Binance .US, the American partner of Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange by trading value, has completed its first-ever external funding from investors like Circle Ventures. Binance.US has raised more than $200 million in a seed round to reach a pre-money valuation of $4.5 billion, the firm announced to Cointelegraph on Wednesday. Circle's venture arm Circle Ventures joined the funding round. “Circle Ventures is excited to invest in Binance.US. We are committed to helping create a robust and competitive digital assets ecosystem,” Circle’s chief financial officer Jeremy Fox-Geen said. The funding round also involved VanEck, one of the first United …

The United States Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control has announced it will impose sanctions on darknet market Hydra and virtual currency exchange Garantex. In a Tuesday announcement, the Treasury Department said it had worked with the Department of Justice, Federal Bureau of Investigations, Drug Enforcement Administration, Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation, and Homeland Security Investigations to sanction the Russia-based darknet marketplace as well as Garantex. The move from the U.S. government agencies came the same day the German Federal Criminal Police announced it had shut down Hydra’s servers in Germany and seized more than $25 million …

Two members of the House of Representatives have introduced legislation aimed at mitigating the risks to the United States financial system due to El Salvador adopting Bitcoin as legal currency. In a Monday announcement, California Representative Norma Torres and Arkansas Representative Rick Crawford proposed legislation which would direct the State Department to create a plan mitigating the potential risks to the U.S. financial system based on an analysis of the risks to El Salvador’s “cybersecurity, economic stability, and democratic governance” following the country recognizing Bitcoin (BTC) as legal tender in September 2021. The Accountability for Cryptocurrency in El Salvador Act …

Sam Bankman-Fried’s cryptocurrency exchange FTX continues aggressively investing in traditional finance, with the United States-based affiliate FTX US investing in Investors Exchange (IEX), a U.S. national stock exchange. FTX US has signed an agreement to make a strategic investment in the IEX’s operator IEX Group to jointly establish a market structure for buying, selling and trading digital asset securities, the firm announced to Cointelegraph on Tuesday. IEX and FTX US expect to close the deal in May 2022, subject to customary closing conditions and regulatory approval. The new collaboration aims to provide services for retail and institutional investors. IEX is …

Gary Gensler, chair of the United States Securities and Exchange Commission, said the agency’s protections that apply to investors of traditional assets should extend to those in the crypto market. In prepared remarks released Monday for the Penn Law Capital Markets Association Annual Conference, Gensler said he had requested SEC staff to explore getting crypto platforms registered, having them subject to the same regulatory framework as exchanges. In addition, the SEC chair said the agency’s staff could be working towards addressing regulatory clarity in the crypto space by considering how to register platforms “where the trading of securities and non-securities …

When you think of a crypto-friendly U.S. state, Washington is hardly the first to come to mind. Yet, a lot has been happening on the ground in the Pacific Northwest lately. Washington Governor Jay Inslee signed a bill, SB5544, into law on March 30. The new legislation creates a working group of seven state officials and eight trade association leaders to examine “various potential applications of and policies for blockchain technology” and report to the governor in December 2023. Republican state Senator Sharon Brown, one of the sponsors of the legislation, said, “By creating the Washington Blockchain Work Group, we …

In her monthly Expert Take column, Selva Ozelli, an international tax attorney and CPA, covers the intersection between emerging technologies and sustainability, and provides the latest developments around taxes, AML/CFT regulations and legal issues affecting crypto and blockchain. According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, also known as the UN Refugee Agency, nearly 4 million Ukrainians have fled their homes since bombs began falling and bullets started flying on Feb. 24, with most heading to neighboring Central European countries. At the same time, people around the world have sent over $100 million in crypto donations to support Ukraine, …

The United States Securities and Exchange Commission, or SEC, has officially disapproved the application for ARK 21Shares Bitcoin exchange-traded fund. In a Thursday filing, the SEC rejected a proposed rule change from the Chicago Board Options Exchange, or Cboe, BZX Exchange to list and trade shares of the ARK 21Shares Bitcoin (BTC) ETF. The SEC said the proposed rule change, originally published for comment in the Federal Register in August 2021, would not be “‘designed to prevent fraudulent and manipulative acts and practices” nor “protect investors and the public interest.” The SEC said that the Cboe BZX Exchange had not …

A federal judge has dismissed a class action complaint asserting Binance violated U.S. securities laws by not registering as a broker-dealer or exchange, and sold crypto tokens which were not registered with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The original complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York was brought by a group of investors who say they invested in the tokens EOS, BNT, SNT, QSP, KNC, TRX, FUN, ICX, OMG, LEND, ELF, and CVC around 2017 and 2018. An amended complaint was filed, only listing nine tokens, with BNT, SMT, and CVC …

There is “grassroots evidence” that “America is adopting Bitcoin,” according to Clay Graham, founder of Rapaygo and a Bitcoin Lightning Network (LN) enthusiast. At a Bitcoin Lightning festival held in Portland, United States over the weekend, the Bitcoin LN clocked more than $200 (four million Sats) in just three hours. Hailed as “Puddle Town on Lightning Rails,” Portland’s Bitcoin Party was a space where “vendors, food carts, artists all accept Bitcoin.” Graham told Cointelegraph that there was also a “food cart pod” that acted as a “business attraction destination to Bitcoin fans who want a Bitcoin beach type experience.” Fiat …

The United States Senate will vote on President Joe Biden’s nominations to the Federal Reserve after delays instigated by Republican lawmakers. In a 50-49 vote on Tuesday, the Senate moved economist Lisa Cook’s nomination for governor in the Federal Reserve System out of the banking committee toward a final confirmation vote — though when the government body will take up the matter is uncertain. The Senate will also vote on prospective Fed chair Jerome Powell, who was named chair pro tempore in February, as well as Lael Brainard for vice chair and economist Philip Jefferson as Fed governor. All four …

Engiven, an enterprise cryptocurrency donation platform, is working to simplify tax reporting for cryptocurrency donors and nonprofits by launching a tax form and appraisal service for crypto donations. The Engiven platform now allows nonprofits and donors to automatically generate the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) tax form, the firm announced Tuesday. According to Engiven, nonprofits have to file IRS Form 8282 for crypto donations of $500 or more if donated funds are exchanged for the U.S. dollar, while donors must file Form 8283 with their tax return for the donation of $500 and more. The Engiven platform automatically enters the donation …