As the global crypto community is still licking its wounds from the FTX collapse, a liquidity crisis continues to spread around centralized exchanges and decentralized finance (DeFi) alike. It is soon to be decided whether the coming regulation triggered by FTX’s bankruptcy will bring a silver lining to crypto. The Chamber of Deputies of Brazil, the lower house of the country’s federal legislative body, has passed a regulatory framework that legalizes the use of cryptocurrencies as a payment method within the country. It is estimated that 10 million Brazilians, or about 5% of the population, trade crypto assets. The largest …

Regulators worldwide see central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) as a way to enhance fiat capabilities by inheriting the financial prowess of technologies that power cryptocurrencies. Pakistan joined this list by announcing new regulations to ensure the launch of an in-house CBDC by 2025. The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) signed in new laws for Electronic Money Institutions (EMIs) — non-bank entities offering digital payment instruments — to ensure the timely issuance of a CBDC in the next three years. The World Bank helped Pakistan design the new regulations, according to local media Arab News. In addition to timeline adherence for …

The most talked about crypto lawsuit involving the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Ripple is approaching its conclusion after a two-year-long battle. On Dec. 2 the SEC and Ripple both filed redacted replies to each other’s opposition to motions for summary judgment. Ripple argued in its motion document that the SEC has failed to prove that its offering of XRP between 2013 and 2020 was an offer or sale of an “investment contract” and therefore a security under federal security laws. Ripple concluded the document by stating that “the court should grant Defendant’s Motion and should deny …

A Chinese court in the city of Hangzhou has said nonfungible token (NFT) collections are online virtual property that should be protected under Chinese law. A Nov. 29 article posted by the Hangzhou Internet Court — a specialist internet court — shared by crypto blogger Wu Blockchain on Dec. 5 reveals the favorable language for NFTs after the country began to crack down on cryptocurrencies in 2021, leaving NFTs in a legal grey area. Translated, the article says NFTs “have the object characteristics of property rights such as value, scarcity, controllability, and tradability” and “belong to network virtual property” that …

2022 is nearing an end and might go down as one of the most eventful years for the crypto industry owing to the prolonged winter that had wiped more than 70% of the market cap from the top and the barrage of crypto firms imploding. This was mainly due to internal mismanagement and unchecked decision-making process. Among all the ups and downs, one thing has remained clear — retail customers have lost a significant amount of money due to a lack of regulatory oversight. While lawmakers in the United States promised to bring crypto under regulatory purview many times this …

A judge with the Seoul Southern District Court has reportedly set aside arrest warrants for Terra co-founder Shin Hyun-seong along with those of 3 Terra investors and 4 developers. According to an Dec. 3 report from South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency, Judge Hong Jin-Pyo said there was little risk of Shin or the Terra associates destroying evidence related to the case against the crypto firm, and dismissed warrants that the Seoul Southern District Prosecutors Office issued on Nov. 29. The report added that Terra co-founder Do Kwon, also facing legal action in South Korea for his role in the firm’s …

Liquidators for Three Arrows Capital (3AC) will have to present further documents to grant the permission to subpoena the now-bankrupt crypto hedge fund's founders through Twitter, according to a decision from judge Martin Glenn during a virtual hearing for the Southern District of New York Bankruptcy Court on Dec. 2. Lawyers representing the liquidators in the process claimed that Zhu Su and Kyle Davies, founders of the hedge fund, repeatedly failed to engage with liquidators in the past months. "A communication protocol was agreed between the Liquidators and Founders, but has not yielded satisfactory cooperation," according to a hearing presentation. …

RBB Lab, a technology development firm based in the Republic of San Marino, has utilized nonfungible token (NFT) technology to issue a court summons to a former employee and a contractor. RBB Lab CEO Enrico Rubboli told Cointelegraph that it summoned the two individuals to the Judiciary of Italy on claims of attempted extortion and aggravated defamation of the firm. The summons was “an order restriction that we are asking them to stop this campaign against us,” said Rubboli. This is the first time that an NFT has been used to deliver a court summons in Italy. If this technology …

The New York State Department of Financial Services (DFS) has submitted a proposed change in state laws that would allow it to charge licensed crypto companies for regulating them. While that may seem like an odd proposition, under Financial Services Law (FSL) it is common practice for the DFS to charge licensed non-crypto financial entities for the cost and expenses of maintaining oversight over them. The proposal is led by DFS Superintendent Adrienne Harris, who announced the move via the DFS website on Dec. 1 and has submitted it for public feedback over the following 10 days. Essentially, Harris is …

As a crypto CEO, I know how often our sector is misunderstood and criticized. Sometimes, the criticism is deserved because we have not always done our part to shine a light on the utility and use cases powering positive change. But other times, it’s based on the assumption that all players in this industry are the same, which is just not true. Recently, skepticism reached new heights with the epic crash of FTX, one of the largest crypto exchanges in the world — and perhaps the largest-ever example of the need for regulatory oversight. Given the positioning of FTX, it …

One of the leading figures convicted of being behind the $100 million crypto “Ponzi” scheme, EmpiresX, has just been handed an over four-year jail sentence by a United States court. The sentencing was handed to Joshua David Nicholas, the “head trader” of purported crypto platform EmpiresX, who is nowset to serve a 51-month prison sentence along with three years of supervised release for his role in the fraudulent scheme. It follows a Sept. 8 guilty plea from Nicholas for conspiracy to commit securities fraud. According to the Department of Justice (DOJ), over a two-year period, Nicholas made claims the platform …

Referring to the events surrounding the collapse of FTX as “a handful of magic beans”, Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren seemed to frame the “contagion” spreading through the crypto space as a partisan issue. Speaking at a Senate Banking Committee nomination hearing on Nov. 30, Warren addressed committee counsel Jonathan McKernan, who confirmed that FTX’s bankruptcy had largely not affected traditional banking institutions in the United States. The Massachusetts senator, an outspoken skeptic of cryptocurrencies, used some of her time to applaud the work of Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, or FDIC, acting chair Martin Gruenberg, who attended as part of his …