Politics, Legal & Regulation

January 22, 2020 @ 9:28 am By JD Alois  |  

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) is introducing new rules regarding overdraft fees that impact consumers. The new rules expect to benefit 70% of the population as banks will now be required to charge a simple annual interest rate, without any additional fees or charges beginning… Read More

January 22, 2020 @ 8:22 am By JD Alois  |  

The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) has posted a deck on its investigation into Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDCs). Project LionRock is the CBDC blockchain from Hong Kong and Inthanon is from Thailand as the two partnered in the project. The HKMA said it developed… Read More

January 21, 2020 @ 8:50 pm By JD Alois  |  

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has charged Sergii “Sergey” Grybniak and his company Opporty International, Inc. for an allegedly fraudulent initial coin offering. According to the SEC, Grybniak and his company raised $600,000 from around 200 investors during the sale of unregistered “digital asset… Read More

January 21, 2020 @ 8:59 am By JD Alois  |  

While investment crowdfunding rules initially were targeted at early-stage ventures in need of growth capita,l the new rules have fueled the rise of investment platforms for another asset class: real estate investment opportunities. Early-stage ventures, from seed rounds to later-stage venture rounds, tend to include… Read More

January 21, 2020 @ 8:06 am By JD Alois  |  

A grouping of prominent central banks along with the Bank for International Settlements, have joined together to review the potential for Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs). The banks and organizations include: the Bank of England, Bank of Canada, Bank of Japan, European Central Bank (ECB), … Read More

January 20, 2020 @ 11:37 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

The Libra Association has reportedly established a five-member “Technical Steering Committee” in order to manage the ongoing development of the controversial Facebook-led stablecoin and digital payments project. The five members include Diogo Monica, co-founder at Anchorage, George Cabrera III, core product lead at Calibra (the… Read More

January 20, 2020 @ 10:12 am By Cali Haan  |  

In its latest submission in a case against private messaging app provider Telegram, the SEC claims that, Telegram has been using funds raised to develop the TON blockchain to rather cover operating expenses at the messaging business. Telegram raised $1.7 billion USD from 171 purchasers… Read More

January 18, 2020 @ 5:54 pm By Xu Gao  |  

Tencent LiCaiTong Releases “Online Wealth Management Behavior and Security Report (2019)“ On January 14th, LiCaiTong, Tencent’s wealth management platform, and National Institution for Finance & Development (NIFD) jointly released the “Online Wealth Management Behavior and Security Report (2019)”. The report published the 2019 online wealth… Read More

January 17, 2020 @ 6:46 pm By Cali Haan  |  

Toronto lawyer Amy ter Haar has provided her take on the Ontario Securities Commission’s (OSC’s) CSA Staff Notice 21-327: Guidance on the Application of Securities Legislation to Entities Facilitating the Trading of Crypto Assets. In short, the guidance could render any cryptocurrency trading platform subject to… Read More

January 17, 2020 @ 4:13 pm By JD Alois  |  

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Office of the Advocate for Small Business Capital Formation, has scheduled a public meeting to discuss the state of access to capital for smaller firms. The “Capital Call” is described as being held similar to a public company’s earnings… Read More

January 17, 2020 @ 4:02 pm By JD Alois  |  

Tether, the stablecoin that has endured a good share of challenges, has issued a statement on pending lawsuits targeting the company. According to a release,  the plaintiffs in three class action proceedings against Tether filed a letter with the U.S. District Court for the Southern… Read More

January 17, 2020 @ 11:35 am By JD Alois  |  

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has announced another enforcement action targeting a bogus initial coin offering (ICO). According to a release, the SEC has charged convicted criminal Boaz Manor, his business associate, and two businesses, CG Blockchain Inc. and BCT Inc. SEZC, with raising… Read More

January 16, 2020 @ 11:14 pm By JD Alois  |  

Democrat members of the House Financial Services Committee have sent a letter to the Government Accountability Office (GAO) inquiring about the usage of alternative data by lenders and credit agencies. Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D-CA), Chairwoman of the Committee, Congressman Al Green (D-TX), Chair of the… Read More

January 16, 2020 @ 10:25 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

We recently caught up with Shaun Djie, co-founder and chief operating officer at Digix, one of the first “smart-asset” companies leveraging blockchain tech to account for the authentication and provenance of 99.99% investment-grade gold bullions. Shaun currently serves as a board member for Singapore’s IT… Read More

January 16, 2020 @ 10:11 pm By Cali Haan  |  

The Canadian Securities Administrators (CSA) have made a major announcement regarding the regulation of cryptocurrency and “cryptoasset” trading platforms in the country, one that could add significant operational costs in the near term. Under the guidance, unless they have obtained an exemption, cryptocurrency trading platforms in… Read More

January 16, 2020 @ 11:14 am By Omar Faridi  |  

The Baltic region’s finance industry has been struggling and some of the area’s countries including Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania have reportedly been indirectly involved in money-laundering scandals that were allegedly orchestrated by large Nordic banks. However, Lithuania’s capital has been able to develop its local… Read More

January 16, 2020 @ 9:58 am By Omar Faridi  |  

Chainalysis, a leading blockchain analytics and cybersecurity firm, revealed on January 15, 2020 that it had managed to trace $2.8 billion in Bitcoin (BTC) being transferred to criminals via cryptocurrency exchanges in 2019, with the vast majority of these transactions going through Binance and Huobi,… Read More

January 16, 2020 @ 9:25 am By Cali Haan  |  

Japan’s Financial Services Agency (FSA) plans to further reduce allowable limits on leveraged cryptocurrency bets, down from 4X of customer deposits to 2X. Japan’s Cabinet voted to greatly reduce leveraged crypto trades on local platforms last April. At that time, permitted leveraged trades were reduced… Read More

January 15, 2020 @ 10:44 pm By Cali Haan  |  

The new chair of the Commodity Futures and Trading Commission (CFTC) has told Chedder Media that his agency is continuing to work closely with the SEC to establish definitions and jurisdiction when it comes to cryptocurrencies- though these have not yet been set. Since he… Read More

January 14, 2020 @ 2:44 pm By Cali Haan  |  

The US Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC’s) Investor Education and Advocacy division is warning the public that, because both Initial Exchange Offerings (IEOs) and the platforms selling them may be unregistered and unregulated, investing in IEOs may be high risk- and not much different than… Read More