The United States government has increasingly stepped up its overwatch on crypto in recent years, although an outright ban on Bitcoin is now unlikely — at least according to Gemini CEO and co-founder Tyler Winklevoss. “I think, if we were back in 2013, this would be kind of an open question,” Winklevoss told podcaster Peter McCormack when asked about regulation and a Bitcoin (BTC) ban during a Friday episode of the What Bitcoin Did podcast: “I think that the U.S. will never outlaw Bitcoin. There’s too much precedent that’s been set in the courts. The Coinflip order, which was a …

The current acting director of the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, or FinCEN, will bid farewell to the governing body in April. His replacement: Michael Mosier, Chainalysis’ former chief technical counsel. “Director Kenneth A. Blanco today announced several leadership changes impacting the bureau,” said a public statement from FinCEN on Friday, adding: “Director Blanco announced he will depart FinCEN on April 9, after serving as the organization’s director since December 2017. Michael Mosier, former FinCEN Deputy Director and current Counselor to the Deputy Secretary of the Treasury, will return to FinCEN as Acting Director.” Blanco was the government agency’s eighth director. …

Powers On... is a new monthly opinion column from Marc Powers, who, after a stint with the SEC, spent much of his 40-year legal career working with complex, securities-related cases in the United States. He is now an adjunct professor at Florida International University School of Law, where he teaches the course “Blockchain, Crypto and Regulatory Considerations.” In 40 years of practicing law — including five years with the Securities and Exchange Commission’s, or SEC’s, Enforcement Division and 35 years in private practice— I came to learn certain truths. My awareness of these truths helped save many clients from untold …

The Georgia House of Representatives has passed a bill that calls for state education officials to implement a study program based around financial literacy for high schoolers — and cryptocurrency is on the curriculum list. The bill passed the lower chamber of Georgia on March 8 by a vote of 169-2. The bill was sponsored by six Republican candidates and has been sent to the Senate for further deliberation. The program outlines 16 areas of financial literacy to be studied by students in the tenth or eleventh grade. The bill's text states: "The State Board of Education shall prescribe a …

Without much fanfare, Heath Tarbert has announced his full departure from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission at the end of this week. In a tweet Wednesday morning, the former CFTC Chairman said that he would be fully resigning as of Friday. In December, he left his post as chairman, which the CFTC announced formally on its website, but he indicated that he intended to stay on at the commission for an indefinite length of time. Today's announcement did not clarify future plans. During his chairmanship, which began in 2019, Tarbert was a vocal advocate for cryptocurrency usage. He was, for …

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said 2021 will likely have the central bank engaging with the public and lawmakers regarding the digital dollar. In a House Financial Services Committee hearing today, Powell responded to questions from Rep. Patrick McHenry, who said the digital dollar would likely face national and economic security issues for the United States. Powell said there were many concerns surrounding the project and the Fed intended to reach out to the public. “This is going to be the year in which we engage with the public pretty actively, including some public events that we’re working on,” he …

Updated 8:20 pm UTC: This article has been updated to reflect that all Federal Reserve Bank Services with the exception of Account Services are now back online. Nearly all of the services available through the Federal Reserve's online portal went down for more than an hour today. According to the Federal Reserve Bank Services website, the bank is currently experiencing a disruption in its Check 21, Check Adjustments, FedLine Advantage, FedLine Command, FedLine Direct and FedLine Web services, which started at 6:18 pm UTC today. Its FedACH, Central Bank, FedCash, Fedwire Funds, Fedwire Securities and National Settlement services went offline …

Janet Yellen may be open to having United States regulators consider a digital currency, but she still seems to have strong concerns about Bitcoin (BTC). In an interview for The New York Times' DealBook DC Policy Project held on Monday, Yellen said it makes sense for the Federal Reserve to look into a digital dollar. Speaking to Andrew Ross Sorkin, the treasury secretary said a digital dollar maintained by the Fed could result in "faster, safer and cheaper payments," but added there were "a lot of things to consider" before a possible rollout. She questioned how regulators would "manage money …

Vlad Tenev, Robinhood’s CEO, very much occupied the hot seat in today’s hearing before the House Financial Services Committee over January’s market volatility. None of the representatives seemed particularly interested in putting the screws to Reddit CEO Steve Huffman, and many seemed to give Keith Gill the same props the rest of us did. These aren’t the market manipulators you are looking for Gill, in all fairness, was the most likeable character involved, introducing his remarks by saying “A few things I am not: I am not a cat and I am not an accredited investor.” Gill, who really started …

In recognition of Presidents Day, Cointelegraph is taking a look at the remarks of current and former leaders of the United States regarding crypto and blockchain. One of the earliest presidential adopters, Bill Clinton reportedly received his first Bitcoin (BTC) in 2016 — more than 15 years after his two terms in office. Though the Democratic U.S. president accepted the crypto asset gift from venture capitalist Matthew Roszak, seemingly with a smile on his face, he has been largely silent on the ecosystem. However, Clinton gave a keynote speech at Ripple’s Swell conference in 2018, calling blockchain a technology for …

The administrator of dark.fail, a website providing verified links to darknet markets, claims that exchanges are unfairly closing accounts donating Bitcoin to the service after implementing a Chainalysis transaction flagging system. The admin alleged in a tweet that two donors of Bitcoin to the website had their accounts blocked by exchanges that recently implemented Chainalysis’ new KYT — or Know Your Transaction — blockchain monitoring service. WARNING: Two of my donors report that their exchanges blocked their accounts after they donated Bitcoin to me. I am a journalist! I do not commit crimes. Last year I voiced strong opposition to …

The Blockchain Association, a leading trade association and lobbying group, has hired Ron Hammond as its new director of government relations. The Blockchain Association has been one of Washington, D.C.'s biggest advocates for the crypto industry since its launch in 2018. Executive director Kristin Smith recently appeared on Cointelegraph's Top 100 list. Hammond, meanwhile, cut his teeth working on crypto policy for Representative Warren Davidson, most notably the Token Taxonomy Act, which is also the origin of the relationship with the Blockchain Association. It was at Davidson's roundtable for crypto industry stakeholders back in September 2018 that the Blockchain Association …