Regulation

The Virtual Asset Regulatory Authority (VARA) recently provided the much-awaited guidelines for virtual asset service providers (VASPs) in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, which included a ban on privacy coins. On Feb. 7, VARA released several rulebooks for VASPs including the “Virtual Assets and Related Activities Regulations 2023” in which VARA mentioned a prohibition on privacy

Paxos Trust Company — the New York-based stablecoin issuer behind Binance USD (BUSD) and Paxos Dollar (USDP) — is reportedly being investigated by the New York Department of Financial Services (NYDFS). A “person familiar with the matter” told Bloomberg in a Feb. 10 report that the exact motive behind the probe is currently unclear. An NYDFS

The American state of Mississippi is one step closer to protecting the rights of cryptocurrency miners after the state senate passed the Mississippi Digital Asset Mining Act on Feb. 8. There is a companion bill under consideration in the state house of representatives.  The senate bill, authored by state Sen. Josh Harkins, legalizes home digital

Tether, the issuer of the world’s largest stablecoin by market value, has completed reserves attestation by major global accounting firm BDO. The stablecoin firm released BDO’s assurance opinion on Feb. 9, which re-affirms the accuracy of Tether’s consolidated reserves report (CRR) as of Dec. 31, 2022. The CRR shows that Tether’s consolidated assets amount to at

Michael Demissie, the head of digital assets at Bank of New York Mellon (BNY Mellon) is adamant that the cryptocurrency market fall in 2022 won’t waver institutional interest in digital assets.  At a conference run by Afore Consulting on Feb. 8, Demissie said the digital asset industry is “here to stay” as institutional investors have

United States lawmakers with the Senate Banking Committee have announced three witnesses scheduled to appear before a hearing scheduled on Feb. 14. At the time of publication, the U.S. Senate Banking Committee’s hearing titled ‘Crypto Crash: Why Financial System Safeguards are Needed for Digital Assets’ had witnesses including Vanderbilt University law professor Yesha Yadav, Duke

Major cryptocurrency data aggregator CoinGecko and crypto investment firm 21Shares have joined forces to launch a global standard for classifying various crypto asset. On Feb. 8, CoinGecko and 21Shares released The Global Crypto Classification Standard report, proposing a uniform method to categorize crypto assets. The effort aims to help investors and regulators better understand the

Lawyers representing bankrupt crypto broker Voyager Digital have served former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried and other FTX and Alameda Research executives with subpoenas requesting information. The subpoenas have a very wide scope, with Voyager’s lawyers seeking copies of any documents and communication between FTX entities and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) or the Department

Three financial watchdogs in the United States have issued a warning to investors considering certain individual retirement accounts with exposure to cryptocurrencies. In a Feb. 7 notice, the United States Securities and Exchange Commission’s Office of Investor Education and Advocacy, the North American Securities Administrators Association, and Financial Industry Regulatory Authority said self-directed individual retirement

A former product manager at cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase has moved to dismiss charges of alleged insider trading, with his lawyers arguing the tokens he allegedly traded were not securities. Lawyers representing ex-Coinbase employee, Ishan Wahi, and his brother, Nikhil Wahi, filed a motion on Feb. 6 in the United States District Court for the Western

The Bank of England (BoE) and U.K. Treasury are gearing up plans to create a digital currency that could “provide a new way to pay” without necessarily replacing cash. On Feb. 7, a joint consultation paper on Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs) is set to drop, with the BoE and Treasury seeking feedback on how,

The U.K. outline of the future financial services regulatory regime for crypto covers a broad range of topics, from the troubles of algorithmic stablecoins to nonfungible tokens and initial coin offerings. And it’s certainly good news for the industry, as the upcoming regulation doesn’t propose a ban on algorithmic stablecoins or excessive requirements on data

The International Criminal Police Organization (ICPO), or Interpol, is investigating how it could police crimes in the metaverse. However, a top Interpol executive believes there are issues with defining a metaverse crime. According to BBC, Interpol Secretary General Jurgen Stock revealed the agency’s intent to oversee criminal activities on the metaverse. Stock highlighted the ability

Rostin Behnam, chairman of the United States Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), has said he will continue efforts for the agency to regulate non-security tokens. In remarks released for a Feb. 3 American Bar Association event, Behnam pointed to “bankruptcies, failures and runs” as part of the justification for the U.S. Congress to give the

The Bank of England (BoE) and His Majesty’s Treasury believe the United Kingdom is likely to need to create a central bank digital currency (CBDC) by 2030, according to a Daily Telegraph report on Feb. 4.  The “digital pound” roadmap is set to be introduced next week, a government source told the newspaper. Deputy Governor Jon

The New Jersey Bureau of Securities has ordered three website operators to stop luring romance-seeking victims into their fraudulent cryptocurrency investment schemes. The three firms hit with the cease and desist orders were Meta Capitals Limited, Cresttrademining Limited and Forex Market Trade, according to a Feb. 3 press release from New Jersey’s Attorney General Matthew Platkin.