Politics, Legal & Regulation

February 27, 2018 @ 12:08 pm By Erin Hobey  |  

Coalichain, a decentralized political platform that connects citizens to their leaders and governments, has announced its ZUZ token crowdsale. Coalichain’s ICO pre-sale for the ZUZ token begins 28 February and will last until the crowdsale on 2 May. 1,770,000,000 ZUZ will be issued, and contributions… Read More

February 27, 2018 @ 11:42 am By Erin Hobey  |  

The Supreme Court of Israel intervened in a decision by an Israeli bank and ruled that it cannot extensively block the activity of the crypto stock exchange. The Court noted that the bank’s fears and attitudes toward the crypto industry were unfounded speculations. Supreme Court Justice… Read More

February 27, 2018 @ 10:48 am By JD Alois  |  

As we reported yesterday, Circle has acquired cryptocurrency exchange Poloniex for $400 million. Not a small sum. But Poloniex has a small issue it must address soon. It is currently operating as an un-licensed securities exchange. Additional information regarding the acquisition surfaced yesterday that indicated… Read More

February 26, 2018 @ 8:25 pm By JD Alois  |  

  Circle’s acquisition of cryptocurrency exchange Poloniex was big news today. The combination of the two platforms may create a powerful payments / money transfer / digital currency exchange with a global presence. Simultaneously, questions crocked up about Poloniex’s exchange site that is operating without… Read More

February 26, 2018 @ 4:43 pm By JD Alois  |  

The European Commission has launched a consultation as to how to better define a Small and Mid-sized Enterprise – commonly referenced as an SME. This definition is important as it can be used as a basis for policy decisions.  SMEs are the engines of economic… Read More

February 26, 2018 @ 1:42 pm By JD Alois  |  

In a speech today delivered by European Commission Vice President Valdis Dombrovskis, the public official commented on the the EU Roundtable on Cryptocurrencies. The “debriefing” was light on details and simply shared a high level perspective of the discussion. Dombrovskis said the mission of the… Read More

February 26, 2018 @ 11:53 am By JD Alois  |  

We have been hearing for some time now that past issuers of initial coin offerings (ICOs) have been receiving subpoenas from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). This should come as no surprise to anyone as the SEC has been messaging their concern regarding ICOs… Read More

February 26, 2018 @ 9:32 am By Philip Liu  |  

Two months into 2018, it feels a little like the calm before a regulatory storm in terms of cryptocurrency regulation.  A series of pronouncements and announcements from the SEC toward the end of 2017 and beginning of 2018 gave industry insiders more clarity on what… Read More

February 23, 2018 @ 4:52 pm By JD Alois  |  

Here is an interesting write up that should make cryptocurrency advocates happy. The Heritage Foundation, a leading policy think tank in Washington, DC, published a report at the end last year telling Congress and other public authorities they need to back off of Bitcoin and… Read More

February 23, 2018 @ 10:55 am By Joshua Ashley Klayman, Julian Hammar, Shiukay Hung, and Anna Pinedo  |  

The recent and rapid proliferation of cryptocurrency¹ transactions involving retail or “Main Street” customers has left some — including many cryptocurrency platforms serving retail customers — grappling conceptually with the answer to a fundamental question: what constitutes “actual delivery” of cryptocurrency in the eyes of the… Read More

February 22, 2018 @ 4:58 pm By JD Alois  |  

The Financial Stability Oversight Council (FSOC) includes every top financial regulator in the US government representing various agencies and a handful of state regulators. Chaired by the Secretary of the Treasury, Steve Mnuchin, FSOC has statutory mandate that creates for identifying risks and responding to… Read More

February 22, 2018 @ 4:10 pm By JD Alois  |  

The Autorité Des Marchés Financiers (AMF) in France has just published the results of a consultation regarding initial coin offerings (ICOs). According to the AMF, a large majority of respondents expressed support for the establishment of an appropriate legal framework for this new type of fundraising. The… Read More

February 22, 2018 @ 3:31 pm By JD Alois  |  

The Autorité Des Marchés Financiers in France has concluded that platforms which offer these products must abide by the authorisation and business conduct rules, and that these products must not be advertised via electronic means which pretty much shuts down any and all promotion in France…. Read More

February 22, 2018 @ 1:28 pm By Erin Hobey  |  

Donations continue to increase on the Broward Education Foundation GoFundMe campaign to support the victims of the horrific shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School located in Parkland, Florida. In a week since the 19 year-old gunman opened fire with an AR-15-style assault rifle, over 29,265 people… Read More

February 22, 2018 @ 12:06 pm By JD Alois  |  

The Financial Services Markets Authority (FSMA) in Belgium has added its voice to the growing list of financial regulators warning consumers about fraud in the cryptocurrency realm. The FSMA says that recently a large number of new platforms offering the chance to invest in cryptocurrencies have… Read More

February 22, 2018 @ 7:52 am By JD Alois  |  

The Treasury Committee of the UK House of Parliament  has launched an inquiry into digital currencies and distributed ledger technology – also commonly referenced as Blockchain. According to a memo published by the Committee, the inquiry will cover the role of digital currencies in the… Read More

February 21, 2018 @ 6:24 pm By JD Alois  |  

  The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) swooped in and filed fraud charges against a former Bitcoin-denominated platform and its founder Jon E. Montroll with operating an unregistered securities exchange and defrauding users of that exchange. The SEC added that the operator also made false and… Read More

February 20, 2018 @ 6:13 am By JD Alois  |  

Germany’s BaFin (Bundesanstalt für Finanzdienstleistungsaufsicht), or the Federal Financial Supervisory Authority, is the largest financial supervisory authority in continetal Europe. Today, BaFin has published a note on initial coin offerings (ICOs). BaFin joins a growing number of national regulatory agencies that have published some degree of clarifications… Read More

February 20, 2018 @ 5:30 am By JD Alois  |  

The UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has published a call for input as to how technology can make things easier for firms to meet their regulatory reporting requirements. Incorporating Regtech can also streamline the process for the regulator while improving the overall quality of the… Read More

February 19, 2018 @ 5:44 pm By JD Alois  |  

The Wyoming House of Representatives passed legislation today, HB 0070, by a unanimous vote that defines certain Blockchain tokens neither as a security nor as money. The attempt appears to be to create a definition of a utility token that is not regulated as a… Read More