The United States Treasury Department has added several cryptocurrency addresses allegedly connected to controversial mixer Tornado Cash to the Specially Designated Nationals list of the Office of Foreign Asset Control, or OFAC. In a Monday announcement, the OFAC effectively barred U.S. residents from using more than 40 USD Coin (USDC) and Ether (ETH) addresses connected to Tornado Cash by placing them on its list of Specially Designated Nationals. It’s unclear what led to this enforcement action, but the protocol was at the center of some recent hacks and exploits in decentralized finance, including a $375-million attack on Wormhole in February …

When the United States Office of Government Ethics (OGE) released its Legal Advisory 22-04 on July 5, most attention was given to its conclusion that federal employees who own any amount of cryptocurrency or stablecoins whatsoever may not participate in regulation and policymaking that concerns crypto. The legal advisory (LA) raised some eyebrows, as de minimis exemptions, threshold amounts below which assets holdings are permissible, are common in the government. The LA is more comprehensible when seen in a larger context. What they were thinking The OGE does not grant interviews, so it was fortunate that a video of OGE …

The United Kingdom is paving the road for cryptocurrency services, courting startups and established players alike while leading the way in pioneering regulation on stablecoins and nonfungible tokens. But a lot has changed. After two years of deliberations, European Union lawmakers achieved agreement on the Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) regulation, marking a pivotal moment for harmonized supervision of the sector on such a scale. This followed United States President Joe Biden’s executive order recommending a whole-of-government approach toward the responsible development of digital assets within the United States. The U.K. has also seen major political shifts during this period, including …

Allison Herren Lee, one of five members of the United States Securities and Exchange Commission’s board, has officially left the regulatory body after more than three years as a commissioner. In a Friday announcement, chair Gary Gensler and commissioners Hester Peirce, Mark Uyeda and Caroline Crenshaw said Lee had left the SEC, where in 2005, she started as a staff attorney at the agency’s enforcement division at a regional office in Denver. She moved on to be appointed a commissioner in 2019 under the former presidential administration. She later served as acting chair to the regulatory body for three months …

Decentralized finance (DeFi) has massive potential to transform traditional financial services. Data from Emergen Research recently found that the global DeFi platform market size is expected to reach $507 billion by 2028. Moreover, the total value locked within DeFi currently exceeds $75 billion, demonstrating fast-paced growth compared to previous months this year. Yet, DeFi’s potential may still not be realized by business leaders unfamiliar with the blockchain ecosystem. This notion is highlighted in Alex Tapscott’s recent book, Digital Asset Revolution. Tapscott, co-founder of the Blockchain Research Institute and managing director at Ninepoint Digital Asset Group, told Cointelegraph that he believes …

The Financial Planning Association of Australia (FPA) has shown its support for the “crypto rule book” idea and called for regulating exchanges instead of crypto assets. In May, the Australian Law Reform Council (ALRC) proposed to tackle crypto regulation through a rule book-style framework that sets out a series of gradually updated compliance principles for local crypto firms to adhere to. The comments came via a submission to the Treasury by FPA’s head of policy, strategy and innovation, Ben Marshan, who also argued that the regulation of crypto exchanges should fall under the current financial services regime and not under …

The United States Commodity Futures Trading Commission, or CFTC, has added 34 unregistered foreign entities to its Registration Deficient List, including at least six providing crypto-related services. In a Thursday announcement, the CFTC said it had expanded its list of firms that it requires to register with the CFTC for providing services including trading binary options, foreign currency or other products such as cryptocurrencies. The additions to the Registration Deficient List, or RED list, include B.O TradeFinancials, CryptoBO, Bitpay Options, CryptoSphereFX, Direct Cryptos and Prime Crypto FX. Since 2015, the CFTC has placed 202 companies on the RED List, warning …

The United States Senate has confirmed the nomination of law professor Michael Barr to become the next vice chair for supervision for the Federal Reserve. In a 66-28 vote on the Senate floor on Wednesday, U.S. lawmakers confirmed Barr as vice chair for supervision of the Federal Reserve System for four years, filling the last seat on the seven-member board of governors. Barr, who was on the advisory board of Ripple Labs from 2015 to 2017, also served as the Treasury Department’s assistant secretary for financial institutions under former President Barack Obama and taught courses on financial regulation at the …

The United State Department of the Treasury has requested comments from the public on the potential opportunities and risks of digital assets in compliance with President Joe Biden’s executive order from March. In a Tuesday announcement, the U.S. Treasury said it was asking for input from the public that will “inform its work” in reporting to the president on the possible implications of digital assets on the financial markets and payment infrastructures. Biden’s executive order directed the Treasury Department to take the lead among other government agencies in developing policy recommendations aimed at mitigating both systemic and consumer risks around …

On June 7, United States Senators Cynthia Lummis and Kirsten Gillibrand launched the much anticipated Responsible Financial Innovation Act, proposing a comprehensive set of regulations that address some of the biggest questions facing the digital assets sector. By providing holistic guidance to the rapidly growing industry, the bill offers a bipartisan response to President Biden’s call for a whole-of-government approach to regulating crypto. Among its many proposals, the bill establishes basic definitions, provides an exemption for digital currency transactions and harmonizes the roles of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), delineating regulatory swim …

Bank of England (BoE) deputy governor for financial stability, Jon Cunliffe, recommended forming a set of regulations — similar to conventional financial systems — to tackle risks within the cryptocurrenc ecosystem while improving investor confidence. Speaking at a press conference, Cunliffe highlighted the recent downfall of the Terra ecosystem, pointing out that cryptocurrencies that fail to maintain their value induce stress across crypto markets. He compared his idea for a crypto regulatory framework to similar instances in traditional finance wherein regulations shelter investors from unrecoverable losses, adding: “For me, it underlines the fact that we need now to bring in …

Stablecoins were supposed to be the boring uncle of the crypto world — safe, sensible and dull. They’re probably not what Satoshi Nakamoto had in mind, but they’re supposed to be a reassuring haven of calm and utility away from the turbulence of pure-play cryptocurrencies. With values pegged to fiat currencies, stablecoins were intended to be useful rather than to offer get-rich-quick schemes. They play an important role in the cryptocurrency ecosystem by providing a safer place to store capital without having to cash out entirely, and allowing assets to be denominated in fiat currencies rather than volatile tokens. However, …