Jair Bolsonaro, the President of Brazil set to leave office on Dec. 31, has signed off on a bill aimed at legalizing the use of crypto as a payment method within the country. In a Dec. 22 publication of the official journal of the federal government of Brazil, Bolsonaro’s office said the president had signed bill 14.478 into law following approval from the country’s Chamber of Deputies. The legislative body sent the bill to the president’s desk on Nov. 29 as the final step in recognizing crypto payments. According to the text of the bill, Brazil’s residents will not be …

More than one million creditors of failed crypto exchange FTX have been waiting to be made whole since before the firm’s bankruptcy filing on Nov. 11, but according to one expert, recipients of donations and contributions may have a legal means of returning the funds directly to investors and customers. Louise Abbott, a partner at United Kingdom-based firm Keystone Law, told Cointelegraph it was “extremely unlikely” FTX would have a legal leg to stand on in its demands for the voluntary return of political campaign donations, grants, and other contributions the firm made prior to its bankruptcy. However, many individuals …

One of the key witnesses on the ongoing FTX investigation could evade all the seven counts of allegations against her with a plea deal. Former Alameda Research CEO Caroline Ellison would be prosecuted only for criminal tax violations and can be released immediately by paying the $250,000 bail. A plea deal between Ellison and the Office of the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York was published on Dec. 21. According to the document, the former Alameda exec will be spared of all the major charges, which could have cost her up to 110 years in jail. …

The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Commodities Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) have hit former Alameda Research CEO Caroline Ellison and former FTX co-founder Gary Wang with fresh fraud charges. The new charges from the SEC and CFTC come as the pair plead guilty to federal fraud charges filed by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) earlier on Dec. 22. SEC states that Ellison and Wang were charged for their role in the "multiyear scheme to defraud equity investors in FTX,” with the SEC also investigating whether other securities laws were violated as well. The SEC alleges …

A state-owned electric utility provider in the Canadian province of British Columbia is set to halt all new electricity-connection requests from cryptocurrency miners for a period of 18 months. The British Columbia government made the announcement in a statement on Dec. 21 stating that the pause will allow the government and BC Hydro to develop a permanent framework that can better balance the needs of crypto miners and both its residents and businesses in the region. Josie Osborne, Minister of Energy, Mines and Low Carbon Innovation said that the move was made to preserve the clean energy it provides for …

Republican Senator Pat Toomey, who is set to retire from U.S. Congress at the end of the term, has used one of his last few weeks in office to introduce a new stablecoin bill, aimed at creating a regulatory framework for “payment stablecoins.” Toomey — who also serves as the Ranking Member of the U.S. Banking Committee — said the Dec. 21 bill, called the Stablecoin TRUST Act of 2022 would serve as a framework for stablecoin regulation for his fellow senators who are looking to push out stablecoin legislation in 2023. In a statement, the senator called stablecoins an …

The California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation (DFPI) has ordered crypto lending platform MyConstant to cease offering a number of its crypto-related products over alleged state securities law violations. The DFPI stated in a press release on Dec. 21 that it has ordered MyConstant to “desist and refrain” from offering its peer-to-peer loan brokering service and interest-bearing crypto asset accounts, which it says are in violation of the California Securities Law and California Consumer Financial Protection Law. The DPFI alleged that MyConstant’s offering and selling of its peer-to-peer lending service called “Loan Matching Service” violates one of the state’s …

Former Alameda Research CEO Caroline Ellison and FTX co-founder Gary Wang have pleaded guilty to federal fraud charges and are cooperating with prosecutors as part of the criminal case against the former CEO of FTX, Sam Bankman-Fried. United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York (SDNY), Damian Williams made the announcement on Dec. 22, emphasizing that the latest major development is unlikely to be the last. "As I said last week, this investigation is ongoing and moving very quickly. I also said last week's announcement would not be our last and let me be clear once again, neither …

The governor of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), Shaktikanta Das, did not mince his words when discussing the crypto sector at a recent conference, asserting that “private” crypto will be behind the next financial crisis. Speaking at the Business Standard BFSI Insight Summit on Dec. 21, Das suggested that private crypto — those which are not issued by banks or governments — are backed by nothing and are purely tools for speculation. "They have no underlying value. They have huge inherent risks for our macro economic and financial stability. I am yet to hear any credible argument about what …

The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filed a complaint against Thor Technologies and its cofounder and CEO David Chin in U.S. District Court in San Francisco on Dec. 21. The SEC claimed that Thor’s 2018 initial coin offering (ICO) constituted an unregistered securities sale under the Securities Act of 1933. Thor Technologies raised $2.6 million from 1,600 investors between March and May 2018 through the sale of its Thor (THOR) coin. About 200 of the 1,600 investors lived in the United States. Not all of them were accredited investors. The SEC claimed in the suit that the sale …

Crypto exchange Coinbase was granted permission by the Central Bank of Ireland to act as a Virtual Asset Service Provider (VASP), according to an announcement on Dec. 21. The company's operations in the country will be overseen by Cormac Dinan, a former employee of Crypto.com, Deloitte and Citigroup. Under the VASP registration, Coinbase Ireland will be subject to the Criminal Justice (Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing) Act 2010. Two Coinbase entities are covered by the VASP registration: Coinbase Europe Limited and Coinbase Custody International Limited. The first provides crypto trading services to European customers, while Coinbase Custody International provides crypto …

Former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried, who has been in the custody of Bahamian authorities, faces extradition to the United States following a hearing. According to reports, Bankman-Fried appeared in a hearing of The Bahamas Magistrate Court on Dec. 21 — the third since his arrest — where he waived his right to a formal extradition process that could have taken weeks. Officials from the U.S. Embassy, Federal Bureau of Investigation, and U.S. Marshals Service were reportedly in attendance to facilitate Bankman-Fried’s handover, to which he had first signed papers on Dec. 20. Reuters reported that SBF's legal team said the …