Veteran trader and chart analyst Peter Brandt is the latest figure in the cryptocurrency community to dispute the regulatory status of XRP. According to the chartist, XRP — the fourth-largest cryptocurrency at publishing time — is a security, which means that the coin should fall under the regulatory purview of the United States Securities and Exchange Commission. “XRP would have been declared as a security if the SEC understood cryptos,” Brandt argued in a tweet on Nov. 10. Brandt’s comments came in response to a statement by Twitter user Rexiby crypto, who claimed that “XRP company owns almost half of …

The annual Crypto Finance Conference (CfC), an international conference on digital asset and blockchain conceived for sophisticated investors and decision makers, will be held on Jan. 20–22, 2021. Among featured speakers there will be representatives of Winklevoss Capital, Swiss National Bank, the European Parliament, Ledger and others. Cointelegraph serves as the main media partner for the CfC St. Moritz 2021 and prepared a special page dedicated to the event. The program of the three-day event will include discussions on the macro-perspective and micro-perspective on the industry – on Jan. 20 and 21, and focus events about social impact and decentralization …

As part of his statement to the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs, acting Comptroller of the Currency, Brian Brooks, prepared a whole section on crypto assets, including specific mention of stablecoins. "Today, roughly 60 million Americans own some type of cryptocurrency, with a total market cap of nearly $430 billion," Brooks said, adding: "These figures clearly illustrate that this payment mechanism is now firmly entrenched in the financial mainstream. Cryptocurrency has become a popular mechanism for sending and receiving payments for goods and services because transactions post in real time and provide convenience and security." Brooks …

President of the Dallas Federal Reserve Robert Kaplan believes the US central bank should begin work on a digital currency immediately, a clear indicator that some policymakers view this as an urgent matter. Speaking Tuesday at a virtual conference hosted by Bloomberg, Kaplan reportedly said: “It is critical that the Fed focuses on developing a digital currency in the coming months and years.” The central banker’s remarks were part of a broader discussion on the economy and fiscal policy. Kaplan is a member of this year’s Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC), the organization tasked with setting monetary policy. The 2020 …

While some in the community continue to question the outcome of the US Presidential election, mainstream media outlets and the Associated Press have definitively called the race for former Vice President and current President-Elect Joe Biden. But with uncertainty out of the way, traders and analysts are now looking to determine what a Biden administration will mean for cryptocurrencies — and they appear to have come to a loose consensus that a President who says nothing about crypto is preferable to a president who actively disparages it. Qiao Wang, the lead at decentralized finance accelerator DeFi Alliance, cheered Trump’s loss, …

Crypto exchange BLOX received the go-ahead to operate in the Netherlands, making it the first platform to do so since the country implemented the European Union's 5th Anti-Money Laundering Directive, or AMLD5. "BLOX is the first consumer-focused cryptocurrency company that will be included in the registry of the Dutch Central Bank," the company said in a blog announcement today. "This registration is mandatory in the Netherlands for every company that allows its users to buy, sell, trade and hold cryptocurrencies." Netherlands-based crypto services provider AMDAX BV made headlines in October as the inaugural company of its kind in the newly …

Brazilian Economy Minister Paulo Guedes has said that Brazil will issue its own central bank digital currency, or CBDC. Guedes made the statement on Thursday during a ceremony celebrating the 100 millionth digital savings account opened at Caixa Economica Federal: "Now that the central bank is autonomous again, it’s also amazing in the digital dimension: Pix, OpenBank, fintechs and digital currency. Brazil will have its own digital currency. Brazil is ahead of many countries." This is the first time that the minister has spoken directly on the subject, although he has not provided any further details on the CBDC project …

Australian Liberal Senator Andrew Bragg thinks that blockchain technology can solve a number of major regulatory issues in his home country. According to Bragg, blockchain technology could become a useful tool in reducing complications associated with financial regulatory compliance and transparency. “The future is technology by blockchain,” the senator said at an online panel of the Future of Financial Services 2020 conference, ZDNet reported on Nov. 4. Bragg said that blockchain-powered instant cross-border transactions “may well be the solution to one-touch government with international transactions in real time.” The senator stated that blockchain tech can solve major problems associated with …

Cryptocurrency exchanges Coinbase, Paxful, Gemini and BitFinex have all joined the Anti-Human Trafficking Cryptocurrency Consortium, or ATCC. Launched in April 2020 by the Anti-Human Trafficking Intelligence Initiative, the consortium is a nonprofit focused on intelligence sharing, best practices and the development of tools to fight trafficking. The ATCC brings together crypto exchanges, blockchain intelligence firms and law enforcement to combat human trafficking and child sexual abuse material, also known as CSAM. Aaron Kahler, chair and founder of the Anti-Human Trafficking Intelligence Initiative, told Cointelegraph that thought leadership and information-sharing within the cryptocurrency space are vital to building awareness for anti-human …

Blockchain technology can help countries like Kenya from losing billions of dollars to corruption, according to an official at the United Nations’ drugs and crime agency. David Robinson, the regional anti-corruption advisor at the UN’s Office on Drugs and Crime, believes that new technologies like blockchain will help Kenya combat government corruption and other economic crimes. According to Nation Media Group on Nov. 3, Robinson claimed that blockchain-based solutions can provide full traceability of transactions, protecting public registries from fraud and forgery. The official said: “Blockchain technology becomes attractive to the global community and international organizations because it is a …

The United States Attorney General’s Cyber-Digital Task Force recently unveiled the result of its months-long effort to evaluate emerging cryptocurrency-related threats and articulate law enforcement strategies for countering them. The resulting guidance leaves the reader with an impression that its authors have a sound understanding of how the focal asset class works as well as a certain fixation on the ways it can be misused, as some observers contend. In the highly charged atmosphere of the final weeks before the presidential election, with high-profile enforcement actions against the people behind crypto derivatives exchange BitMEX and the U.S. government’s sweeping anti-monopoly …

Authorities in Chengdu, China plan to adopt blockchain for several use cases throughout the city, including urban governance, cross-border trade, smart manufacturing, and agriculture. During the 2020 Chengdu Global Innovation and Entrepreneurship Fair, the city's first International Blockchain Industry Expo, Lu Tiecheng, secretary of the Party Group of the Chengdu New Economy Committee, released the "Chengdu Blockchain Application Scenario Supply Action Plan." According to a local media outlet, Red Star News, this plan will allow blockchain adoption applications to be submitted by contributors in a variety of fields such as education, healthcare, financial services, and intellectual property. Authorities expect to …