The Commodity and Futures Exchange Commission (CFTC) has charged executives of American and Israeli firms for an alleged $15 million scam involving cryptocurrencies and binary options. Court documents filed on May 5 mention two major scams, the first involving binary options, which was carried out between October 2013 and November 2016, and the second involving digital assets, such as Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH), which was carried out between November 2013 and August 2018. The CFTC charged Israel-based Tal Valariola and Itay Barak of Digital Platinum Limited for aiding the United States-based firm All In Publishing (AIP) to create and …

The United States regulator, Commodities and Futures Trading Commission, announced the CFTC’s first science contest, Project Streetlamp, earlier this week. Cointelegraph had a chance to speak with Melissa Netram, who is the Chief Innovation Officer and Director of the commission’s fintech office, LabCFTC. Netram took over the role from Daniel Gorfine in September. Cointelegraph was pleased to hear her thoughts on progress at LabCFTC since then, the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, and her plans for future development. Financial regulation under COVID-19 The current pandemic has taken center stage for legislators and regulators in the U.S., with some calling to …

A major United States financial regulator is holding its first science contest, asking devs for new tools to track foreign derivatives offerings that may be soliciting U.S. investors without proper registration. Project Streetlamp shines a light on offerings Per an April 21 announcement shared with Cointelegraph, the United States Commodities and Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and its fintech office LabCFTC are launching Project Streetlamp, a contest to help find unregistered offerings. The contest aims: “To deploy technology, including artificial intelligence (‘AI’), to help the CFTC identify foreign entities that may be engaged in conduct that requires registration, but which have …

The United States Commodity Futures Trade Commission (CFTC) has filed a complaint against Florida resident Alan Friedland for fraudulently raising $1.6 million through a cryptocurrency tied to a forex trading scheme. The April 16 filing accuses Friedland and his companies Fintech Investment Group, Inc and Compcoin LLC of illegally soliciting investments and publishing “untrue and materially misleading” press materials for its digital asset Compcoin from 2016 until 2018. ‘Proprietary trading algorithm’ The defendant claimed that Compcoin would allow customers to access Fintech’s proprietary trading algorithm ART and would deliver high returns on investment. Friedland falsely claimed that ART’s profit potential …

The United States Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has requested that the alleged founder of the crypto $147 million Ponzi scheme Control-Finance be declared a default. On April 3, the CFTC filed for a ruling of default after Control-Finance’s alleged founder and director, Benjamin Reynolds, did not respond to the regulator’s complaint. CFTC unable to locate Reynolds after 10 months The CFTC’s complaint was filed during June 2019 — alleging that Reynolds misappropriated at least 22,858 BTC from more than 1,000 customers from May 1, 2017. In January 2020, the SEC requested additional time to locate Reynolds amid an ongoing …

The digital dollar has been the talk of the crypto world this week. Drafts of the COVID-19 stimulus bill first included and then discarded the creation of digital dollar wallets; a digital distribution method that would enable direct aid to citizens. The version of the “Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act” that became law on March 27 features no mention of the digital dollar. While the proposed digital dollar lives on in at least one bill sponsored by Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH), a United States central bank digital currency (CBDC) seems like it will have to wait for now. …

The Digital Dollar Project, which advocates a blockchain-backed digital dollar in the United States, has announced the inaugural roster of its Advisory Board. The new advisors joining the founders of the project The project is an initiative of several former heads of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and Accenture. The new advisory board includes 22 members with broad backgrounds in finance and payment technologies. They include former CFTC Commissioner Sharon Bowen, PayPal policy exec Usman Ahmed and Georgetown fintech law professor and occasional Cointelegraph contributor Chris Brummer. The announcement for the new board says the advisors aim to “help …

The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission, or CFTC, has publicized clarity on physical digital asset delivery as it applies to traded market products. “This announcement is meant to synthesize prior Commission guidance and enforcement actions as well as federal judicial precedent in this area,” CFTC Office of Public Affairs Director and Chief Communications Officer Michael Short told Cointelegraph in an email. “It is meant to reaffirm and illustrate the Commission’s approach.” “The Commodity Futures Trading Commission today announced the Commission voted unanimously to approve final interpretive guidance concerning retail commodity transactions involving certain digital assets,” the Commission said in a …

United States derivatives markets regulator, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), has joined the list of global authorities warning the public against cryptocurrency scammers trying to capitalize on the widespread coronavirus fears. In a statement issued on March 19, the CFTC highlighted that fraudsters commonly use major news events like the spread of COVID-19 in order to add credibility to their scam schemes or manipulate emotions. CFTC sees increased complaints involving crypto or forex-related scam schemes According to the statement, the agency has received hundreds of fraud complaints involving online digital assets or forex-related fraudulent schemes that promise to deliver …

The Commercial Court of Nanterre’s Feb. 26 ruling that Bitcoin (BTC) is a fungible, intangible asset sent some ripples through the French crypto community, and beyond. This may seem surprising, given that this was a lower court decision and, moreover, one that did not declare BTC a currency or fiat money — as some news stories reported — but just a fungible asset like money. The ruling is “an important milestone for further development of the crypto market, particularly in France,” Roman Matkovskyy — associate professor at the Rennes School of Business — told Cointelegraph. “The French court’s characterization of …

A United States congressman is the latest working to clarify and determine which U.S. regulator is responsible for which digital assets. On March 9, Representative Paul Gosar (R-AZ) introduced the “Crypto-Currency Act of 2020,” a bill that looks to choreograph a wide range of digital assets to answer to the appropriate regulator. The proposed regulatory schema As Will Stechschulte, Gosar’s legislative assistant, explained to Cointelegraph, “the bill looks to provide not only clarity, but legitimacy to crypto assets in the United States.” Gosar’s proposal divides digital assets into three categories: crypto-commodity, crypto-currency and crypto-security. Respectively, the three categories would be …

The iFinex–Tether market manipulation lawsuit continues. Last week, Judge Katherine Failla of the Southern District of New York selected Roche Cyrulnik Freedman as interim lead plaintiff counsel, and four civil actions were consolidated into a single class action: Leibowitz v. iFinex Inc. In the complaints, iFinex’s subsidiary, Bitfinex, and related stablecoin Tether (USDT) are charged with manipulating the Bitcoin market in 2017 — something the firm strenuously denied. Combination of old and new This isn’t shaping up as an ordinary civil action. As Failla observed in announcing her lead counsel decision on Feb. 27 via a telephone conference call, she …