With the two-week commentary period winding down, Jerry Brito, executive director of non-profit crypto policy advocate group Coin Center, says comments could make a difference in the ultimate outcome of the self-custodied wallet ruling recently proposed by the U.S. Treasury. “Coin Center is working with folks in Congress to get some letters sent to Secretary Mnuchin requesting an extension to the rushed comment period,” Brito said in a Dec. 28 tweet, adding: “Everyone in the cryptocurrency ecosystem should file a comment with FinCEN explaining how this rule would affect them and pointing out the unintended consequences. Filing a comment really …

It is hard to imagine that just two years ago, the general discourse around central bank digital currencies, or CBDCs, was mainly focused on the potential and possibility of issuing them. Even in 2019, the question was about whether we need state-owned cryptocurrencies, with only 70% of central banks worldwide studying the potential of issuing a CBDC, according to a survey published by the Bank for International Settlements at the beginning of 2019. But this year, everything is indeed different. 2020 started with a major event within the financial world: the World Economic Forum in Davos, where the WEF released …

A leading association of state banking regulators is trying to put the U.S. national banking regulator in its place on the issue of fintech registration. Per a Dec. 22 filing, the Conference of State Bank Supervisors, or CSBS, says the impending approval of Figure Technology's bank charter a bridge too far. Figure operates blockchain-backed lending and investment services. It announced its application to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency for a charter at the beginning of November. At the time, CEO Mike Cagney noted the relative convenience of a national charter, saying:"we'll have over 200 state licenses next …

For the first time in Romania, the recent national parliamentary elections, which were held in November, used blockchain technology with the main purpose to guarantee the integrity of the electoral process and to strengthen its transparency. The government aimed to ensure tamper-proof and real-time data on voters’ presence. There is still a way to go for the voters to be empowered to record, manage, count and check the votes themselves (without bypassing it to the electoral authorities) by allowing them to hold a copy of the voting record. However, the perspectives of fostering the development of a tech-enabled community consensus …

The Russian government is anticipating more cryptocurrencies to be issued in the local market in 2021, according to a senior official. Anatoly Aksakov, a member of the Russian State Duma and a key representative of local crypto legislation efforts, said that the Duma’s Committee on Financial Markets expects Russian crypto issuance to surge after the adoption of the country’s new crypto law on Jan. 1, 2020. Passed in July 2020, the law “On Digital Financial Assets” provides legal status to crypto, but bans people from using cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin (BTC) as a payment tool. According to a Dec. 21 report …

Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse has responded to the latest regulatory complaint against XRP, assuring shareholders that the company will prove their case in the court. In a Dec. 22 blog post, Garlinghouse argued that the legal action against the XRP cryptocurrency brought by the United States Securities and Exchange Commission is an “assault on crypto at large.” The executive is confident that the regulatory action will have a “snowball effect” on the industry as a whole, potentially affecting major players like Coinbase and all other cryptocurrencies, not just Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH): “Ripple, Chris and I may be the …

Late last week, the United Kingdom’s Financial Conduct Authority issued temporary licenses to applicant companies looking to become licensed crypto-asset firms. However, with the publication of this list of temporarily authorized firms has come a large amount of confusion for those that applied or were thinking of applying. The deadline for companies to have acquired this license is Jan. 10, 2021. Under the current rules, companies that have a nexus within the U.K. and have failed to obtain the license before this date will no longer be able to deal in or manage crypto assets. In order to meet that …

More and more traditional banks have started announcing support for digital assets as the price of Bitcoin (BTC) continues to make headlines for record-breaking all-time highs. Even major banks like JPMorgan Chase, which previously frowned upon Bitcoin, have taken a newfound interest in the cryptocurrency. Contrary to what Goldman Sachs stated recently, JPMorgan’s strategists have noted that “the price of gold would suffer from a structural flow headwind over the coming years” due to Bitcoin’s growth. While JPMorgan Chase is clearly taking a softer stance on Bitcoin, some leading banks are going a step further by offering clients custody services …

U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin recently dropped a proposal requiring exchanges and crypto platforms to verify the identity of customers exporting digital assets to self-hosted wallets. Crypto exchange OKCoin noted the proposal would create additional work for exchanges. “Upon preliminary review of the FinCen [Financial Crimes Enforcement Network] proposal as well as the wallet verification requirements, I think the proposal of extending the CTR requirement to crypto exchanges and having to collect the physical address of the recipient would mean great operational and administrative burden for exchanges,” OKCoin’s chief compliance officer, Megan Monroe-Coleman, told Cointelegraph. Rumors of potential new crypto …

Huobi Group, the company behind major global crypto exchange Huobi, is apparently planning to return to the United States with a new license secured from local regulators. After ceasing operations in the U.S. in late 2019, Huobi seems to be interested in opening a trust company business in the country. Trusts are companies tasked with managing assets for a group of owners or investors. Grayscale's trusts use this structure to offer cryptocurrency exposure within traditional markets. According to a Dec. 22 announcement by Huobi Technology Holdings, the company’s Nevada-incorporated business Huobi Trust has received a Trust Company License from the …

Coinbase, one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges in the United States, is advocating extension for the industry’s feedback deadline to newly proposed crypto rules by the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, or FinCEN. In a Dec. 21 blog post, Coinbase’s chief legal officer Paul Grewal addressed FinCEN’s newly released rulemaking regarding self-hosted crypto wallets. The blog post represents an open letter to Kenneth Blanco, the director of FinCEN. In the letter, Grewal considered the new rules by the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, as an “unfortunate and disappointing departure” from the company’s long-running relationship with the regulator. Grewal elaborated that …

For a country of 25 million people, Australia punches well above its weight both economically and in the world of blockchain. Australians have long been enthusiastic adopters of new technology, from cellphones to smart homes, so it’s little surprise they’ve embraced crypto too. Chainalysis ranks Australia 20th out of 154 countries surveyed this year for its "The 2020 Geography of Cryptocurrency Report," citing favorable regulation that legitimizes the technology as driving "steady growth in adoption." Australian crypto educator Alex Saunders, founder of Nuggets News, said the Australian crypto community encompasses everyone from hardcore Bitcoin (BTC) maximalists to well-known Ethereans and …