Senator Jane Hume has stated that decentralized finance (DeFi) “presents huge opportunities” for Australia to cement its place as a “front-runner for innovation and economic progress.” Senator Hume spoke at the Australian Financial Review Super & Wealth Summit in Sydney on Monday, Nov. 22. She is the Minister for Women's Economic Security of Australia, representing the Liberal Party and the state of Victoria. The conference was primarily about super and government retirement funds — both notoriously slow and steady investments. The comments on DeFi are more notable in this regard. Senator Hume called for industry and government to acknowledge that …

As the perceived legitimacy of blockchain technology increases, politicians in the U.S. have shown a growing interest in turning this non-partisan technology into a topic of political divisiveness. Speaking via video to an audience of the Bloomberg New Economy Forum in Singapore on Friday, former presidential candidate Hillary Clinton said while cryptocurrencies were an “interesting” technology, they also had the power to undermine the U.S. dollar and destabilize nations — “perhaps starting with small ones but going much larger.” While no longer the leader of the Democratic Party, Clinton’s sentiment on crypto resembles that of top Democrat and senator Elizabeth …

The controversial U.S. infrastructure bill was signed into law by President Joe Biden this morning, with the legislation passing without amendments made to the broad provisions that could impose stringent reporting requirements on crypto network validators and software developers. However, DeFi strategist-turned Democratic congressional candidate, Matt West, believes there is still time to push back. Speaking to Cointelegraph, West said: “My understanding of this bill is that it has been signed, but it hasn't taken effect yet.” The crypto community has taken particular issue with section 6050II of the bipartisan legislation, which makes failing to report digital assets transactions a …

Australian banks have been dressing up anti-competitive behavior as regulatory compliance when de-banking crypto customers, Senator Andrew Bragg said. “I believe many banks have been dressing up de-banking as a regulatory necessity. In fact it is often anti-competitive behavior and far more sinister and threatening than it appears on the surface,” the Liberal Senator for New South Wales said in a prepared address to the Tech Council of Australia tod. Denial of banking, or debanking, is when a financial institution chooses to no longer offer banking services to a customer. No reason needs to be given, and banks have the …

Morgan Harper, a former senior advisor at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, is coming out as 'crypto curious' in her race to be the Democratic nominee for one of Ohio’s U.S. Senate seats. In a Nov. 9 thread on Twitter, Harper said she was interested in the possibilities Bitcoin (BTC) and other cryptocurrencies could mean for policy in Ohio. According to the Democratic candidate, Bitcoin can take the place of many functions of traditional banks by passing on “the wealth of the network” to all users rather than a handful of large shareholders. “There are crypto projects out there that …

Federal Deputy Luizão Goulart, a Brazilian congressman, proposed a bill to legalize crypto payments as a mode of payment for public and private sector workers. Goulart’s proposal seeks a new law that allows all Brazilian workers to have an option to request employers for remuneration in cryptocurrencies. However, the bill warrants crypto payments to be made only after selling a mutual agreement between the workers and the employer. According to the translated version of the bill: “The limits of the percentage of payment (remuneration) in cryptocurrencies will be of the worker’s free choice. Any imposition by the employer will be …

Newly elected New York City Mayor Eric Adams has reiterated his pledge to make the city a crypto hub by accepting his first three paychecks entirely in Bitcoin. In a Nov. 4 response on Twitter to Francis Suarez — re-elected for another term as of Tuesday — Adams said he would be matching the Miami mayor’s pledge to accept his next paycheck in Bitcoin (BTC) in addition to the following two payments. Assuming Adams accepts a base salary of $258,750, his monthly paychecks would be roughly $21,562 each, a total of 1.05 BTC at a price of $61,268. In New …

Anthony Albanese, chief operating officer of Andreessen Horowitz’s (a16z) crypto division, and Katie Haun, general partner at the firm, are among a high-powered delegation from the venture capital giant who will engage with lawmakers and administration officials in the United States on crypto regulations. According to CNBC on Wednesday, the move is part of efforts by the Silicon Valley-based VC outfit to promote favorable regulation of the emerging Web 3.0 ecosystem. Speaking to CNBC, a16z global policy chief Tomicah Tillemann decried the broken state of the current Web 2.0 status quo. According to Tillemann, Web 3.0 offers an alternative to …

Front Row, a marketplace geared toward progressive organizations, has said it will be partnering with the Texas Democratic Party to pilot a program aimed at raising money for candidates and causes using nonfungible tokens (NFT). In a Monday announcement, Front Row said it had already minted digital images of key moments related to the progressive movement and listed the NFTs for sale. Some of the featured NFTs include “wanted” posters depicting conservative Texan lawmakers fleeing the state. Front Row said that the funds raised through its NFTs will go “directly towards political groups and individuals” but did not specify how …

Former Chancellor of the Exchequer in the United Kingdom, Lord Philip Hammond, has joined cryptocurrency custodial group Copper as a senior advisor with the ambition of “promoting the UK as a global leader in digital asset technology.” The London start-up firm, which provides custodial and infrastructure services in the digital asset sector, reportedly facilitates over $50 billion in transaction value per month for in excess of 400 institutional clients. During his administration as chancellor between 2016 and 2019, Hammond was commended for expanding the nation's financial technology sector as well as fostering a capitalistic environment for start-up businesses. Speaking on …

Pat Toomey, a Republican member of the United States Senate Banking Committee, is attempting to pressure the nominee for the head of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency into handing over her 1989 university honors thesis about Karl Marx. The Biden administration formally nominated Kazakh-born attorney Saule Omarova — who has been characterized by critics as both anti-bank and anti-crypto — to head the financial regulator on Sept. 29. In vague echoes of McCarthyism, Toomey believes the thesis may show that Omarova has sympathies toward Marxist views. While Omarova has lived in the U.S. since 1991 and previously …

According to Reuters, Pelosi expressed confidence the legislation will pass upon announcing the date on Sunday, Sept. 26, stating: “Let me just say that we're going to pass the bill this week." Earlier that same day she reportedly indicated she would not bring the bill to a vote unless she believed it would pass. Speaker of the United States House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi announced that the house will vote on whether to pass the Biden administration’s controversial $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill on Thursday, Sept. 30. “Tomorrow, September 27, we will begin debate on the Bipartisan Infrastructure Framework on …