Regulation

India’s Directorate of Enforcement, or ED, has announced it froze roughly $8.1 million in funds and conducted a search connected to cryptocurrency exchange WazirX as part of an investigation into instant personal loan fraud. In a Friday announcement, the Directorate of Enforcement alleged WazirX facilitated transactions by unnamed fintech firms “to purchase crypto assets and

On top of its wholesale central bank digital currency (CBDC) projects and proof-of-concept Retail CBDC testing with corporates, the Bank of Thailand (BOT) will extend the scope of CBDC development aimed at retail to a pilot phase. A possible real-life application of the “Retail CBDC” will be conducted inside the private sector on a limited

Thailand’s financial regulator, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), has approved four more crypto companies in the Kingdom. On Aug. 4, it was reported in local media that the SEC had granted operating licenses to four more digital asset operators. These include Krungthai XSpring, a crypto broker affiliated with one of the country’s leading banks,

The Tech Transparency Project, or TTP, a research initiative of the United States-based nonprofit watchdog group Campaign for Accountability, has released a report claiming crypto firms “provided little in return” for state governments offering financial incentives.  In a report released Thursday, the TTP said that many crypto firms based in certain U.S. states have “reaped

The Japan Crypto-Asset Business Association (JCBA) and the Japan Crypto-Asset Exchange Association (JVCEA), the two prominent crypto advocacy groups in Japan, released a tax reform request that calls for lowering taxes for individual investors on crypto earnings.  The fiscal 2023 tax reform request addressed key issues that the advocacy groups believe act as a hindrance

Police in Winnipeg, the capital of the Canadian province of Manitoba, will be better prepared to deal with the use of cryptocurrency in cybercrime, thanks to $100,000 Canadian Dollars (CAD) in funding provided by the provincial government. Provincial Justice Minister Kevin Goertzen on Aug. 3 said the money from the Criminal Property Forfeiture Fund will

United States Senate Agriculture Committee chair Debbie Stabenow and ranking member John Boozman introduced the Digital Commodities Consumer Protection Act bill on Wednesday. The bill has been expected for several months. Like the Digital Commodities Exchange Act (DCEA) introduced into the House of Representatives by members of the House Agriculture Committee in April, the new

Pump-and-dump operations, which fraudulently manipulate prices by disseminating false information, have existed in economic contexts since at least the 1700s. For instance, con artists with shares in the South Sea Company started making false statements about the business and its revenues in the beginning of the eighteenth century.  The plan was to inflate the stock

Blockchain.com, one of the oldest Bitcoin (BTC) infrastructure firms, is strengthening regulation and compliance efforts by securing registration in the Cayman Islands. The blockchain wallet and cryptocurrency exchange platform Blockchain.com is expanding operations in the Cayman Islands after receiving registration from the Cayman Islands Monetary Authority (CIMA). Issued on July 6, the registration officially authorizes

The New York Department of Financial Services, or NYDFS, has announced a $30 million penalty on Robinhood’s cryptocurrency arm for alleged violations related to anti-money laundering, cybersecurity and consumer protection laws. In a Tuesday announcement, NYDFS superintendent Adrienne Harris said Robinhood Crypto will pay a $30 million penalty to the state “for significant failures in

Kim Kardashian’s legal team has filed a motion to set aside a class-action complaint aimed at the businesswoman and other American celebrities. Kardashian and a handful of other prominent American social media influencers were served with a class action complaint in January 2022 over claims they had misled investors through the social media promotion of a cryptocurrency

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has charged 11 individuals for their alleged role in the creation of a “fraudulent crypto pyramid scheme” platform Forsage.  The charges were laid in a United States District Court in Illinois on August 1, with the SEC alleging that the founders and promoters of the platform used the “fraudulent

United States-based crypto exchange Binance.US said it will be delisting the AMP token “out of an abundance of caution” of possible enforcement by federal regulators.  In a Monday blog post, Binance.US said it will be closing deposits of Amp (AMP) and removing the AMP/USD trading pair on Aug. 15 following the token’s mention in a

Legal marriage proceedings, court case disputes and government services may one day be offered on the Metaverse, according to a Singaporean government minister.  Speaking at the TechLaw Fest 2022 on July 20, Singapore’s Second Minister for Law Edwin Tong argued even highly personalized, intimate events such as the solemnization of marriages have taken place online

The United States House of Representatives passed the Chips and Science Act on Thursday by a vote of 243 to 187. The bill, which was introduced into the Senate over a year ago, provides grants and incentives to the semiconductor industry and encourages research. It also creates a blockchain and cryptocurrency specialist position in the

On Friday, FZE, a subsidiary of crypto exchange FTX, was awarded Dubai’s first Minimal Viable Product (MVP) license, allowing full operation of the exchange in the region.  Dubai’s Virtual Asset Regulatory Authority (VARA) issued the operating license to FZE under the MVP program, which according to Helal Saeed Almarri, the director general of Dubai WTC