Australian asset manager Monochrome Asset Management has landed the country’s first Australian financial services license (AFSL) for a spot crypto exchange-traded fund (ETF). Speaking to Cointelegraph, Jeff Yew, CEO of Monochrome Asset Management, said the AFSL approval is significant, as until this point, approved crypto ETFs in Australia only operate under general financial asset authorization
Regulation
The European Central Bank (ECB) says the introduction of digital cash in the form of central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) appears to be the “only solution” that will guarantee a “smooth continuation” of the current monetary system. The comments were made as part of an ECB Working Paper Series, which was published in August, discussing monetary
Canada-based crypto exchanges Bitbuy and Newton are enforcing a $30,000 (CAD) annual “buy limit” for “restricted coins” for their users based in Ontario in order to “protect consumers” amid tightened regulations. Newton, a Toronto-based crypto exchange announced the new changes come after working on getting registered with the Ontario Securities Commission and the securities regulatory authorities in
A South Korean town near Seoul has been successfully operating a pilot program that allows police to seize crypto from the exchange accounts of individuals with delinquent traffic fines. Gunpo, a city of about 275,000 in the northwestern Gyeonggi province was selected by the national government to execute the pilot program in 2022 which an
Pat Toomey, ranking member of the United States Senate Banking Committee, has sent a letter to Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) director and acting chairman Martin Gruenberg informing him of allegations made by a whistleblower concerning FDIC activities. The senator suspects the FDIC “may be improperly taking action to deter banks from doing business with
The European Central Bank, or ECB, laid the foundation for the criteria it would be considering when harmonizing the licensing requirements for crypto in Europe. In a Wednesday statement, the ECB’s banking supervision division said it would be taking steps to regulate digital assets given “national frameworks governing crypto-assets diverge quite extensively” and seemingly differing
The United States Federal Reserve Board issued a letter Tuesday to its supervisory officers, staff and the banks they supervise regarding activities with crypto assets. The letter covers the preliminary steps a bank must go through before engaging in activities with crypto and instructs banks to notify the board before proceeding with those activities. The
The United States’ move to sanction the open-source code that makes up the Tornado Cash privacy protocol may be shocking, but it’s not surprising. America has been tightening its grip over the global financial system for decades, ostensibly to cut down on bad behavior, but also to project power abroad. Economic sanctions, like the ones
Terraform Labs co-founder Do Kwon has reportedly hired a lawyer from a domestic law firm in South Korea just days after claiming the South Korean authorities are yet to reach out to him or file any charges against him. According to a local media report, Kwon recently submitted a letter of appointment to an attorney
Amid Colombia’s economic growth beat expectations in the second quarter, an official at the country’s tax and customs agency has hinted at some national digital currency plans. Luis Carlos Reyes, the head of the Colombian Tax and Customs National Authority, claimed that the government of newly inaugurated Colombian President Gustavo Petro will seek to create
There are mounting concerns that recent United States government sanctions against Tornado Cash will become a “slippery slope” for Web3 privacy that could eventually make the entire space “meaningless.” Speaking to Cointelegraph, Shumo Chu, co-founder of privacy protocol Manta Network expressed worry that the strict sanctions against Tornado Cash could have a knock-on effect on
Fewer people have fallen victim to cryptocurrency scams in 2022 so far due to falling asset prices and the exit of inexperienced crypto users from the market, a new crypto crime report reveals. According to an Aug. 16 report from Chainalysis, total crypto scam revenue year-to-date is currently sitting at $1.6 billion, equating to a 65%
The Central District of California federal court entered an order Monday to authorize the United States Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to serve a John Doe summons on SFOX, a Los Angeles-based cryptocurrency prime dealer. The IRS filed suit to receive the order, which directs SFOX to reveal the identities of customers who are U.S. taxpayers
The United States Securities and Exchange Commission, or SEC, has filed a complaint related to a 2017 initial coin offering from a blockchain project originally developed by the Walt Disney Company. In a Tuesday notice, the SEC said it had charged Dragonchain, the Dragonchain Foundation, the Dragon Company, and their founder John Joseph Roets for
The market capitalization of Tether (USDT) tokens has increased by nearly $2 billion since the U.S. Treasury Department imposed sanctions on cryptocurrency mixer Tornado Cash. The Office of Foreign Asset Control essentially barred Americans from using Tornado Cash on Aug. 8, blacklisting 44 USD Coin (USDC) and Ether (ETH) addresses connected to the service to
Crypto exchange Huobi Global announced the suspension of derivatives trading in New Zealand. The statement from Huobi said the new restrictions against derivative offers are in light of compliance with local regulations. Users in New Zealand will no longer have access to derivative trading services, which include coin-margined futures and swaps, USDT-margined contracts, options and
The U.S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) issued sanctions against Tornado Cash this month, marking its first action against a decentralized finance (mixer in what may prove to be a watershed moment for DeFi regulation. A lack of response and regulatory preparation from the industry is perhaps unsurprising of a mindset honed outside
Among a rich range of anxieties both for the crypto industry and the global economy at large, the summer of 2022 will be remembered as the time when stablecoins proved themselves to be not so stable and thus came into the focus of regulators’ attention. The shock of the TerraUSD (UST) depegging in May opened
Singapore-based crypto lending platform Hodlnaut is seeking judicial management to manage its ongoing liquidity crisis and avoid the forced liquidation of assets in the current bear market. The crypto lender informed its users in a Tuesday announcement that they have applied to the Singapore High Court to be placed under judicial management. The firm said: “We are aiming
South Korean banks are being investigated for their role in facilitating $6.5 billion in suspicious overseas remittances which have been tied to companies arbitraging cryptocurrency. According to an Aug. 15 report from Asia Times, the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) ordered an investigation into South Korean banks last month after identifying a significant amount of overseas