As the United States Senate begins confirming leadership posts across commerce and the treasury, there has been meaningful momentum in the crypto community as a response. This is due to the profiles of various individuals who have been reportedly nominated, as well as the anticipated economic measures by the coming administration — both of which are expected to nurture positive momentum for crypto growth. While a few official appointments have been made with numerous confirmations pending, others are still at the nomination stage. Let’s take a quick loop around the swamp. The Treasury Confirmed with 84 votes, Janet Yellen will …

The most vocally pro-crypto Senator in the U.S. will join the committee responsible for the nation's financial regulation. On Wednesday night, Senator Lummis's team told Cointelegraph that she had received her committee assignments for the 117th congress. The freshman Republican from Wyoming will take her place on three committees: banking, environment, and commerce. The Banking Committee is the Senate's front line for financial legislation and has hosted hearings with Facebook's leadership over the Libra stablecoin, as well as, more recently, prospects for a digital dollar. In a press announcement, Lummis noted her intention to use the appointment to the banking …

The four horsemen of U.S. financial regulation will meet to discuss market manipulation concerns resulting from the headline-grabbing drama surrounding GameStop stock last week. Per a Feb. 2 report from the Wall Street Journal, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen is gathering the leadership of the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, and the Federal Reserve, possibly as soon as Thursday. The SEC already announced that it was looking into recent market manipulation. The inclusion of the CFTC and the Fed suggest that the conversation is going to extend far beyond Robinhood, Reddit and GameStop. Aside from the spillover …

The U.S. securities watchdog is looking into the affair of Robinhood and the Redditors. At least in so many words. The Securities and Exchange Commission made a joint statement on Friday expressing concern over the "extreme price volatility of certain stocks’ trading prices over the past several days." Though the commission didn't use the words "GameStop," "Robinhood," or "Reddit," it's obvious that what the commission is talking about is the recent chaos surrounding the three. It's already attracted major regulatory pressure. The SEC did, however, specify: "The Commission will closely review actions taken by regulated entities that may disadvantage investors …

The crypto lobby is growing as more firms join the effort to fight rules that attack financial privacy. The Blockchain Association today announced the addition of five new members, with membership now totaling 30 firms. The new members are Uniswap, Blockfi, Fireblocks, CMT Digital and Blockchain Capital. In its tweet announcing the news, the Blockchain Association attributed the rise in membership to its work in presenting an industry response to rules from the United States Treasury Department's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, or FinCEN, at the tail end of the Donald Trump administration. The association wrote, "Battling back the FinCEN process …

Ripple Labs spent $690,000 on lobbying in the United States in 2020, which still didn't save the firm from the Securities and Exchange Commission. Per legally mandated disclosures for 2020, Ripple's lobbying program dwarfed those of other firms in the crypto industry. Coinbase, which looks to become the first American crypto exchange to issue public shares, spent $230,000 over the same year, while other exchanges like Binance.US, Gemini and Kraken did not report any spending on lobbying. Ripple's spending on lobbying is, however, relatively paltry compared with the giants of Big Tech. Facebook, for example, spent well over $5 million …

U.S. President Joe Biden's pick for Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen may see more benefits to cryptocurrency than her previous testimony indicated. After a virtual hearing of the U.S. Senate Finance Committee held on Tuesday, Yellen hit the headlines for her answer to Democratic Senator Maggie Hassan’s question about how she would respond to “emerging financial technology” being used to fund criminal organizations and terrorists. Yellen referred to cryptocurrencies as a “growing concern” in the U.S., said they were used “mainly for illicit financing” for the aforementioned groups, and that the U.S. government needed to examine ways to “curtail” the use …

Heath Tarbert is no longer the chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, but he will remain one of its five commissioner In a CFTC announcement on Thursday afternoon, Tarbert followed through with his resignation, which he announced at the beginning of December. However, it was not clear at the time whether he would remain on the commission at all. Today's announcement confirmed that Tarbert would stay on as a commissioner, with a term that formally expires on April 13, 2024. In listing accomplishments during his 18-month run as chairman of the commission, crypto took on a leading role, with …

A Nebraska state senator has proposed new crypto-friendly legislation which could see his state become the next regulatory safe haven for FinTech firms. Sworn in just two weeks ago, Republican Mike Flood today introduced the Transactions in Digital Assets Act and Adopt the Nebraska Financial Innovation Act to the state’s 107th Legislature. The two bills lay out guidelines for state banks to be able to custody digital assets in addition to creating financial institutions dealing in digital assets for which Nebraska would provide “charter, operation, supervision, and regulation”. The measures would also give local courts the jurisdiction to hear claims …

After ending 2020 facing a lawsuit from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission under Donald Trump’s administration, Ripple’s leadership is looking to the new year and a new U.S. President to bring a change in regulations more favorable to the firm. According to a post on the Ripple website featuring comments from key executives, the firm is predicting the incoming Biden administration will most likely “bring a renewed focus on regulation and enforcement” in the crypto space. “As we’ve seen, a lack of a clear regulatory framework over the last four years in the U.S. especially has left fintech and …

This is the third article in a three-part series based on Gary Gensler's extensive prior public statements on crypto. Here are parts 1 and 2. Cointelegraph has been busily digging through a treasure trove of likely future Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission Gary Gensler’s thoughts on crypto, especially from a series of lectures he gave at MIT in the fall of 2018. One especially notable element of Gensler’s thinking is his obvious respect for Bitcoin’s mechanism of internal governance and his obvious interest in seeing that decentralization elsewhere in finance. 12 years out from BTC’s genesis block, there …

Janet Yellen, a former leader at the Federal Reserve and Joe Biden's pick for Treasury Secretary, is still suspicious of crypto as a threat for illicit financing. In a virtual hearing of the U.S. Senate Finance Committee held today, Yellen faced questions on combating the financing of terrorism, or CFT, from Democratic Senator Maggie Hassan from New Hampshire. Hassan asked Yellen how she would respond as Treasury Secretary to “emerging financial technology” used to fund criminal organizations and terrorists. The senator called cryptocurrencies a “growing concern” and asked Biden’s pick how she would handle CFT. "We need to make sure …