Georgia, one of the world’s most cryptocurrency-friendly countries, is moving to introduce new crypto regulations to pursue its ambitions to become a global crypto hub. Georgian lawmakers have prepared a new regulatory framework targeting digital business and cryptocurrency trading in the country, Georgian Minister of Economy and Vice Prime Minister Levan Davitashvili announced. Davitashvili said that a draft bill has been sent to the parliament and the amendments are expected to be passed in the autumn session, local news agency Business Media Georgia reported on Monday. According to the minister, the draft bill aims to coordinate local cryptocurrency laws with …

Major Indian crypto exchange CoinSwitch Kuber had five of its premises searched by anti-money laundering agents on Thursday over alleged violations of forex laws. According to an Aug. 25 report from Bloomberg, India’s Enforcement Directorate searched CoinSwitch Kuber’s offices as well as the residences of its directors and CEO Ashish Singhal. A source told the publication the crypto exchange is under suspicion of acquiring shares worth more than $250 million in contravention of forex laws, as well as being non-compliant with certain know-your-customer (KYC) requirements. The Directorate of Enforcement is a federal enforcement and intelligence agency operating under the Ministry …

Crypto-friendly digital payments giant Paypal has been added to the Travel Rule Universal Solution Technology (TRUST) network, joining a host of big names in crypto that have moved to comply with digital asset travel rules. The announcement comes two months after the payments giant rolled out infrastructure enabling users to transfer, send and receive digital assets between PayPal and other wallets and exchanges in June this year. Prior to that, users were only able to buy and sell crypto within Paypal following the firm’s initial jump into the sector in October 2020. Now you can easily use your crypto with …

Many see implementing Know Your Customer (KYC) tools in crypto as a deterrent to the Bitcoin (BTC) Standard, which has predominantly promoted anonymized peer-to-peer transactions. However, regulators stay put on promoting KYC and anti-money laundering (AML) implementations as a means to ensure investors’ safety and protection against financial fraud. While most crypto exchanges have begun implementing regulatory recommendations to remain at the forefront of crypto’s mainstream adoption, investors still have the choice to opt for crypto exchanges that promote greater anonymity by not imposing KYC processes. But does opting for the latter as an investor mean compromising on safety? A …

For Satoshi Nakamoto, the creator of Bitcoin (BTC), the motivation to create a new payment ecosystem from scratch in 2009 stemmed from the economic chaos caused by the banking sector’s over-exuberant and risky lending practices mixed accompanied by the bursting of the housing bubbles in many countries at the time. “And who do you think picked up the pieces after the fallout? The taxpayer, of course,” said Durgham Mushtaha, business development manager of blockchain analytics firm Coinfirm, in an exclusive interview with Cointelegraph. Satoshi recognized the need for a new monetary system based on equity and fairness — a system …

India’s Enforcement Directorate (ED), the agency responsible for financial crimes, is looking at cryptocurrency exchanges suspected of processing transactions that sent more than 10 billion rupees, or about $130 million, from firms under investigation to international wallets. At least ten crypto exchanges are allegedly involved, according to an official who spoke to The Economic Times, and bank accounts of exchange WazirX have been frozen, the newspaper reported. Transactions of up to 1 billion rupees, or $1.3 million, were allegedly made in the names of people with no connections to the money by companies investigation in a case involving instant loans. …

Another top executive joins three co-founders of the crypto exchange BitMEX, pleading guilty in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. The court case under the headline "U.S. v. Hayes et al." goes on for two years, with BitMEX management being indicted for violating the U.S. Bank Secrecy Act. According to the Wall Street Journal, on Aug. 8, a one-time head of business development at BitMEX, Gregory Dwyer, admitted his guilt of violating the Bank Secrecy Act in court. As part of a plea deal, Dwyer would pay a $150,000 fine. As Manhattan Attorney Damian …

The European Council has reached an agreement to form an Anti-Money Laundering (AML) body that will have the authority to supervise certain crypto asset service providers, or CASPs. In a Wednesday announcement, the council said it had agreed on a partial position of a proposal to launch a dedicated Anti-Money Laundering Authority, or AMLA. According to the regulatory body, the AML body will have the authority to supervise “high-risk and cross-border financial entities” including crypto firms — “if they are considered risky.” European Parliament member Ondřej Kovařík said European Union officials had also reached a “provisional political agreement” on the …

Panama’s President Laurentino Cortizo has partially vetoed Bill No. 697, dubbed the “crypto bill,” saying it requires more work to better fit Panama’s financial regulations. President Cortizo previously warned in May he wouldn’t sign the bill unless it included additional Anti-Money Laundering (AML) rules after Panama’s National Assembly passed the crypto bill in late April 2022. Local media outlet La Prenda obtained a copy of the 32-page veto, reporting the president wrote it’s “imperative” the cryptocurrency laws conform to new regulations recommended by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) outlining “fiscal transparency and prevention of money laundering.” President Cortizo has …

Benjamin Delo, co-founder of cryptocurrency exchange BitMEX, has been sentenced to 30 months probation for violating the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA), which is an Anti-Money Laundering (AML) law. The sentence, handed down at a federal court in New York on Wednesday, follows his guilty plea to charges in February of “willfully failing to establish, implement and maintain an Anti-Money Laundering (AML) program” in his role at BitMEX. Prosecutors had argued Delo should serve a year in prison or at least receive a two-year probation and six months of home detention, as was given to former CEO Arthur Hayes in May. …

Illicit cryptocurrency activity in 2021 and the first quarter of 2022 has declined as a percentage of overall crypto activity, according to blockchain forensics firm CipherTrace. The cryptocurrency industry has long held a reputation in some jurisdictions as a haven for illegal activity. However, CipherTrace estimates that illicit activity was between 0.62% and 0.65% of overall cryptocurrency activity in 2020. The firm reported that it has now fallen to between 0.10% and 0.15% of overall activity in 2021. In its “Cryptocurrency Crime and Anti-Money Laundering” report released Monday, CipherTrace outlined that the top ten decentralized finance (DeFi) hacks in 2021 …

The United States Department of Justice (DOJ) released a report on international law enforcement related to digital assets on Tuesday. It is the first of the approximately one dozen reports mandated in President Joe Biden’s March 9 executive order “Ensuring Responsible Development of Digital Assets.” The report, titled “How To Strengthen International Law Enforcement Cooperation For Detecting, Investigating, And Prosecuting Criminal Activity Related To Digital Assets,” was written with the collaboration of the Departments of State, Treasury and Homeland Security, as well as the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). Countries have varying degrees of …