The biggest regulatory story of the week, if not the year, has been the United States Security and Exchange Commission’s lack of opposition to the launch of the first-ever Bitcoin (BTC) exchange-traded funds, which took eight long years to materialize. While the first ETFs are tracking CME-traded Bitcoin futures rather than the asset’s spot price, the crypto space is already anticipating a pure-Bitcoin ETF as a logical next step. This bar might prove to be immensely difficult to clear, however, as SEC Chair Gary Gensler seems far less convinced of the stringency of investor protections that such products offer. Below …

Despite Russia adopting its first cryptocurrency law in January 2021, the country’s cryptocurrency market is still largely unregulated and is associated with a lot of uncertainty, according to a local industry advocate. Yury Pripachkin, head of the Russian Association of Cryptoindustry and Blockchain (RACIB), argued that the existing Russian crypto regulations are nothing more than “half-measures” that have nothing to do with systematic solutions. In an interview with local news agency RBC, Pripachkin referred to Russian President Vladimir Putin issuing multiple consecutive mandates to adopt crypto regulation over the past four years. The executive highlighted that the total market capitalization …

The Texas Ethics Commission proposed a new rule that permits government officials and politicians to accept Bitcoin (BTC) and cryptocurrency contributions. The proposal was filed with the Texas Secretary of State, which sought to address and clarify the reporting requirements of political contributions made with cryptocurrencies. According to the filing: “The new rule permits candidates, officeholders, and political committees to accept cryptocurrency. It does not distinguish between any types of cryptocurrencies, like Bitcoin.” If approved, cryptocurrency donations and contributions will need to be reported as in-kind contributions or as investments, not currency. According to the Commission, this move “mirrors the …

Crypto lending firm Celsius Network has confirmed it is one of three platforms requested to provide information to the New York Attorney General’s office. In a Tuesday blog post, Celsius said it was not one of the two unnamed crypto lending platforms that New York Attorney General Letitia James ordered to “cease any and all such activity” around selling or offering cryptocurrencies. Rather, Celsius said it was “working on providing regulators in New York” with information regarding its business. “If any regulatory or technical changes are required in a specific jurisdiction, Celsius will provide clear and timely communication as needed,” …

Cryptocurrency lending firm Nexo Financial denies the allegations of offering unregistered services to New Yorkers put forth by Attorney General Letitia James. Attorney General James directed two unnamed crypto lending companies to cease operations on Monday, citing failure to register the business in New York and performing unlawful activities. Crypto lender Nexo is revealed to be one of the two companies to receive the cease and desist order from the Office of the Attorney General. Denying its involvement in unlawful operations, a Nexo spokesperson said: “Nexo is not offering its Earn Product and Exchange in New York, so it makes …

The Salvadoran government has moved to prevent users of its Chivo digital wallet from gaming the app’s price freeze feature to glean risk-free profits through arbitrage. On Tuesday, Chivo’s Twitter account announced that wallet users will be unable to see the reference price provided for trades executed using the price freeze feature — which allows traders to retain the Bitcoin (BTC) price quoted by the app for up to one minute. Chivo tweeted that opportunistic traders have been using the price freeze feature to scalp for arbitrage across other cryptocurrency trading platforms globally during periods of significant price volatility for …

The New York Attorney General’s office has alleged two unnamed crypto lending platforms operating in the state have engaged in unlawful activities and ordered three others to provide information on their businesses. In a Monday announcement, the New York Attorney General’s office said it has ordered two crypto lending platforms — at the time of publication, the names were still redacted — to “cease any and all such activity” relating to selling or offering securities and commodities within ten days. Attorney General Letitia James also requested that three crypto businesses operating in New York — names redacted — provide details …

The rapid growth of mainstream attention toward cryptocurrencies has forced the hands of numerous governments to create their digital alternatives. Over the past few years, interest from various jurisdictions has been pointed towards central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) — digital versions of government-issued fiat. Given their capacity to use blockchain technology to facilitate a simplified fiscal policy — not to mention calibrate privacy features and even provide cross-border banking services to the unbanked — CBDCs continue to gain even more attention from various governments worldwide. Already, surveys show more than 80% of central banks are researching CBDCs, with some working …

On Oct. 6, the United States Department of Justice, or DOJ, announced the creation of a specialized unit, the National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Team, or NCET, tasked with prosecuting criminal misuses of digital assets and crypto infrastructure, as well as tracing and recovering the ill-gotten cryptocurrency. The move continues the U.S. authorities’ push to disrupt the corners of the crypto ecosystem that are thought to facilitate illicit activity, such as ransomware attacks. What does the government’s crypto enforcement ramp-up hold for the larger digital asset space? Pooling crypto expertise The new unit will operate according to the principles articulated almost exactly …

On Oct. 15, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, or CFTC, handed sister crypto companies Tether and Bitfinex fines totaling $41 million and $1.5 million, respectively, citing violations of the Commodity Exchange Act, or CEA, and of a prior CFTC order. The regulator has found that Tether, the firm behind an eponymous stablecoin, has only held sufficient fiat reserves to back the dollar-pegged asset for 27.6% of time during the 26-month period under review between 2016 and 2018. The agency also stated that Tether violated the law by holding part of the reserves in non-fiat financial instruments, as well as by …

Amid the United States President Joe Biden signing legislation to raise the government’s debt limit to $28.9 trillion, Senator Cynthia Lummis said that Bitcoin (BTC) is a blessing of God. Senator Lummis gave a speech to the Senate on Thursday, providing her perspective on how digital currencies like Bitcoin could potentially help countries like the U.S. address the looming crisis when the state runs out of cash. Lummis said that one of the reasons she had become so interested in non-fiat digital currencies like Bitcoin is because they are not issued by the government and thus aren’t beholden to the …

On Thursday, cryptocurrency exchange platform Coinbase published its Digital Asset Policy Proposal, a document offering both a justification and conceptual framework for the comprehensive regulation of digital assets in the United States. Coinbase presented the proposal as a product of dozens of meetings with industry participants, policymakers, crypto innovators and academics that the company’s representatives had held in the last several weeks. The firm’s intention is for the proposal to “animate an open and constructive discussion regarding the role of digital assets in our shared economic future” and offer good-faith suggestions on what a sensible approach to crypto regulation might …