Silvergate Bank has announced that it will delay the filing of its annual 10-K report, which has sent its stock price down over 30% after hours. A 10-K report is a document required by the Securities and Exchange Commission which provides a comprehensive overview of the company's business and financial condition. The crypto bank stated that it would need an additional two weeks to complete the report for the 2022 fiscal year. Silvergate explained in its late filing notice that it sold additional debt securities in January and February and expects to record further losses in the coming months. "These …

The founders behind the alleged $340 million “global Ponzi” scheme Forsage have been indicted by a federal grand jury in the District of Oregon. The four Russian founders — Vladimir Okhotnikov, Olena Oblamska, Mikhail Sergeev, and Sergey Maslakov — have been formally accused of having key roles in the scheme which raised approximately $340 million from victim-investors, according to a Feb. 22 Department of Justice (DOJ) statement. “Today’s indictment is the result of a rigorous investigation that spent months piecing together the systematic theft of hundreds of millions of dollars,” said U.S. Attorney Natalie Wight for the District of Oregon, …

United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) commissioner Hester Pierce has publicly rebuked her own agency over the shut down of Kraken's crypto staking program in the United States. The commissioner blasted her regulator in a Feb. 9 statement called "Kraken Down," noting that regulation by enforcement “is not an efficient or fair way of regulating” in an emerging industry, stating: Today, the SEC shut down Kraken’s staking program and counted it as a win for investors. I disagree and therefore dissent. Peirce's statement also slammed the regulator for shutting down a “program that has served people well." “Using enforcement …

The New Jersey Bureau of Securities has ordered three website operators to stop luring romance-seeking victims into their fraudulent cryptocurrency investment schemes. The three firms hit with the cease and desist orders were Meta Capitals Limited, Cresttrademining Limited and Forex Market Trade, according to a Feb. 3 press release from New Jersey’s Attorney General Matthew Platkin. All three firms claimed to be cryptocurrency trading platforms, where they would allegedly entice victims into copying the trades of their “expert traders” so that they can make big returns. But to get them into the scheme, these companies often resort to romance seekers …

The second largest publicly-listed holder of Bitcoin, crypto mining firm Marathon Digital Holdings has offloaded some of its Bitcoin for the first time in two years. A spokesman told Cointelegraph this was not a result of financial distress. As per a January update posted on Feb. 2, the company disclosed it sold 1,500 BTC, worth $35.3 million at current prices, during the month. While some crypto miners have been forced to sell Bitcoin due to distress, Marathon’s VP of corporate communications Charlie Schumacher explained this was not the case for Marathon. Schumacher said Marathon has been diamond-handing its Bitcoin until …

The total crypto market cap jumped nearly 4% following a speech from United States Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell in which he suggested the economy’s disinflationary process has started. “We can now say, I think for the first time, that the disinflationary process has started […] we see it really in goods prices,” said Powell during a Feb. 1 Federal Open Market Committee press briefing shortly after announcing a federal interest rate hike of 0.25%. The interest rate hike and remarks appeared to have gone down well in the crypto markets, which had been trading sideways in the lead-up to …

Founder of “My Big Coin” and convicted fraudster Randall Crater has been sentenced to 100 months in prison and has been ordered to pay over $7.6 million to the victims of his fraudulent scheme. The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) said on Jan. 31 that Crater was sentenced by United States District Court Judge Denise Casper in Massachusetts. The sentence comes around six months after Crater was convicted by a federal jury on Jul. 21, 2022, on four counts of wire fraud, three counts of unlawful monetary transactions and one count of operating an unlicensed money-transmitting business. Randall Crater, the …

Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) Commissioner Kristin Johnson has urged Congress to adopt legislation that "closes the current gap in the oversight of crypto spot markets." During a speech at the digital assets conference at Duke University on Jan. 21, Johnson proposed a number of amendments that would enable the CFTC to conduct “effective due diligence” on businesses, including crypto firms, that want to acquire CFTC-regulated entities. The Commissioner also wants expanded powers for the commodities regulator to enhance customer protection, prevent liquidity crises, and mitigate conflicts of interest. One of these potential changes would be to give the commodities …

Masa Finance has launched the first soulbound identity protocol for the Ethereum mainnet, according to a Jan. 17 press release shared with Cointelegraph. The protocol will allow for standardized soulbound tokens to be minted on Ethereum for Know Your Customer verification, credit scores and other use cases. Soulbound tokens are tokens that cannot be transferred from one wallet to another. The concept was popularized via a blog post from Vitalik Buterin, who argued that these tokens could be used to signify governance rights for decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols or to prove that a person has attended an event. Speaking to …

United States crypto exchange Binance US has finally rolled out its Binance Pay service — some 22 months after the feature was launched by the global exchange to its customers outside the U.S. in 2021. The service, which was rolled out a beta version globally in Feb. 2021 for peer-to-peer payments before expanding to include merchant transactions on Mar. 12, allows mobile users of the Binance app to instantly transact nearly 150 supported cryptocurrencies without fees. A Dec.13 blog post from Binance US clarifies that Pay transactions will feature zero gas or transaction fees, and notes that the app is …

Layer-1 blockchain platform Algorand has been chosen as the public blockchain to support an “innovative digital guarantees platform” to be used in Italy's banking and insurance markets. The Algorand-supported platform is expected to be launched in early 2023. According to Algorand’s Dec. 13 announcement, this is the first time an EU Member State will use blockchain technology for bank and insurance guarantees. A bank guarantee is when a lending institution promises to cover a loss if a borrower defaults on a loan. It's an alternative to providing a security bond or a deposit to a supplier or vendor. An insurance …

A Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) pilot program in Australia has received more than 140 use case proposals from the finance industry, but the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) warns that it could displace the Australian dollar and result in people avoiding commercial banks entirely. The RBA released a speech on Dec. 8 to be given by Assistant Governor Brad Jones at a central bank conference held from Dec. 8 to Dec. 9 local time, in which Jones speaks at length about what effect a CBDC could have on the Australian economy. Jones notes that the RBA has been surprised …