Welcome to Finance Redefined, your weekly dose of essential decentralized finance (DeFi) insights — a newsletter crafted to bring you significant developments over the last week. The United States regulators want to take a closer look at money laundering and terror financing laws by the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), as it asked banking sector players for feedback on DeFi’s crime risks. Ethereum developers are targeting the last week of March for Ethereum’s Shanghai hard fork and some additional improvement upgrades by June of next year. Ankr protocol has deployed $15 million to buy back the bad debt resulting from …

A United States banking industry regulator warned banks of the “emerging risks” of cryptocurrencies saying the sector should take a “cautious approach” and seek permission in some cases when engaging with crypto or crypto firms. Citing “dislocations” in the crypto market over 2022 the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) highlighted what it said were “several key risks” of crypto in its Dec. 8 Semiannual Risk Perspective for Fall 2022 report. Its three main concerns are that “stablecoins may be unstable,” the crypto industry lacks mature risk management practices and has a high risk of contagion due to …

Two members of the United States Senate have called on the heads of federal financial regulators to address “ties between the banking industry and cryptocurrency firms” in the wake of FTX’s collapse. In letters dated Dec. 7 to Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell, acting Comptroller of the Currency Michael Hsu, and Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation acting chair Martin Gruenberg, Senators Elizabeth Warren and Tina Smith — both on the Senate Banking Committee — acknowledged that the crypto industry was not so “deeply integrated” with traditional financial institutions to severely impact markets after FTX’s bankruptcy filing. However, the two lawmakers pointed …

American fintech company ZELF has introduced an anonymous Visa debit card to be accepted at any of Visa’s 80 million locations worldwide. ZELF’s latest initiative will allow users to open up a U.S. dollar checking account with only their name, email, and phone number, sparing them from having to provide documentation such as a social security number and proof of address. According to the fintech company, prospective clients can open a checking account and have an anonymous virtual debit card, which works with Apple and Google Pay, within 30 seconds. ZELF is LIVE on @ProductHunt with the ultimate in payment …

The Japanese financial group Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group (SMBC) is moving to explore the benefits of Web3 by issuing soulbond tokens (SBTs). Proposed by Ethereum creator Vitalik Buterin, SBTs refer to digital identity tokens that represent the characteristics or reputation of a person or entity, or a “soul.” Such tokens are non-transferable and are designed for the decentralized society and Web3. SMBC officially announced on Dec. 8 an initiative focused on the practical use of SBTs in partnership with the digital asset firm HashPort. The companies plan to conduct research on SBTs to find out their practical uses for communities, …

A Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) pilot program in Australia has received more than 140 use case proposals from the finance industry, but the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) warns that it could displace the Australian dollar and result in people avoiding commercial banks entirely. The RBA released a speech on Dec. 8 to be given by Assistant Governor Brad Jones at a central bank conference held from Dec. 8 to Dec. 9 local time, in which Jones speaks at length about what effect a CBDC could have on the Australian economy. Jones notes that the RBA has been surprised …

Crypto asset provider Zodia Custody has launched a new service to help protect its clients from exchange insolvency. According to the company, its new service, Interchange, will provide an alternative to the pre-funding and margin models of exchanges. The service is set to allow users to keep their assets with Zodia Custody while mirroring holdings in exchanges, thereby protecting clients’ digital assets in the event that an exchange becomes insolvent. Based in London, Zodia Custody is backed by financial institutions Standard Chartered and Northern Trust. Introducing our new service: Zodia Interchange in collaboration with @zodiamarkets. You can now actively trade …

The FTX collapse was bad, but how bad? Almost from the moment that the Bahamas-based exchange suspended cryptocurrency withdrawals in early November — and three days before it filed for bankruptcy — the historic comparisons started flying. Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire tweeted on Nov. 8 that FTX was “Lehman’s moment,” referencing the 2008 collapse of investment bank Lehman Brothers, which sparked a global financial panic. This analogy stuck, at least over the past four weeks. Even United States Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen employed it last week, telling DealBook: “It’s a Lehman moment within crypto, and crypto is big enough that …

A member of the Iranian parliament has told local media the government plans to impose new punishments on women who do not wear a hijab in public, with individuals who refuse to comply after two warnings possibly having their bank accounts frozen. Hossein Jalali, a member of the Cultural Commission of the Islamic Consultative Assembly, told Iranian media on Dec. 6 that “unveiled persons” would be sent an SMS urging them to respect the law and wear a hijab before entering a “warning phase” and finally having their bank account potentially frozen. "In the third stage, the bank account of …

Three members of the United States Senate have reportedly penned a letter to Silvergate Bank requesting information about any relationship with FTX and business entities under former CEO Sam Bankman-Fried. According to a Dec. 6 report from NBC News, Senators Elizabeth Warren, John Kennedy, and Roger Marshall sent a letter to Silvergate CEO Alan Lane. The lawmakers reportedly asked the bank to provide details on its relationship with FTX entities in response to “new and disturbing allegations” about its business practices. “Your bank’s involvement in the transfer of FTX customer funds to Alameda reveals what appears to be an egregious …

Silvergate Capital CEO Alan Lane has slammed “short sellers” and “other opportunists” for spreading misinformation over the last few weeks — just to score themselves a quick buck. In a Dec. 5 public letter, Lane said there was “plenty of speculation – and misinformation” being spread by these parties to “capitalize on market uncertainty” caused in part to FTX’s catastrophic collapse in November. His crypto-focused bank was recently forced to deny one of these so-called FUD (fear, uncertainty and doubt) campaigns last week when there was speculation that the firm was exposed to the bankrupt crypto lender BlockFi. Lane also …

Russia’s largest bank Sber — formerly known as Sberbank — continues developing its blockchain platform by integrating it with the Ethereum blockchain. On Nov. 30, Sber officially announced new opportunities for its proprietary blockchain platform, including compatibility with smart contracts and applications on the Ethereum network. This would allow developers to move smart contracts and entire projects between Sber’s blockchain and public blockchain networks, the bank said. Sber’s latest additions also bring an integration with major software cryptocurrency wallet MetaMask, which is used to interact with the Ethereum blockchain. The integration allows users to make operations with tokens and smart …