Regulation

United States Senators Elizabeth Warren and Ron Wyden have cited the recent collapse of three major banks to call on the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board to “rein in” audits of crypto firms. In a March 21 letter to Public Company Accounting Oversight Board chair Erica Williams, Warren and Wyden reiterated concerns over “shady audits”

The first day of Paris Blockchain Week (PBW) is bringing more thoughts on the ongoing crisis in the global banking system, with industry executives comparing the collapses of major cryptocurrency firms like FTX with the fall of banks like Silicon Valley Bank (SVB). On March 22, PBW hosted a panel discussion titled “FTX, Luna, Celsius,

The metaverse continues to be a hot topic in the Web3 space, as a group of industry professionals took to the Venus de Milo stage at Paris Blockchain Week 2023 to discuss the future of digital reality.  In the panel “Metaverse Regulation: Dos and Don’ts,” the group discussed how regulators around the world might interpret

New York’s Emily Xie is exploring the new frontier of digital art by combining her skills and passion for computer science and generative art.  In a little under two years, since she minted her first NFT in March 2021, she has caught the attention of prolific collectors, such as Punk6529, DC Investor and Bob Loukas,

Regulators and industry players highlighted a number of implications and potential impacts of the European Union’s Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) regulation at the Paris Blockchain Week 2023. A panel titled ‘MiCA: How is the EU Regulating Crypto?’ delved into the proposed MiCA regulation which is expected to take effect in 2024. The 400-page regulatory guideline

Russia-linked cryptocurrency exchange Bitzlato has partially restored access to user funds despite being officially seized by European authorities. Bitzlato has enabled its users to withdraw up to 50% of assets stuck on the platform due to enforcement from the United States and Europol, the firm announced on its Telegram channel on March 20. According to

United States federal prosecutors have charged a former executive of the fraudulent cryptocurrency scheme OneCoin for her role in the operation, who now faces up to 40 years in prison after being extradited from Bulgaria. On March 21 the Department of Justice (DOJ) charged OneCoin’s former head of legal and compliance Irina Dilkinska with one

Lawyers representing a class-action lawsuit against “BitBoy Crypto” YouTuber Ben Armstrong and other crypto influencers for allegedly promoting crypto exchange FTX claimed Armstrong has made multiple threats against them. A March 20 court filing by the class action’s lawyers in a Florida District Court claimed Armstrong “began harassing” the lawyers after the suit was filed

Republican Senator Ted Cruz has introduced a bill to block the United States Federal Reserve from launching a “direct-to-consumer” central bank digital currency (CBDC). In a March 21 statement, Cruz said he introduced the bill to prevent the Fed from developing a retail CBDC “which could be used as a financial surveillance tool by the

If the United States government really is implementing “Operation Choke Point 2.0” it will hurt financial stability and may have contributed to the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) according to Donald Trump’s former Acting White House Chief of Staff, Mick Mulvaney. “I don’t want to think that the government would actually do that,” Mulvaney

A bankruptcy judge overseeing the bankruptcy case for crypto lending platform Celsius Network has approved a settlement plan allowing custody account holders to get back 72.5% of their crypto holdings. In a March 21 hearing, United States Bankruptcy Judge Martin Glenn signed off on an agreement allowing Celsius custody account holders the right to receive

Sushi DAO proposed the creation of a legal defense fund on March 21 in response to the “recent” subpoena of Sushi head Jared Grey and the decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) itself by the United States Securities and Exchange Commission.  The DAO’s proposal did not provide details about the SEC subpoena. It stated that it was

Cody Harris, member of the Texas House of Representatives, has introduced a resolution aiming to have the legislature say the “Bitcoin economy is welcome” in the state. In a resolution released on March 21, Harris encouraged Texas lawmakers to “express support for protecting individuals who code or develop on the Bitcoin network” as well as

The United States Internal Revenue Service said it plans to release guidance on having nonfungible tokens, or NFTs, treated as collectibles under the U.S. tax code. In a March 21 notice, the IRS called for feedback from the U.S. public on how NFTs could be taxed as collectibles. According to the government body, collectibles under

The self-regulatory trade association CryptoUK has proposed providing a ‘white list’ of registered firms in the United Kingdom to address banks limiting or banning transactions to crypto companies. In separate letters to U.K. Economic Secretary Andrew Griffith and members of the Financial Conduct Authority and Payment Systems Regulator dated March 21, CryptoUK said many banks

With public trust in large tech companies at an all-time low, Congress is once again considering comprehensive data privacy legislation. But the rise of blockchain technologies and the nascent decentralized web mean that these comprehensive proposals are already behind the times. Without major revisions, these legislative proposals risk strangling decentralizing technologies in the cradle.  The

Australia’s prudential regulator has reportedly asked local banks to report on cryptocurrency transactions amid the ongoing contagion of Silicon Valley Bank’s (SVB) collapse. The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) has started requesting banks to declare their exposures to startups and crypto-related companies, the Australian Financial Review reported on March 21. The regulator has ordered banks

United States-based crypto exchange Coinbase decided to communicate proactively on crypto staking, which had recently attracted regulators’ attention. The company’s petition to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) explains why staking can’t be universally labeled as securities. The “Petition for Rulemaking” was published by Coinbase on March 20. In an 18-page document, the firm focused

U.S. officials are reportedly studying ways to expand the current scope of deposit insurance that would guarantee all U.S. bank deposits should the current banking crisis worsen. The current deposit insurance cap under the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) stands at $250,000, however, following the collapse of several banks in March, there have been calls

A central bank digital currency (CBDC) can impact monetary policy by increasing money velocity, disintermediation, volatility of bank reserves, currency substitution and altered capital flows, even when it is not designed to do so, according to a study published by the International Monetary Fund. The unintended impact of a CBDC may be felt particularly acute