Retirement plans still largely remain at the periphery of both crypto adoption and the regulatory discussion. But last week, a major development emerged in this department. United States Senators Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Tina Smith of Minnesota became concerned about Fidelity’s recent announcement of adding Bitcoin (BTC) to its clients’ 401(k) retirement investment menu. In a letter to the company’s CEO Abigail Johnson, the lawmakers expressed their uneasiness over a “conflict of interests” and the “significant risks of fraud, theft and loss,” requesting from Fidelity a detailed outline of risk mitigation actions. Crypto 401(k) plans are still relatively rare, …

The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has given the green light to Valkyrie’s futures exchange-traded fund (ETF) application. This represents another ETF that has been approved by the SEC, which has previously accepted futures ETFs, but no sign of spot ETFs yet. According to the SEC document published Thursday, the application was filed under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 using a 19b-4 form, the same law that spot Bitcoin (BTC) ETF prospects are relying on — albeit with little success thus far. Last month, the watchdog gave the thumbs-up to Teucrium’s Bitcoin futures ETF, which is the …

JD Vance has won the Ohio Republican Senate primary election, making him the GOP’s candidate in the highly anticipated Senate race against Democrat Tim Ryan. Both parties are trotting out crypto-friendly candidates. The Guardian reported that Vance may have been pushed to victory on Tuesday by a last-minute endorsement from former President Donald Trump on April 23, helping him beat out presumed front-runner, the former state treasurer Josh Mandel. Both Vance and Mandel are crypto supporters, with Mandel famously tweeting, “Ohio must be a pro-God, pro-family, pro-Bitcoin state.” Vance has disclosed Bitcoin (BTC) holdings valued at up to $250,000, which …

In terms of policy, Greg Tanaka calls himself a legislator for the digital age and possibly the most pro-crypto person running in this election cycle. A member of the Palo Alto City Council, he has set his sights on the United States House of Representatives seat for California’s 16th, the Silicon Valley district. In an interview with Cointelegraph, the self-described nerd exuded enthusiasm and spoke with an unwavering smile about crypto and the financial system. Legal DAOs and crypto tax holidays “It’s the first form of truly better money,” Tanaka said of crypto. “More benefit goes to the people creating …

Crypto investors from the United States realized crypto gains nearly six times higher in total than the United Kingdom, the second-highest country in terms of realized gains. According to a report by Chainalysis, crypto investors in the U.S. accrued a record $46.9 billion in realized gains throughout 2021, leading the rest of the world by a wide margin. The U.S. is followed at quite some distance by the U.K. at $8.1 billion and Germany with $5.8 billion. The report comes as global cryptocurrency adoption continues to gain widespread traction. The U.S. witnessed a massive increase in adoption and realized gains, …

A top official from the United States Secret Service (USSS) says the agency can track the flow of Bitcoin (BTC) and other cryptocurrencies in a similar manner to email addresses, and it has seized more than $102 million in crypto across 254 cases since 2015. USSS assistant director of investigations David Smith told CNBC that the transparent and immutable aspect of blockchain ledgers means investigators can trace transactions easier than fiat in some cases. “One of the guiding principles of the blockchain is that it is a public ledger that’s shared and everyone with a little bit of computing power …

On March 11, United States President Joe Biden issued an executive order in which he encouraged the Federal Reserve to continue research on a prospective U.S. central bank digital currency, or CBDC. The order emphasized that the market capitalization of digital assets had surpassed $3 trillion in November — with Bitcoin (BTC) representing more than half of the total value of all cryptocurrency and peaking at over $60,000 — up from just $14 billion five years prior. For comparison’s sake, the U.S. money supply (M1) in the same month was $20.345 trillion. Stephen Lynch, a member of Congress who chairs …

A virtual, Cyprus-registered casino Sand Vegas Casino Club faced an emergency cease and desist order from Texas and Alabama state securities regulators. The company is ordered to “stop a fraudulent investment scheme tied to metaverses”. On April 13, the Texas State Securities Board reported issuing the order, accusing Sand Vegas Casino Club, Martin Schwarzberger and Finn Ruben Warnke of illegally offering nonfungible tokens (NFTs) to fund the development of virtual casinos in metaverses. Allegedly, Sand Vegas offered 11,111 NFTs to raise funds for its metaverse casinos. The firm offered those who purchased Gambler NFTs and Golden Gambler NFTs a share …

Last week, the European Parliament’s Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs (ECON) and the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE) voted in favor of a regulatory update that could compromise the exchange platforms’ ability to deal with noncustodial crypto wallets. Should the regulatory project make it to the legislation phase in the upcoming months, it would place severe disclosure requirements on transactions between noncustodial wallets and crypto exchanges in the European Union — a process whose signs are visible in other parts of the globe as well. What happened On Thursday, March 31, ECON and LIBE members …

When you think of a crypto-friendly U.S. state, Washington is hardly the first to come to mind. Yet, a lot has been happening on the ground in the Pacific Northwest lately. Washington Governor Jay Inslee signed a bill, SB5544, into law on March 30. The new legislation creates a working group of seven state officials and eight trade association leaders to examine “various potential applications of and policies for blockchain technology” and report to the governor in December 2023. Republican state Senator Sharon Brown, one of the sponsors of the legislation, said, “By creating the Washington Blockchain Work Group, we …

The European Parliament continued to keep crypto users and advocates at the edge of their seats last week as yet another piece of potentially harmful legislation — this time, a set of demanding data disclosure requirements for digital asset service providers — was rushed to a vote mere days after a near miss on banning proof-of-work-based cryptocurrencies. Unlike the relatively happy resolution of the Markets in Crypto Assets framework situation, the EU’s new Anti-Money Laundering rules retained all the crypto-hostile language as they are going into the next round of consideration, the so-called trialogue negotiations. If the rules are enacted …

The George Mason University Antonin Scalia Law School National Security Institute hosted a webinar Wednesday, March 30, titled “Crypto and National Security: How to Validate American Innovation and Verify U.S. National Security.” Journalist Laura Shin moderated the discussion. CEO of the Crypto Council for Innovation Sheila Warren, executive director of Coin Center Jerry Brito, and global managing partner and chief strategy officer of risk compliance and monitoring firm K2 Integrity Juan Zarate were participants. After opening comments, the first of three questions posed to the panel concerned American innovation. Brito expressed hope that crypto would be allowed to develop with …