Regulation

The Central Bank of the United Arab Emirates (CBUAE), along with other regulators in the country, has recently published new joint guidance for virtual asset service providers (VASPs) operating within the country. The new guidelines include penalties for VASPs operating without proper licenses within the jurisdiction.  The National Anti-Money Laundering and Combating Financing of Terrorism

As the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) pushes forward with its proposal to increase cryptocurrency surveillance, a past report might offer a clue for how this information may be used in practice. In short, with the IRS set to keep tabs on Americans’ cryptocurrency usage through an expected 8 billion new returns, it seems the Department

The United States Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has proposed a rule to allow it to supervise large non-bank digital wallet and app providers. The rule is part of a larger move by the agency that has seen it extend its supervision to consumer reporting, consumer debt collection, student loan servicing, international money transfers and

FTX collapse: Unraveling the cryptocurrency crisis of November 2022 In November 2022, the cryptocurrency world was rocked by the collapse of FTX, one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges. The collapse was triggered by a liquidity crisis at FTX, which was caused by a combination of factors, including mismanagement of customer funds and risky trading practices

Coinbase has expanded its Global Advisory Council with four national security experts, it announced on Nov. 7. The new members will help the cryptocurrency exchange assess the impact of regulatory uncertainty in the United States. The Coinbase council will take on a decidedly more strategic tone with the new members. Mark Esper is a former

Lawyers handling the FTX bankruptcy case are considering offers that could eventually lead to a relaunch of the troubled exchange. At an Oct. 24 hearing of the United States Bankruptcy Court in the District of Delaware, Kevin Cofsky of Perella Weinberg Partners revealed he is negotiating with several parties interested in purchasing the company. Cofsky,

Last week the administration of United States President Joe Biden issued a lengthy executive order intended to protect citizens, government agencies and companies through ensuring AI safety standards.  The order established six new standards for AI safety and security, along with intentions for ethical AI usage within government agencies. Biden said the order aligns with the

The Ministry of Culture and Information of Kazakhstan has officially confirmed they have blocked the Coinbase website in the country. The authorities of Kazakhstan have been blocking local IPs’ access to Coinbase since September at least.   According to a Nov. 7 report from a local news outlet, Kursiv, access to the Coinbase website was blocked

The Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority [VARA] is one of the earliest world regulatory bodies to release comprehensive crypto assets regulations to promote crypto-related activities in Dubai. Established in March 2022, VARA was created to promote the Emirate as a regional and international hub for virtual assets and related services. VARA released a comprehensive regulatory framework

Kenya might become the first country in the world where the industry’s representatives would develop the regulatory framework for crypto. According to the Blockchain Association of Kenya (BAK), The National Assembly’s Departmental Committee on Finance and National Planning has directed it to prepare the first draft of “what could become a virtual asset service provider’s

A United States lawmaker wants to strip the Securities and Exchange Commission chair Gary Gensler of his salary by paying him just $1 per year. In a proposed amendment to the Financial Services and General Government (FSGG), Rep. Tim Burchett suggested that Gensler’s salary be brought down to $1, as part of wider proposal to

The Office of the Inspector General (OIG) of the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has released its annual examination of the most serious management and performance challenges facing the agency. Crypto was on its list, as no surprise to anyone in the crypto community. The OIG’s “Statement on the SEC’s Management and Performance

A suite of documents was published in the United Kingdom on Nov. 6 that concern stablecoin regulation. The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) released a discussion paper, as did the Bank of England (BOE). To accompany those, the BOE’s Prudential Regulatory Authority (PRA) released a letter to CEOs of deposit-taking institutions, and the BOE released a

Former FTX CEO Sam “SBF” Bankman-Fried’s public trial in a New York court ended with the jury finding him guilty on all seven charges on Nov. 3, including two counts of wire fraud, two counts of wire fraud conspiracy, one count of securities fraud, one count of commodities fraud conspiracy and one count of money

The Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) of Hong Kong laid down the business requirements for offering tokenized securities and other investment products in a circular released Nov. 2. The market demand in Hong Kong for tokenized investment products combined with the various benefits of blockchain technology became one of the key drivers for the SFC

The cryptocurrency community is excited about the Hong Kong government reportedly weighing the launch of a spot cryptocurrency exchange-traded fund (ETF) amid the ongoing regulatory pushback against such products in the United States. Hong Kong’s potential entrance into spot crypto ETFs could be a significant development in the context of the economic confrontation between the

Bankrupt crypto exchange FTX has requested the bankruptcy court in Delaware to allow it to sell certain key trust funds, including assets from crypto asset manager Grayscale and custody service provider Bitwise valued at around $744 million. In a court filing dated Nov. 3, FTX debtors requested the court to allow them to sell Trust

The United States Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has turned its attention to how companies handle customer assets. The recent CFTC proposal seeks to enhance the rules for futures commission merchants (FCMs) and derivative clearing organizations (DCOs). These companies are now required to invest customer funds in highly liquid assets. However, the revised rules do

Lawyers representing the $116 million Mango Markets exploiter have convinced a judge to postpone the fraud trial until April 8, 2023. Avraham Eisenberg’s fraud trial was set to commence on Dec. 4 but several circumstances impacted his trial preparations, according to his lawyers, who filed a successful motion for a continuance to District Court Judge

Some of the largest United States banks are not able to facilitate customers deposits after one of the Federal Reserve’s payment systems suffered an outage on Nov. 3. The Federal Reserve said the bug was caused by a “processing issue” in the Automated Clearing House — a payment processing network widely used by banks and