The Canadian Securities Administrators (CSA) published a notice on Feb. 22 describing new commitments it expects from crypto asset trading platforms (CTPs) seeking registration in Canada. The CTPs will enter into a new version of preregistration undertakings (PRUs), which are legally binding documents. Registered CTPs will be contacted by their principal regulators about compliance with the new expectations. The new commitments represent investor protections in light of the spate of CTP insolvencies that occurred in 2022, the CSA wrote. The new commitments touch on issues that include segregation of assets, leverage, determination of capital, transparency and others. The notice devoted …

NBA Top Shot Moments nonfungible tokens (NFTs) may be considered a security, as it meets the requirements under the United States security laws, according to court filings on Feb 22. The decision comes as federal judge Victor Marreo denied a motion from Dapper Labs CEO Roham Gharegozlou to dismiss a class action lawsuit claiming its NBA Top Shot NFTs are securities. Upon denying the motion, the court authorized the case to proceed. Dapper Labs now has 21 days to respond to the court's decision. For the verdict, the judge reviewed the Howey Test, which determines whether the NFTs qualified as …

Crypto exchange Coinbase experienced a cybersecurity attack targeting its employees on Feb. 5. The attack came through SMS scams and involved impersonations of IT staff, according to a recent report from the company's engineering team. No customers' funds or information were impacted, the firm said. As per the report, on a late Sunday several Coinbase employees received SMS messages requiring them to urgently log in via the link provided to access an important message. Acting in a good faith, one employee followed the exploiter' instructions: "While the majority ignore this unprompted message - one employee, believing that it’s an important …

A wallet security team released a real-time dashboard that lets community members detect, track and monitor potential nonfungible token (NFT) hacks using offline signatures in the OpenSea marketplace. According to the team behind crypto wallet ZenGo, they created an NFT hack detector using a simple method. This includes tracking realized NFT trades in the NFT marketplace and comparing the trade amount of the NFT collection’s floor price. If the ratio between the two trade values is suspiciously low, it will get flagged as a potential hack. At the time of writing, the dashboard flagged almost $25 million worth of NFTs …

Payments giant PayPal and investment management firm Galaxy joined hands to raise $20 million in seed funding for Chaos Labs, a New York-based cloud platform for securing blockchains and protocols. Chaos Labs protects crypto protocols against external exploits and risks with an automated risk management platform. The platform does this by offering agent- and scenario-based simulations, which in turn, helps secure protocols against economic vulnerabilities and market manipulation events. The seed funding is aimed at helping Chaos Labs further automate on-chain risk optimization. 1/ We are thrilled to announce we have secured $20M in seed funding led by @galaxyhq and …

New week, a new element of the crypto ecosystem is under attack. This time, the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ordered Paxos Trust to stop issuing Binance USD (BUSD) — a dollar-pegged stablecoin. Paxos received a cease order from the New York Department of Financial Services (NYDFS). With no other choice, Paxos announced that from Feb. 21, it would end its relationship with Binance for the branded U.S. dollar-pegged stablecoin BUSD. All existing BUSD tokens will remain fully backed and redeemable through Paxos Trust Company until “at least February 2024.” Customers can redeem their funds in U.S. dollars …

Blockchain bridges allow decentralized finance (DeFi) users to use the same tokens across multiple blockchains. For example, a trader can use USD Coin (USDC) on the Ethereum or Solana blockchains to interact with the decentralized applications (DApps) on those networks. While these protocols may be convenient for DeFi users, they are at risk of exploitation by malicious actors. For example, in the past year, the Wormhole bridge — a popular cross-chain crypto bridge between Solana, Ethereum, Avalanche and others — was hacked, with attackers stealing over $321 million worth of wrapped Ethereum (wETH), the largest hack in DeFi history at …

In a year of crypto upheavals, the United States Securities and Exchange Commission’s settlement with crypto exchange Kraken, announced on Feb. 9, set off yet another tremor. Agency chief Gary Gensler took to mainstream media last week to explain the agency’s action, which seemed to be an attack on crypto staking — part of the validation mechanism used by a number of blockchain platforms, including Ethereum, the world’s second-largest network. The immediate issue, in the agency’s view, was that Kraken had been selling unregistered investment products. Indeed, it was advertising big returns on staking crypto — up to 21%, Gensler …

The United States Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC's) lawsuit against Terraform Labs and its co-founder Do Kwon could be seen as an SEC “roadmap” to taking down other stablecoins, according to a lawyer. Gabriel Shapiro, general counsel at investment firm Delphi Labs, explained to his 33,800 Twitter followers on Feb. 16 that the SEC’s arguments in its complaint against Kwon and Terraform were “more thorough than usual.” whew lad, lots to digest in the SEC lawsuit vs Do Kwon and Terraform Labs right off the bat, a very interesting fact is that the SEC is being more thorough than usual--specifically …

Decentralized finance (DeFi) has been a rapidly growing sector of the cryptocurrency industry, but it has also faced significant regulatory challenges. With regulators struggling to keep up with the pace of innovation, the lack of clarity around regulations tends to create uncertainty for DeFi projects. Cointelegraph spoke to Alastair Johnson about regulatory challenges facing the DeFi industry. Johnson is the CEO of an identity “super-wallet” called Nuggets that seeks to deliver verified self-sovereign decentralized identities to users. He said that one of the main regulatory challenges is DeFi platform anonymity, which makes it difficult to comply with Anti-Money Laundering (AML) …

GBBC Digital Finance announced Feb. 16 that it has joined the International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) as an affiliate member. The IOSCO is an international association that develops and promotes international standards for securities. IOSCO members include 35 national securities regulators and over 200 affiliated organizations. In addition, the IOSCO has an Affiliate Members Consultative Committee, which GBBC Digital Finance has joined as its 70th member. The committee provides input on IOSCO policy and standards. Committee members also form groups that hold annual trainings on securities-related issues. The IOSCO released a Crypto-Asset Roadmap in July. GBBC Digital Finance Chair …

Security is one of the biggest concerns among crypto enthusiasts, and with good reason. Cryptocurrencies, being decentralized and digital, are susceptible to various forms of cyberattacks, and digital wallets that store these assets can be easily transferred and stolen without the possibility of recovery. This has led to an increase in scams and malicious schemes aimed at stealing users’ coins and tokens. In this interview, Alex Dulub, a seasoned expert in the blockchain industry and a member of the Forbes Technology Council shares his views on what should be done for the Web3 space to become more secure. He has …