Despite the ongoing uncertainty about cryptocurrency regulation in India, local financial firms are backing new ventures aiming to launch Bitcoin (BTC) exchange-traded funds (ETF). Torus Kling Blockchain, a joint venture between Cosmea Financial Holding, a financial firm backed by former Reliance Capital CEO Sam Ghosh, and Kling Trading India, is preparing to launch Bitcoin and Ether (ETH) futures ETFs in India, The Economic Times reported Thursday. The company has signed a memorandum of understanding with India’s major stock exchange, the India International Exchange (INX), to launch crypto ETFs alongside investment products tracking major metaverse-related companies listed in the United States. …

Eduardo Paes, mayor of Brazilian city Rio de Janeiro, wants to allocate 1% of the city’s treasury into Bitcoin (BTC), Cointelegraph Brazil reported. Paes reportedly announced plans for “Crypto Rio,” or turning the city into a cryptocurrency hub during Rio Innovation Week on Thursday, according to a report by local news agency O Globo. The mayor spoke about Rio’s cryptocurrency-related ambitions in a panel with Miami mayor and Bitcoin bull Francis Suarez, who started accepting his paychecks in BTC in November 2021. “We are going to launch Crypto Rio and invest 1% of the treasury in cryptocurrency. The government has …

At her confirmation hearing in front of members of the Senate Banking Committee, Federal Reserve board of governors member Lael Brainard said Congress would ultimately have to decide to move forward with a central bank digital currency, or CBDC. Addressing pro-crypto Senator Cynthia Lummis at the Dirksen Senate Office Building on Thursday, Brainard said the Fed would welcome Congress “taking a very important role” in updating the regulatory framework for cryptocurrencies and digital assets. When questioned as to the possible use of CBDCs to surveil users' financial activities — as Lummis alleged happens in China — Brainard again deferred the …

Another domino is lined up to fall down the route to Bitcoinization. Yesterday, the Pacific island nation of Tonga shared a play-by-play approach to adopting Bitcoin (BTC) as legal tender. In a series of Tweets, Lord Fusitu’a, a former Member of Parliament for Tonga, released an ETA for Bitcoin becoming legal tender in Tonga. Copying the El Salvadorean playbook, the move could onboard more than 100,000 Tongans onto the Bitcoin network. In his five-point plan, the Chairman of the Global Organization of Parliamentarians Against Corruption (GOPAC) describes the adoption path: 1. Sept/Oct Bill goes to Parliament. Passed. 2. Sent to …

The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) is reportedly seeking to ban all cryptocurrency transactions in Pakistan. Pakistan’s Sindh High Court reportedly held a hearing related to the legal status of cryptocurrencies in the country, in which several Pakistani authorities including the SBP submitted a document to the court, arguing that cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin (BTC) are illegal and cannot be used for trade. According to local news channel Samaa TV, the document cited at least eleven countries including China and Saudi Arabia that have opted to ban cryptocurrencies. The Pakistani central bank reportedly urged the court to not only ban cryptocurrency …

Russian punk rock collective Pussy Riot is planning to launch a DAO for LBTQ+ and women artists. As the group’s co-founder Nadya Tolokonnikova told Cointelegraph, The DAO will be working on reducing the gender inequality that still marks the NFT space and, more broadly, the crypto industry. Despite the large gender gap in crypto — around 60% of US crypto investors are white men according to a survey from August 2021 — Nadya is convinced that it is still early enough for Pussy Riot to make an impact. “The NFT space is still so small, I feel that with a …

Minnesota Representative Tom Emmer has announced he will be introducing a bill intended to prevent the Federal Reserve from acting as a retail bank in the potential issuance of a digital dollar. In a Wednesday announcement, Emmer said the bill would prohibit the Fed from issuing a central bank digital currency, or CBDC, directly to U.S. consumers. According to the Minnesota representative, having the government entity require users to open accounts to access the benefits of a digital dollar would “put the Fed on an insidious path akin to China’s digital authoritarianism.” “The Fed does not, and should not, have …

At his confirmation hearing in front of members of the Senate Banking Committee, Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell said the agency would be releasing its report on cryptocurrencies “within weeks.” Addressing Idaho Senator Mike Crapo remotely from the Dirksen Senate Office Building on Tuesday, Powell said the Fed’s report on digital currencies wasn’t “quite where we needed to get it” but would be released soon regardless. The Fed chair cited “changes in monetary policy” as part of the reason for the delayed report, which is expected to address policy surrounding the possible rollout of a central bank digital currency in …

The Central Bank of Iran, or CBI, and the ministry of trade have reached an agreement to link the CBI’s payment platform to a trade system allowing businesses to settle payments using cryptocurrencies, the Mehr News Agency reported Monday. Alireza Peyman-Pak, Iran’s deputy minister of Industry, Mine and Trade and head of Iran’s Trade Promotion Organization, or TPO, said that the new payment mechanism is expected to be finalized “within the next two weeks.” “We are finalizing a mechanism for operations of the system. This should provide new opportunities for importers and exporters to use cryptocurrencies in their international deals,” …

Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, is putting more effort into increasing compliance in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), Russia and Ukraine. Binance is planning to extend its operations in the region and boost local cryptocurrency compliance and education, Gleb Kostarev, Binance’s head of operations for Russia and the CIS, told Cointelegraph on Tuesday. The company additionally expects to focus on the local Binance Smart Chain (BSC) development and community, he noted. As part of the effort, Binance announced several local hires, including Olga Goncharova, Binance’s new director of government relations in Russia and the CIS. Goncharova previously served …

As Alex Tapscott put it, 2021 was the year when many governments and lawmakers began to finally wake up to the transformational potential of blockchain technology. Indeed, crypto’s global mainstreaming and growing market capitalization have made it difficult for the agents of power to ignore it and have rendered it a salient economic, social and political issue across many key jurisdictions. By all appearances, we are in for a busy year in crypto regulation and policymaking. Stablecoins, an asset class that attracted a fair amount of regulatory attention in 2021, will surely remain in the hot seat this year. For …

The White House has officially submitted President Joe Biden’s nominations to fill two seats at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission with the upcoming departure of another commissioner. In a Friday announcement, the White House said it had sent Citi managing director Caroline Pham’s and Summer Mersinger’s names to the Senate for confirmation. Mersinger previously served as chief of staff to commissioner Dawn Stump — who is expected to leave the agency this year — as well as the director of the Office of Legislative and Intergovernmental Affairs. She and Pham will be taking the places of recently departed commissioner Dan …