Regulation
The number of countries banning crypto has doubled in three years
Although 2021 was a good year for the cryptocurrency industry in terms of market performance, the number of jurisdictions banning crypto has more than doubled since 2018. A report by the Library of Congress (LOC) details the nine jurisdictions that have now applied an absolute ban on crypto and the 42 with an implicit ban. This is up from eight and 15 respectively in 2018 when the report was first published. The LOC is the research library for the United States Senate, acting as the national library for the country. In the context of the LOC report, an absolute ban means any “transactions with or holding cryptocurrency is a criminal act”, whereas an implicit ban prohibits cryptocurrency exchanges, banks, and other financial institutions from “dealing in cryptocurrencies or offe...
SEC chair has a new senior adviser for crypto
United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) chair Gary Gensler has added a new staff member who will offer advice related to crypto policymaking and interagency work. In a Thursday announcement, the SEC said Corey Frayer would be joining Gensler’s executive staff as a senior adviser on the agency’s oversight of cryptocurrencies. Frayer has worked as a professional staff member of the Senate Banking Committee as well as a senior policy adviser for the House Financial Services Committee with Representatives Maxine Waters and Brad Miller. Frayer’s appointment to the SEC chair’s executive staff came alongside those of Philipp Havenstein, Jennifer Songer and Jorge Tenreiro, who will be working as operations counsel, investment management counsel and enforcement counsel, respect...
Speed, scaling, regulation to play key role for crypto in 2022: FTX CEO
FTX founder and CEO Sam Bankman-Fried, also known as “SBF,” rounded off 2021 on an optimistic note. SBF waxed lyrical about the crypto market’s state in 2021 while revealing the roadmap for FTX in 2022 in a Twitter flood. In his view, there are three keystones to industry progress in 2022: regulation, scaling and transaction speeds. He proposes solutions to each puzzle piece, referencing his exchange’s involvement. On regulation, SBF states stablecoins could be better reported and audited. In line with FTX stablecoin policies, he said more transparency would solve “80% of the problems while allowing stablecoins to thrive onshore.” Meanwhile, better markets oversight and an anti-fraud-based regime for token issuances could address other regulatory gaps. Secondly, while crypto users number s...
Industry experts reveal a possible method for Bank of Russia to block crypto
Amid the ongoing uncertainty about the future of cryptocurrencies in Russia, one local industry executive has disclosed a potential method for the Bank of Russia to block crypto transactions. Andrey Mikhaylishin, CEO of the local crypto payment startup Joys, said that the Russian central bank is now considering several potential options to make its crypto ban possible, Forbes Russia reported Friday. One of the possible restriction methods includes blocking debit card payments to crypto exchanges or wallets using merchant category codes (MCC), Mikhaylishin said. The report notes that the executive became aware of this blocking method from Bank of Russia employees. MCC codes are four-digit numbers used by credit card processors such as Visa or Mastercard to describe a merchant’s primary...
President Bukele fires back at critics on ‘Bitcoin experiment’
On Thursday, Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele reaffirmed his belief for Bitcoin (BTC) supremacy on Twitter once again, this time stating that after widespread adoption occurs, “it’s game over for fiat.” The Salvadoran president has been a mainstay in news headlines due to his government’s regular BTC purchases and absolute pro-Bitcoin stance. He has made frequent statements and comments to support the original cryptocurrency while refusing to budge in the face of criticism that Bitcoin is a bad idea for the nation. Related: El Salvador buys a smokin’ hot 420 more Bitcoin President Bukele’s recent tweet comes as the international community launches a barrage against El Salvador for its “Bitcoin experiment.” The International Monetary Fund criticized El Salvador’s move t...
US lawmaker planning to introduce comprehensive crypto bill in 2022: report
Wyoming Senator Cynthia Lummis, one of the United States lawmakers behind many pro-crypto pieces of legislation, is planning to introduce a comprehensive bill next year to handle digital assets. In a Thursday report, Bloomberg said Lummis’ proposed bill aimed to provide regulatory clarity on stablecoins, guide regulators as to which cryptos belong to different asset classes and offer consumer protections. In addition, the U.S. senator reportedly proposed creating an organization under the joint jurisdiction of the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission to oversee the crypto market. On Twitter, Lummis called for U.S. voters to reach out to their respective senators to support the bill, saying she was looking for bipartisan cosponsors. The Wyomi...
