Regulation

Paraguay’s president, Mario Abdo Benítez, vetoed a bill that sought to recognize cryptocurrency mining as an industrial activity on Monday. He reasoned that mining’s high electricity consumption could hinder the expansion of a sustainable national industry.  The decree stated that crypto mining uses intensive capital with low manpower usage, and therefore would not generate added

United States House of Representatives member Tom Emmer has reportedly suggested that regulating and encouraging innovation in the crypto space should not be a political win for either Democrats or Republicans. According to an interview released Tuesday by Axios reporter Brady Dale, Emmer said many of his colleagues in Congress were treating cryptocurrencies as a

Thailand’s Securities and Exchange Commission, or SEC, announced enforcement actions against the chief technology officer of crypto exchange Bitkub, who allegedly used insider information around the purchase of Bitkub Coin (KUB). In a Tuesday announcement, the Thai SEC said it had fined Bitkub chief technology officer Samret Wajanasathian 8,530,383 baht — roughly $234,000 at the

Regulators are tasked with balancing between protecting consumers and creating environments where entrepreneurs and the private sector can thrive. When markets face distortions, perhaps due to an externality or information asymmetry, regulation can play an important role. But regulation can also stifle entrepreneurship and business formation, leaving society and its people worse off. The United

With more institutions joining the Web3 space, regulation has been identified as one of the trickier challenges that can either smother creativity or become a potential catalyst to broader adoption.  In an interview with Cointelegraph, Jaime Baeza, the CEO of crypto hedge fund ANB Investments, shared the challenges in managing funds in the crypto space,

The saga of the defunct Turkish crypto exchange, Thodex, continues as its fugitive founder is now in custody in Albania. Local law enforcement detained Faruk Fatih Özer in an operation carried out at 05:30 AM (UTC) on Tuesday, Aug. 30, in the country’s capital city Tirana. According to a report by Cointelegraph Turkey, Özer is currently

Iran’s Industry, Mines and Trade Ministry has approved the use of cryptocurrency for imports into the country amid ongoing international trade sanctions. According to local news reports, Trade Minister Reza Fatemi Amin confirmed that detailed regulations have been approved outlining the use of cryptocurrencies for trade and supplying fuel and electricity to Bitcoin (BTC) and

Singapore-based crypto lending firm Hodlnaut was placed under interim judicial management, a form of creditor protection program, by the Singapore court on Aug. 29. The court orders came three weeks after Hodlnaut froze all trading activities and withdrawals on its platform citing a liquidity crisis. In an official blog post on Aug. 30, the crypto

In another shift toward widespread crypto adoption in Argentina, citizens from the Mendoza Province can now pay government fees and taxes using cryptocurrencies.  In an Aug. 27 statement, the Mendoza Tax Administration (ATM) described the new crypto payment service as fulfilling “the strategic objective of modernization and innovation,” giving “taxpayers different means to comply with

Ripple Labs General Counsel Stu Alderoty has hit back at a recent opinion piece by Security and Exchange Commission chairman Gary Gensler, arguing that the regulator’s crypto market shakedowns aren’t protecting consumers.  In an Aug. 28 opinion piece on the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) titled “The SEC Wants to Be America’s Crypto Cop,” Alderoty claimed

Australia’s financial regulator, the Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC), has pledged to put crypto assets and decentralized finance (DeFi) firmly in its sights over the next four years. The regulator intends to focus on “digitally enabled misconducts” and to protect investors “from harms posed by crypto-assets.” Given the ASIC’s history of anti-crypto sentiments, such an

The South Korean central bank has indicated that initial coin offerings (ICOs) will be allowed under the Digital Assets Framework Act, according to a local news report. That comprehensive legislation is expected to be introduced in 2023 and implemented the following year.  The Bank of Korea (BOK) discussed ICOs in comments to a Korean translation

The creators of Three Arrows Capital are missing, according to reports, when court-appointed liquidators visited the firm’s Singapore headquarters recently, all they discovered was a locked door and a stack of outdated mail. Singapore-based 3AC is among the flagship cryptocurrency firms that have crumbled under bear pressure and faced liquidity issues driven by the market

With the rise of the Taliban last year in August, Afghanistan faced global sanctions that led to many international organizations and money transaction services halting operations in the country. This made room for digital currencies and stablecoins to be widely used, at least to send or receive remittances. However, the Taliban government has recently banned

The managing director of the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), Ravi Menon, addressed the agency’s mixed signals on crypto in the public sphere at a seminar on Aug. 29. The public claimed that local regulators were spreading crypto-positive sentiments while simultaneously threatening more regulations. According to the new statement from Menon, the observation is not

Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse took to Twitter to deny recent explosive claims made by Crypto Leaks, an online publication focusing on corruption and fraud-related news in the crypto ecosystem. Crypto Leaks published a report on Friday containing a series of short videos from an unknown source. The report claimed that Ava Labs formed a secret pact

Ava Labs CEO Emin Gün Sirer has dismissed sensational allegations from CryptoLeaks that his company used litigation to “harm” competitors and fool regulators, labeling it as “conspiracy theory nonsense.” Sirer made the comments in an Aug. 28 Twitter post to his 280,500 followers, referring to an Aug. 26 article from CryptoLeaks alleging the company formed

Major crypto exchange Binance has confirmed it restricted account access to $1 million in crypto for a Tezos tool contributor after being called out on social media. In a Thursday Twitter thread, Binance said it had restricted the account of Tezos staking rewards auditor Baking Bad “as the result of a law enforcement request.” The

In a cease-and-desist letter to fast-growing crypto exchange FTX, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) shed light on a now-deleted tweet from the exchange’s president, Brett Harrison, and issued a stark warning over the company’s messaging. Harrison’s original tweet said, “Direct deposits from employers to FTX US are stored in individually FDIC-insured bank accounts in

The Celsius Network is one of many crypto lending firms that has been swept up in the wake of the so-called “crypto contagion.”  Rumors of Celsius’ insolvency began circulating in June after the crypto lender was forced to halt withdrawals due to “extreme market conditions” on June 13 and eventually filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy