Regulation

The Iowa Insurance Division, or IID, a regulator responsible for many securities sales in the state, has fined crypto lending firm BlockFi more than $943,000 after it allegedly offered and sold unregistered securities. In a Tuesday announcement, the state regulator said BlockFi had “offered and sold securities in Iowa that were not registered or permitted

New York City’s Mayor Eric Adams spoke out on Monday, June 13, against a bill just one step away from effectively banning Bitcoin mining in the state for the next two years. The bill is designed to place a two-year moratorium on Proof of Work (PoW) crypto miners who do not use 100% renewable energy.

One can hardly name a document more long-hoped-for as the crypto bill, co-sponsored by United States Senators Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming and Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, was for the crypto community. And, it’s finally here. Last week, Lummis and Gillibrand introduced a 69-page bill in the U.S. Senate. What’s inside? The projects of study

Binance.US, the sister company of global cryptocurrency exchange Binance, is facing a class-action lawsuit from investors for the sale of LUNA and TerraUSD (UST). A group of investors filed a class-action lawsuit in the Northern District of California on Monday, alleging that Binance sold unregistered securities in the form of LUNA and UST to investors and

On June 2, 2022, the United States Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) initiated an action against Gemini, the crypto exchange founded by billionaire twins Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss. Among other things, the complaint alleges that Gemini made a number of false and misleading statements to the CFTC in connection with the potential self-certification of a

The Republic of Palau announced Friday that it will issue identification cards to its digital residents in the form of nonfungible tokens (NFTs) on Binance’s BNB Chain blockchain. Binance founder and CEO Changpeng Zhao (CZ) was on hand in the Pacific Island nation for the unveiling of the NFTs and to meet with Palauan President

Zcash (ZEC), a privacy coin that launched in 2016, unveiled an upgrade to its system on May 31 that will allow users to more easily make private, trustless digital cash payments on mobile phones. Not everyone would view this as a good development. The unfamiliarity, uncertainty and public intrigue surrounding privacy — including its complexity,

In modern times of rapid globalization and digitization, technological developments have now reached such proportions that the usage of cryptocurrencies is no new phenomenon. The technology behind blockchain opens the internet for financial services by replacing trust, a fundamental component of the financial system for centuries, with transparency integrated into a decentralized network. Thereby, blockchain

Coin Center, a Washingon, DC-based non-profit blockchain advocacy group, filed a lawsuit against the United States Department of the Treasury for allegedly provisioning an unconstitutional amendment in the controversial infrastructure bill. Coin Center lawsuit information about plaintiffs and defendants. Source: Case: 5:22-cv-00149-KKC In an official announcement, Coin Center revealed the filing of a suit against the Treasury

Crypto custody firm Anchorage Digital has recently formed an exchange custody network with five digital asset trading platforms to segregate institutional client funds from exchanges into regulated asset vaults.  In an announcement, the custodian mentioned that it has partnered with Binance.US, CoinList, Blockchain.com, Strix Leviathan and Wintermute. According to Anchorage, this will provide institutions with

Automated market makers are a true public good in crypto, enabling genuinely decentralized trading 24/7 and supporting the wider DeFi ecosystems. But they’re not without a host of problems, writes digital economist and academic Christos A. Makridis. The decentralized finance (DeFi) market has surged since 2021, growing from just over $20 billion to nearly $160

The Secretary of the United States Treasury, Janet Yellen, weighed in on including cryptocurrencies in retirement plans, calling them a very risky investment that should be regulated by Congress.  During an event organized by the New York Times in Washington on June 9, Yellen shared her opinion on the pioneer attempt to include crypto in

The United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit on Thursday rejected Terraform Labs CEO Do Kwon’s dispute of a subpoena by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The federal agency was seeking documents and testimony in connection with its investigation of whether Terra used the Mirror Protocol to sell unregistered securities. Kwon was

Changpeng Zhao, the CEO of crypto trading platform Binance, shared plans to acquire two licenses that are critical for the firm’s operations within the Philippines. In a press briefing in Manila, the Binance CEO mentioned that the exchange is looking to obtain the virtual assets service provider license, which allows the platform to legally facilitate

Senators Kirsten Gillibrand and Cyntia Lummis believe that most altcoins would likely be considered securities under their proposed new legislation — but confirmed that Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) will be classified as commodities.  Lummis and Gillibrand both agreed with Securities and Exchange Commision Chair Gary Gensler’s assessment that most cryptocurrencies are securities under the

The New York State Department of Financial Services (DFS) on Wednesday released regulatory guidance for U.S. dollar-backed stablecoins issued by DFS-regulated entities. According to a DFS statement, it is the first regulator in the United States to impose such expectations on a stablecoin issuer. The requirements in the guidance concern redeemability, reserves and attestation. They