Regulation

As the Bank of Spain embraces the potential adoption of a digital euro, the country’s population doesn’t appear to have the same strong appetite for the European Central Bank’s digital currency project.  This emerges from the results of a survey published by the Bank of Spain entitled “Study on the habits in use of cash.” The

Turkey is reportedly drafting fresh regulations to govern crypto assets in an effort to convince the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) — an international organization responsible for combating financial crimes — to remove it from a “grey list” of nations that have not done enough to combat money laundering and terrorist financing. The FATF placed

Artificial intelligence developers heavily rely on illegally scraping copyrighted material from news publications and journalists to train their models, a news industry group has claimed. On Oct. 30, the News Media Alliance (NMA) published a 77-page white paper and accompanying submission to the United States Copyright Office that claims the data sets that train AI

Amir Bruno Elmaani, the 31-year-old founder of the now-defunct cryptocurrency scheme Oyster Protocol has been handed the maximum sentence of four years in prison for tax evasion. The United States Attorney’s Office said on Oct. 31 that Elmaani — also known by the alias “Bruno Block” — was sentenced to prison following his April 6

The United States commodities regulator has paid $16 million this year to whistleblowers who gave information leading to successful enforcement actions with a majority of the tips involving crypto. In an Oct. 31 statement, Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) commissioner Christy Goldsmith Romero said most of the tips received this year involved crypto which she

United States Senator Cynthia Lummis has scored another one for crypto with a Government Accountability Office (GAO) decision issued on Oct. 31. The GAO found that Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Staff Accounting Bulletin 121 should be subject to congressional review. That bulletin, issued in March 2022, has been a source of ire for many

The rise of digital currencies, exemplified by Bitcoin (BTC), brought a groundbreaking shift in the financial landscape.  However, it also brought to light a critical challenge: price volatility. Bitcoin and many other early cryptocurrencies exhibited extreme price fluctuations, making them difficult to use for everyday transactions or as a reliable store of value. Users recognized

Bastion, a new cryptocurrency startup created by former Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) executives, has secured two money transmitter licenses (MTL) in the United States. Bastion has acquired MTLs in New Hampshire and Arkansas, the first two licenses obtained by the firm, Bastion announced on Oct. 31. The new licenses, granted by the New Hampshire Banking Department

Attorneys representing former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried have written another letter to the presiding judge, seeking changes to the jury instructions. In the letter addressed to Judge Lewis Kaplan, the defense attorneys requested that the jury consider the role of English law in governing FTX’s terms of service. The proposal calls on the 12 jurors

The Dubai Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (VARA) has issued a Virtual Asset Service Provider (VASP) license to the crypto wallet Backpack, resulting in the launch of Backpack Exchange.  Backpack’s VARA license is limited to crypto exchange services in Dubai and does not allow the company to offer any other of its virtual asset products and

A coalition of major social media platforms, AI developers, governments and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have issued a joint statement pledging to combat abusive content generated by artificial intelligence (AI). On Oct. 30, the United Kingdom issued the policy statement, which includes 27 signatories including the governments of the United States, Australia, Korea, Germany and Italy,

Digital asset manager Valkyrie Investments is the latest firm to amend its spot Bitcoin (BTC) exchange-traded fund (ETF) filing with United States securities regulators. Valkyrie filed an updated spot Bitcoin ETF with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Oct. 30, according to the SEC database. The updated form S-1 registration statement for the Valkyrie

The Kenyan government plans to roll out its digital identification system in December 2023 after the testing period, which will take the next few months. According to the president of Kenya, William Ruto, whose speech at the East Africa Device Assembly Kenya plant in Athi River was cited by local media on Oct.30: “The digital

The Spanish Ministry of Economy and Digital Transformation reported that the first comprehensive European Union crypto framework, the Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) Act, will come into force on a national level in December 2025. As follows from the release published by the Ministry on Oct. 26, the first vice president of Spain, Nadia Calviño, has

There’s a slim chance the United States Securities and Exchange chief Gary Gensler could pull the plug on spot Bitcoin (BTC) exchange-traded funds in one “amazingly sadistic” move, according to Bloomberg ETF analysts.  In an Oct. 31 tweet directed at senior Bloomberg ETF analysts James Seyffart and Eric Balchunas, ETF commentator Dave Nadig posed whether

Terraform Labs co-founder Do Kwon has requested a United States district judge to reject the securities and fraud suit from the federal securities regulator, claiming it has failed to prove they did anything wrong. In an Oct. 27 filing to a New York District Court, lawyers for Kwon and Terraform argued its cryptocurrencies Terra Luna

Last week, the criminal trial of FTX founder and CEO Sam “SBF” Bankman-Fried continued in New York, with the man himself giving testimony as part of his defense. According to the SBF, he didn’t know any details about the creation of North Dimension, an alleged “shadowy entity” used to launder customer funds from the crypto

The trial of payment platform developer Terraform Labs co-founder Shin Hyun-Seong, also known as Daniel Shin, and seven others got underway in Seoul Southern District Court in South Korea on Oct. 30, according to local news reports. Shin is accused of defrauding investors. Also at issue was whether or not Luna is a security. Shin

The ghastly events of this past month raise again some troubling questions: Does crypto have a terrorist fundraising problem? Are its networks really being exploited by terrorists to wreak global havoc? If so, what must it do better? On the other hand, maybe the problem is one of perception — more appearance than reality —

United States President Joe Biden issued an executive order on Oct. 30 establishing new standards for artificial intelligence (AI) safety and security.  Biden’s order stated it is building off previous actions taken, including AI safety commitments from 15 leading companies in the industry. The new standards have six primary points, along with plans for the