Panama’s President Laurentino Cortizo has partially vetoed Bill No. 697, dubbed the “crypto bill,” saying it requires more work to better fit Panama’s financial regulations. President Cortizo previously warned in May he wouldn’t sign the bill unless it included additional Anti-Money Laundering (AML) rules after Panama’s National Assembly passed the crypto bill in late April 2022. Local media outlet La Prenda obtained a copy of the 32-page veto, reporting the president wrote it’s “imperative” the cryptocurrency laws conform to new regulations recommended by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) outlining “fiscal transparency and prevention of money laundering.” President Cortizo has …

The core principles of cryptocurrency were based on financial independence, decentralization and anonymity. With regulations being the key to mass adoption, however, the privacy aspect of the crypto market seems to be in jeopardy. In 2022, even though no particular country has come up with a universal regulatory outline that governs the whole crypto market, most countries have introduced some form of legislation to govern a few aspects of the crypto market such as trading and financial services. While different countries have set different rules and regulations in accordance with their existing financial laws, a common theme has been the …

Just two weeks after appearing in an ask me anything (AMA) with Celsius founder Alex Mashinsky, crypto Youtuber Ben Armstrong has announced he intends to file a class-action lawsuit against the lending platform and its chief executive. Armstrong made legal threats via Twitter on Wednesday and has since provided more detail in multiple threads. His issue is centered on being unable to pay down loans with existing funds on the platform, and instead, having to deposit new funds to pay the loans off: “[Our account rep] told us we had enough money in our account to pay off a loan. …

Benjamin Delo, co-founder of cryptocurrency exchange BitMEX, has been sentenced to 30 months probation for violating the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA), which is an Anti-Money Laundering (AML) law. The sentence, handed down at a federal court in New York on Wednesday, follows his guilty plea to charges in February of “willfully failing to establish, implement and maintain an Anti-Money Laundering (AML) program” in his role at BitMEX. Prosecutors had argued Delo should serve a year in prison or at least receive a two-year probation and six months of home detention, as was given to former CEO Arthur Hayes in May. …

Crypto lending platform Celsius Network has onboarded restructuring lawyers from Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld to find potential solutions to the firm’s financial woes. The firm is reportedly looking for other strategic alternatives, such as a financial restructuring, apart from its attempts to solve its current problems. The report also noted that Celsius is trying to find investors who would be able to provide financing options for the crypto lending company. Citing extreme market conditions, Celsius paused withdrawals from its platform on Monday. Amid the withdrawal freeze, the firm has unstaked around $247 million in wrapped Bitcoin (wBTC) from …

A potential legal battle has been prevented between the Merit Circle decentralized autonomous organization’s (DAO) backing company Merit Circle Ltd and Yield Guild Games (YGG) as the organizations reached a deal after the DAO originally voted to remove YGG. Merit Circle Ltd is a company that created the Merit Circle DAO to help gamers interested in play-to-earn games by lending items from its treasury to be used for gameplay, as well as delivering educational content. Speaking to Cointelegraph Gabby Dizon, Co-Founder of YGG said a DAO member took the current market conditions as an opportunity to pass a proposal canceling …

United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chair Gary Gensler said he’s worried that a proposed bill to create a regulatory framework for cryptocurrencies could weaken investor protections in the traditional financial market. Speaking at The Wall Street Journal’s CFO Network Summit on Tuesday, Gensler was asked his thoughts regarding a recent bill introduced on June 7 by Senators Cynthia Lummis (R-WY) and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY). He responded, saying “we don't want to undermine the protections we have in a $100 trillion capital market,” adding: “We don’t want our current stock exchanges, mutual funds, or public companies to, sort of …

The Iowa Insurance Division, or IID, a regulator responsible for many securities sales in the state, has fined crypto lending firm BlockFi more than $943,000 after it allegedly offered and sold unregistered securities. In a Tuesday announcement, the state regulator said BlockFi had “offered and sold securities in Iowa that were not registered or permitted for sale in Iowa” in addition to not being registered as a broker-dealer or agent, in violation of the state’s Securities Act. The IID ordered BlockFi to pay $943,396.22 as an administrative fine as well as to cease and desist “from making any untrue statement …

Mairead McGuinness, the Commissioner for Financial Services, Financial Stability and Capital Markets Union at the European Commission, is moving forward with a discussion on regulating cryptocurrencies amid three major events in the space. In written remarks for a speech in Brussels on Tuesday, McGuinness said the Celsius Network's recent suspension of withdrawals, as well as the crash of Terra (originally LUNA, now LUNA Classic, or LUNC), show the need for crypto-asset regulation in the European Union. She added that ongoing concerns about crypto potentially being used to circumvent sanctions on Russia were also a factor. “Regulating all crypto-assets — whether …

Ripple general counsel Stu Alderoty has slammed the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for trying to “bully, bulldoze, and bankrupt” crypto innovation in the U.S. in the name of expanding its own regulatory territory: “By bringing enforcement actions–or threats of potential enforcement–the SEC intends to bully, bulldoze, and bankrupt crypto innovation in the U.S., all in the name of impermissibly expanding its own jurisdictional limits.” Alderoty shared his views on Monday amid an ongoing lawsuit between Ripple and the regulator, which he says is part of the “SEC’s assault on all crypto in the U.S.” by treating every …

As decentralized finance continues its victorious march — although the road is sometimes bumpy — some significant questions on its nature remain. How can DeFi applications be protected from becoming nonoperational under extreme stress? Is it really decentralized if some individuals have way more governance tokens than others? Does the anonymous culture compromise its transparency? A recent report from the EU Blockchain Observatory and Forum elaborates on these questions and many others around DeFi. It contains eight sections and covers a range of topics, from the fundamental definition of DeFi to its technical, financial and procedural risks. Conducted by an …

Coin Center, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit blockchain advocacy group, filed a lawsuit against the United States Department of the Treasury for allegedly provisioning an unconstitutional amendment in the controversial infrastructure bill. In an official announcement, Coin Center revealed the filing of a suit against the Treasury Department in federal district court — challenging the enforcement of Section 6050I’s reporting mandate within the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. The lawsuit read: “In 2021, President Biden and Congress amended a little-known tax reporting mandate. If the amendment is allowed to go into effect, it will impose a mass surveillance regime on ordinary …