The United States Securities and Exchange Commission, or SEC, has disapproved spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund applications from the New York Digital Investment Group and fund manager Global X after deferring on a decision several times in the last year. According to two separate Thursday filings, the SEC rejected proposed rule changes from the Cboe BZX Exchange and New York Stock Exchange’s Arca to list and trade shares of the Global X Bitcoin Trust and New York Digital Investment Group’s Bitcoin exchange-traded fund, or ETF, respectively. The SEC said that NYSE Arca and Cboe BZX had not met the burden under …

Crypto.com is reportedly giving users from countries restricted from its loan program until March 15 to repay their crypto loans. The firm updated the list of restricted countries to include the United States, United Kingdom and 38 others. Users from European nations such as Germany, Switzerland and the U.K. have all shared emails from the company regarding the loan closure date. It's worth noting that some of these users who do not have crypto loans on the platform have received the emails as well. According to the new policy, if users fail to repay their loans by March 15, their …

A pair of siblings is now in very hot water with the U.S. government with criminal charges filed against them for allegedly committing fraud in the Ormeus Coin scheme. On Mar. 8, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) charged siblings John Albert Loar Barksdale and sister JonAtina (Tina) Barksdale with violating federal securities laws and allegedly defrauding at least 12,000 “retail investors out of more than $124 million.” The Department of Justice (DOJ) arrested John abroad and charged him with wire fraud, securities fraud, and conspiracy. Both of the Barksdale siblings are U.S. citizens. John, 41, was living in Thailand …

VanEck, an investment firm with almost $82 billion in assets under management, has submitted an application to the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for the launch of a new exchange-traded fund that invests in gold mining and Bitcoin (BTC) mining companies. According to the SEC document filed on March 3, the fund will focus on securities in an index that reflects the performance of gold mining and digital assets mining firms. It would not invest in cryptocurrencies directly or through derivatives. However, there was no ticker or cost ratio mentioned in the document. VanEck ETF Trust files with …

A war rages on Europe’s eastern rim, having already left thousands of people dead and injured and millions more displaced. Digital assets have become so woven into the global financial system that a major political and economic crisis like the one unfolding right now has crypto inevitably involved on all levels: individual, institutional and national. From Russian nationals turning their burning passports into nonfungible tokens (NFTs) to refugees using crypto as a last financial resort, millions of dollars worth of crypto donations flowing to Ukraine, and both digital asset platforms and the United States government weighing crypto sanctions against Russia, …

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), led by crypto-skeptical Chairman Gary Gensler, is reportedly investigating NFT creators and marketplaces for securities violations, according to a report from Bloomberg. Anonymous sources in the report claim that the SEC is investigating whether: “certain nonfungible tokens… are being utilized to raise money like traditional securities.” Throughout the last few months, attorneys from the SEC’s enforcement unit have reportedly sent subpoenas demanding information on specific NFTs and other token offerings. While crypto lending products have been the subject of great regulatory scrutiny over the past year, this report marks a major move into …

Indicted by the United States Department of Justice in a $2.4 billion Ponzi scheme, BitConnect founder Satish Kumbhani remains untraced following conviction. In a court filing on Monday, the Securities and Exchange Commission said that the whereabouts of Kumbhani remains unknown. The SEC noted that Kumbhani’s last known location was in his native country India, but has remained untraced ever since the promoter for his BitConnect Ponzi scheme was charged by the SEC for defrauding American investors of over $2 billion. SEC in its filing noted that the convicted founder has most probably fled to a foreign country and “Kumbhani’s …

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s enforcement director has reportedly said cryptocurrency companies will not receive amnesty for reporting themselves for possible violations of securities laws. According to a Monday report from Reuters, the SEC director of the agency’s division of enforcement, Gurbir Grewal, said the agency may view crypto companies’ conduct “more favorably” if they reach out first for self-reporting securities law violations. However, he added that though firms may face smaller penalties, they will not be completely off the hook. "Our message to [crypto companies] is not, 'Register your product and we'll just ignore the billions you have …

A former executive from the Securities and Exchange Commission believes the regulator has a good chance of losing its $1.3 billion lawsuit against Ripple “on the merits” of the case. Attorney Joseph Hall also voiced concerns over what the SEC’s endgame could be regarding the high-stakes case against Ripple (XRP), which will have ramifications for the entire industry. The lawsuit alleges that the company and its co-founders, Brad Garlinghouse and Christian Larsen, failed to notify the SEC about its sale of XRP beginning in 2013, and that the tokens are unregistered securities. The SEC is trying to prove that securities …

As the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is considering whether to approve or deny asset manager Grayscale’s application for a Bitcoin spot exchange-traded fund, the firm has called on American investors to submit comments to the regulator. In a Tuesday Twitter thread, Grayscale CEO Michael Sonnenshein announced the launch of an advocacy campaign for U.S.-based investors to speak their minds to the SEC before any final decision is reached on the Bitcoin (BTC) investment vehicle. Since the NYSE Arca filed with the regulatory body on Oct. 19 to list shares of Grayscale’s Bitcoin ETF under the ticker GBTC, the commission …

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 …

It might seem unlikely that BlockFi founder and CEO Zac Prince would describe a prosecution that resulted in a $100-million fine for his company as “a win not only for BlockFi but for the broader cryptocurrency industry,” but that is indeed what he said. And, he might be right, although it remains to be seen for now. The settlement Founded in 2017, BlockFi is a New Jersey-based crypto financial institution with a team of 850 and one million clients worldwide. Its popular BlockFi Interest Account product, with half a million users, including 407,000 in the United States, was the object …