Regulation

Singapore’s financial regulator and central bank has pledged to be “brutal and unrelentingly hard” on any “bad behavior” from the cryptocurrency industry. The comments come from Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS)’s chief fintech officer Sopnendu Mohanty, explaining in an interview that “if somebody has done a bad thing, we are brutal and unrelentingly hard.” He

In a new blog post published Thursday, Coinbase says that starting Monday, all of its customers in the Netherlands will need to complete new Know Your Customer, or KYC, requirements when transferring digital assets to wallet addresses that are not based on the exchange. This includes providing the recipient’s full name, the purpose of the

Bybit announced that it reached a settlement agreement with the Ontario Securities Commission (OSC) on Thursday, a day after the OSC released a Statement of Allegations against the crypto asset trading platform. The agreement includes several measures to be taken by Bybit as it engages in registration talks with the Canadian regulator. This announcement comes

United States Securities and Exchange (SEC) commissioner Hester Peirce said the newly released SEC Agency Rule List is full of “hot-button” topics implemented in an unreasonable hurry, while crypto was ignored. Commissioner Peirce, who is sometimes referred to as Crypto Mom for her strong positive views on cryptocurrency, released a statement concerning the SEC Spring

The Ontario Securities Commission, or OSC, issued financial penalties against Bybit and Kucoin, claiming violations of securities laws and operating unregistered crypto asset trading platforms. In a Wednesday announcement, the Ontario regulator said it had obtained orders fining Kucoin more than $1.6 million and banning the exchange from participating in the province’s capital markets. In

A week after the major American crypto lending platform Celsius had to freeze the withdrawal option for its users, European Central Bank (ECB) president Christine Lagarde voiced her conviction on the necessity of tighter scrutiny over this part of the crypto market.  During the testimony before the European Parliament on Monday, June 20, Christine Lagarde

The Bank of International Settlements (BIS) Innovation Hub released a report Tuesday looking at four projects that examined wholesale central bank digital currency (CBDC) transfers across borders. The projects demonstrated the technical feasibility of the transfers, the BIS found, but practical and policy issues remain outstanding.  The report considered the Jura project involving the central

Gustavo Petro, who recently won the 2022 Colombian presidential election, has previously made statements in favor of cryptocurrencies. Petro will replace Iván Duque Márquez as the president of Colombia on August 7 for four years after winning the second round of a run-off election on Sunday. The president-elect took to social media in December 2017

Major cryptocurrency trading platform Huobi continues expanding its global presence by securing new licenses in New Zealand and the United Arab Emirates. Huobi Group on June 17 obtained the Innovation License under the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC), securing the company’s first-ever license there. The DIFC license is not a trading license but rather authorizes

The top social media platform in China, WeChat, has updated its policies to ban accounts that provide access to crypto or NFT-related services.  Under the new guidelines, accounts involved with the issuance, trading, and financing of crypto and NFTs will be either restricted or banned and will fall under the “illegal business” category. The policy

The government of the United Kingdom said it intends to modify a proposal that would have required crypto firms to collect personal data from individuals holding unhosted wallets that were the recipients of digital asset transfers. In its Amendments to the Money Laundering, Terrorist Financing and Transfer of Funds updated on Wene, HM Treasury said

Terra (LUNA) employees are reportedly unable to leave South Korea as the country’s prosecutors imposed a departure ban on key developers of the project. Korean media outlet JTBC reported on Monday that an investigation team from Seoul Southern District Prosecutor’s Office has imposed a travel ban on key team members of Terraform Labs. The prosecutors

Crypto exchange Binance has courted controversy almost from its 2017 beginnings, and five years later, the dustups continue. On June 6, the United States Securities and Exchange Commission was reported to be investigating whether Binance Holdings broke U.S. securities rules in launching its digital tokens. Meanwhile, on the same day, Reuters published a scathing 4,700-word

The Russian government continues establishing links with major players in the cryptocurrency mining industry despite staying skeptical about legalizing cryptocurrency trading and payments. Russia’s state-owned gas giant Gazprom Neft has entered into a partnership with BitRiver, the largest crypto mining colocation services supplier in Russia providing hosting services for major crypto mining operations. Gazprom will provide

El Salvador introduced BTC as legal tender on September 7, 2021, when its market price was around $50,000. Ever since, Bukele’s government made significant returns on their initial BTC investments as Bitcoin rallied to its all-time high of $69,000, which was redirected to the country’s various infrastructure development initiatives. However, as tensions rise amid falling

A group of 14 United States senators and House representatives have signed a letter to the Environmental Protection Agency extolling what they believe are the benefits of crypto mining. In a Thursday letter, many U.S. lawmakers including pro-Bitcoin Senator Cynthia Lummis and Representative Tom Emmer addressed EPA administrator Michael Regan, requesting the government agency analyze