Stablecoins and Ether (ETH) are commodities and should come under the purview of the United States Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), its chairman has again asserted at a recent Senate hearing. At the Mar. 8 Senate Agricultural hearing, CFTC chair, Rostin Behnam, was asked by Senator Kirsten Gillibrand about the differing views held by the…
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Cryptocurrency firms operating multiple entities in different countries should be overseen by one consolidated “home” regulator to stop them from playing “games” aimed at skirting regulators, the acting head of the United States banking regulator has opined. Michael Hsu, the Acting Head of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) made the comments in prepared remarks…
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Nonfungible token (NFT) conglomerate Yuga Labs is facing some criticism from the cryptocurrency community, including the creator of Bitcoin Ordinals, over how it plans to auction its new Bitcoin NFT collection. On Mar. 5, Yuga opened bids for its “TwelveFold” collection which will see 300 NFT-like images inscribed on Satoshis using the Bitcoin-native Ordinals protocol,…
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The United States commodities regulator is set to take a close look at the decentralized finance (DeFi) space at an upcoming meeting of its tech committee, where it has also invited crypto industry executives to present. The Commodities Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) stated on Mar. 1 that the agenda for its Mar. 22 meeting of…
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Cryptocurrency lawyers have rebuffed comments made by the head of the United States securities regulator, claiming in a recent interview that every cryptocurrency except Bitcoin (BTC) is a security that falls under its jurisdiction. In a wide-ranging Feb. 23 New York Magazine interview discussing crypto, the chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Gary…
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A cryptocurrency mining rights bill with laws that would prohibit the discrimination of crypto miners is one step closer to fruition after passing the Montana Senate. The proposed laws would enshrine a “right to mine digital assets” and would prohibit “discriminatory” electricity rates being charged to crypto miners, protect mining that occurs “at home” and…
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The United States Federal Reserve has denied a request from cryptocurrency bank Custodia Bank to reconsider its membership application to the Federal Reserve System. The Fed announced its denial on Feb. 23 saying the Federal Reserve Board previously decided that Custodia’s application “was inconsistent with the required factors under the law.” @federalreserve announces it has…
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Cryptocurrency exchange CoinEx has been sued by the New York Attorney General, Letitia James, alleging the firm falsely represented itself as an exchange due to failing to register as a securities and commodities broker-dealer in the state. A 38-page petition filed by James in the New York Supreme Court on Feb. 22 alleged CoinEx “engaged…
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Hong Kong’s ambition of becoming a cryptocurrency hub is reportedly seeing subtle support from the Chinese government, in what could be seen as a contrast to the mainland’s hard-line anti-crypto stance. In October last year, the government of Hong Kong floated the idea of introducing its own bill to regulate crypto and allow retail investors…
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The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has filed a lawsuit against Terraform Labs and its founder Do Kwon for allegedly “orchestrating a multi-billion dollar crypto asset securities fraud.” In a Feb. 16 statement, the SEC said Kwon and Terraform offered and sold an “inter-connected suite of crypto asset securities, many in unregistered transactions.”…
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