Regulation

Paraguay’s president, Mario Abdo Benítez, vetoed a bill that sought to recognize cryptocurrency mining as an industrial activity on Monday. He reasoned that mining’s high electricity consumption could hinder the expansion of a sustainable national industry.  The decree stated that crypto mining uses intensive capital with low manpower usage, and therefore would not generate added

United States House of Representatives member Tom Emmer has reportedly suggested that regulating and encouraging innovation in the crypto space should not be a political win for either Democrats or Republicans. According to an interview released Tuesday by Axios reporter Brady Dale, Emmer said many of his colleagues in Congress were treating cryptocurrencies as a

The saga of the defunct Turkish crypto exchange, Thodex, continues as its fugitive founder is now in custody in Albania. Local law enforcement detained Faruk Fatih Özer in an operation carried out at 05:30 AM (UTC) on Tuesday, Aug. 30, in the country’s capital city Tirana. According to a report by Cointelegraph Turkey, Özer is currently

In another shift toward widespread crypto adoption in Argentina, citizens from the Mendoza Province can now pay government fees and taxes using cryptocurrencies.  In an Aug. 27 statement, the Mendoza Tax Administration (ATM) described the new crypto payment service as fulfilling “the strategic objective of modernization and innovation,” giving “taxpayers different means to comply with

The South Korean central bank has indicated that initial coin offerings (ICOs) will be allowed under the Digital Assets Framework Act, according to a local news report. That comprehensive legislation is expected to be introduced in 2023 and implemented the following year.  The Bank of Korea (BOK) discussed ICOs in comments to a Korean translation

Ava Labs CEO Emin Gün Sirer has dismissed sensational allegations from CryptoLeaks that his company used litigation to “harm” competitors and fool regulators, labeling it as “conspiracy theory nonsense.” Sirer made the comments in an Aug. 28 Twitter post to his 280,500 followers, referring to an Aug. 26 article from CryptoLeaks alleging the company formed

Police have closed down at least 16 cryptocurrency exchanges in the Herat province of western Afghanistan in the last week, according to a report in Ariana News, an independent news outlet in that country. The report quotes a local police official as saying arrests had been made during the closures.  The closures were carried out

The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has pushed back a decision on the latest application for a Bitcoin (BTC) spot exchange-traded fund (ETF) by global investment firm VanEck. The company has long been trying to get the green light for what will be the first BTC ETF in America, with its first application

Celsius Network is one of the many crypto lending firms that have been swept up in the wake of the so-called “crypto contagion.”  Rumors of Celsius’ insolvency began circulating in June after the crypto lender was forced to halt withdrawals due to “extreme market conditions” on June 13. It eventually filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy

Major crypto exchange Binance has confirmed it restricted account access to $1 million in crypto for a Tezos tool contributor after being called out on social media. In a Thursday Twitter thread, Binance said it had restricted the account of Tezos staking rewards auditor Baking Bad “as the result of a law enforcement request.” The

In a cease-and-desist letter to fast-growing crypto exchange FTX, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) shed light on a now-deleted tweet from the exchange’s president, Brett Harrison, and issued a stark warning over the company’s messaging. Harrison’s original tweet said, “Direct deposits from employers to FTX US are stored in individually FDIC-insured bank accounts in

The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) has started taking measures to prepare for new cryptocurrency regulations addressing the ongoing liquidity crisis and withdrawal issues. Singapore’s central bank has sent detailed questionnaires to some applicants and holders of the MAS’ Digital Payment Token licenses, Bloomberg reported on Friday. Sent over the last month, the questionnaires were

Major Indian crypto exchange CoinSwitch Kuber had five of its premises searched by anti-money laundering agents on Thursday over alleged violations of forex laws.  According to an Aug. 25 report from Bloomberg, India’s Enforcement Directorate searched CoinSwitch Kuber’s offices as well as the residences of its directors and CEO Ashish Singhal. A source told the

Binance representatives participated in a hearing of the Philippine Senate Banking Committee, according to a report in the local press Wednesday. Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas deputy governor Chuchi Fonacier, the country’s Security Exchange Commission (SEC) chair Emilio Aquino, and members of FinTech Alliance Philippines and the Cagayan Economic Zone Authority also took part in that

A New York bankruptcy court has given embattled cryptocurrency brokerage Voyager Digital the green light to pay retention bonuses to key staff members. The firm filed a motion with the United States Bankruptcy Court on Aug. 2 seeking approval for its Key Employee Retention Plan (KERP) which entailed $1.9 million worth of payments to 38

Are cryptocurrency games innocent fun? Or are they Ponzi schemes facing an imminent crackdown by regulators in the United States? Tokens related to cryptocurrency games — known colloquially as “GameFi” — were worth a cumulative total of nearly $10 billion as of mid-August, give or take a few billion. (The number may vary depending on