Indian parliament’s agenda for winter session no longer includes crypto bill
The Indian government may still be considering a bill that could ban certain cryptocurrencies in the country, but lawmakers are unlikely to vote on any legislation in the current parliamentary session. According to a Friday publication, India’s lower house of parliament, Lok Sabha, will likely not be looking at a bill proposing the prohibition of “all private cryptocurrencies” before its winter session ends on Thursday. The Cryptocurrency and Regulation of Official Digital Currency Bill does not appear as one of the seven bills on the government body’s agenda over the last days of its 2021 session. A Nov. 23 bulletin for the Lok Sabha stated that Indian lawmakers could vote on legislation that creates “a facilitative framework for creation of the official digital currency” issued by ...
Crypto regulation is coming, but Bitcoin traders are still buying the dip
Looking at the Bitcoin chart from a weekly or daily perspective presents a bearish outlook and it’s clear that (BTC) price has been consistently making lower lows since hitting an all-time high at $69,000. Bitcoin/USD on FTX. Source: TradingView Curiously, the Nov. 10 price peak happened right as the United States announced that inflation has hit a 30-year high, but, the mood quickly reversed after fears related to China-based real estate developer Evergrande defaulting on its loans. This appears to have impacted the broader market structure. Traders are still afraid of stablecoin regulation This initial corrective phase was quickly followed by relentless pressure from regulators and policy makers on stablecoin issuers. First came VanEck’s spot Bitcoin ETF rejection by the U.S....
SEC commissioner Elad Roisman will leave by end of January
Elad Roisman, one of five members of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s board, has announced his intention to resign from the government agency. In a Monday announcement, Roisman said he had sent a letter to President Joe Biden informing him of his decision to leave the SEC by the end of January 2022. The SEC commissioner said he would continue working with his colleagues “to further our mission of protecting investors, maintaining fair, orderly and efficient markets, and facilitating capital formation” until his departure. Roisman was sworn into office in September 2018 under the previous administration and served as acting SEC chair from December 2020 to January 2021, when he was replaced by commissioner Allison Herren Lee. His term was originally set to expire in 2023. Gary Gensle...
SEC commissioner Elad Roisman will leave by end of January
Elad Roisman, one of five members of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s board, has announced his intention to resign from the government agency. In a Monday announcement, Roisman said he had sent a letter to President Joe Biden informing him of his decision to leave the SEC by the end of January 2022. The SEC commissioner said he would continue working with his colleagues “to further our mission of protecting investors, maintaining fair, orderly and efficient markets, and facilitating capital formation” until his departure. Roisman was sworn into office in September 2018 under the previous administration and served as acting SEC chair from December 2020 to January 2021, when he was replaced by commissioner Allison Herren Lee. His term was originally set to expire in 2023. Gary Gensle...
US Financial Stability Oversight Council identifies stablecoins and cryptos as threats to financial system
In an annual report published on Friday, the United States Financial Stability Oversight Council, or FSOC, voiced its concern over the adoption of stablecoins and other digital assets. Regarding stablecoins, the FSOC said consumer confidence could be undermined by factors such as illiquidity, lack of appropriate safeguards, opacity regarding redemption rights, and cyber attacks. “A run on stablecoins during strained market conditions may have the potential to amplify a shock to the economy and the financial system,” the report said. The report also alerted to developments in decentralized finance, or DeFi, where the use of high leverage could trigger a fire sale when the price of the underlying asset declines. This would result in a cycle of margin calls and further price...
Six senators urge Treasury Secretary to clarify definition of broker in infrastructure law before 2022
A bipartisan group of U.S. senators have called on Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen to clarify the language in the infrastructure bill signed into law by President Joe Biden around the tax reporting requirements on crypto. In a Tuesday letter, Senators Rob Portman, Mike Crapo, Pat Toomey, Mark Warner, Kyrsten Sinema, and Cynthia Lummis urged Yellen to “provide information or informal guidance” on the definition of “broker” in the recently passed infrastructure law, HR 3684. Under the current wording, people in the crypto space including miners, software developers, transaction validators and node operators are required to report most digital asset transactions worth more than $10,000 to the Internal Revenue Service, or IRS. However, according to the U.S. lawmakers, the law contains an ...
