2021 was a huge year for the crypto industry. A few years ago, our elected officials probably hadn’t even heard of crypto before, let alone had an opinion on it. However, this year it seemed like crypto was the hot topic on the block all around the globe. Here is a list of the most outspoken crypto advocates and critics from the parliaments and white houses around the world. Santa: Francis Suarez First up for crypto Santa is Miami Mayor Francis Suarez. In August, the city launched MiamiCoin (MIA). Revenue generated from the token is used to fund community projects …

The crypto regulation regime in any jurisdiction is an equilibrium among multiple institutional, group and personal interests of actors who have a sway over financial and monetary policies. These interests never perfectly align, frequently resulting in contradictory signals coming out of various power centers. Speaking about systemic risks facing the world’s largest economy last week, the United States Federal Reserve chair said digital assets were not a financial stability concern. Two days later, the U.S. Financial Stability Oversight Council issued a report that concluded that stablecoins and decentralized finance could pose sizeable financial stability risks. The source of this discrepancy …

Elad Roisman, one of five members of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s board, has announced his intention to resign from the government agency. In a Monday announcement, Roisman said he had sent a letter to President Joe Biden informing him of his decision to leave the SEC by the end of January 2022. The SEC commissioner said he would continue working with his colleagues “to further our mission of protecting investors, maintaining fair, orderly, and efficient markets, and facilitating capital formation” until his departure. Roisman was sworn into office in September 2018 under the previous administration and served as acting …

Congressional lawmakers confirmed the nomination of Rostin Behnam, a commissioner at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission who had been serving as acting chairperson, to assume his position on a more permanent basis. In a Wednesday evening voice vote, members of the U.S. Senate approved President Joe Biden’s pick to lead the CFTC. Behnam has served as a commissioner since 2017 and acting chair following the departure of Heath Tarbert in January. Confirmed by voice vote: Executive Calendar #539 Rostin Behnam to be Chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. — Senate Cloakroom (@SenateCloakroom) December 16, 2021 At his confirmation hearing …

Kazakhstan, the country behind one of the largest sources of Bitcoin mining hash power, has released the results of a pilot program for its digital tenge. According to a Wednesday report, the National Bank of Kazakhstan, or NBK, said it had confirmed the possibility of implementing a retail central bank digital currency, or CBDC, based on distributed ledger technology. In addition, the central bank tested how Kazakhstan’s citizens might use a digital tenge for offline payments as well as its programmability. In a series of hypothetical scenarios, the central bank tested how a CBDC could be used between second-tier banks …

A bipartisan group of U.S. senators have called on Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen to clarify the language in the infrastructure bill signed into law by President Joe Biden around the tax reporting requirements on crypto. In a Tuesday letter, Senators Rob Portman, Mike Crapo, Pat Toomey, Mark Warner, Kyrsten Sinema, and Cynthia Lummis urged Yellen to “provide information or informal guidance” on the definition of “broker” in the recently passed infrastructure law, HR 3684. Under the current wording, people in the crypto space including miners, software developers, transaction validators and node operators are required to report most digital asset transactions …

United States Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell hinted that though the government agency should consider monitoring developments in the crypto space, he didn’t see cryptocurrencies as a financial stability concern for U.S. markets. Addressing a question on crypto from Michael Derby of the Wall Street Journal on Tuesday, Powell supported the conclusions of a report from the President’s Working Group on Financial Markets released on Nov. 1. The report proposed that stablecoin issuers should be subject to “appropriate federal oversight” akin to that of banks, legislation that was “urgently needed” to address risks. “Stablecoins can certainly be a useful, efficient …

The Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs heard from several expert witnesses with knowledge of stablecoins who urged lawmakers to establish a clear regulatory framework but could not seem to agree on where lines would be drawn. In a Tuesday hearing on “Stablecoins: How Do They Work, How Are They Used, and What Are Their Risks?”, Hilary Allen, a professor at the American University Washington College of Law, Alexis Goldstein, director of financial policy at Open Markets, Jai Massari, partner at Davis Polk & Wardwell, and Dante Disparte, chief strategy officer and head of global policy at Circle, …

Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren did not hold back in her criticism of decentralized finance, expressing concern about how a run on stablecoins would affect the average investor. In a Tuesday hearing with the Senate Banking Committee discussing stablecoins, Warren questioned Professor Hilary J. Allen of the American University Washington College of Law as to whether a run on stablecoins could potentially endanger the U.S. financial system. Though Allen said an “en masse” redemption of stablecoins from people who had lost faith in the tokens would be unlikely to have “systemic consequences” for traditional markets at present, the DeFi system would …

Nearly half of the world's population has no broadband internet access. The sad reality is most of this population is located in Africa. According to the United Nations (UN), Sustainable Development goals, providing universal access to the internet continues to increase in importance, allowing many to access life-enhancing online services in healthcare, education and other skills necessary to reduce poverty, ensure economic growth and foster inclusion on the global market. With so many brilliant minds in Africa, many believe that the right technology can help support their education and communication with the rest of the world. Part of the reason …

Tascombank, one of the oldest commercial banks in Ukraine, is launching a Stellar-based pilot for Ukraine’s national fiat currency, the hryvnia. The Stellar Development Foundation (SDF) announced on Dec. 14 a private electronic hryvnia pilot launched by Tascombank and fintech company Bitt. The electronic hryvnia pilot is being implemented under the supervision of the National Bank of Ukraine and is supported by the Ministry of Digital Transformation (MDT). Oleksandr Bornyakov, deputy minister of the MDT, said that the pilot project will provide a “technological basis for the issuance of electronic money” and is the “next key step to advance innovation …

Each year that we get a little further away from Satoshi Nakomoto’s whitepaper, crypto becomes more popular than ever, breaking more barriers — not just in sheer enthusiasm, but in mainstream acceptance. From nonfungible tokens (NFTs) to the Metaverse, 2021 was the year of crypto, even following a decade where just about every other year could make the same claim. Despite that peak enthusiasm and excitement though, we shouldn’t be blind to the fact that there are still fundamental issues that must be solved before crypto truly becomes the dominant “coin of the realm” across the globe, along with the …