soil. Regulations on the Way? Turkey and cryptocurrencies have...Read More
