Politics, Legal & Regulation

January 3, 2020 @ 4:51 pm By Cali Haan  |  

Jens Weidmann, President of Germany’s central bank (Bundesbank) and a governing councilor at the European Central Bank (ECB), told Handelsblatt this week that much needs to be understood before central banks should get into issuing a digital currency like Facebook’s Libra or Bitcoin, commonly referred… Read More

January 3, 2020 @ 4:38 pm By Cali Haan  |  

A Delaware-registered company called Digital Capital Management is suing law firm Faegre Baker Daniels for allegedly providing “erroneous” legal advice in 2017 that greenlit establishment of a cryptocurrency/digital token investment fund. The story was broken by Bloomberg Law. The fund, Crypto Asset Management LLC (CAM),… Read More

January 3, 2020 @ 9:45 am By JD Alois  |  

Starting on Friday, January 10, 2020, the UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) expects all “cryptoasset businesses” (IE VASPs, Digital Asset firms etc.) to be compliant under Anti-money Laundering (AML) and Counter Terrorist Financing (CFT) rules. The FCA is the main securities regulator in the UK… Read More

January 2, 2020 @ 4:34 pm By Cali Haan  |  

International Investment (II) is reporting that Qatar’s financial regulator, the QFC, has banned the use of cryptocurrencies in the region. The ban appears to be comprehensive. It covers, “anything of value that acts as a substitute for currency, that can be digitally traded or transferred… Read More

January 2, 2020 @ 8:55 am By Cali Haan  |  

Virgil Griffith, an Ethereum programmer accused of advising North Korea on how to using cryptocurrencies to evade sanctions, has been released on $1 million bail in New York. The case is being covered in-person by the Inner City Press: “Upshot: for Virgil Griffith, SDNY Judge Broderick… Read More

January 2, 2020 @ 7:45 am By Omar Faridi  |  

A consortium, which includes Fintech firm Razer and the founders of Sheng Siong, has reportedly filed an application for obtaining a digital full-bank license in Singapore. The application notes that the consortium wants to mainly focus on the “underserved youth and millennials segment.” Insurance business… Read More

January 1, 2020 @ 10:59 pm By Cali Haan  |  

Paraguay’s Secretary for Preventing Money and Property Laundering (SEPRELAD) has ordered all Virtual Asset Service Providers (VASPs) in the country to submit to a “mass audit” of the sector and, “to open their books to the government for the first time,” Born 2 Invest (B2I) reports. The… Read More

December 31, 2019 @ 3:06 pm By Cali Haan  |  

Companies wishing to provide the Ontario Securities Commission (OSC) with, “feedback on the regulatory and capital raising challenges faced by innovative businesses at various stages of development,” have until Friday, January 3rd, to complete the OSC’s Launchpad Survey. The survey was designed in collaboration with… Read More

December 31, 2019 @ 11:58 am By JD Alois  |  

The internet has disrupted so many different industries mainly for the better. Fintech, or financial technology, is really the digitization of financial services that previously leaned in an analog direction, lending, trading & investing, payments, banking and more. While the benefits to consumers and business… Read More

December 31, 2019 @ 10:34 am By Omar Faridi  |  

The National Tax Service (NTS) of South Korea confirmed that it will be withholding taxes worth an estimated 80.3 billion Korean won (appr. $70 million) from Bithumb, the nation’s largest digital asset trading platform. Bithumb Holdings’ largest shareholder, Vidente, which operates Bithumb’s Korea division, confirmed… Read More

December 30, 2019 @ 2:43 pm By Cali Haan  |  

An Ethereum developer accused of providing “highly technical information” to North Korean officials on how to use cryptocurrencies to avoid U.S. sanctions has been denied bail in New York, Inner City Press reports. Virgil Griffith, 36, is accused of knowingly violating US sanctions against the… Read More

December 30, 2019 @ 2:15 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Bank Negara Malaysia is reportedly planning to issue up to five operational licenses to qualified or eligible applicants in order to launch digital banks to perform either regular or Islamic banking business in the country. Malaysia’s central bank has issued the exposure draft on Licensing… Read More

December 29, 2019 @ 12:23 pm By Cali Haan  |  

Lawmakers in Uzbekistan have made a sudden decision to ban the purchase of cryptocurrencies in the region. Securities.io elaborated on the development, stating, “The new legislation bars all citizens from buying digital currencies, even from licensed exchanges.” Citizens can reportedly sell their cryptocurrency holdings, but… Read More

December 29, 2019 @ 10:20 am By Cali Haan  |  

Citing a “serious risk of flight,” Judge William Matthewman has ordered the pre-trial detention of Jobadiah Sinclair Weeks in Florida. Weeks is one of three men arrested in different parts of the U.S. in early December for allegedly carrying out a $722 million USD cryptocurrency “mining”… Read More

December 28, 2019 @ 10:31 am By Cali Haan  |  

Bank of Canada governor Stephen S. Poloz presented the bank’s 2020 vision at the Empire Club of Canada in Toronto December 12th. In the speech, Poloz described “major forces acting on the economy…(and) what the Bank will be doing about them.” With regards to Fintech,… Read More

December 28, 2019 @ 10:16 am By Omar Faridi  |  

India’s central bank, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), is reportedly looking into the possibility of providing non-bank entities, including local Fintech firms and insurance providers, direct access to handling RTGS (real-time gross settlement) and NEFT (national electronic funds transfer) transactions – which would be… Read More

December 28, 2019 @ 8:53 am By Omar Faridi  |  

The New York Department of Financial Services (NYDFS), the financial and digital currency regulator for the state of New York, appears to be to developing regulatory technology (Regtech) solutions in order to enhance its existing oversight and supervising capabilities. The NYDFS is reportedly looking for… Read More

December 27, 2019 @ 3:57 pm By Cali Haan  |  

Noting “signs of (a) resurgence of virtual currency trading activities in the country,” four finance regulators in China (the Beijing Local Financial Supervision Bureau, the People’s Bank of China Business Management Department, the Beijing Banking and Insurance Regulatory Bureau, and the Beijing Securities Regulatory Bureau)… Read More

December 24, 2019 @ 10:54 am By Cali Haan  |  

Lawyers for alleged stolen-bitcoin launderer Alexander Vinnick have successfully lobbied for suspension of the Greek Justice Minister’s orders compelling Vinnick’s extradition to France, Greek Reporter writes. For the past two-and-a-half years since his arrest in Greece, Vinnick has been at the centre of an extradition… Read More

December 24, 2019 @ 8:19 am By Omar Faridi  |  

Mu Changchun, deputy director at the People’s Bank of China’s (PBoC), recently stated that the digital yuan (under development) will be fundamentally different from Bitcoin (BTC), the flagship cryptocurrency. The electronic yuan will also be different from stablecoins, which are digital assets pegged one-to-one with… Read More