Stablecoin project Diem has distanced itself from Facebook in response to senators calling for the immediate cessation of the firm’s Novi crypto wallet. Diem also claimed senior regulators had called it “the best-designed stablecoin project that the U.S. government had seen.” In a Tuesday letter sent to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, the senators, including crypto critic Elizabeth Warren, voiced their “strongest opposition to Facebook’s revived effort to launch a cryptocurrency and digital wallet.” Earlier that day, the Novi wallet was launched in partnership with Coinbase, with a pilot in the United States and Guatemala to enable users to buy, send …

On Thursday, cryptocurrency exchange platform Coinbase published its Digital Asset Policy Proposal, a document offering both a justification and conceptual framework for the comprehensive regulation of digital assets in the United States. Coinbase presented the proposal as a product of dozens of meetings with industry participants, policymakers, crypto innovators and academics that the company’s representatives had held in the last several weeks. The firm’s intention is for the proposal to “animate an open and constructive discussion regarding the role of digital assets in our shared economic future” and offer good-faith suggestions on what a sensible approach to crypto regulation might …

FTX.US’s nonfungible token (NFT) marketplace has expanded support to the Solana blockchain, enabling users to trade, deposit and withdraw NFTs that conform to the Metaplex token standard. The United States registered branch of FTX announced the expanded functionality on Tuesday, revealing the marketplace also plans to support Ethereum-based tokens in the near future. The marketplace is open to both U.S. and non-U.S. customers from a long list of jurisdictions, however, New York residents are unable to sign up for the platform. Brett Harrison, president of FTX.US, said that the firm is looking to provide “simpler, safer and easier tools” for …

This week, United States lawmakers and regulators have stolen much of the spotlight once more. The cryptocurrency-related provisions of the infrastructure bill, a tiny grain of sand in the grand scheme of the omnibus legislation, had all laser eyes glued to the fateful House of Representatives vote — which never happened. There is a sense, however, that the bill will become law sooner rather than later. We have also learned from Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell testifying to Congress that the Fed sees no use in a China-style blanket ban on cryptocurrency, eyeing tighter regulation of stablecoins instead. The latter …

On September 17, a group of officials led by U.S. attorney Tracy Wilkinson have filed a civil complaint in the United States District Court for the Central District of California claiming that they have identified four digital wallets holding more than 9.8 million Tether (USDT) that was involved in wire fraud, computer fraud and money laundering. According to court documents, the legitimate owner of the funds is a California resident who in April 2021 got swindled out of more than 200 Bitcoin (BTC) by someone impersonating a Coinbase employee. Customer support goes awry As described in the claim, the unidentified …

U.S. Department of the Treasury will reportedly push to extend the reach of new rules designed to govern the cryptocurrency space. Closely following the infrastructure package freighted with last-minute crypto taxation provisions is the upcoming budget reconciliation bill that could also see additional requirements for cryptocurrency businesses. Citing an unnamed official within the Biden administration, Roll Call reported on Monday that the administration is looking to append provisions to the budget bill requiring U.S. digital asset firms report information on their foreign clients. As with the infrastructure bill, the purpose of the potential regulation is to enhance tax compliance and …

On August 10, the United States Senate voted to pass a $1 trillion bill to revitalize America’s infrastructure. From the standpoint of the crypto community, miners in particular, the Senate’s foray into crypto legislation has been a disaster. Unless the language defining brokers in the bill is clarified, it will singlehandedly thwart the growth of a domestic industry just as it is taking off. As written, the bill allows for multiple interpretations of the term “broker.” In the English language, there is no real controversy — or ambiguity — about what a broker does. According to Merriam-Webster’s online dictionary, a …

Gary Gensler, chairman of the United States Securities and Exchange Commission, stated that decentralized finance (DeFi) is highly centralized in certain aspects and urged projects working in the sector to register with the SEC. Speaking to The Wall Street Journal on Thursday, Gensler suggested that the decentralized notions implied by the term DeFi were “a bit of a misnomer,” adding: “These platforms facilitate something that might be decentralized in some aspects but highly centralized in other aspects.” While DeFi projects are designed to be autonomous platforms that operate without a centralized authority, Gensler asserted that many are developed and controlled …

Bitcoin (BTC) prices briefly fell below $44,000 on Thursday as the United States Dollar strengthened after the U.S. Federal Reserve policy minutes revealed its intentions to limit its bond-purchasing program this year. Bitcoin risks $45,000 becoming new resistance The spot BTC/USD rate dropped 1.71% to a new week-to-date low of $43,955. The pair’s plunge appeared as a part of a technical correction that started after it had reached a three-month high of $48,176 on Saturday, following a 64.42% price rally. Bitcoin’s latest price decline also surfaced in line with a similar market bias on Wall Street. For instance, the benchmark …

Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong is the latest crypto figure to come out against the wording of the proposed changes to cryptocurrency taxation in the United States. Tweeting on Wednesday, Armstrong stated that the provisions included in the crypto taxation proposal could have a “profound negative impact” on the U.S. crypto space and could force digital innovation to move overseas. As previously reported by Cointelegraph, amendments to crypto taxation rules were a last-minute addition to the $1-trillion infrastructure deal currently before the United States Senate. The Coinbase CEO, like many other opponents of the proposal, faulted the broad language of the …

Amid the chorus of stringent crypto regulations among several United States leaders, proponents such as Galaxy Digital CEO Mike Novogratz look to counter anti-cryptocurrency sentiments circulating in Washington. Tweeting on Tuesday, Novogratz described crypto as the “future of our financial systems” while adding politicians and regulators ought to do their homework before devising policies to regulate the industry. Novogratz’s tweet was in response to Senator Elizabeth Warren’s remarks where the Senator from Massachusetts once again espoused anti-crypto sentiments, calling cryptocurrency “the wild west” of the U.S. financial system. Senator Warren has been a vocal proponent of more stringent crypto regulatory …

A new bill introduced by United States Representative Don Beyer of Virginia has proposed a far-reaching regulatory and legal framework for digital assets across the board. Entitled "The Digital Asset Market Structure and Investor Protection Act of 2021," the bill touches on virtually all the important gray areas that continue to exist regarding cryptocurrencies in the U.S. context. One of its primary goals is to establish statutory definitions for digital assets and digital asset securities, bringing the former under the purview of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and the latter under that of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). …