Crypto exchange Coinbase has filed for a political action committee reportedly to support "crypto-forward lawmakers" ahead of the 2022 midterm elections in the United States. According to a Feb. 7 filing with the Federal Election Commission, Coinbase’s chief financial officer Alesia Haas and head of U.S. policy Kara Calvert registered the Coinbase Innovation PAC. The lobbyist/registrant political action committee will likely be required to make disclosures of funds to designated representatives in Congress. Political action committees, or PACs, are organizations often aimed at raising funds to elect candidates supporting similar causes, implying Coinbase is looking to get behind crypto-friendly candidates …

Commodity Futures Trading Commission chair Rostin Behnam is looking to members of Congress to address the commission’s lack of enforcement authority in the digital asset space. At a Wednesday hearing titled “Examining Digital Assets: Risks, Regulation, and Innovation,” Behnam told lawmakers with the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry that the CFTC’s authority was currently limited to addressing fraud and manipulation of digital assets without a clear regulatory framework. The CFTC chair added that because there was currently a patchwork of regulation and enforcement authority across multiple government agencies, the bulk of the agency’s actions taken in the last …

Many religious denominations now offer interactive digital locations to supplement traditional services, but unique to COVID-19 is the opportunity to experience spirituality in an immersive 3D environment through virtual reality (VR) technology. As per a report by NZ Herald, Garret Bernal and his family were reportedly absent from a recent Sunday service during their quarantine for COVID-19 exposure. So he donned a VR headset and tried praying in the metaverse. He was instantly transported to a three-dimensional virtual realm of pastures, cliffs and rivers as the representative of a pastor guided him and others through computer-generated images of Biblical passages …

Whether regulations on stablecoins and digital assets should be addressed at the state or federal level was the topic of discussion among at least two U.S. lawmakers in a hearing for the House Committee on Financial Services. Speaking virtually at a Tuesday hearing titled “Digital Assets and the Future of Finance: The President’s Working Group on Financial Markets’ Report on Stablecoins,” North Carolina Representative and ranking committee member Patrick McHenry asked the committee to consider state-level regulatory frameworks in lieu of a comprehensive federal law on stablecoins. In response to McHenry, Jean Nellie Liang, the Under Secretary for Domestic Finance …

In May 2021, a Nashville couple known as the Jarretts filed a lawsuit against the United States Internal Revenue Service (IRS) over taxes they had paid on unclaimed and unsold Tezos (XTZ) staking rewards. At the beginning of February, news broke that the lawsuit filed by the Jarretts had come to an end, resulting in the IRS issuing the couple a tax refund for $3,793. Confusion among crypto holders Not long after this news made headlines, confusion among the crypto community piqued. One crypto media publication sent a tweet from its official account on Feb. 2, 2022, saying, “BREAKING: IRS …

The United States national governing body for the sport of figure skating, the U.S. Figure Skating, is the latest organization in the country to enable donations in cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin (BTC). The association has partnered with the enterprise-level donation platform Engiven in order to start accepting donations and gifts in cryptocurrency, the U.S. Figure Skating announced on Tuesday. The organization initially revealed its plans to enable cryptocurrency donations in September 2021. The new donation payment option is immediately available on the U.S. Figure Skating’s website via Engiven’s platform, featuring donations in major cryptocurrencies like BTC, Ether (ETH), Dogecoin (DOGE), as …

Martin J. Gruenberg, the acting chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, or FDIC, named “crypto-assets” among the agency’s key priorities in 2022, alongside addressing financial risks associated with climate change and promoting amendments to major federal statutes relevant to FDIC’s jurisdiction. A Feb. 7 statement outlines five key areas that the agency deems most important for its mission of maintaining public confidence in the U.S. financial system. Number four on the list is evaluating “crypto-asset risks.” Acknowledging the rapid pace with which digital asset-based products are becoming part of the financial landscape, the statement emphasizes systemic risks that this …

A decentralized autonomous organizations (DAO) is an organization that is managed by a computer program powered by blockchain and run by a group of individuals who collectively vote to decide on organizational proposals. Typically, each member’s voting power is determined by their percentage interest in the DAO, which is calculated by dividing the digital assets contributed by a member by the total amount of digital assets in the DAO. A DAO generally (but not always) operates without the need for a board of directors or other governing body and can provide an effective and (potentially) secure platform to gather individuals …

The U.S. Department of the Treasury released a study on the high-value art market, highlighting the potential in the nonfungible tokens (NFT) space to conduct illicit money laundering or terror financing operations. The treasury’s “Study of the facilitation of money laundering and terror finance through the trade in works of art” suggested that the increasing use of art as an investment or financial asset could make the high-value art trades vulnerable to money laundering: “The emerging online art market may present new risks, depending on the structure and incentives of certain activity in this sector of the market (i.e., the …

On Jan. 26, the United States Securities and Exchange Commission proposed amendments to Rule 3b-16 under the Exchange Act that lacks any mention of digital assets or decentralized finance, which could adversely affect platforms that facilitate crypto transactions. Some cryptocurrency advocates — including SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce — believe that the commission’s extended definition of an exchange could thrust an entire class of crypto entities under the regulator’s jurisdiction, subjecting them to additional registration and reporting burdens. How real is the threat? The proposed change The amendments proposed by the regulator dramatically expand the definition of what an exchange is …

2021 will be remembered as the year of nonfungible tokens (NFTs). In a year where names like Beeple and Bored Ape Yacht Club dominated the headlines, it’s estimated that NFTs have generated more than $23 billion in trading volume. The rise of NFTs has ushered in a new generation of investors who spend time scouring platforms like Discord and OpenSea looking for the next 100x opportunity. However, it’s important for the NFT investor of today to keep tax implications in mind. Otherwise, they risk repeating the mistakes of the past. After the 2017 bull run, many crypto traders found themselves …

Twitter co-founder and Block (previously Square) CEO Jack Dorsey discussed the implications of a Bitcoin (BTC)-powered universal basic income (UBI) strategy with US congressional candidate and a full-time elementary school teacher, Aarika Rhodes. “Obscurity of information forces and incentivizes people to negative (financial) behaviors that don’t work for them, their community or family,” said Dorsey while pointing out the lack of transparency within the existing centralized financial system. “If there’s one thing to focus on in Bitcoin — the operations are transparent, the code is transparent, the policy is transparent.” This base foundation of BTC is what Dorsey believes has …