Regulation

The United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York has announced the sentencing for an individual who pleaded guilty to wire fraud charges connected to “unlawfully obtained” Bitcoin from the Silk Road marketplace in 2012. In an April 14 announcement, the U.S. Justice Department said James Zhong was sentenced to one year

Rostin Behnam, Chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), recently spoke out about the allegations levied against Binance, claiming that the beleaguered cryptocurrency exchange’s leadership knowingly operated outside of U.S. laws governing the exchange of commodities and futures.  Speaking at a fireside chat that took place at the DeCenter Spring Conference at Princeton University

Advocacy organizations and safety groups have urged Mark Zuckerberg’s social media giant Meta to halt plans to allow minors into the metaverse. Online safety groups and experts sent a letter to the Meta CEO on April 14, calling out the firm to scrap its plans to invite teenagers and young adults to join its metaverse

Our weekly roundup of news from East Asia curates the industry’s most important developments. Bitcoin’s day of glory on Chinese TikTok On Apr. 10, Douyin, the version of Tiktok exclusive to Chinese users, began publishing price quotes related to Bitcoin (BTC) and other cryptocurrencies such as Ethereum (ETH), Dogecoin (DOGE), and Ripple (XRP). The move

A United States court has issued a summons to Tron founder Justin Sun’s Singapore address in connection to a Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) civil case. In an April 12 filing, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York ordered Sun to respond to the summons within 21 days by contacting attorney

The bill, seeking to enshrine crypto miners’ rights in Montana, United States, successfully passed the third reading in the state’s House of Representatives. Now, the only thing that is required for it to become law is the Governor’s signature.  Bill number 178, prohibiting local authorities from obstructing the crypto mining operations, was voted in during

Texas lawmakers in the state’s Senate have approved a bill aimed at largely removing incentives for crypto miners operating under the seemingly friendly regulatory environment. In a 30-1 vote on the floor of the Texas State Senate on April 12, lawmakers in the 88th legislative session passed Senate Bill 1751, legislation that would amend sections

Cryptocurrency exchange FTX may be considering restarting in the future, according to the legal team behind the debtors. In an April 12 hearing in United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware, lawyers with Sullivan & Cromwell representing FTX said the crypto firm had recovered roughly $7.3 billion in liquid assets. A March filing

The State Tax Administration Agency of the Government of Spain (AEAT) increases its efforts to charge the local holders of crypto assets. The AEAT intends to dispatch 328,000 warning notices to those who should pay their taxes on crypto for the 2022 fiscal year.  As the local newspaper El Mundo reported on Apr. 11, the

The brother of a former Coinbase employee has agreed to pay the cryptocurrency exchange nearly $470,000 for his role in an insider trading scheme. According to a New York District Court filing signed on April 6 and made public on April 10, Nikhil Wahi — brother of former Coinbase product manager Ishan Wahi — will

Regulators in the United States have been piling on the pressure on the crypto space over the last year, even more so in light of the FTX demise and collapse of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB). Now, according to a job posting on the official government website, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is seeking to

Beijing-based cryptocurrency mining firm Bitmain has reportedly violated tax regulations in China, with local authorities imposing major fines. Bitmain Technologies has been slapped with a tax penalty from the Beijing Municipal Office of the State Administration of Taxation, the local news agency Sina Finance reported on April 11. The authority fined Bitmain about 25 million

The new R&D law has overly broad language that states “any and all” software development must be amortized over five years if the development took place in the United States, or over 15 years if the work was done overseas. The change doesn’t sound so bad on its surface; some argue it might even create

New York Times’s latest report on Bitcoin (BTC) mining, titled “The Real-World Costs of the Digital Race for Bitcoin,” has irked many BTC proponents. A number of Bitcoin proponents took to Twitter to call out certain aspects of the report calling it “cheery picking data.” The NYT article calls Bitcoin mining a “voracious” appetite and claims

Japan has shown support for OpenAI amid a sea of bans by different countries and uncertainties for the artificial intelligence (AI) company. Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno stated on Monday, April 10, that Japan would contemplate incorporating AI technology into government systems, such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT chatbot, provided privacy and cybersecurity issues are addressed. Following

Japan-based decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) Sushi’s head chef Jared Grey and his counsel stated that as far as they know, no one associated with Sushi has violated U.S. federal security laws, while providing reassurance that he is cooperating with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) subpoena. In an April 8 statement, Grey answered the

Two Texas lawmakers have introduced identical bills for creating a state-based digital currency backed by gold, a move that comes despite objections from several United States lawmakers against introducing a central bank digital currency (CBDC). Senator Bryan Hughes introduced Senate Bill 2334 on March 10, with Representative Mark Dorazio introducing House Bill 4903 on the same day,

Top Stories This Week Bitcoin white paper is apparently hiding in Apple’s modern macOS Satoshi Nakamoto’s original white paper laying out the thesis for the Bitcoin network is seemingly hiding within every modern version of the operating system for Apple’s Mac computers. An April 5 blog post from technologist Andy Baio revealed that a PDF

A widely shared video of European Central Bank (ECB) President Christine Lagarde admitting that a Digital Euro will be used in a “limited” way to control the payments people can make was taken from the three week old prank video. The video was highlighted by breaking news account Watcher Guru on April 6 and generated

Crypto-friendly Congressman Tom Emmer has slammed U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) chair Gary Gensler for his approach to cryptocurrency regulation, labeling him as a “bad faith regulator.” Great interview by @laurashin with @GOPMajorityWhip! Congress is working in their districts this week and next, but expect a VERY busy last 2 weeks of April for