The Coinbase-backed Crypto Ratings Council (CRC), a group of major United States’ cryptocurrency firms seeking regulatory clarity, has welcomed new members. Established in late 2019, the CRC has expanded to include members like trading platform eToro, crypto exchange OKCoin and Radar, the startup behind decentralized exchange Radar Relay. Coinbase announced the news in a press release shared with Cointelegraph on Jan. 16. CRC now counts 11 members including Goldman Sachs-backed crypto finance firm Circle As the new participants join eight other industry leaders in the council, the CRC now counts eleven companies that strive for more clarity from U.S. securities …
Canadian exchange Kraken has published a paper arguing against proposed regulation of crypto assets by the Canadian Securities Administrators (CSA) and the Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada (IIROC). The exchange shared its comments in an official twitter post on May 16. Kraken says that the proposed framework considers the contractual arrangement between an exchange and an exchange user as a security. Kraken denies that these contracts constitute securities: “...most reputable exchanges operate as custodians or bailees. As such, the assets are legally owned by the customer and not the Exchange operator. This means, critically, that the customer’s interest is …
Law enforcement requests sent to Switzerland-based cryptocurrency exchange ShapeShift rose 175 percent in the second half of 2018, according to a new Compliance Transparency report published by the exchange Jan. 18. In a blog post accompanying the report, Shapeshift outlines that it typically receives requests from law enforcement agencies for data including crypto addresses (in or out of the Shapeshift system), transaction IDs, identity information (names, emails, IP addresses), cryptocurrency or crypto asset information and more. ShapeShift emphasizes that in most cases it is not informed of the details of the investigation or probe for which the data is being …
Regulators from the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) reportedly demanded extensive trading data from several cryptocurrency exchanges, people familiar with the matter told the Wall Street Journal June 8. Regulators requested data in order to investigate whether manipulation might be compromising prices in digital currency markets. The probe followed the launch of Bitcoin (BTC) futures by CME Group in December last year. CME forms its Bitcoin (BTC) futures prices based on data from four crypto exchanges; Bitstamp, Coinbase, itBit and Kraken, where manipulative trading could reportedly have distorted the value of BTC futures. Investigators are going after trading schemes …
In a cease-and-desist letter to fast-growing crypto exchange FTX, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) shed light on a now-deleted tweet from the exchange’s president, Brett Harrison, and issued a stark warning over the company’s messaging. Harrison’s original tweet said, “Direct deposits from employers to FTX US are stored in individually FDIC-insured bank accounts in the users’ names.” He added, “Stocks are held in FDIC-insured and SIPC [Security Investor Protection Corporation]-insured brokerage accounts.” Although Harrison stewarded FTX to its best-ever year in 2021, increasing revenue by 1,000%, the firm now faces the unenviable prospect of running afoul of a powerful …