The crypto sector may be maturing, but regulatory clarity around the treatment of digital assets continues to remain cumbersome. This was recently highlighted by Commissioner Hester Peirce — also known as the United States Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) “crypto mom” — in remarks she made at “The Regulatory Transparency Project Conference on Regulating the New Crypto Ecosystem: Necessary Regulation or Crippling Future Innovation?” Peirce began her speech by emphasizing the importance of “regulating the new crypto ecosystem.” While this may be, Peirce also noted that the crypto industry is still in search of an actual regulator. She said: “A …

United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) commissioner Hester Peirce, sometimes known as Crypto Mom for her ardent support of the industry, spoke Tuesday at a conference hosted by the conservative-libertarian Federalist Society titled “Regulating the New Crypto Ecosystem: Necessary Regulation or Crippling Future Innovation?” Her lengthy remarks — over 4,000 words in the prepared version, which was augmented extemporaneously as she presented it — contain some of the bluntest criticisms of SEC policy she has made yet. Peirce characterized the SEC’s attitude toward the crypto market as a “refusal to engage” and suggested that the SEC’s refusal so far …

United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chair Gary Gensler said he’s worried that a proposed bill to create a regulatory framework for cryptocurrencies could weaken investor protections in the traditional financial market. Speaking at The Wall Street Journal’s CFO Network Summit on Tuesday, Gensler was asked his thoughts regarding a recent bill introduced on June 7 by Senators Cynthia Lummis (R-WY) and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY). He responded, saying “we don't want to undermine the protections we have in a $100 trillion capital market,” adding: “We don’t want our current stock exchanges, mutual funds, or public companies to, sort of …

The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has reportedly launched a probe to discover how crypto exchanges are working to prevent insider trading. FOX Business reported on Wednesday that a person with direct knowledge of the SEC’s activities said that the commission had sent a letter to a major crypto exchange requesting information about how the platform protects users from insider trading. The source believes the same letter has been sent to multiple exchanges. It is not clear which exchange or exchanges have received the request, but the news outlet said Coinbase, Binance, FTX and Crypto.com all declined to …

Gary Gensler, chair of the United States Securities and Exchange Commission, or SEC, reiterated his call for investor protection in securities offered by crypto firms. Speaking virtually at the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Compass Investor Conference on Tuesday, Gensler said the SEC would use its existing authority to focus on cryptocurrency projects and exchanges, warning people of potentially “too good to be true” returns on investments. According to Gensler, the bulk of the tokens currently in the crypto market fall under the regulatory purview of the SEC, subject to the same disclosure requirements as securities. "We've seen again that …

Ripple general counsel Stu Alderoty has slammed the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for trying to “bully, bulldoze, and bankrupt” crypto innovation in the U.S. in the name of expanding its own regulatory territory: “By bringing enforcement actions–or threats of potential enforcement–the SEC intends to bully, bulldoze, and bankrupt crypto innovation in the U.S., all in the name of impermissibly expanding its own jurisdictional limits.” Alderoty shared his views on Monday amid an ongoing lawsuit between Ripple and the regulator, which he says is part of the “SEC’s assault on all crypto in the U.S.” by treating every …

On June 2, 2022, the United States Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) initiated an action against Gemini, the crypto exchange founded by billionaire twins Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss. Among other things, the complaint alleges that Gemini made a number of false and misleading statements to the CFTC in connection with the potential self-certification of a Bitcoin futures contract, the prices for which were to be settled daily by an auction (the “Gemini Bitcoin Auction”). In the complaint, the CFTC specifically articulated the position that these statements were designed to mislead the commission as to whether the proposed Bitcoin futures contract …

The United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit on Thursday rejected Terraform Labs CEO Do Kwon’s dispute of a subpoena by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The federal agency was seeking documents and testimony in connection with its investigation of whether Terra used the Mirror Protocol to sell unregistered securities. Kwon was served with the subpoena in September 2021 while he was attending a conference in New York City. Kwon claimed in an October filing that the SEC had violated its own rules, the Administrative Procedure Act and other regulations by serving the subpoena in person. He …

Bitcoin (BTC) briefly broke above $32,000 on May 31, but the excitement lasted less than four hours after the resistance level proved to be tougher than expected. The $32,300 level represented a 20% increase from the May 12 swing low at $27,000 and it provided the necessary hope for bulls to buy some $34,000 and higher call options. The fleeting optimism reverted to a sellers' market on June 1 after BTC dumped 7.6% in less than six hours and pinned the price below $30,000. The negative move coincided with the United States Federal Reserve starting the process of scaling down …

United States Senators Kirsten Gillibrand and Cynthia Lummis believe that most altcoins would likely be considered securities under their proposed new legislation, but they confirmed that Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) will be classified as commodities. Lummis and Gillibrand both agreed with U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Gary Gensler’s assessment that most cryptocurrencies are securities under the Howey Test, with Gillibrand stating: “Most cryptocurrencies go to the SEC [...] Bitcoin and Ether would be certainly commodities, and that's agreed upon. That’s agreed with Chairman Gensler as well as the chairman of the CFTC.” Gillibrand pushed back on reports characterizing …

Since May 10, the Bitcoin (BTC) chart shows a relatively tight range of price movement and the cryptocurrency has failed to break the $32,000 resistance on multiple occasions. The choppy trading partially reflects the uncertainty of the stock market as the S&P 500 Index ranged from 3,900 to 4,180 in the same period. On one side, there has been economic growth in the Eurozone where the gross domestic product grew 5.1% year over year. On the other, inflation continues to soar, reaching 9% in the United Kingdom. Further adding to Bitcoin's volatility was the digital assets regulatory framework proposal introduced …

Grayscale Investments has hired a former U.S. Solicitor General in preparation for a potential legal spat with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), should the regulator reject its application for a spot Bitcoin (BTC) exchange-traded fund (ETF) on July 6. The company has been waiting on a decision from the SEC to convert its flagship $19.8 billion Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) into a spot-based ETF, since filing its application to the regulator on October 19, 2021. The SEC has pushed back its decision on multiple occasions, once in December and again in February. A final decision on the application …