Crypto lending firm Celsius Network has announced it will be launching a custody solution for users based in the United States in response to discussions with local regulators. In a Monday announcement, Celsius said its ‘ Earn’ product allowing users to earn interest on crypto would be unavailable to U.S. residents making transfers starting on April 15. According to the firm, any coins transferred to interest-earning accounts before Friday “will continue to earn rewards,” but “new transfers made by non-accredited investors in the United States” will be held in custody accounts. Only “verified accredited investors” in the U.S. will be …

While the United States Securities and Exchange Commission has yet to approve a spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund, a recent Nasdaq survey suggested that the offering could lead to greater adoption of crypto among financial advisers. According to the results of a Nasdaq survey released on Monday, 72% of 500 financial advisers would be more likely to invest their clients' assets in cryptocurrency should the SEC approve a spot crypto ETF product in the United States. For those already invested in crypto products, 86% of the financial advisers said they planned to increase allocations within a year — roughly half already …

Last year, cryptocurrencies reached a “tipping point,” according to Gemini’s 2022 Global State of Crypto report, “evolving from what many considered a niche investment into an established asset class.” According to the report, 41% of crypto owners surveyed globally purchased crypto for the first time in 2021, including more than half of crypto owners in Brazil at 51%, Hong Kong at 51% and India at 54%. The study, based on a survey of 30,000 adults in 20 countries over six continents, also made a strong case that inflation and currency devaluation are powerful drivers of crypto adoption, especially in emerging …

Bitcoin is becoming one of the biggest buzzwords in the world. Data from a July 2021 survey conducted by analysis firm Exploding Topics found that roughly 1,700 American adults, or 89% of participants, had heard of Bitcoin. A recent survey from the cryptocurrency platform Paxful also found that 95% of women out of 1,555 females polled in the United States were familiar with Bitcoin. While Bitcoin’s (BTC) presence is notable, there still seems to be a lack of understanding regarding BTC and cryptocurrency. For instance, Paxful’s survey discovered that 43% of women polled in the United States want to learn …

Cory Gardner, who served as a United States senator for Colorado from 2015 to 2021, has joined the Crypto Council for Innovation, a crypto advocacy group aimed at establishing dialogues with governments and regulatory agencies on the benefits of digital assets. In a Thursday announcement, the Crypto Council for Innovation, or CCI, said Gardner was one of three new members to join the group’s leadership team. Under CEO Sheila Warren, the former senator will work alongside Amanda Russo, a communicators adviser for the World Economic Forum, and Annie Dizon, a former executive with social impact nonprofit TechSoup. In addition, Katherine …

United States Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen listed stablecoins as one of the major policy concerns in the digital asset space for regulators, currently subject to “inconsistent and fragmented oversight.” Speaking to attendees at American University in Washington, D.C. on Thursday, Yellen said the Treasury Department was working with Congress to advance legislation to help ensure that “stablecoins are resilient to risks” for consumers and the U.S. financial system. According to the Treasury Secretary, while stablecoins raised “policy concerns” and issues around the coins’ reserve assets, many parts of the digital asset space present potential risks that could exacerbate inequality. “Our …

The billion-dollar music industry has shown recent interest in nonfungible tokens (NFTs) as musicians everywhere are beginning to understand the power of moving away from centralized business models. This concept is currently being demonstrated by early innovators like the popular rapper Snoop Dogg, who recently acquired Death Row Records with plans to transform the company into the first NFT recording label in the Metaverse. Country music icon Dolly Parton also recently launched her first NFT collection dubbed “Dollyverse,” which consists of tokenized artwork and music as part of a promo for her album Run, Rose, Run. NFTs: A topic of …

Republican Senator Pat Toomey, the ranking member for the Senate Banking Committee, has drafted a bill proposing a regulatory framework for stablecoins in the United States. According to a draft released Wednesday, the ‘Stablecoin Transparency of Reserves and Uniform Safe Transactions Act’, otherwise known as the Stablecoin TRUST Act, proposed the digital assets be identified as “payment stablecoins” — a convertible virtual currency used as a medium of exchange that can be redeemed for fiat by the issuer. Critically, the bill proposed such offerings be exempt from securities regulations by amending existing laws to ensure the definition of "security" does …

United States Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen told the House Financial Services Committee on Wednesday that her department is not seeing significant use of cryptocurrencies to evade sanctions placed on Russian oligarchs and government agencies. Yellen was asked repeatedly about digital asset security at the committee’s annual hearing on the state of the international financial system. “We are aware of the possibility clearly that crypto could be used as a tool to evade sanctions and we are carefully monitoring to make sure that doesn’t occur,” Yellen said, “but I would say that we have a good deal of authority in this …

United States President Joe Biden is reportedly planning to nominate two commissioners to the Securities and Exchange Commission with different political party affiliations. According to a Wednesday report from the Wall Street Journal, Biden is considering Democrat Jaime Lizárraga, a staffer for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and Republican Mark Uyeda, counsel for the Senate Banking Committee on securities and capital markets, to fill seats left behind by SEC commissioners Allison Lee and Elad Roisman, respectively. Roisman left the regulatory body at the end of January, while Lee is expected to depart when her term expires in June. Lizárraga worked on …

Exchange-traded funds issuer ProShares has filed a registration statement with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission to list shares of a Short Bitcoin Strategy ETF. In a Tuesday filing, ProShares applied with the SEC for an investment vehicle that would allow users to bet against Bitcoin (BTC) futures using an exchange-traded fund. According to the registration statement, the Short Bitcoin Strategy ETF will be based on daily investment results corresponding to the inverse of the return of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange Bitcoin Futures Contracts Index for a day. ProShares just filed for a Short Bitcoin Futures ETF. Even tho …

Nonfungible tokens (NFTs) have generated mainstream interest over the last year. A yearly market report from NonFungible found that the total value of all NFT transactions worldwide surpassed more than $17 billion in 2021, up from $82.5 million in 2020. The report also pointed out that “NFT” was selected as Collins Dictionary’s word of the year for 2021. Given the increasing amount of interest NFTs create, a number of events dedicated entirely to nonfungible tokens are also taking place, attracting a mix of both crypto enthusiasts and non-crypto natives. This was recently seen during NFT LA, a four-day-long conference that …