In less than a week, Terraform Labs founder Do Kwon’s passport will expire. Interpol issued a red notice for Kwon last month, and this month, his assets were reportedly frozen by the South Korean government. Kwon has been tweeting freely in response — and almost always denies the reports. “I don’t know whose funds they’ve
Regulation
The Board of the International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) believes the regulators on both national and international levels need more power to address increasing risks and challenges from the “digitalization of retail marketing and distribution.” In its report, published on Oct. 12, IOSCO proposes measures for the member countries to consider when determining their
Crypto wallet provider Blockchain.com is the latest company to soon cease to provide services to Russian nationals due to the latest sanctions by the European Union. Blockchain.com has notified its users that it’s going to shut down accounts of Russian nationals in two weeks, the local news agency RBC reported on Oct. 14. According to
Nonfungible token (NFT) marketplaces should commit to combat fraudulent NFTs, but brands are far more responsible for protecting NFT investors, according to one industry executive. Brands that issue NFTs should be taking the first step to protecting themselves and potential investors from fraud, BrandShield CEO Yoav Keren said in an interview with Cointelegraph on Oct.
United States Acting Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) Michael Hsu has expressed concerns that regulators are spending “too much time on crypto,” rather than more pressing issues, such as technology and banking. The crypto skeptic OCC head made the comments during an interview with Reuters on Oct. 13, as he outlined a worry that crypto
The United States Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB)’s decision to allow companies to use “fair value” to account for their crypto holdings could be seen as another step toward the wider institutional adoption of cryptocurrency. During a meeting on Oct. 12, the FASB board made the decision to require entities to measure crypto assets at
Patrick McHenry, ranking member of the United States House of Representatives Financial Services Committee, thinks the “conversation has become unmoored” regarding financial technology and needs to return to solving real-world problems. He is currently in talks over legislation that may at least bring more clarity to stablecoins. Currently, there is no U.S. federal definition of
John Hickenlooper, a United States Senator representing Colorado, has penned a letter to Gary Gensler urging the Securities and Exchange Commission chair to establish “clear rules” for the crypto market. In an Oct. 13 letter, Hickenlooper called on the SEC to take action on regulatory issues including identifying the cryptocurrencies that will be considered sasecurities,
Members of the United Kingdom’s House of Lords have introduced legislation aimed at eliminating the need for paper trade documents, increasing the likelihood of using blockchain technology to trace records. In an Oct. 12 announcement, MP Michelle Donelan and the U.K. Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport said the Electronic Trade Documents Bill had
Fintech needs to communicate better, according to a top European Commission (EC) financial official. People ask what the need for financial technology is, and the industry has answers, but “we need to talk about this outside ourselves,” Commissioner for Financial Stability, Financial Services and the Capital Markets Union Mairead McGuinness said on Oct. 13. Appearing
Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren and a group of six other U.S. lawmakers have requested information from the head of the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, or ERCOT, on the energy usage and potential environmental impact of crypto miners. In an Oct. 12 letter, Senators Elizabeth Warren, Sheldon Whitehouse and Edward Markey and Representatives Al Green,
Custodia Bank founder Caitlin Long had a strong reaction to the news that BNY Mellon has launched a digital custody platform for Ether (ETH) and Bitcoin (BTC) holdings. Speaking at DC FinTech Week on Oct. 11, she made a comparison between the Federal Reserve’s actions and policies. BNY Mellon is the first large United States
In June 2021, Kim Kardashian published an Instagram story informing her approximately 330 million Instagram followers about the EthereumMax (EMAX) crypto token. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) charged Kardashian, claiming she violated the anti-touting provision of the Securities Act when she failed to disclose she received $250,000 in exchange for her promotion of the
United States-based crypto policy advocacy group Coin Center has followed through with its intention to take the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Asset Control, or OFAC, to court over sanctioning cryptocurrency mixer Tornado Cash. In an Oct. 12 filing in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida, lawyers for Coin Center as
Michael Barr, the vice chair for supervision for the United States Federal Reserve, warned banks of the potential risks of crypto-related activities, suggesting crypto service providers be subject to similar regulations as traditional financial institutions. In written remarks prepared for an Oct. 12 speech at D.C. Fintech Week, Barr seemed to encourage banks to explore
United States acting comptroller of the currency Michael Hsu acknowledged his skepticism about cryptocurrency and clarified his position on regulation in two thematically linked lectures on Oct. 11. “While I am skeptical of crypto’s real world utility today and hyper-aware of the risks it poses to consumers and the financial system, I cannot say with
The city of Rio de Janeiro is seeking crypto firms to operate its tax property seasoning in 2023, according to a decree published on Oct. 11, allowing taxpayers to use crypto alongside fiat currency to pay tributes. The move makes Rio the first Brazilian city to accept digital assets as payment for taxes. It is
Crypto exchange Blockchain.com has become the latest crypto company to secure preliminary approval from Singapore’s central bank to provide Digital Payment Token services in the city-state. Blockchain.com’s regulatory approval follows hot on the heels of Coinbase, which revealed it had received the same “in-principle” approval from the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) on Oct. 11. If
French authorities have reportedly utilized research from pseudonymous blockchain sleuth ZachXBT to charge five people on suspicion of stealing $2.5 million worth of nonfungible tokens (NFTs) via phishing scams. According to an Oct. 12 report from the Agence France Presse (AFP) shared by Barron’s, the alleged fraudsters built a website that masqueraded as a service
A new report from blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis has shown a surge in stablecoin usage in Russia following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which has since seen sanctions and inflation impacting the country. Released on Oct. 12, the report revealed that the share of stablecoin’s transaction volume on primarily Russian services increased from 42% in