The United Kingdom Chancellor of the Exchequer announced the launch of a CBDC task force this week, bringing together the Bank of England and Her Majesty’s Treasury to coordinate the exploration of a potential central bank digital currency. Depending on the feedback received from various areas of industry, academia, and civil society, the task force will
Regulation
A Republican lawmaker from Ohio is preparing legislation that would reportedly be aimed at preventing U.S. citizens from evading taxes on their crypto earnings. In an interview with CNBC’s Squawk Box today, Senator Rob Portman said he hoped to introduce a bill with bipartisan support after the next congressional recess which would address the problem
Buying something with Bitcoin (BTC) in Turkey will soon be illegal, and the topic of crypto payments has become a political debate since the Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey’s April 16 announcement that it will forbid the use of cryptocurrency as a payment method. The regulation, which will go into effect on April
Facebook-backed digital currency project Diem could yet launch its first stablecoin in 2021 as a small-scale pilot, according to an anonymous source. Cited in a CNBC report published on April 20, the source claimed that the Switzerland-based nonprofit The Diem Association is still intending to launch its pilot for a United States dollar-backed stablecoin later
A lawsuit accusing crypto exchange Bibox of selling six unregistered securities was thrown out of a U.S. District Court after Judge Denise Cote ruled the plaintiff had failed to file the complaint within 12 months of trading the tokens. Plaintiff Alexander Clifford filed the class-action complaint on June 3, 2020, seeking to recover investments he
A new ranking of global central bank digital currencies, or CBDCs, places the Bahamas at the top of the leaderboard in terms of retail applications – offering an important glimpse in the race to issue government-backed cryptocurrencies. In its 2021 CBDC Index, global consulting firm PwC surveyed the level of central-bank maturity in deploying cryptocurrencies
Several South Korean financial authorities are planning to join forces to combat illegal operations involving cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin (BTC). The interagency crackdown comes in response to growing concerns over speculative investments and potentially illegal activities amid the ongoing boom in crypto markets, Koo Yun-cheol, head of the Office for Government Policy Coordination, said Monday. “There
Many users on social media have started an online campaign for Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan to bring back pro-crypto adviser Zia Ullah Bangash. On Saturday, Bangash, the science, technology, and information technology adviser to Mahmood Khan, the chief minister of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, announced he would resign his position. Bangash cited “unavoidable circumstances” in his
Li Bo, recently appointed deputy governor of the People’s Bank of China, or PBoC, reportedly spoke on the benefits of crypto as an investment tool while highlighting regulatory uncertainty in the country surrounding digital assets. According to Chinese journalist Colin Wu, Li made the comments at the Boao Forum in southern China on Sunday. The
In October 2019, unknown hackers infiltrated a Canadian insurance company by installing the malware BitPaymer, which encrypted the firm’s data and IT systems. The hackers demanded a ransom of $1.2 million be paid in Bitcoin (BTC) in return for the decryption software needed for the firm to regain access to its systems. The firm’s United
Ever since the publication of Satoshi Nakamoto’s white paper back in November 2008, “Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System,” the term “blockchain” has been synonymous with digital currencies in the sense of the underlying technology that allows for the transfer of value, peer-to-peer. What’s interesting is that the term “blockchain” is not used once in
The United States Department of Treasury is again sharpening its sword upon crypto. In January 2021, the Department of Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network issued Notice 2020-2. The Notice states that FinCEN intends to amend its regulations concerning the reporting of foreign financial accounts to include digital currency as a type of reportable account. In
Fintech, cryptocurrency and mergers and acquisitions are poised to intersect significantly in the coming year. M&A activity is expected to rebound quickly — more than 60% of decision-makers at large companies who were surveyed by FTI Consulting for a February report agree that their company has recently been a target of aggressive M&A, and 39%
Lamido Yuguda, the director-general of Nigeria’s Securities and Exchange Commission has said the central bank’s crypto ban has caused significant disruptions to the market. According to a report by The Guardian, the SEC director-general made this assertion known during a press conference organized after the meeting of the Capital Market Committee on Thursday. As previously
Shortly after a Friday morning “diktat” from Turkey’s freshly-appointed central bank governor that effectively banned any and all use of cryptocurrency in the country, Bitcoin now appears caught in a partisan dustup as a Turkish opposition party leader has voiced support for the digital currency. As reported by Cointelegraph, Turkey’s central bank announced this morning
Massachusetts’ securities regulator is seeking to revoke the broker-dealer license of cryptocurrency-friendly stock trading app Robinhood in the state. William Galvin, the head of the state’s securities division, said in a new administrative complaint that Robinhood has “continued a pattern of aggressively inducing and enticing trading among its customers — including Massachusetts customers with little