Regulation

Cryptocurrency payments platform CoinsPaid has pointed the finger at North Korean state-backed Lazarus Group as being behind the hacking of its internal systems, which allowed them to steal $37.3 million on July 22. “We suspect Lazarus Group, one of the most powerful hacker organisations, is responsible,” CoinsPaid explained in a July 26 post. While CoinsPaid

In the current climate, which is pretty hostile for the digital assets industry following the failures of 2022, central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) are often perceived as “crypto killers.” This is hardly an overstatement, as financial authorities’ aspirations concerning CBDCs are relatively straightforward: return firmer control over the movement of money before it gets too

Oral arguments began on July 26 for an appeals case on a complaint a Tennessee couple filed against the United States Internal Revenue Service (IRS) on calculating their taxes based on earnings from staking tokens.  Joshua and Jessica Jarrett received a refund check from the IRS in 2021 after filing a lawsuit arguing the IRS

A federal judge overseeing the criminal case against Sam Bankman-Fried, also known as “SBF,” will reportedly consider revoking the former FTX CEO’s $250 million bail based on allegations of intimidation against Caroline Ellison.  In a July 26 hearing in United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, individuals on site reported Assistant U.S.

The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) approved a set of sweeping changes to the rules governing the use of “optimization functions” by brokers in a committee vote on July 26. We have an upcoming @SECGov Open Meeting on July 26 | 10am ET We’ll be discussing:1⃣Cybersecurity Risk Management, Strategy, Governance, & Incident Disclosure2⃣Use

Members of the United States House Financial Services Committee seem to be divided on the best legislative path forward dealing with regulatory clarity for crypto and blockchain technology. In a July 26 markup hearing, the committee had several bills on its agenda including the Financial Innovation and Technology for the 21st Century Act, Blockchain Regulatory

Canada’s financial watchdog is proposing changes to its capital and liquidity approach to crypto assets, according to an announcement on July 26. According to the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions (OSFI), the proposed rules will simplify institutions’ approach to perceived crypto risks, defining four categories of crypto assets and their capital treatment. OSFI

An Australian court has reportedly mandated that Meta Platforms, the owner of Facebook, pay fines amounting to $14 million (A$20 million) for collecting user data through a smartphone application, Onavo.  According to a Reuters report, the Federal Court of Australia has directed Meta, along with its subsidiaries Facebook Israel and the discontinued app, to reimburse

The EOS Network Foundation (ENF) is the latest entity to initiate legal action against major investor Block.one (B1) over failure to honor $1 billion investment commitments. On July 25, ESN founder and CEO Yves La Rose took to Twitter to announce that the ESN is preparing a lawsuit against B1 for “failure to follow through

Blockchain security firm Quantamp is set to return $28 million  raised in a 2017 initial coin offering following charges brought by the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The U.S. agency announced that it had formally charged the California-based firm on July 21 for conducting an unregistered initial coin offering of “crypto asset securities”.

The controversial crypto project Worldcoin was launched for the public on July 24, making way for customers to scan their iris at designated locations in 20 countries and receive 25 Worlcoins (WLD) the native token of the project.  The project debuted on the back of 2 million pre-signups but the interest seems to have faded

Big Tech giants Google, Microsoft, ChatGPT maker OpenAI and AI startup Anthropic announced on July 26 they would form a new industry watchdog group to help regulate AI development.  In a joint statement released on the Google blog, the companies revealed their new Frontier Model Forum aimed at monitoring the “safe and responsible” development of

Cryptocurrency is deemed property capable of being held on trust, Judge Philip Jeyaretnam of the High Court of Singapore decided in a ruling on July 25. The Judge said he didn’t see any difference between crypto, fiat money or shells, as long as all those objects, physical or not, share value, created by mutual faith

On July 25, the United States Senate backed bipartisan legislation mandating U.S. companies to report any investments in Chinese technologies.  In an overwhelming vote of 91 to 6, the Senate supported the amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which is anticipated to be implemented later in 2023. The amendment will require U.S. companies

The National Crime Agency (NCA) of the United Kingdom is hiring two blockchain investigators for its newly formed Digital Assets Team within the Complex Financial Crime Team (CFCT) to tackle crypto crimes. The job involves overseeing complex investigations involving cryptocurrency and digital assets from a Proceeds of Crime Act (POCA) perspective. POCA relates to the

A Tennessee husband and wife are facing charges over “Blessings of God Thru Crypto” — an allegedly fraudulent investment scheme that swindled at least $6 million from over 100 victims in just six months. A July 24 complaint from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) said Michael and Amanda Griffis used the connections they made

The Namibian Government officially signed a law to regulate Virtual Asset Service Providers operating in the country last week, reversing its original 2017 decision to ban cryptocurrency exchanges. On July 21, the VASP-regulating law was inserted into the Gazette of the Republic of Namibia after previously being approved in Namibia’s National Assembly on July 6

The government of Palau is set to begin a pilot project for a United States dollar-backed stablecoin on July 26. The new coin will be issued on XRP Ledger. The country will release the first Palau Stablecoins (PSCs) in the pilot project to government employees. This comes after several days of testing using volunteers to

Josh Gerben, a trademark attorney with Gerben Intellectual Property, has suggested the company formerly known as Twitter could spend upwards of $100 million in dealing with litigation as a result of the X rebranding. In a July 25 X thread, Gerben predicted that lawsuits against X related to trademark infringement could appear in United States

Attorneys with the United States Department of Justice have extra time to make discovery and give former Celsius CEO Alex Mashinsky’s defense team time to review related documents. In a July 25 order, U.S. District Judge John Koeltl said he would exclude the time between July 25 and Oct. 3 from Speedy Trial Act calculations