“Everything is bigger in Texas” proved to be true during Consensus 2022. The crypto conference took place June 9–12 in Austin, Texas, this year, attracting over 20,000 people from across the globe, despite the 100-degree plus weather. According to the event sponsors, Consensus 2018, which was held at the Hilton Hotel in New York, had previously drawn in almost 9,000 attendees. Caitlin Long, CEO of Custodia — the Wyoming-based digital asset bank — told Cointelegraph that the event this year speaks volumes. “New York has sent a lot of this industry fleeing to places like Austin, Wyoming and Miami. It …

Alejandro Zelaya, the Minister of inance of El Salvador, reacted to the recent media attacks on the nation’s strategy of investing in Bitcoin (BTC) by calling the allegations of fiscal risks “extremely superficial.” During a press conference held on Monday, Zelaya responded to a journalist's question about the government's reaction to Bitcoin's sharp dip in an emotional manner: “There is a clear criticism of Bitcoin as such, not of El Salvador's strategy. El Salvador is what interests them the least, they [the media outlet] are not interested in what happens to our economy, they are not interested in what happens …

As the struggle for regulatory clarity down under rages on, Binance Australia’s CEO Leigh Travers thinks that such a framework will prove the crypto industry “holds itself to a higher standard” than many believe. Travers spoke with Cointelegraph on Tuesday about the current state of local crypto regulatory efforts and how the opportunities available in the industry are restricted by the lack of clarity. That lack of clarity was cited as the reason why the Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) has indefinitely postponed a pilot program for its crypto trading services last month. Although there are no rules on the …

One can hardly name a document more long-hoped-for as the crypto bill, co-sponsored by United States Senators Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming and Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, was for the crypto community. And, it’s finally here. Last week, Lummis and Gillibrand introduced a 69-page bill in the U.S. Senate. What’s inside? The projects of study on the environmental impact of digital assets and advisory committee on innovation, a tax structure, a mandate for analysis of the use of digital assets in retirement savings and much more. Should it become law, the bill would undoubtedly implement major changes to the current …

Chinese mining chip designer Nano Labs has applied for an initial public offering (IPO) in the United States to raise $50 million on Nasdaq amid sluggish market conditions. According to information obtained by the Renaissance Capital IPO monitoring tool, the Huangzhou-based crypto mining chip maker has filed with the regulator, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), for its upcoming public offering on Nasdaq, the world's second-larges stock exchange. The application for American depository shares is occurring amid a slew of regulatory difficulties in China and the United States, causing a shortage of Chinese issuers' overseas fundraising. Only two IPOs …

The blockchain industry’s impact on the energy sector has been a major source of controversy over the past five years. Governments and environmental protection advocates have routinely expressed concerns about the amount of energy required to keep the Bitcoin network secure. Data shows the network’s energy consumption now rivals the yearly energy consumed by some small countries. While much of the debate has centered around the negative environmental impacts of Bitcoin (BTC) mining, the drive to maximize earnings from mining and integrate blockchain technology with the energy grid has also introduced new developments that have the potential to be beneficial …

The Secretary of the United States Treasury, Janet Yellen, weighed in on including cryptocurrencies in retirement plans, calling them a very risky investment that should be regulated by Congress. During an event organized by the New York Times in Washington on Thursday, Yellen shared her opinion on the pioneer attempt to include crypto in retirement plans undertaken by Fidelity Investments: “It’s not something that I would recommend to most people who are saving for their retirement. To me it’s very risky investment.” The discussion around digital currencies in 401(k) plans saw the participation of the Department of Labor and senators …

Since May 10, the Bitcoin (BTC) chart shows a relatively tight range of price movement and the cryptocurrency has failed to break the $32,000 resistance on multiple occasions. The choppy trading partially reflects the uncertainty of the stock market as the S&P 500 Index ranged from 3,900 to 4,180 in the same period. On one side, there has been economic growth in the Eurozone where the gross domestic product grew 5.1% year over year. On the other, inflation continues to soar, reaching 9% in the United Kingdom. Further adding to Bitcoin's volatility was the digital assets regulatory framework proposal introduced …

Human rights activists from 20 countries have submitted an open letter to the United States Congress in support of a “responsible crypto policy” and praising Bitcoin (BTC) and stablecoins as essential tools aiding democracy and freedom for tens of millions. The letter comes just a week after an anti-crypto open letter was sent to Congress, purporting to be from the scientific community but whose lead signatures included well-known crypto critics and authors from high-income, democratic countries. The group of 21 activists clapping back includes people from countries that have either seen recent conflict or have otherwise unstable economies such as …

While Kazakhstan’s government is catching up with the tremendous volume of crypto mining in the country by introducing new taxes and regulations, the local central bank intends to explore the possibilities that crypto offers. During the press conference held on Tuesday, the chairman of the Kazakhstan National Bank, Galymzhan Pirmatov, stated that the nation aims to extract the profit from technologies the cryptocurrency market could provide. He emphasized the attractiveness of innovations and made reservations about the risks to macroeconomic stability. The official doesn’t think that the bank is late to the game: “I don’t think that the National Bank …

The “long waves” of TerraUSD’s May 7 collapse, which we noted two newsletters ago, are extending even further. Last week brought some notable reactions to the stablecoin’s depegging in the East Asia region. A Chinese state-owned media outlet, the Economic Daily has signaled that the Chinese government may introduce even tighter regulations on cryptocurrencies and stablecoins due to the collapse of the Terra ecosystem. It might even mean a complete ban on stablecoins to prohibit ownership, transfer, purchase and sale of the assets, some experts believe. What China plans, Japan does — as a new law will limit the issuance …

A leaked copy of a United States draft bill concerning cryptocurrency started doing the rounds on Twitter earlier on Tuesday. The 600-page copy of the leaked bill highlights some of the key areas of concern for regulators including decentralized finance (DeFi), stablecoins, decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) and crypto exchanges. here you go (plz RT) pic.twitter.com/UOVhIUiUBu — slam (@bot_slam) June 7, 2022 User protection seems to be the primary focus of regulators, with policies intended to require any crypto platform or service provider to legally register in the U.S, be it a DAO or DeFi protocol. This could highly curtail chances …