European Central Bank (ECB) executive board member Fabio Panetta has been a vocal supporter of central bank digital currency (CBDC) and cryptocurrency sceptic, and he presented his latest argument for CBDC on Jan. 5. Writing on the official ECB blog, he said that, by developing CBDCs, central banks “will safeguard the trust on which private forms of money ultimately depend.” Panetta began his argument with a harsh appraisal of cryptocurrency in 2022. “Last year marked the unravelling of the crypto market as investors moved from the fear of missing out to the fear of not getting out,” he said. That …

Michigan Senator Debbie Stabenow, chair of the United States Senate Agriculture Committee, has announced that she will be leaving office in 2025. In a Jan. 5 announcement, Stabenow said she would finish the remainder of her 6-year term in the Senate, then “pass[ing] the torch” to other U.S. lawmakers. The senator was one of the lawmakers behind introducing the Digital Commodities Consumer Protection Act, or DCCPA — a bill aimed at establishing additional regulatory clarity for cryptocurrencies and the role the Commodity Futures Trading Commission would play in overseeing digital assets. Stabenow said she would be focusing on legislation aimed …

Three Arrows Capital (3AC) founders Zhu Su and Kyle Davies were subpoenaed on Twitter on Jan. 5, after the liquidators granted permission from Singapore authorities following a United States bankruptcy court order. As reported by Cointelegraph, liquidators' lawyers have repeatedly failed to engage with the founders in recent months. “A communication protocol was agreed between the liquidators and founders but has not yielded satisfactory cooperation,” according to a hearing presentation. The subpoena requests Su and Davies to "furnish all documents available to you regardless of whether this information is possessed directly by you, your agents, representatives, employees, or investigators; or …

New York Attorney General Letitia James has filed a lawsuit against Alex Mashinsky, alleging the Celsius founder and CEO made numerous “false and misleading statements” which led to investors losing billions. In a Jan. 5 announcement, the New York Attorney General’s office announced the lawsuit, which allegedly involved defrauding more than 26,000 residents of the U.S. state out of billions of dollars worth of crypto. According to James, Mashinsky’s actions leading up to Celsius declaring bankruptcy contributed to investor losses by misrepresenting the platform’s financial condition and failing to personally register as required by state law. “As the former CEO …

Daniel Friedberg, controversial lawyer who served as top compliance chief at now-defunkt exchange FTX, has reportedly cooperated with United States’ prosecutors investigating FTX collapse. Friedberg provided details about FTX in a meeting with two dozen investigators hold by the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York's (SDNY) office on Nov. 22, Reuters reported. The meeting included officials from the Justice Department, Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the report notes, citing a source familiar with the matter. At the meeting, Friedberg provided prosecutors with his knowledge of FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried's use of …

Hong Kong authorities are looking for new designs for a central bank digital currency (CBDC), now proposing to issue a CBDC in the form of a stablecoin backed by the government. Wu Jiezhuang, a member of the Legislative Council of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, believes that turning the Hong Kong digital dollar (e-HKD) into a stablecoin would provide benefits for the adoption of new technologies like Web3. The option of developing e-HKD into a stablecoin has the potential to address the risks associated with virtual assets in Web3 effectively, Wu Jiezhuang said in an interview with China Blockchain …

200 million Twitter users’ private information, including their email addresses, was put for sale after a breach exposed 400M users’ private information in the last week of December 2022. The hacker behind the December breach has earlier demanded $200,000 from Twitter in a bid to return the stolen data and warned if the demand is not fulfilled, the data will be released for free. The latest set of data posted on the hacker forum has been traced back to the same breach from December 2022. I went to change my email address and Twitter isn't working. This hack puts activists …

The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has filed a “limited objection” to crypto exchange Binance.US’s proposed $1 billion takeover of bankrupt crypto lender Voyager Digital, citing a lack of “necessary information.” The limited objection was filed on Jan. 4, with the SEC pointing to a lack of detail regarding Binance.US’s ability to fund the acquisition, what Binance.US’s operations would look like following the deal, and how customer assets will be secured during and after the transaction. A limited objection is similar to a normal objection but only applies to a specific part of the proceedings. Additionally, the regulator …

The United States Departure of Justice has reportedly seized or was in the process of seizing more than $400 million worth of Robinhood shares linked to FTX as part of the case against the crypto exchange. According to a Jan. 4 report from Reuters, U.S. officials told a judge they were in the process of seizing assets tied to FTX and its former CEO Sam Bankman-Fried, which included 56 million shares of Robinhood — worth roughly $468 million at the time of publication. The report followed a judge in the criminal case against SBF ordering him not to access or …

Celebrities had a shaky year promoting crypto firms and projects throughout 2022. Many found themselves named in lawsuits over their alleged promotion of since-failed projects, while others have been relentlessly mocked on social media for their involvement in the first place. From movie stars to television actors, sports stars to musicians, many celebrities may be regretting their endorsement deals last year, though that’s not to say that there haven’t been exceptions. Who got burned? In February last year, American comedian Larry David, who co-created the television series Seinfeld, appeared in a Super Bowl commercial for now-defunct crypto exchange FTX that …

At the time of publication, the United States House of Representatives was at a historic standstill in its process of choosing a Speaker for the 118th Congress — a quagmire that could lead to lawmakers delaying committee hearings. As of Jan. 4, California Representative Kevin McCarthy lost the fifth round of votes to become the next Speaker of the House following Republicans taking majority control of the chamber in the 2022 midterm elections. This marked a rare occurrence — only 15 times in the entire history of Congress since 1789 — when more than one round of voting was required …

Effective regulations are one of the key gateways to cryptocurrency’s mainstream adoption. Due to greater compliance, crypto businesses saw broader acceptance from regulators worldwide. While the crypto ecosystem was awarded countless operational licenses and exposure to new markets, the fall of Terraform Labs, FTX and Celsius, among others, had a negative impact on the industry's reputation with investors and regulators alike. As we look back on 2022 and all it brought for the cryptocurrency industry, we're highlighting how the regulatory landscape has changed for cryptocurrencies and the blockchain industry as a whole. North America China’s blanket ban on crypto mining …