Michael Barr, a law professor and former advisory board member of Ripple Labs who is United States President Joe Biden’s pick for vice chair for supervision at the Federal Reserve, called for U.S. lawmakers to regulate stablecoins in an effort to address “financial stability risks.” In a confirmation hearing before the Senate Banking Committee on Thursday, Barr said innovative technologies including cryptocurrencies had “some potential for upside in terms of economic benefit” but also “some significant risks,” citing the need for a regulatory framework on stablecoins to prevent the risk of runs. Barr added that the Fed potentially releasing a …

Major cryptocurrency exchange FTX is moving into equity trading, with its United States-based subsidiary FTX US launching a stock trading platform. West Realm Shires Services, the owner and operator of FTX US, announced on Thursday the upcoming launch of FTX Stocks, a stock trading service offered directly through the FTX US trading app. The new stock trading platform will feature trading and investing in hundreds of U.S. exchange-listed shares, including common stocks and exchange-traded funds. According to the announcement, FTX Stocks will be the first platform to ever allow retail investors to fund their accounts with fiat-backed stablecoins like USD …

Gary Gensler, Chair of the United States Securities and Exchange Commission, or SEC, has cited concerns about cryptocurrency enforcement in its budget request for the next fiscal year. In written testimony for a Wednesday hearing of the U.S. House Committee on Appropriations, Gensler said he supported President Joe Biden’s request to budget more than $2.1 billion for the SEC in FY2023, allowing the regulatory body to increase its enforcement division by 50 people. The SEC chair cited concerns about the crypto space, referring to markets as “highly volatile and speculative,” as well as the need for “new tools and expertise” …

The Congressional Research Service (CRS), a legislative agency that supports the United States Congress, has published a document that contains a rundown on algorithmic stablecoins and points out key factors to look at in the TerraUSD (UST) crash. In the report, the CRS described the UST crash as a “run-like” scenario and posited that there are policy issues connected to the risk of such events. According to the CRS, a “run” situation starts when holders are doubtful of the reserves that back the dollar peg of the asset. Following this, a significant number of investors withdraw investments at the same …

The Chinese government has not managed to take down cryptocurrency operations as part of its crypto ban last year as China has re-emerged as one of the world’s largest Bitcoin (BTC) mining hubs, according to a new report. China became the second-largest Bitcoin hash rate provider as of January 2022, months after the local government banned all crypto operations in the country, according to the latest update from the Cambridge Bitcoin Electricity Consumption Index (CBECI) shared with Cointelegraph on Tuesday. Bitcoin miners in China accounted for 21.1% of the total global BTC mining hash rate distribution as of early 2022, …

The United States Department of Justice may move forward on a criminal prosecution case against a United States citizen who allegedly violated sanctions through cryptocurrency. According to a Friday opinion filing in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, the unnamed individual, who is the subject of a criminal investigation by the Justice Department allegedly sent more than $10 million in Bitcoin (BTC) from a U.S.-based crypto exchange to an exchange in a country for which the U.S. currently imposes sanctions — suggesting Russia, Cuba, North Korea, Syria or Iran. The filing alleged the individual “conspired to violate the …

Caroline Pham, currently serving as a commissioner at the United States Commodity Futures Trading Commission, or CFTC, has announced a former head of U.S. regulatory policy at investment banking firm Credit Suisse Securities will be joining her staff. In a Friday announcement, Pham said Keaghan Ames will be her counselor and senior policy adviser at the CFTC starting May 23. Ames worked at Credit Suisse for more than two years as vice president and head of U.S. regulatory policy, which included advising executives on digital assets regulation. He will be joining the CFTC from the Institute of International Bankers, where …

Commissioner Hester Peirce — also known as the United States Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) “crypto mom” — has backed a regulatory framework for stablecoins that allows “room for there to be failure.” Speaking at an online panel on Thursday hosted by financial think-tank the Official Monetary and Financial Institutions Forum (OMFIF), Peirce, who has long been an advocate for crypto, was asked to shed light on the actions being taken by U.S. regulatory bodies in regard to cryptocurrency. “One place we might see some movement is around stablecoins,” Peirce answered, “that’s an area that has gotten a lot of …

The United States Senate has confirmed the nomination of Jerome Powell as the chair of the board of governors of the Federal Reserve System until 2026. In an 80–19 landslide vote on the Senate floor on Thursday, U.S. lawmakers confirmed Powell as chair of the Federal Reserve, a position he held from February 2018 until February 2022, when he was named chair pro tempore until a confirmation vote could be secured. Powell was one of four Fed nominees awaiting a full Senate vote following weeks of delays due, in part, to partisan obstructionism — Republican lawmakers in the Senate Banking …

According to United States Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, the stablecoin market is not at the scale at which the drop in the price of TerraUSD (UST) and Tether (USDT) below $1 would present a threat to the country’s financial stability. In a Thursday hearing of the House Financial Services Committee on the Financial Stability Oversight Council’s Annual Report to Congress, Yellen hinted that the stablecoin market was not yet at a size in which UST dropping to under $0.40 and USDT — the largest stablecoin by market capitalization — briefly depegging from the dollar to hit $0.96 would create a …

Despite the growing adoption of various cryptocurrency exchange-traded funds (ETFs) all over the world, the global trading community continues to ask one question: When will a spot Bitcoin (BTC) ETF go live in the United States? According to some ETF analysts, a spot Bitcoin ETF could become real in mid-2023, following years of rejection by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Despite the SEC’s apparent unwillingness to allow such a product, industry players like Grayscale continue to actively push for a spot BTC ETF. There are a decent number of reasons why a potential approval of a spot Bitcoin …

Authorities in the U.S. states of Alabama, Kentucky, New Jersey, Texas and Wisconsin have filed enforcement actions against the Flamingo Casino Club for allegedly perpetrating a scam through nonfungible tokens (NFTs) tied to a metaverse casino. In a Wednesday announcement, the Alabama Securities Commission, Kentucky Department of Financial Institutions, New Jersey Bureau of Securities, Texas State Securities Board and Wisconsin Department of Financial Institutions alleged the Flamingo Casino Club has been “fraudulently soliciting NFTs” it claims are tied to ownership rights of a casino in the metaverse, thereby giving token holders a share of any profits. The organization has allegedly …