The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission, or CFTC, has released its Fiscal Year 2023 (FY2023) budget request, seeking $365 million. This marks a 9.9% increase over the previous year and 20% over FY2021. The commission regulates the country’s derivatives market and has been increasingly active in recent years in policing financial products that incorporate cryptocurrencies. According to the agency’s request document, the CTFC focuses on digital asset custodian risk, ensuring secure storage, as well as on accounting. The agency has its own staff of certified public due to the lack of guidance on digital asset accounting from sectoral oversight bodies. …

United States President Joe Biden’s Executive Order on Ensuring Responsible Development of Digital Assets was widely praised for acknowledging cryptocurrency and blockchain technology’s place in the world and setting the U.S. on a path toward more comprehensive regulation of the sector. The order, or EO, sets a research agenda that encompasses consumer protection, financial stability, crime and national security, U.S. leadership, servicing the underbanked and responsible development. With a number of reports being commissioned for delivery over the course of months and no specific actions prescribed, it is impossible to gauge the effect the order will ultimately have on the …

It was relatively quiet in the digital asset policy department last week, as regulators and lawmakers in most key jurisdictions retreated to their offices to do the necessary homework. In the U.S., federal agencies got on with the various reports that President Joe Biden’s recent executive orders directed them to produce. Over in the United Kingdom, both the central bank and the Financial Conduct Authority also dropped position papers on crypto-related issues. After thorough deliberation, Thailand’s financial authorities spoke out against using crypto as a means of payment, while rumors of potential legal tender adoption of crypto emerged and died …

The Electronic Currency and Secure Hardware Act (ECASH Act), introduced today in the United States House of Representatives, could herald a new direction in government-sponsored digital currencies. The legislation calls for the U.S. Secretary of the Treasury to develop and pilot an electronic version of the U.S. dollar that is easy to use for the economically marginalized or technically challenged. It would also “maximize” consumer protection and data privacy, according to its principal sponsor Representative Stephen Lynch, chair of the Fintech Task Force in the House Financial Services Committee. Interestingly, e-cash, as it’s called, would be issued by the U.S. …

United States Senator from New York Kirsten Gillibrand revealed working with Senator Cynthia Lummis on a broad-based regulatory framework for the crypto industry on Thursday during a live event in Washington, D.C. As Gillibrand specified, she and Lummis are undertaking “a very complex and intensive review” of different aspects of the industry, with a future regulatory task-sharing in mind. The framework will see both the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) get their share of a regulatory mandate. Speaking of her and Lummis’ motivations for taking up the initiative, Gillibrand said: “Many of the goals …

The Department of Justice (DOJ) has taken action against an alleged NFT rug pull, after it slapped the founders of the Frosties project with charges relating to fraud and money laundering. The two founders are accused of purposely concealing their identities to operate a rug pull on the Frosties community by failing to deliver on the project’s roadmap and “utility” which touted rewards for NFT hodlers, giveaways, access to a Metaverse game and exclusive access to future mints from the project. According to a March 24 release from the Attorney’s Office of the Southern District of New York, 20-year-olds Ethan …

El Salvador president Nayib Bukele reacted to the news that the recently proposed Accountability for Cryptocurrency in El Salvador Act (ACES) had passed the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee and will now head to a full Senate vote. The 40-year old national leader responded emotionally on Twitter: Never in my wildest dreams would I have thought that the US Government would be afraid of what we are doing here. pic.twitter.com/QgJPa70mn0 — Nayib Bukele (@nayibbukele) March 23, 2022 On Wednesday, March 23, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee approved the bill, sponsored by Senators James Risch, Bill Cassidy, and Bob Menendez. The …

Last week got off to an antsy start as the clause that many interpreted as a direct route to ban proof-of-work-(PoW)-based cryptocurrencies made a sudden comeback to the draft of the European Union’s key directive on digital assets. Many in the crypto policy space got immediate flashbacks to other instances of harmful last-minute additions to must-pass legislation days and hours before the vote. It all ended well, though, as the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs voted against the draft that contained the hostile language. Over in the United States, monetary policy kept growing more political, as evidenced by Sarah …

The Bank of Canada has partnered with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) to work on a 12 month research project focused on the design of a Central Bank Digital Currency. According to a March 16 announcement, the bank will work alongside the MIT Media Labs’ Digital Currency Initiative (DCI) team to examine how “advanced technologies could affect the potential design of a CBDC.” The Bank of Canada stated that the project is part of a broader development agenda on digital currencies, fintech and how CBDCs could work in a Canadian context. It cautions that “no decision has been made …

In a bipartisan letter put forward by Republican Minnesota Congressman Tom Emmer, a cohort of Congress members has written to Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chairman Gary Gensler, challenging the regulator's scrutiny of cryptocurrency firms and expressing concern that “overburdensome” investigation may be suffocating the crypto industry. They suggest the SEC is drowning companies in paperwork in contravention of the SEC’s stated aims and mandated jurisdiction. Emmer tweeted to his 51,000 followers: “My office has received numerous tips from crypto and blockchain firms that SEC Chair @GaryGensler’s information reporting ‘requests’ to the crypto community are overburdensome, don’t feel particularly… voluntary… …

United States President Joe Biden signed the Executive Order on Ensuring Responsible Development of Digital Assets on March 9. The order had been expected for several months, giving some in the industry ample time to build up trepidation. Once the executive order, or EO, was released, however, it was met with a chorus of approval. “I was expecting certain things and the positive tone was not necessarily one of them,” TRM Labs head of legal and government affairs Ari Redborn said of the order. Crypto advocacy group Coin Center executive director Jerry Brito tweeted that the EO is “further affirmation …

As Russia’s self-styled “special operation” against Ukraine continues, crippling economic sanctions remain the Western powers’ primary weapon to counter Russia’s military actions without triggering an even more dramatic escalation. As NATO and allies’ financial offensive unfolds, ensuring that the collective West presents a united front remains political leaders’ chief concern. The global crypto industry keeps getting suspicious looks as some agents of state power are seemingly entrenched in their beliefs that digital assets could be the weak spot undermining the efficiency of the sanctions push. Despite ample evidence to the contrary — including the FBI director’s Congress testimony — there …