Austin Federa, head of strategy at the Solana Foundation, spoke to Cointelegraph at the ETH Denver conference on the network's outages, the impact of regulation, and the launch of its mobile device. Speaking to Cointelegraph on March 1, Federa said the New York Department of Financial Services — NYDFS, one of the state regulators responsible for licensing crypto firms — was essentially setting up roadblocks for many projects looking to issue stablecoins or similar blockchain services. He added that Solana had heard from projects facing “pretty draconian” rules in the European Union related to liability around illicit transactions. “DFS has …

Cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase announced that it had terminated its partnership with Silvergate Bank as its U.S. dollar banking partner, citing the ongoing investigation. In an announcement tweet, the exchange said: "In light of recent developments & out of an abundance of caution, Coinbase is no longer accepting or initiating payments to or from Silvergate." The crypto exchange will facilitate institutional client cash transactions with their other banking partner Signature Bank. The decision will not impact payment instructions in GBP or euro. This is a developing story, and further information will be added as it becomes available.

The United States commodities regulator is set to take a close look at the decentralized finance (DeFi) space at an upcoming meeting of its tech committee, where it has also invited crypto industry executives to present. The Commodities Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) stated on Mar. 1 that the agenda for its Mar. 22 meeting of its Technology Advisory Committee (TAC) will include a panel on “exploring issues in decentralized finance.” Other panels will explore responsible Artificial Intelligence (AI) development and possible threats arising from AI along with cybersecurity threats to financial markets. CFTC commissioner Christy Goldsmith Romero said in a …

The creation of a United States digital dollar would “crowd out” the cryptocurrency ecosystem and protect the national security of the U.S. according to a former top advisor in president Joe Biden’s administration. Daleep Singh — a former Deputy National Security Advisor for International Economics in the Biden administration — made the comments at a Feb. 28 Senate Banking Committee hearing, suggesting that cryptocurrencies facilitate ransomware attacks and contribute to the evasion of U.S. sanctions. Singh believes the U.S. government embracing a Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) “is the single best step that we could take [to protect national interests] …

Cryptocurrency lawyers have rebuffed comments made by the head of the United States securities regulator, claiming in a recent interview that every cryptocurrency except Bitcoin (BTC) is a security that falls under its jurisdiction. In a wide-ranging Feb. 23 New York Magazine interview discussing crypto, the chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Gary Gensler, claimed “everything other than Bitcoin” falls under the agency’s remit. He added other crypto projects “are securities because there’s a group in the middle and the public is anticipating profits based on that group” which he said is not the case with Bitcoin. Gensler …

Crypto exchange Coinbase has been named as a defendant in a legal complaint brought by NanoLabs — the company behind the digital currency Nano (NANO) — over alleged trademark infringement. In the Feb. 24 filing with the California Northern District Court, NanoLabs alleged Coinbase's Nano Bitcoin futures contract and Nano Ether futures contract products infringe on trademark rights owned by them. It’s also alleged the infringement has caused NanoLabs economic detriment and weakened its brand identity, resulting in “actual damage and irreparable harm." Colin LeMahieu founded the Nano digital currency in 2014; which was originally named RaiBlocks. It was rebranded …

Texas' State Securities Board and the Department of Banking are objecting to a proposed deal between Binance.US and bankrupted crypto lender Voyager Digital, shows court filings from Feb. 24. According to the document, Binance.US's terms of service and restructuring plan contain a number of "inadequate" disclosures, including not informing unsecured creditors adequately that under the plan they may only get 24%-26% recovery, rather than the 51% they would receive under Chapter 7. Binance.US disclosed in December an agreement to buy Voyage's assets for $1.022 billion. The filing also notes the company's disclosure statement fails to inform that account holders are …

Grayscale Investments CEO Michael Sonnenshein “can’t imagine” why the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) “wouldn’t want” to protect Grayscale investors and return the true asset value to them, in a recent podcast interview. In an interview with What Bitcoin Did, a popular podcast hosted by Peter McCormack, on Feb. 25, Sonnenshein explained that the SEC “violated the administrative procedures act” by denying Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) as an approved spot Bitcoin (BTC) exchange-traded fund (ETF), in June 2022. He explained that this act ensures the regulator doesn’t show “favoritism,” or act “arbitrary,” adding that by approving Bitcoin Futures …

In a joint statement released by three United States federal agencies, the banking sector was advised against creating new risk management principles to counter liquidity risks resulting from crypto-asset market vulnerabilities. The Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) released a statement reminding banks to apply existing risk management principles when addressing crypto-related liquidity risks. The joint statement highlighted the key liquidity risks associated with crypto-assets and related participants for banking organizations. The risks highlighted concern the unpredictable scale and timing of deposit inflows …

A former facilities worker who allegedly set up a secret cryptocurrency mining operation inside a Massachusetts school’s crawl space is due for arrest after missing a scheduled court hearing to answer to charges. Nadeam Nahas was scheduled to be arraigned on Feb. 23 facing charges of vandalizing a school and fraudulent use of electricity, according to media reports. JUST IN: an ex-town employee is accused of running a "Cryptocurrency mining operation" out of Cohasset High School. pic.twitter.com/cdBlMIxnnH — whalechart (@WhaleChart) February 24, 2023 A default warrant is a type if warrant issued by courts when a person fails to appear …

The United States Federal Reserve has denied a request from cryptocurrency bank Custodia Bank to reconsider its membership application to the Federal Reserve System. The Fed announced its denial on Feb. 23 saying the Federal Reserve Board previously decided that Custodia’s application “was inconsistent with the required factors under the law.” @federalreserve announces it has denied the request by Custodia Bank, Inc., for reconsideration of the Board’s decision last month on its application to be supervised by the Federal Reserve: https://t.co/ZYNUEoLeN1 — Federal Reserve (@federalreserve) February 23, 2023 In January, the Fed rejected Custodia’s application to become a member. Board …

The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has objected to Binance.US’ move to acquire over $1 billion of assets belonging to the defunct cryptocurrency lending firm Voyager Digital. According to a Feb. 22 filing submitted to the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in the Southern District of New York, the SEC believes that certain elements of the asset restructuring plan of Binance.US’ acquisition could breach Securities Laws. The SEC is formally investigating whether Binance.US and related debtors violated anti-fraud, registration and other provisions of the federal securities laws. The SEC noted particular concern around the security of assets through the planned …