Countries failing to adhere to anti-money laundering (AML) guidelines for cryptocurrencies could find themselves added to the Financial Action Task Force’s (FATF's) “grey list." According to a Nov. 7 report from Al Jazeera, sources say the global financial watchdog is planning to conduct annual checks to ensure countries are enforcing AML and counter-terrorist financing (CTF) rules on crypto providers. The grey list refers to the list of countries the FATF deems as “Jurisdictions under Increased Monitoring." The FATF says countries on this list have committed to resolving "strategic deficiencies" within agreed timeframes and are thus subject to increased monitoring. It …

Financial regulators in China have shut down a Beijing-based software company they suspect of providing services to crypto traders. In a Tuesday joint statement, the Beijing Financial Supervision and Administration Bureau and the Business Administration Department of the People's Bank of China issued a warning to all financial institutions and payment service providers to not provide any crypto-related services to customers. This includes not permitting businesses to advertise or provide office space for any “virtual currency-related business activities.” As part of a regulatory crackdown, the two groups announced they had ordered the shutdown of Beijing Tongdao Cultural Development, a company …

China’s crackdown on Bitcoin (BTC) mining continues to face determined responses across the crypto ecosystem. One of the first BTC exchange operators and co-founder of Zap Protocol, Nick Spanos, said that the crackdown only proves Bitcoin is an unstoppable machine “if the world’s second-biggest economy can’t crush, devalue and manipulate Bitcoin.” Noting that the crackdown is increasing scarcity due to there being fewer miners relative to the transaction volume, Spanos underscored the increase in miners’ profits while the mining difficulty continues to decrease. He explained: “Bitcoin’s algorithm adjusts roughly every two weeks to allow one block of transactions to be …

Kristin Smith, executive director of the Blockchain Association has dismissed fears that the United States Department of the Treasury was close to cracking down on Bitcoin (BTC) and cryptocurrencies. Indeed, rumors of the Treasury bringing money laundering charges against some financial institutions using cryptocurrencies began circulating on social media over the weekend. The report emerged during a period of massive selloffs in the crypto space, with the market capitalization dropping over $240 million as Bitcoin slid to $52,000. In an interview with CNBC, Smith debunked the reports, stating that it was the Department of Justice’s remit to charge companies with …

1. SEC Investigates Crowdsales, FinCEN Takes Aim at Exchanges On Tuesday, Cointelegraph reported on a couple of the US government’s activities in the cryptocoins space. Most controversial, at this point, seems to be the report that the SEC has sent out letters — with gag orders — to organizations that have held crowdsales, asking them to divulge documents related to those sales. Many from the crypto 2.0 community such as representatives from Mastercoin and Counterparty are on record as dismissing the reports, but Coin Fire — which broke the story — stands by its reporting. Cointelegraph has found no reason …