Regulation

In a letter to Judge Lewis Kaplan, the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) sought the revocation of Sam Bankman-Fried’s (SBF) bail, accusing him of attempting to tamper with witnesses, including leaking his ex-girlfriend’s diary entries to the New York Times (NYT). These actions, connected to the FTX case, have raised concerns about witness interference.

Pro-XRP lawyer, John E. Deaton, has said that the actions taken by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) against the crypto industry are driven by a broader motive to safeguard corporate capitalism rather than prioritizing the protection of investors. Deaton highlighted what he views as an assault on cryptocurrencies, particularly in relation to the SEC’s

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) suffered another setback on July 28 as the D.C. Circuit overturned a ruling by the regulator ordering that SPIKES Index securities should be treated as ‘futures’ rather than as ‘securities futures’. The judge panel called the SEC order “arbitrary and capricious.” The decision relates to an order from

An open letter from GitHub, Hugging Face, Creative Commons and other tech firms are calling the European Union to ease upcoming rules for open-source artificial intelligence models. The letter urges policymakers to review some of the provisions of the EU’s Artificial Intelligence Act, claiming that regulating upstream open-source projects as if they are commercial products

United States Representatives Gus Bilirakis and Jan Schakowsky penned a formal letter to Apple CEO Tim Cook about concerns related to the California-based company’s App Store, and the potential effect of its guidelines on emerging technologies like blockchain and nonfungible tokens (NFTs). The letter requests information about whether the App Store’s guidelines might inadvertently hinder

Hester Pierce, commissioner of the United States Securities and Exchange (SEC), has raised concerns about the watchdog’s recent statement advising accounting firms against taking on non-audit work for crypto firms. In a July 28 tweet, Pierce challenged the recent statement made by the SEC’s chief accountant Paul Munter, proposing that accounting firms adopt an all-or-nothing approach

Lawyers representing former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried, also known as ‘SBF’, have requested the court seal documents related to his interviews with a New York Times reporter revealing details about his relationship with Caroline Ellison.  In a July 27 filing in United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, Bankman-Fried’s legal team

The United States Senate passed the 2024 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) worth $886 billion on the evening of July 27. The bill includes a provision that targets crypto mixers, anonymity-enhancing coins and institutions that are engaging in crypto trading.  The NDAA is a bill that helps authorize how the country’s defense department can utilize

Crypto fund manager Grayscale is urging the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to approve all proposed spot Bitcoin (BTC) exchange-traded funds (ETFs) at the same time to avoid one having an advantage. A July 27 post by Grayscale chief legal officer Craig Salm said its legal team submitted a letter regarding eight spot Bitcoin ETF

Tact was pervasive in the United States House of Representatives Agricultural Committee’s consideration of the Financial Innovation and Technology for the 21st Century Act on July 27. With many references to bipartisanship and self-congratulatory mentions of the members’ cooperation and hard work, the committee plowed through a series of amendments calmly and quickly.  The bill,

Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong has urged United States citizens to take action and email their representatives to vote “yes” on the Financial Innovation and Technology for the 21 Century Act (FIT21), which may provide regulatory clarity for crypto.  On July 26, lawmakers voted in favor of FIT21 and the Blockchain Regulatory Certainty Act. The bills

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

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

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

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

The Abu Dhabi Global Market Financial Services Regulatory Authority has granted its Financial Services Permission for cryptocurrency firm Rain to offer brokerage and custody services to residents.  In a July 25 announcement, Rain said the regulatory approval will allow certain United Arab Emirates-based institutional and retail users to “buy, sell, trade, and store virtual assets”