The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is seeking to hire more people to focus on digital assets, raising the number of personnel charged with safeguarding investors in cryptocurrency markets almost twofold. The SEC's Cyber Unit, which comprises the Crypto Assets and Cyber team, is expected to hire 20 new people to increase the overall force to 50 dedicated positions, as reported by Cointelegraph on May 3. This development comes as the regulatory body attempts to keep up with the rise in the popularity of virtual assets. The SEC's decision to expand its cryptocurrency unit has been praised by …

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) is moving ahead with plans to upgrade the country’s central bank digital currency (CBDC) to be used on a wider range of goods and services. It is also maintaining harsh crypto restrictions that cripple the country’s fintech sector. The CBN branch controller Bariboloka Koyor spoke at a campaign aiming to “sensitize” businesses to the eNaira at a market in the country’s most populous city of Lagos on Monday, according to a report from Vanguard. Koyor stated: “Starting from next week, there is going to be an upgrade on the eNaira speed wallet app that …

Retirement plans still largely remain at the periphery of both crypto adoption and the regulatory discussion. But last week, a major development emerged in this department. United States Senators Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Tina Smith of Minnesota became concerned about Fidelity’s recent announcement of adding Bitcoin (BTC) to its clients’ 401(k) retirement investment menu. In a letter to the company’s CEO Abigail Johnson, the lawmakers expressed their uneasiness over a “conflict of interests” and the “significant risks of fraud, theft and loss,” requesting from Fidelity a detailed outline of risk mitigation actions. Crypto 401(k) plans are still relatively rare, …

The National Securities Depository (NSDL), India’s central securities depository based in Mumbai, launched blockchain-based security and covenant monitoring platform. NSDL officially launched the distributed ledger technology (DLT) platform on Saturday during its 25th-anniversary presentation, alongside the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI). The platform is expected to strengthen the monitoring of security and governance in the corporate bonds market to bring “further discipline and transparency to the market.” SEBI chairperson Madhabi Puri Buch underscored the blockchain’s transparency as the key reason for the technology’s popularity but made a reservation regarding its current cost-effectiveness, remarkin that the anonymity feature remains …

Shortly after the Russian invasion of Ukraine began, the Ukrainian government tweeted a request for funds in the form of Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH) and Tether (USDT). The total received now stands at more than $60 million, according to Michael Chobanian, founder of Kyiv-based Kuna Exchange and president of the Blockchain Association of Ukraine, who posts regular updates via his Twitter account. Unlike support being pledged by governments around the world, these funds were available to the Ukrainian military within minutes — not weeks. For individuals, cryptocurrencies can provide a potentially life-saving method of escape from crises. A computer programmer …

The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has given the green light to Valkyrie’s futures exchange-traded fund (ETF) application. This represents another ETF that has been approved by the SEC, which has previously accepted futures ETFs, but no sign of spot ETFs yet. According to the SEC document published Thursday, the application was filed under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 using a 19b-4 form, the same law that spot Bitcoin (BTC) ETF prospects are relying on — albeit with little success thus far. Last month, the watchdog gave the thumbs-up to Teucrium’s Bitcoin futures ETF, which is the …

The Central Bank of Argentina (BCRA) has put the kibosh on financial institutions offering crypto trading only days after two of the country’s largest banks signaled they were opening up to digital assets. On Thursday, the BCRA said the move was to mitigate the risks crypto poses to users and “to the financial system as a whole,” citing crypto’s high volatility, use in money laundering and absence of regulatory safeguards. The news came hot on the heels of an announcement on Monday from two of the country’s largest banks, Banco Galicia and Brubank, that they would allow their customers to …

Republican Senator Tommy Tuberville from Alabama has unveiled a new bill he calls the Financial Freedom Act to allow Americans to add cryptocurrency to their 401(k) retirement savings plan unencumbered by regulatory guidance. The new bill is Tuberville’s response to the United States Department of Labor’s (DOL) push to potentially keep crypto out of 401(k) investment plans due to its perceived potential for risk to investors. As Cointelegraph previously reported, the DOL said employees who choose to invest in crypto through their 401(k) could attract legal attention. In an op-ed for CNBC on Thursday, Senator Tuberville stated: “The Federal Government …

Anthony Scaramucci, the founder of the hedge fund SkyBridge Capital, thinks that the next United States presidential candidate will likely be pro-cryptocurrency, given that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) recently announced the approval of a fourth Bitcoin (BTC) futures exchange-traded fund (ETF). During an interview at SALT’s Crypto Bahamas conference, Scaramucci told Cointelegraph that he has been bullish on a pro-crypto presidential candidate since the SEC approved Bitcoin futures under the Securities Act of 1933 (‘33 Act) and the Securities Act of 1934 ('34 Act). He added: “The Congress is indicating that they are more crypto-friendly. You now …

Europe’s Anti-Money Laundering and Combatting the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) watchdog, MONEYVAL, has listed monitoring the crypto sector along with “gatekeeper” professionals, such as lawyers and accountants, as priorities in European nations' push to combat money laundering. In a media release based on the findings of its annual report, MONEYVAL called upon European jurisdictions to assess compliance with international standards and implement stricter regulatory policies to combat money laundering facilitated by crypto assets. Elżbieta Frankow-Jaśkiewicz, chief of MONEVYAL, cited the Pandora Papers as an example of how professionals serving as "gatekeepers" could aid the rich and corrupt to launder their …

Next to the fears of government overreach that the European Union’s ambitious digital euro project stirred, the main concern of the public is the prospective currency’s privacy framework. It appears that this worry might not be overblown after all, as the European Central Bank’s (ECB) latest presentation hints that user anonymity is not a desirable design option. On Tuesday, crypto venture adviser and European digital asset regulation whistleblower Patrick Hansen drew public attention to the ECB’s presentation titled “Digital Euro Privacy options.” The document is relatively short and contains nine slides that lay out the possible options for user privacy …

The crypto community and Wall Street converged last week in Nassau, Bahamas, to discuss the future of digital assets during SALT’s Crypto Bahamas conference. The SkyBridge Alternatives Conference (SALT) was also co-hosted this year by FTX, Sam Bankman-Fried’s cryptocurrency exchange. Anthony Scaramucci, founder of the hedge fund SkyBridge Capital, kicked off Crypto Bahamas with a press conference explaining that the goal behind the event was to merge the traditional financial world with the crypto community: “Crypto Bahamas combines the crypto native FTX audience with the SkyBridge asset management firm audience. We are bringing these two worlds together to create a …