The Australian government is bolstering its market regulator’s digital asset team as part of a “multi-stage approach” aimed at clamping down on crypto and ensuring proper risk disclosures from crypto firms. A Feb. 2 joint statement by Australian Treasurer Jim Chalmers and Assistant Treasurer Stephen Jones explained that the new measures are aimed at protecting consumers
Regulation
Crypto bank Silvergate is reportedly being probed by the United States Department of Justice fraud unit over its involvement with the bankrupt FTX exchange and its affiliates. The probe is investigating Silvergate’s hosting of accounts linked to former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried’s businesses, according to “people familiar with the matter” as reported by Bloomberg on
CryptoZoo and Logan Paul have been named as defendants in a newly filed class-action lawsuit, which alleges they stole millions of dollars worth of purchaser’s cryptocurrency via a “fraudulent venture.” In a court filing on Feb. 2 in the District Court of the Western District of Texas, plaintiff Don Holland alleged that Paul and executives
Indonesia’s Ministry of Trade is reportedly aiming to roll out a national crypto exchange by June this year, six months after its previous target of December 2022. Trade Minister Zulkifli Hasan shared the new target launch date on Feb. 2 at the opening of Crypto Literacy Month in Jakarta, noting that the government is currently
Our weekly roundup of news from East Asia curates the industry’s most important developments. Huawei moves to trademark its NFTs According to a Jan. 28 report by Sina News, Chinese telecom giant Huawei has recently filed for eight trademarks related to its Huawei “YunYunBao” nonfungible tokens (NFT) series. The trademarks include digital collectibles in the
The number of crypto-related enforcement actions in the United States grew notably in 2022, according to a survey released by blockchain risk monitoring firm Solidus Labs. Both federal and state regulators broke records for enforcement actions. There were 58 actions carried out by the four main U.S. federal agencies engaged in crypto enforcement in 2022.
Finnish company Membrane Finance has released a fully-reserved stablecoin backed by the euro, according to a Feb. 2 blog post from the company. The company is licensed by the Finnish Financial Supervisory Authority (Fin-FSA) and claims that the new ”EUROe” coin is “the first and only EU-regulated crypto stablecoin.” Membrane Finance is excited to announce
Lawyers representing a crypto user allegedly behind a $116-million exploit of decentralized exchange Mango Markets have consented to detention in the criminal case involving commodities fraud, commodities market manipulation and wire fraud. According to accounts of social media users present on Feb. 2, Mango Markets user Avraham Eisenberg’s legal team waived his right to bail
Fumio Kishida, the Prime Minister of Japan, has come out in support of blockchain as a potential solution for technological issues facing the country. In response to questioning from Liberal Democratic Party member Masaaki Taira before the Budget Committee of Japan’s House of Representatives on Feb. 1, Kishida said there were “various possibilities for using
In this week’s episode of Market Talks, Cointelegraph welcomes Budd White, chief product officer and co-founder of Tacen, a United States-based software company developing compliance software for a well-regulated crypto space. To kick things off, we get to know Budd a little better and find out his background and what drew him to the space. We also
Senator Tim Scott, the Republican ranking member on the United States Senate Banking Committee, reportedly plans to develop “a bipartisan regulatory framework” for cryptocurrencies. According to a Feb. 2 report from Politico, Scott included the crypto framework as one of his priorities for the 118th Congress. He reportedly was skeptical of some aspects of crypto,
Crypto tax planning can help optimize taxes by identifying opportunities to minimize tax liability on cryptocurrency transactions. For instance, donating cryptocurrency to a charitable organization can provide a tax deduction and also avoid capital gains tax on the donated assets. Crypto tax-loss harvesting is another strategy that cryptocurrency investors use to reduce their overall tax
Filing taxes for cryptocurrency can be a confusing and daunting task for many individuals. The United States Internal Revenue Service (IRS) treats cryptocurrency as property subject to capital gains taxes. Knowing this appears to make filing crypto taxes simple, but crypto’s unique nature means there are many unanswered questions. Accurately reporting gains and losses can
Stablecoins have been under much scrutiny since the implosion of the third-largest stablecoin by market cap, TerraUSD (UST), in May 2022. The UST saga led to a lot of skepticism that caused consumers to question the safety of stablecoins. In the seventh episode of Hashing It Out, Cointelegraph’s Elisha Owusu Akyaw (GhCryptoGuy) interviews Paolo Ardoino,
One of India’s biggest retail chains, Reliance Retail, announced that they have started accepting the digital rupee at one of its store lines and plans to extend the rollout to all its businesses. In a report by Tech Crunch, the company said central bank digital currency (CBDC) support is already rolled out at Freshpik, its
A Voyager creditor and finance lawyer wants to see a chapter 11 trustee appointed in crypto brokerage Voyager Digital’s bankruptcy trial, which would see Voyager lose control of its estate. In a Feb. 1 motion, Voyager creditor Michelle DiVita accused Voyager of having a “history of financial statement inaccuracies and public misrepresentations that were known,
Recent charges brought against Mango Markets exploiter Avraham Eisenberg will have a positive impact on the decentralized finance (DeFi) space, according to credit rating firm Moody’s. In a Jan. 31 note from Moody’s Investor Service, AVP of decentralized finance Cristiano Ventricelli stated that enforcement actions brought by the two leading U.S. market regulators in January
The total crypto market cap jumped nearly 4% following a speech from United States Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell in which he suggested the economy’s disinflationary process has started. “We can now say, I think for the first time, that the disinflationary process has started […] we see it really in goods prices,” said Powell
A proposed class action suit against cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase, Coinbase Global and CEO Brian Armstrong alleging unregistered securities sales was dismissed in the United States District Court of Southern New York on Feb. 1. The suit, filed on March 11, claimed that 79 of the tokens listed on Coinbase were securities being sold without proper
The Office of Foreign Assets Control of the United States Department of the Treasury has added two cryptocurrency wallets allegedly connected to a Russian sanctions evasion network as part of its list of Specially Designated Nationals. In a Feb. 1 announcement, OFAC said it had added one Bitcoin (BTC) address and one Ether (ETH) address