Every Friday, Law Decoded delivers analysis on the week’s critical stories in the realms of policy, regulation and law. Editor’s note Last week’s Law Decoded sounded the alarm on threats to self-custodial wallets in the U.S. in particular. While such concerns have continued to take shape, nothing concrete has emerged from the U.S. Treasury, which was at the heart of last week’s conversation. Though I don’t like to recycle themes, it seems a reasonable time to ask the question: What is a crypto wallet as far as a regulator is concerned? While many people access their crypto through custodial solutions …
French financial authorities are strengthening the country’s cryptocurrency regulations in a move to prevent illicit activities like money laundering and terrorism financing. On Dec. 9, several ministries in France jointly introduced an order aiming to prevent anonymous digital asset transactions by banning anonymous crypto accounts. The new regulatory effort is backed by French finance minister Bruno Le Maire, overseas minister Sébastien Lecornu and junior economy minister Olivier Dussopt. The order is pursuant to Article 203 of France’s PACTE law, which stands for the Action Plan for Business Growth and Transformation. In the document, the ministries have admitted that digital assets …
Nonfungible tokens (NFTs) are constantly in the news. NFT platforms are springing up like mushrooms and champions are emerging, such as OpenSea. It is a real platform economy that is emerging, like those in which YouTube or Booking.com gained a foothold. But it is a very young economy — one that is struggling to understand the legal issues that apply to it. Regulators are starting to take an interest in the subject, and there is risk of a backlash if the industry does not regulate itself quickly. And, as always, the first blows are expected east of the Atlantic. In …
In her monthly Expert Take column, Selva Ozelli, an international tax attorney and CPA, covers the intersection between emerging technologies and sustainability, and provides the latest developments around taxes, AML/CFT regulations and legal issues affecting crypto and blockchain. Lately, news headlines are focused on regulators’ concerns over the lack of investor protections in the cryptocurrency market, which has ballooned to more than $2 trillion, and the possible risks to financial stability. National security agencies across the administration of United States President Joe Biden are grappling with high-profile cases of cryptocurrencies playing a role in ransomware attacks, intellectual property espionage, sanctions …
After spending 30 months in detention, Greek authorities have finally extradited the Russian national and alleged Bitcoin (BTC) money launderer Alexander Vinnik to France. Prosecutors in France are charging Vinnik, operator of the defunct BTC-e crypto exchange, with multiple counts of money laundering, extortion and conspiracy. Vinnik also has pending extradition requests from both Russia and the United States. The alleged Bitcoin criminal has previously stated his preference for extradition to his native homeland, which Greek officials have turned down. Thus, after the conclusion of his trial in France, Vinnik will return to Greece to face another extradition to the …