The former dean of Stanford Law School who co-signed Sam Bankman-Fried’s bail said he considered Bankman-Fried’s parents “the truest of friends” who helped his family through a “harrowing battle with cancer.” In an emailed statement to Cointelegraph on Feb. 16, Larry Kramer said he co-signed Bankman-Fried’s bail as a way to return the favor. “Joe Bankman and Barbara Fried have been close friends of my wife and I since the mid-1990s,” said Kramer. He said that over the past two years, Bankman-Fried’s parents Joe Bankman and Barbara Fried, provided food and moral support while “frequently stepping in at moment's notice …

Sam Bankman-Fried, the former CEO of crypto exchange FTX may no longer be able to play League of Legends and other video games if newly proposed changes to his bail conditions from United States prosecutors are approved. In a Feb. 15 letter to United States District Judge Lewis Kaplan, U.S. Attorney Damian Williams asked the courts to further expand restrictions surrounding Bankman-Fried’s electronic device usage. They pointed to Bankman Fried’s recent device usage as cause for concern, and agreed with the court’s intuition that it was “shortsighted” by focusing only on apps, adding: “There is now a record before the …

Alabama Senator Tommy Tuberville has reintroduced legislation aiming to allow United States 401(k) retirement plans to include exposure to cryptocurrencies. In a Feb. 15 announcement, Tuberville said the Financial Freedom Act — which he first introduced to the U.S. Senate in May 2022 — aimed to reverse policy from the Department of Labor directing what type of investments were allowed in 401(k) plans, including crypto. According to the senator, the bill would bar the DOL from pursuing enforcement actions for individuals “using brokerage windows to invest in cryptocurrency”. “The federal government shouldn’t choose winners and losers in the investment game,” …

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 …

Lawmakers in the Kansas House of Representatives have introduced a bill proposing to amend the legislature’s rules on political campaign donations. According to the bill, no person would be allowed to make or accept crypto contributions of more than $100 for any political candidate in the state’s primary or general election. For donations under $100, the receiver would need to “immediately convert” the crypto to U.S. dollars, not use the crypto for expenditures, and not HODL the funds. The proposed bill included provisions that seemed to be aimed at mitigating foreign contributions to elections in Kansas, by requiring personal information …

The world’s biggest cryptocurrency, Bitcoin (BTC), is connecting more countries as the government of El Salvador is opening a “Bitcoin Embassy” in the United States. El Salvador, a country that adopted Bitcoin as legal tender in 2021, is expanding its Bitcoin strategy with a new partnership with the government of Texas. The intergovernmental collaboration aims to set up a Bitcoin Embassy, or El Salvador’s representative office, in Texas in order to work on new joint projects to promote Bitcoin adoption. Milena Mayorga, ambassador of El Salvador to the United States, announced the news in a statement on Twitter on Feb. …

A bi-partisan anti-money laundering (AML) bill that covers “decentralized entities” such as decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols and DAOs will soon be reintroduced to Congress, according to United States Senator Elizabeth Warren. Warren, a vocal crypto critic, argued at the Feb. 14 Senate Banking Committee’s hearing entitled “Crypto Crash: Why Financial System Safeguards are Needed for Digital Assets” that the crypto community wants decentralized entities running on code to be exempt from AML requirements: “In other words, they want a giant loophole for DeFi written into the law so they can launder money whenever a drug lord or a terrorist pays …

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 United States Securities and Exchange Commission and its chair Gary Gensler were the targets of many lawmakers and witnesses at a hearing exploring the crash of the crypto market. In a Feb. 14 hearing at the Senate Banking Committee titled ‘Crypto Crash: Why Financial System Safeguards are Needed for Digital Assets’, ranking member Tim Scott said Gensler should appear before Congress before September to address additional enforcement actions in the crypto space, calling out the SEC chair for doing “rounds on the morning talk shows” rather than testifying. According to the South Carolina senator, the SEC had not provided …

The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) settled with Kraken on Feb. 9 for an action taken against the exchange’s staking rewards program. Kraken paid a $30 million fine and agreed to halt the program. Set aside for a moment the irony that the SEC is going after a solvent firm in the crypto space with a decade-long reputation as a good actor. Kraken has been helping settle verified Bitcoin (BTC) claimants from the hacking of rival exchange Mt. Gox over a decade ago. It invented the use of Merkle Root data to create verifiable proof of reserves. It …

Cryptocurrency exchange Binance plans to continue supporting its Binance USD (BUSD) stablecoin despite its issuer Paxos facing a stop order from American regulators. As reported by Cointelegraph, the New York Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) has ordered blockchain firm Paxos to cease issuing dollar-pegged stablecoin BUSD. Paxos has also received a wells notice from the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) alleging that BUSD is an unregistered security. Binance CEO Changpeng ‘CZ’ Zhao has moved to assure users that funds are safe despite the intended enforcement action. A Twitter thread on Feb. 13 noted that Paxos is regulated by …

Paxos and Binance USD (BUSD) being in the sights of United States regulators sparked various reactions from the crypto community. On Feb. 13, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) issued a Wells Notice to Paxos, alleging that BUSD is unregistered security. On the same day, the New York Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) also ordered Paxos to halt the issuance of BUSD. As Paxos faces regulatory scrutiny on several fronts, various members of the crypto community went to Twitter to give their takes on the situation. From disregarding the issue as “FUD” to calling it an attack against the …