US government officials who privately own cryptocurrencies are now banned from working on regulations and policies that could affect the value of digital assets. A new advisory notice released by the US Office of Government Ethics (OGE) on Tuesday stated that the de minimis exemption — which allows for the owners of securities who hold an amount below a certain threshold to work on policy related to that security — is universally inapplicable when it comes to cryptocurrencies and stablecoins. “As a result, an employee who holds any amount of a cryptocurrency or stablecoin may not participate in a particular …

South Korean justice minister Han Dong-hoon was in New York recently to discuss various ways in which the two nations can corporate on investigations associated with financial crimes, especially crypto-related crimes. Hoon met with Securities and Commodities Task Force co-chief Andrea M. Griswold at the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York along with Scott Hartman, chief of the Securities and Commodities Fraud Task Force of the same office on Tuesday, reported a local news publication. The two sides discussed ways to exchange information and strengthen cooperation to ensure timely action on the increasing number of …

Days after pausing trading, withdrawals and deposits, crypto exchange Voyager Digital is filing for bankruptcy under Chapter 11 in the Southern District Court of New York. Voyager’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing indicated that it is on the hook for anywhere from $1 billion to $10 billion in assets to more than 100,000 creditors. The troubled crypto exchange wasted no time after the United States holiday to file for bankruptcy on Tuesday. In a Wednesday statement, Voyager explained that the move is part of a “Plan of Reorganization.” When implemented, the plan would enable clients to reaccess their accounts again, and …

Virginia county Fairfax has begun investing a portion of a $35 million allotment into a cryptocurrency lending fund managed by global asset managers VanEck. The firm announced that it had received an initial tranche of the investment commitment from Fairfax County, which is allocating funds from two retirement systems into a variety of cryptocurrency-focused investment avenues. Fairfax County had previously hinted at delving into the world of decentralized finance (DeFi) yield farming as part of its progressive attitude toward the cryptocurrency space. The county began investing a small portion of holdings from its employees’ retirement system and the police officers’ …

A subsidiary of the Huobi cryptocurrency exchange called HBIT Inc has received its Money Services Business (MSB) license from the United States Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN). The Seychelles based Huobi said on Tuesday that the license creates a foundation for it to carry out crypto-related business in the U.S. in the future, as part of its strategic goals of “globalization and compliance.” The exchange is a major player, with more than $1 billion in volume in the past 24 hours, according to CoinGecko. Before the great crypto crackdown by Chinese authorities, most Huobi users came from China, but according …

A note published by the United States Federal Reserve at a recently held conference found a majority of exports believe a U.S. dollar central bank digital currency (CBDC) would not drastically change the global currency ecosystem. Panelists at the conference also agreed that CBDC development outside of the U.S. doesn’t threaten the status of the dollar, but the development of cryptocurrencies could alter the role of the dollar globally, with some saying stablecoins could even boost the U.S. dollar's role as the global dominant reserve currency. The assessments came from expert panelists at a June 16 and 17 conference hosted …

United States-based cryptocurrency mining firm Core Scientific sold more than 7,000 Bitcoin (BTC) in June to pay for servers, increase its data capacity and settle debts. In a Tuesday announcement, Core Scientific said it had sold roughly $167 million worth of Bitcoin in June at an average price of $23,000 — 7,202 BTC. The sale left the firm with 1,959 BTC — roughly 21% of its holdings — and $132 million in cash as of June 30, a more than 75% drop when compared with its reported 8,058 BTC holdings as of May 31. According to the firm, it used …

Cryptocurrency exchange Voyager Digital announced Friday that it was temporarily suspending trading, deposits, withdrawals and loyalty rewards. “The failure of a borrower, Three Arrows Capital, to repay a substantial loan from us makes this the right path forward,” Voyager Digital CEO Stephen Ehrlich said on Twitter soon after the service suspension went into effect. “This decision, while far from optimal, will give us time to work to strengthen our balance sheet, a necessary condition to protect assets and preserve the future of the Voyager platform we have built together,” Ehrlich continued. A statement issued by the company said it has …

Garry Kasparov, the Russian chess grandmaster and chair of the Human Rights Foundation, doesn’t appear at all bothered by the current crypto bear market. Kasparov, who is also a long-time Bitcoin supporter, told Cointelegraph during Consensus 2022 “so what” in regards to his thoughts on the bear market. Kasparov added that he thinks 99% of all coins are “crap,” yet he expressed that both Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) are already integrated into traditional financial markets due to recent price fluctuations. He said: “They'll lose a bit more, but they’ll also gain more, which shows that these are already being …

VanEck, one of the first firms in the world to ever file for a Bitcoin (BTC) exchange-traded fund (ETF), is not giving up on its plans to launch a spot Bitcoin ETF in the United States. The firm has refiled an application for a physically-backed Bitcoin ETF with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Filed on June 24, VanEck’s latest Bitcoin ETF application comes months after the SEC rejected its previous spot Bitcoin ETF request on November 12, 2021. The securities regulator based its decision on the ETF on its alleged inability to meet standards to protect investors and …

Riccardo Spagni, the former maintainer of the privacy coin Monero (XMR), also known as Fluffypony, faces extradition to South Africa months after his arrest by U.S. authorities. In a Thursday court filing for the Middle District of Tennessee, Magistrate Judge Alistair Newbern ordered Spagni to surrender to U.S. Marshals on July 5 for extradition to South Africa. He will reportedly face 378 charges related to allegations of fraud and forgery between 2009 and 2011 at a company called Cape Cookies. U.S. authorities arrested Spagni in Nashville in July 2021 at the request of the South African government, holding him in …

According to some United States lawmakers in the House Financial Services Committee, the lack of diversity in the financial technology space could be hurting many companies’ bottom lines. In a Thursday virtual hearing on “Combatting Tech Bro Culture,” U.S. lawmakers and witnesses discussed how women and people of color were underrepresented in leadership positions in the financial technology industry, including crypto firms. Massachusetts Representative Stephen Lynch cited data that only 2% of venture capital funding went to firms in which the founders were women, while only 1% went to those with Black founders and 1.8% for Latinx. According to Lynch …