The United States Securities and Exchange Commission, or SEC, and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, or CFTC, has proposed requiring large advisers to certain hedge funds to report any exposure to digital assets. In a Wednesday notice, the SEC and CFTC proposed amending their confidential reporting form for certain investment advisers to private funds of at least $500 million. The Form PR would require qualifying hedge funds to not include exposure to cryptocurrencies when reporting “cash and cash equivalents,” but rather add them under a different category “to report digital asset strategies accurately.” The two U.S. financial regulators cited the …

Roman Semenov, one of the co-founders of Tornado Cash, has reported his account suspended at developer platform GitHub following the United States Treasury Department's to sanction the privacy protocol. In a Monday tweet, Semenov said that despite not being individually named as a Specially Designated National, or SDN, of Treasury’s Office of Foreign Asset Control, he seemed to be facing repercussions from the government department alleging Tornado Cash laundered more than $7 billion worth of cryptocurrency. As SDNs, identified firms and individuals have their assets blocked and “U.S. persons are generally prohibited from dealing with them." My @GitHub account was …

The United States Treasury Department has added several cryptocurrency addresses allegedly connected to controversial mixer Tornado Cash to the Specially Designated Nationals list of the Office of Foreign Asset Control, or OFAC. In a Monday announcement, the OFAC effectively barred U.S. residents from using more than 40 USD Coin (USDC) and Ether (ETH) addresses connected to Tornado Cash by placing them on its list of Specially Designated Nationals. It’s unclear what led to this enforcement action, but the protocol was at the center of some recent hacks and exploits in decentralized finance, including a $375-million attack on Wormhole in February …

When the United States Office of Government Ethics (OGE) released its Legal Advisory 22-04 on July 5, most attention was given to its conclusion that federal employees who own any amount of cryptocurrency or stablecoins whatsoever may not participate in regulation and policymaking that concerns crypto. The legal advisory (LA) raised some eyebrows, as de minimis exemptions, threshold amounts below which assets holdings are permissible, are common in the government. The LA is more comprehensible when seen in a larger context. What they were thinking The OGE does not grant interviews, so it was fortunate that a video of OGE …

Allison Herren Lee, one of five members of the United States Securities and Exchange Commission’s board, has officially left the regulatory body after more than three years as a commissioner. In a Friday announcement, chair Gary Gensler and commissioners Hester Peirce, Mark Uyeda and Caroline Crenshaw said Lee had left the SEC, where in 2005, she started as a staff attorney at the agency’s enforcement division at a regional office in Denver. She moved on to be appointed a commissioner in 2019 under the former presidential administration. She later served as acting chair to the regulatory body for three months …

A survey conducted by the Federal Reserve Board of the United States suggested that the majority of officials at major banks did not consider crypto-related products and services a priority in the near future. According to the results of a Fed survey released on Friday, more than 56% of senior financial officers from 80 banks said distributed ledger technology and crypto products and services were “not a priority” or were “a low priority” for their growth and development strategy for the next two years, while roughly 27% said they were a medium or high priority. However, roughly 40% of respondents …

Decentralized finance (DeFi) has massive potential to transform traditional financial services. Data from Emergen Research recently found that the global DeFi platform market size is expected to reach $507 billion by 2028. Moreover, the total value locked within DeFi currently exceeds $75 billion, demonstrating fast-paced growth compared to previous months this year. Yet, DeFi’s potential may still not be realized by business leaders unfamiliar with the blockchain ecosystem. This notion is highlighted in Alex Tapscott’s recent book, Digital Asset Revolution. Tapscott, co-founder of the Blockchain Research Institute and managing director at Ninepoint Digital Asset Group, told Cointelegraph that he believes …

The United States Commodity Futures Trading Commission, or CFTC, has added 34 unregistered foreign entities to its Registration Deficient List, including at least six providing crypto-related services. In a Thursday announcement, the CFTC said it had expanded its list of firms that it requires to register with the CFTC for providing services including trading binary options, foreign currency or other products such as cryptocurrencies. The additions to the Registration Deficient List, or RED list, include B.O TradeFinancials, CryptoBO, Bitpay Options, CryptoSphereFX, Direct Cryptos and Prime Crypto FX. Since 2015, the CFTC has placed 202 companies on the RED List, warning …

The chief executive of the United Kingdom’s Financial Conduct Authority, or FCA, said the U.K. government will be working with its counterparts in the United States to address a regulatory framework for cryptocurrencies. In a speech for the Peterson Institute for International Economics on Thursday, FCA chief executive Nikhil Rathi said the U.S. and the U.K. will “deepen ties” on crypto regulation following discussions among regulators at the Financial Innovation Partnership on June 29. In addition, its government has coordinated with the U.S. and Singapore to launch an International Organization of Securities task force aimed at “decentralised finance and crypto …

Natural disasters in the United States are becoming more prevalent, resulting in increasing costs, a lack of transparency between state and government organizations, and a slew of other issues impacting relief systems. The Pew Research Center found that the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) public assistance program spent 23% more on natural disasters between 2010 and 2019 than it did from 2000 to 2009. Data from Climate.gov further shows that 2021 was the third-costliest year in history for natural disasters in the U.S., totaling over $145 billion in damages from 20 weather-related incidents. But as disasters become more common and …

The United States Senate has confirmed the nomination of law professor Michael Barr to become the next vice chair for supervision for the Federal Reserve. In a 66-28 vote on the Senate floor on Wednesday, U.S. lawmakers confirmed Barr as vice chair for supervision of the Federal Reserve System for four years, filling the last seat on the seven-member board of governors. Barr, who was on the advisory board of Ripple Labs from 2015 to 2017, also served as the Treasury Department’s assistant secretary for financial institutions under former President Barack Obama and taught courses on financial regulation at the …

A United States court has given liquidators permission to subpoena the founders of crypto investment firm Three Arrows Capital (3AC), including Su Zhu and Kyle Davies. According to a report by Law360 on Tuesday, U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Martin Glenn issued an order on Tuesday allowing the subpoenas after being told by the counsel for the liquidators that the founders’ whereabouts are unknown and there were fears they could be selling off tens of millions in assets. The counsel, Adam Goldberg, said he didn’t know the current location of Zhu or Davies, alleging the duo have not provided “meaningful cooperation” with …