The United Arab Emirates is reportedly getting ready to start issuing federal licenses for virtual asset service providers (VASPs) by the end of the first quarter of 2022. The move is expected to become part of a complex regulatory framework that the Middle Eastern nation is looking to establish on its way to becoming one of the world’s most crypto-friendly jurisdictions. What could this trajectory look like for the UAE? The proposed regime The UAE’s Securities and Commodities Authority (SCA) is reportedly finalizing rules that would allow digital asset firms to set up shop in the country. While working on …

Lord Fusitu’a, a former member of the Tongan Parliament, has shared a timeline for the country’s plan to adopt Bitcoin (BTC). A Tongan nobleman, Fusitu’a had previously disclosed the four-step plan, a copy of the Salvadoran Bitcoin playbook. Step one is remittance, two is legal tender, three is Bitcoin mining and four is moving national treasuries into Bitcoin, effectively upgrading the nation onto a Bitcoin standard. During a Twitter spaces conversation, Fusitu’a shed light on steps two and three, providing a timeline for when these changes could come into place. Lord Fusitu’a told Cointelegraph: “Let’s say the [legal tender] bill …

A European subsidiary of United States-based crypto trading platform Uphold has received approval from the United Kingdom's Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). According to the FCA website, Uphold’s U.K. subsidiary Uphold Europe Limited gained regulatory approval on Feb. 17, 2022, joining the select list of 32 firms that have received FCA approval as a Registered Crypto Asset service provider, out of the 200 that applied. The approval signifies that the firm is in compliance with the U.K. Anti-Money Laundering and CounTerrorist Financing regulations. In order for crypto exchanges and service providers to offer their services to U.K.-based customers, they must register …

Japan Exchange Group (JPX), the Tokyo Stock Exchange and Osaka Exchange owner, warned the public against companies that are misleading Japanese investors by selling crypto assets under the JPX brand. JPX issued the alert after receiving reports about an ongoing attempt to dupe unwary investors into trading Bitcoin (BTC) and cryptocurrencies on platforms misrepresented as JPX or one of its subsidiaries. Alert on trading in crypto assets using similar names to JPXhttps://t.co/CVrvpA0dNE — Japan Exchange Group EN (@JPX_official_EN) February 8, 2022 The company highlighted that the fraudulent companies in question are replicating JPX names, logos and URLs in various forms …

Amid the barrage of last week’s regulatory news, from rumors of Joe Biden’s upcoming executive order on digital assets to another round of the Russian government’s crypto tug of war, the storyline that was arguably the most consequential for the mainstream narrative on the social effects of crypto has been the one around the Canadian government’s standoff with the Freedom Convoy. The government’s invocation of emergency powers to put down a protest movement — combined with the movement’s financial infrastructure being one of the main attack vectors — has led many observers to appreciate with renewed vigor Bitcoin’s capacity to …

California State Senator Sydney Kamlager, representing the 30th Senate District including parts of downtown Los Angeles, has introduced a bill which would amend the state’s code to allow for the acceptance of cryptocurrencies for certain payments. According to Senate Bill 1275 introduced in the California Legislature on Feb. 18, Kamlager proposed authorizing a state agency “to accept cryptocurrency as a method of payment for the provision of government services.” The modification of the current state law, which allows for the establishment of state agencies to provide services to residents which require payments, would add crypto to the list of acceptable …

Russia’s Ministry of Finance has upped the stakes in its drawn-out showdown against the country’s Central Bank by formally introducing a bill that proposes to regulate digital assets rather than banning them. On Feb. 21, the Ministry introduced a draft of the federal law “On digital currency” to the government. This stage of the legislative process precedes the bill’s introduction to the parliament for consideration. The agency cited the “formation of a legal marketplace for digital currencies, along with determining rules for their circulation and range of participants” as the rationale for the initiative. Emphasizing that the bill does not …

Grayscale Investments’ latest report “Reimagining the Future of Finance” defines the digital economy as “the intersection of technology and finance that’s increasingly defined by digital spaces, experiences, and transactions.” With this in mind, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that many financial institutions have begun to offer services that allow clients access to Bitcoin (BTC) and other digital assets. Last year, in particular, saw an influx of financial institutions incorporating support for crypto-asset custody. For example, Bank of New York Mellon, or BNY Mellon, announced in February 2021 plans to hold, transfer and issue Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies as an …

Just between July 2020 and June 2021, ransomware activity soared by a whopping 1,070%, according to a recent Fortinet report, with other researchers confirming the proliferation of this mode of extortion. Mimicking the prevalent business model of the legitimate tech world, ransomware-as-a-service portals popped up in the darker corners of the web, institutionalizing the shadow industry and slashing the skill ceiling for wannabe-criminals. The trend should be ringing a warning bell through the crypto ecosystem, particularly since ransomware attackers do have a knack for payments in crypto. That said, the industry that was once a Wild Wild West is now …

2021 has been a significant year for crypto with no fungible token (NFT) being awarded word of the year, decentralized finance (DeFi) trending in the mainstream media and crypto companies making headlines for a variety of announcements. This is, no doubt, in part due to the effects that COVID-19 has had on the economy, with many looking for new ways to diversify their finances and a move to working from home giving people the free time to research new interests. And, many chose to get involved in crypto. As conversations began to move on from Bitcoin (BTC) to other larger …

One of the main themes among the crypto community in 2021 was China’s aggressive policy toward mining, which led to a complete ban on such activities in September. While mining as a type of financial activity has not gone away and is unlikely to disappear, Chinese cryptocurrency miners had to look for a new place to set up shop. Many of them moved to the United States — the world’s new mining mecca — while some left to Scandinavia and others to nearby Kazakhstan, with its cheap electricity. Mining activities can’t stay under the radar forever, and governments around the …

On Feb. 18, the Russian Ministry of Finance kicked off public consultations on the rules of cryptocurrency issuance and transactions. While a welcome development, it is less than the country’s crypto space had expected to get. Earlier in the week, the government announced that by Feb. 18, a bill containing the finance ministry and central bank’s consolidated position on crypto regulation would be drafted. Updated estimates suggest that it will take at least another month for draft legislation to see the light. The main reason for the delay appears to be the central bank’s renewed resistance, which just several days …