As Alex Tapscott put it, 2021 was the year when many governments and lawmakers began to finally wake up to the transformational potential of blockchain technology. Indeed, crypto’s global mainstreaming and growing market capitalization have made it difficult for the agents of power to ignore it and have rendered it a salient economic, social and political issue across many key jurisdictions. By all appearances, we are in for a busy year in crypto regulation and policymaking. Stablecoins, an asset class that attracted a fair amount of regulatory attention in 2021, will surely remain in the hot seat this year. For …

From the very beginning of the cryptocurrency movement, the societal potential of Bitcoin (BTC) has been one of the fundamental selling points. The decentralized design of crypto-based systems introduces the possibility of bringing individuals together to work toward shared goals, as well as enabling them to pool resources while remaining insulated from outside control. 2021 saw a number of cases that could serve as evidence of this emancipatory power of digital assets. ConstitutionDAO: $49 million raised in a few days Arguably, the most high-profile case of a massive fundraising effort enabled by a decentralized autonomous organization in 2021 was ConstitutionDAO. …

Despite major internet blackouts amid anti-government protests in Kazakhstan, some Bitcoin (BTC) miners operating in the country are not planning to leave the country just yet. BIT Mining, one of the largest BTC mining companies that relocated operations from China to Kazakhstan last year, is still evaluating the impact of political unrest in Kazakhstan, Chinese industry news agency 8btc reported Friday. “It is unlikely that our mining machines will be evacuated to North America,” a spokesperson for BIT Mining reportedly said, adding that the firm will be closely monitoring the situation. The representative also noted that Kazakhstan is not BIT …

Democratic Party (DP) presidential candidate Lee Jae-myung prepares to use nonfungible tokens to raise funds for his campaign. The party will issue NFTs to those who donate money for the campaign for the upcoming presidential elections. The NFTs will contain images of the candidate and his pledges. In an interview with Yonhap News, campaign official Kim Nam-kook said the party is doing this to appeal to the younger generation. “As the young generation in their 20s and 30s are interested in emerging technologies, including virtual assets, NFTs and the metaverse, this type of fundraising could appeal to them," said Nam-kook. …

2021 was a huge year for the crypto industry. A few years ago, our elected officials probably hadn’t even heard of crypto before, let alone had an opinion on it. However, this year it seemed like crypto was the hot topic on the block all around the globe. Here is a list of the most outspoken crypto advocates and critics from the parliaments and white houses around the world. Santa: Francis Suarez First up for crypto Santa is Miami Mayor Francis Suarez. In August, the city launched MiamiCoin (MIA). Revenue generated from the token is used to fund community projects …

Around the world, douchebags are getting into NFTs in a big way. Now it’s true that there are thousands and thousands of legitimate artists in the growing non-fungible token space, and that precisely none of them are Paris Hilton. And sure, NFTs are a potentially world-changing phenomenon that were just declared ArtReview’s most powerful entity in the art world, though probably not as a result of the “catastrophic failure” that resulted in John Cena selling just 37 sad copies of a one thousand-NFT drop. There may indeed be all kinds of use-cases for NFTs — such as the censorship-proof preservation …

The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) has released a report examining the extensive ties between the far right and Bitcoin, many of whom built fortunes in the cryptocurrency. In a Dec. 9 Hatewatch report, the SPLC shared its findings on how right wing extremists and white supremacists, discuss and use cryptocurrencies claiming that many have amassed “tens of millions of dollars” from crypto donations. The report How Cryptocurrency Revolutionized the White Supremacist Movement identified and compiled over 600 cryptocurrency addresses associated with white supremacists and other prominent far-right extremists” to reach its conclusions. One of the main claims it makes …

Democratic representative for California Brad Sherman joked about how ridiculous a “Mongoose Coin” would be on Wednesday — and by Friday it had become a reality. During Wednesday’s hearing on crypto at the House Financial Services Committee, Sherman spun a tale of an old woman who swallows bigger and bigger animals to eat the animals previously swallowed. He likened this fable to cryptocurrencies dethroning each other, explaining that Bitcoin (BTC) could be unseated by Ethereum (ETH), which in turn could be displaced by Dogecoin (DOGE), and then Hamster Coin, and then Cobra Coin. “What could Mongoose Coin do to Crypto …

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency in the USA will operate with only an acting Comptroller for a little longer after President Biden’s nominee, Saule Omarova, withdrew her candidacy from the confirmation process. In response to Omarova’s withdrawal, President Biden said on Dec. 7, “Saule was subjected to inappropriate personal attacks that were far beyond the pale.” The Comptroller of the Currency oversees the regulation of chartered banks across the country. Cryptocurrency stakeholders saw Omarova as a poor choice for the Comptroller due to her anti-crypto sentiments. Omarova fielded heated lines of questioning from Republican and some Democratic …

Aarika Rhodes, a Democrat running to represent California's 30th Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives, has begun to accept campaign contributions in Bitcoin using the Lightning Network. In a Tuesday message to her more than 21,000 Twitter followers, Rhodes said her campaign website had started using Lighting for campaign contributions in addition to the BitPay options for Bitcoin (BTC) and Bitcoin Cash (BCH). According to the congressional candidate, the move was aimed at making her campaign more accessible for voters, who will consider Rhodes in California’s primary election in June 2022 and potentially the general election later that …

Pennsylvania Senator Pat Toomey, one of the lawmakers who supported amending the language around crypto in the recently passed infrastructure law, said the United States should lead the world in the adoption of a central bank digital currency. In a Nov. 23 interview with Bloomberg's David Westin, Toomey said the U.S. dollar should have “the most sophisticated capabilities of any currency in the world” as the country could benefit from a digital dollar. However, the senator said the rollout of any U.S. central bank digital currency should not rely on the Federal Reserve as a traditional bank for retail accounts, …

President Joe Biden has tapped Jerome Powell to serve another four-year term as the chair of the Federal Reserve System’s Board of Governors. In a Monday announcement, the White House announced President Biden would be nominating Powell as his pick to lead the Federal Reserve once his current term ended in February. The executive branch cited Powell’s “decisive action” in lessening the economic impact brought on by the pandemic, as well as in the creation of 5.6 million jobs and a 4.6% unemployment rate. In addition, Biden chose current Fed board member Lael Brainard to be vice chair of the …