Regulation

The European Parliament passed the Data Act on March 14. The comprehensive bill was intended to “boost innovation by removing barriers obstructing access to industrial data.” Among its provisions is an article that would require smart contracts to be alterable.  The legislation established rules for fairly sharing data generated by “connected products or related services,”

Governor Mark Gordon of the United States state of Wyoming recently signed a bill preventing the forced disclosure of private keys in a move to protect the privacy of digital asset owners. The incoming law reads, “No person shall be compelled to produce a private key or make a private key known to any other

The United States should lead the development of central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) away from being “surveillance coins” and toward being “freedom coins,” says the former chair of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. In a March 13 op-ed in The Hill, Christopher Giancarlo said that the U.S. “must influence” CBDC development toward protecting “democratic values like

Last week, another major quake shook crypto markets. Silvergate Bank — a crypto-fiat gateway network for financial institutions and a significant on-ramp for cryptocurrencies in the United States — shut down operations due to liquidity problems.  A couple of days later, another ​​Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation-insured institution, Silicon Valley Bank (SVB), was shut down by

The broader cryptocurrency community continues to debate the ongoing fallout following the closure of three major American banks, with calls for neobank services for the industry on the cards. Silicon Valley Bank (SVB), which has traditionally served startups across several innovation sector industries, was shuttered by California’s Department of Financial Protection and Innovation on March

The United States Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FIDC) started an auction process the night of March 11 for Silicon Valley Bank, Bloomberg reported, citing unnamed sources. Bids were to be only open for just a few hours before the process closes on March 12.  According to Bloomberg’s sources, the FDIC is seeking a buyer for

United States authorities are working on “material action” over the weekend in an attempt to limit the ripple effect across the country’s banking system after the Silicon Valley Bank abruptly collapsed on March 10. According to a Reuters report citing unnamed sources, officials in the Joe Biden administration assessed the impact of the bank failure

Billionaire Bill Ackman has urged the United States government to “guarantee” all deposits held by Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) within the next “48 hours,” or it risks the “destruction” of many financial institutions. In a March 11 tweet, Bill Ackman, CEO of hedge fund management firm Pershing Square Capital Management, said a “giant sucking sound”

The Bank of England (BoE) has halted the operations of Silicon Valley Bank’s U.K. branch (SVB UK), stating that it has a “limited presence” in the United Kingdom (UK) and no “critical functions” supporting the financial system. BoE issued a statement on Mar. 10, declaring that SVB UK will “stop making payments or accepting deposits,”

Almost immediately after USD Coin (USDC) issuer Circle revealed it could not withdraw $3.3 billion of its $40 billion reserves from Silicon Valley Bank (SVB), the resultant sell-off caused the price of the stablecoin to fall below its $1 peg. On March 9, Circle initiated a wire transfer to remove its funds from SVB as

United States Senators Elizabeth Warren and Ron Wyden asked the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) to hold auditors accountable for failed crypto projects.  The PCAOB — a nonprofit overseeing the audits of public companies and other issuers — recently stated that proof-of-reserves (POR) are not equivalent to audits conducted under PCAOB auditing standards. POR

On March 10, the United States Securities and Exchange Commission ruled against a change that would allow investment manager VanEck to create a spot Bitcoin (BTC) trust. Commissioner Mark Uyeda joined his colleague Hester Peirce in releasing a statement criticizing the commission’s decision not to approve the listing and trading of the financial product.  The commissioners

Kristi Noem, the governor of South Dakota, has used her authority to veto legislation aimed at changing the definition of money to exclude cryptocurrencies. In a March 9 notice to South Dakota house speaker Hugh Bartels, Noem said she had vetoed House Bill 1193, which proposed amending the state’s Uniform Commercial Code, or UCC, to

A federal judge in Florida, United States, is considering dismissing former NBA superstar Shaquille O’Neal and tennis athlete Naomi Osaka from the FTX lawsuit, pointing out that it’s unclear whether the two had been served.  In a paperless order, U.S. District Judge Kevin Moore instructed the plaintiffs to provide cause on why O’Neal and Osaka shouldn’t

United States crypto miners could eventually be subject to a 30% tax on electricity costs under a budget proposal by President Joe Biden aimed to “reduce mining activity.” A Department of the Treasury supplementary budget explainer paper released March 9 said any firm using resources — whether they be owned or rented — would be

Statements from Republican lawmakers ahead of the inaugural hearing of the United States House of Representatives subcommittee focused on digital assets, financial technology and inclusion suggest partisan divides on crypto regulation. In a March 6 memo, House Financial Services Committee Republicans said the first hearing of the Subcommittee on Digital Assets, Financial Technology, and Inclusion

The Federal Financial Supervisory Authority of Germany (BaFin) is not ready to classify nonfungible tokens (NFTs) as securities. The agency suggests classifying the NFTs on a case-by-case basis.  On March 8, the BaFin journal published an explanatory note considering NFTs legal classification. At this point, the regulators don’t see how NFTs meet the criteria to

Six people involved in a cryptocurrency “Ponzi scheme” that raked in about $100 million over five years have pled guilty to a series of fraud and money laundering charges, each carrying a maximum sentence of 20 to 30 years of prison. One of the founders of “AirBit Club,” Pablo Renato Rodriguez, was the latest to

The United States Commodity Futures Trading Commission, or CFTC, was a part of discussions on a regulatory framework for digital assets as well as use cases for blockchain technology. In a March 8 meeting of the CFTC’s Market Risk Advisory Committee, commissioners, regulators, and industry representatives were scheduled to discuss “critical policy considerations” as part

While there’s nothing new in imposing Anti-Money Laundering (AML) standards on crypto, it is only now that the Indian government has decided to notify all interested parties of the obligation to comply with the national AML law. On March 7, The Gazette of India published a notification from the Ministry of Finance, subjecting a range