The Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC) published new initial coin offering (ICO) and cryptocurrency guidelines on its official website on May 30. The regulator detailed the prerequisites that a cryptocurrency business needs to follow in order to comply with both the Australian Corporations and ASIC Acts, but did not cover regulations enforced by other national institutions. Notably, the guideline specified that if a crypto asset is a financial product, then the issuer and firms dealing with it are required to hold an Australian financial services license. The report also notes that miners will be considered part of the clearing …

The chairmen of two United States financial regulators, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Commodities Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) testified before Congress today, May 8. The hearings before the Senate Committee on Appropriations served to inform the Senate on the agencies’ budgetary needs while outlining various objectives and initiatives. In their respective testimonies, SEC Chairman Jay Clayton and CFTC Chairman J. Christopher Giancarlo noted the importance of the agencies becoming literate in digital assets and blockchain technology. As per the Clayton, the Office of Compliance Inspections and Examinations at the SEC has named “digital assets, including cryptocurrencies, coins …

Intercontinental Exchange Inc (ICE) purportedly took advantage of the “crypto winter” to purchase crypto assets at a discount for its institutional cryptocurrency trading platform Bakkt, Reuters reported on May 2. ICE’s chief executive officer Jeffrey Sprecher reportedly told Reuters that “It’s really been helpful that the cryptocurrency industry sort of went into what they call a winter.” 2018 was a bear year for digital currencies; in mid-November crypto markets suffered sharp double-digit losses, bringing bitcoin (BTC) below $5,600 for the first time that year. Bakkt — which was originally set to roll out in January 2019 — subsequently delayed the …

The lack of standard global terminology for crypto assets is a major impediment for the adoption of clear regulatory policies in the industry, according to a study by the Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance (CCAF) released on April 16. According to the report, a variety of major terms in the crypto industry is often used interchangeably and without a clear definition, which hampers global regulatory response. Conducted with support from the Nomura Research Institute (NRI), the research provides a detailed analysis of the regulatory landscape on crypto asset activities in 23 jurisdictions. The research data was collected mainly through desktop …

Digital Asset, the firm that created the DAML smart contract programming language, has partnered with major cloud computing company VMware, according to an announcement on April 11. According to the press release, Digital Asset will integrate its Digital Asset Modelling Language (DAML) on VMware’s blockchain platform. The development will purportedly “allow for broader reach and support as a combined offering.” Senior Director of Blockchain at VMware Michael DiPetrillo said: “DAML has been proven to be one of the few smart contract languages capable of modeling truly complex workflows at scale.” VMware was first founded in 1998, and last year reported …

Members of the United States Congress sent a joint request to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to provide clarity on reporting crypto taxes, according to an announcement on April 11. 21 different representatives sent a bipartisan letter to the U.S. tax authority requesting guidance on how to report virtual currency taxes. The action took place before the filing deadline for federal income tax returns on April 15, 2019. In the letter, the representatives mentioned the IRS’s previous efforts to establish a tax treatment for virtual assets. The letter noted that the IRS’ approach to virtual property and currency transactions was …

A former engineering executive at PayPal and Google will join the team behind the institutional digital asset platform Bakkt, the firm’s CEO Kelly Loeffler announced in a blog post on Medium on April 11. With over 25 years of experience in digital payments, engineering, strategy and operations, Mike Blandina has joined Bakkt as its chief product officer (CPO). As the new CPO of Bakkt, Blandina will lead the firm’s efforts to converge a trusted ecosystem for digital assets with payments use cases in order to help Bakkt bring real applications to Bitcoin (BTC) and other cryptocurrencies, the announcement notes. Blandina …

Blockchain security firm and wallet service BitGo has provided a newly launched digital asset trading platform, LGO Markets, with its custody and multi-signature wallets, according to a press release published Tuesday, April 9. LGO Markets, which is focused on institutional investors, will offer BitGo services for hedge funds, family offices and asset managers that are working with BitGo. Moreover, the clients of LGO Markets will be able to store their digital assets in BitGo Trust Company, regulated by the Division of Banking in the United States state of South Dakota. As per the announcement, BitGo will also support the company’s …

The amount of Credit Karma Tax filers that reported short-term crypto losses in the first month of 2019 surged more than fivefold over the same period in 2018, the firm revealed on April 3. Credit Karma Tax, a tool launched by San Francisco-based personal finance firm Credit Karma back in 2016, offers a free tax filing service that can be used to report gains or losses from trading cryptocurrency. Today, Credit Karma released a comparative report of capital crypto gains and losses on federal taxes between Jan. 28 and Feb. 22, 2019, compared to those who filed their 2017 federal …

The Jamaica Stock Exchange (JSE) will soon carry out a limited pilot to trade Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH), according to a press release on Apr. 3. The JSE has signed a master agreement with Canadian fintech firm Blockstation to continue developing tools for the trading of digital assets and security tokens. Following a successful live-trading pilot in late January 2019, the JSE and Blockstation will continue building a safe and regulated ecosystem for trading digital assets and cryptocurrencies. According to the announcement, a limited pilot to trade Bitcoin and Ethereum through the JSE and participating broker-dealers will be launched …

The Malta Financial Services Authority (MFSA) has approved its first 14 crypto assets agents that previously sought for a license, according to an official statement published today, April 2. The approval comes five months after the Virtual Financial Assets Act (VFA), adopted by Maltese government last year, came into power. According to local newspaper the Times of Malta, over 250 applications were initially filed by lawyers, accounts and auditors. However, nearly two thirds of them failed to pass the official assessment process. Only 28 of them finally succeeded to apply for a license, and 14 were approved with “minor details” …

Digital asset services provider AlphaPoint has upgraded its security token solution designed for institutional clients, according to a press release obtained by Cointelegraph Thursday, March 28. The company that provides services to private equity, real estate, funds, and other institutional investors is now offering to issue asset-backed security tokens for its clients. AlphaPoint believes that tokenization will increase liquidity for high value asset classes. As per the announcement, the updated service will allow institutions to create and trade tokens securely and privately. AlphaPoint said that its new security token service is already used by a real-estate private equity firm Muirfield …