The world’s largest digital asset exchange, Binance, is preparing to face fines and penalties in order to settle outstanding regulatory and law-enforcement investigations in the United States. According to a Feb. 15 WSJ report citing the firm’s chief strategy officer Patrick Hillmann, Binance has been working with regulators to remedy past compliance issues. Hillmann stated that Binance is “working with regulators to figure out what are the remediations we have to go through now to make amends for that.” He added that the outcome of ongoing investigations will likely be fines but could be more, stating “that is for regulators …

A five-member panel of the United States Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) has voted 4-1 in favor of a proposal that may make it more difficult for cryptocurrency firms to serve as digital asset custodians in the future. The proposal, which is yet to be officially approved by the SEC, recommends amendments to the “2009 Custody Rule” will apply to custodians of “all assets” including cryptocurrencies, according to a Feb. 15 statement from SEC Chairman Gary Gensler. Gensler stated that currently, some crypto trading platforms that are offering custody services are not actual “qualified custodians.” According to the SEC, a qualified …

The settlement between Kraken (Payward Ventures) and the United States Securities and Exchange Commission set off alarm bells in the crypto community this month. Apparently, Kraken — one of the most compliance-minded crypto exchanges in existence — decided to buy its peace rather than fight with the SEC for years over whether it was offering unregistered “securities” through its staking program. The nature of the settlement is that Kraken neither admitted nor denied the SEC’s allegations, and the existence of the settlement, technically speaking, cannot be used as legal precedent for any argument either side of the issue might present. …

The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has started ramping up its crackdown on the crypto industry and recent enforcement actions had a negative impact on crypto prices last week and at the start of this week. The SEC is focusing on stablecoin issuers. The most recent SEC stablecoin crackdown was on Feb. 13 through the issuance of a Wells Notice to Paxos Trust Company, the issuer of Binance USD (BUSD). While Paxos denies that BUSD is a security, which would place it outside the SEC’s jurisdiction, some lawyers say the answer is not so simple, which creates fear …

On Feb. 13, Binance's native token, BNB, recorded its worst daily performance since November 2022, falling 8.5% to below $285. BNB price has since recovered to over $298, but its possibility of facing another selloff remains high. Let's take a look at a few reasons why. BNB price rising wedge breakdown The ongoing decline in BNB's price came as a part of a broader rising wedge breakdown. Notably, on Feb. 9, BNB broke out of its rising wedge pattern, a bearish reversal setup that forms as the price trends upward inside a range defined by two ascending, converging trendlines. As …

As reported by a local publication on Feb. 15, Korean financial authorities are looking into the staking services market. However, as the unnamed official specified to the journalists: The fears of the crypto community about the possible repercussions of the recent court deal between the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Kraken are starting to materialize. Following their American counterparts, South Korean regulators intend to examine the crypto-staking operators in the country. “The position is that there is nothing to be a problem because nothing has been done.” No details on the timeline and methods of the examination …

The decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) behind Lido — the largest Ethereum staking pool — is deliberating whether it should sell or stake the $30 million in Ether (ETH) from its treasury. A proposal was submitted on Feb. 14 by the DAO’s financial unit, Steakhouse Financial that considers four choices, one of which contemplates staking part or all of its ETH on Lido in the form of Lido Staked ETH (stETH). Another would see LidoDAO selling a part or all of its 20,304 ETH for a stablecoin, with the purpose being to extend the DAO’s runway. The proposal comes as ETH …

Despite attempts to police cryptocurrency through enforcement actions, United States financial regulators “are bound by legal reality” and Congress will ultimately decide crypto regulations the policy expert for the crypto advocacy group Blockchain Association has suggested. The association's chief policy officer, Jake Chervinsky, shared his views in an extensive Feb. 14 Twitter thread on the state of crypto policy. He noted neither the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) nor the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) “has the authority to comprehensively regulate crypto.” 14/ No matter how many enforcement actions the SEC and CFTC bring, they are bound by legal reality: …

USD Coin (USDC) issuer Circle has denied rumors that it received a "Wells Notice" over its United States dollar-pegged stablecoin. On Feb. 14, a now-deleted tweet from Fox Business reporter Eleanor Terrett claimed Circle had been ordered by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to cease the sale of USDC — due to the stablecoin being an unregistered security. Dante Disparte, Chief Strategy Officer and Head of Global Policy at Circle Pay clarified on Twitter just 15 minutes after Terrett's tweet that his firm has not received a Wells Notice. .@circle has not received a Wells notice. https://t.co/lE74zHVLka — …

The crypto industry will “probably” start using euro, yen, or Singapore dollar based stablecoins in the future, reducing its reliance on US dollar based stablecoins, according to a Feb. 14 statement on Twitter Spaces by Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao, also known as “CZ.” CZ gave the statement in answer to a question about the crypto industry using gold as a standard of value instead of the US Dollar. CZ agreed that it “makes sense” to use gold. However, “most people’s costs are still in fiat currencies.” For this reason, most people calculate their investment returns in dollars, which is why …

The price of Ether (ETH) declined 10.2% between Jan. 8 and Jan. 10, and has since been range trading near the $1,500 level. More importantly, on a broader time frame, Ether is down 52.5% in twelve months, which partially explains why derivatives metrics were somewhat neutral after Ether’s failed attempt to break $1,700 on Feb. 8. Currently, investors' biggest concerns are the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's (SEC) lawsuits and enforcement actions against crypto firms, which included Kraken’s tanking of its-as-a-service program and PayPal reportedly pausing its stablecoin project due to regulatory concerns. A crackdown by the SEC on crypto …

The Blockchain Association filed an amicus brief Feb. 13 in the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) case against former Coinbase Global product manager Ishan Wahi and his associates. The advocacy group expressed its support for the defendants’ argument for dismissal, where they claimed the SEC had exceeded its authority in the case. The case alleging unregistered securities sales of nine tokens is being heard in the U.S. District Court of Western Washington. Calling the case “the latest salvo in the SEC’s apparent ongoing strategy of regulation by enforcement in the digital assets space,” the amicus curiae, or “friend …