On Oct. 6, the United States Department of Justice, or DOJ, announced the creation of a specialized unit, the National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Team, or NCET, tasked with prosecuting criminal misuses of digital assets and crypto infrastructure, as well as tracing and recovering the ill-gotten cryptocurrency. The move continues the U.S. authorities’ push to disrupt the corners of the crypto ecosystem that are thought to facilitate illicit activity, such as ransomware attacks. What does the government’s crypto enforcement ramp-up hold for the larger digital asset space? Pooling crypto expertise The new unit will operate according to the principles articulated almost exactly …

On Oct. 15, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, or CFTC, handed sister crypto companies Tether and Bitfinex fines totaling $41 million and $1.5 million, respectively, citing violations of the Commodity Exchange Act, or CEA, and of a prior CFTC order. The regulator has found that Tether, the firm behind an eponymous stablecoin, has only held sufficient fiat reserves to back the dollar-pegged asset for 27.6% of time during the 26-month period under review between 2016 and 2018. The agency also stated that Tether violated the law by holding part of the reserves in non-fiat financial instruments, as well as by …

On Thursday, cryptocurrency exchange platform Coinbase published its Digital Asset Policy Proposal, a document offering both a justification and conceptual framework for the comprehensive regulation of digital assets in the United States. Coinbase presented the proposal as a product of dozens of meetings with industry participants, policymakers, crypto innovators and academics that the company’s representatives had held in the last several weeks. The firm’s intention is for the proposal to “animate an open and constructive discussion regarding the role of digital assets in our shared economic future” and offer good-faith suggestions on what a sensible approach to crypto regulation might …

Jon Cunliffe, deputy governor for financial stability at the Bank of England, said the risks of a growing crypto market on the financial system are “relatively limited” at the moment but have the potential to grow very rapidly if regulators do not keep pace. In a speech to the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT) on Oct. 13, Cunliffe said policymakers around the world have only just started to develop the framework needed to properly regulate digital assets but should pursue it “as a matter of urgency.” The deputy governor spoke about the risks that cryptocurrencies and stablecoins may …

Cryptocurrency lending platform Celsius Network has raised $400 million in a new equity funding round amid United States regulators increasingly cracking down on crypto lending. Announcing the news on Tuesday, Celsius noted that the latest funding was led by Canada’s second-largest pension fund, Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (CDPQ), and WestCap, an equity firm established by former Airbnb executive Laurence Tosi. Celsius Network raises $400m. @FT "The funding round was led by WestCap... and Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (CDPQ)." More:https://t.co/L5wpMxCvcR — Celsius (@CelsiusNetwork) October 12, 2021 The firm intends to use the proceeds from this …

There is nothing surprising about Senator Cynthia Lummis, a Wyoming Republican known to be among the staunchest crypto supporters in the U.S. legislature, revealing a sizable Bitcoin (BTC) purchase that she had made earlier in the summer. It is still oddly satisfying to observe the alignment between a politician’s long-declared stance on an issue and corresponding monetary behavior (Lummis had been hodling BTC since 2013). Such consistency will be a norm in blockchain-based governance systems where individuals’ interests are aligned with those of the entire community and where all information that could be of remote public interest is transparent. Below …

Over the past few months, there have been some major developments coming out of China that have rocked the cryptocurrency market and the global financial markets. China’s Evergrande debt repayment crisis sent shockwaves throughout global equities markets, as well as the United States Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC’s) consistent signaling of upcoming regulation for stablecoins and decentralized finance (DeFi) continued to weigh on sentiment within the market. While the Evergrande situation somewhat resolved itself, for the time being, the government crackdown on unregulated DeFi platforms and stablecoin transactions continues. This has resulted in cross-chain equipped layer-one protocols and layer-two solutions …

Indian short-video sharing platform Chingari is preparing to launch its own blockchain network and social token. Chingari has completed a $19-million funding round to launch its mainnet and conduct a token sale for its Solana-based GARI token in November, the firm announced on Friday. Chingari co-founder and CEO Sumit Ghosh said that the token sale is scheduled for Nov. 2, while the mainnet launch and application integration are expected to have gone live by the end of that month. Co-led by major blockchain investors such as Republic Crypto and Mike Novogratz’s investment firm, Galaxy Digital, the new raise included over …

Volodymyr Zelensky, president of Ukraine, has delayed signing a bill that would establish the nation’s regulatory framework around digital assets. The draft law, entitled “On virtual assets,” secured parliamentary approval on Sept. 8. However, according to an Oct. 5 statement issued by the presidential office, Zelensky remitted the legislation back to the parliament alongside a number of proposed improvements. As per the statement, the president’s major objection to the legislation in its current shape is the costliness of establishing a new regulatory body for digital asset oversight: According to the legislation, regulation of the virtual assets market is to be …

Entrepreneur and Shark Tank star Kevin O’Leary, also known as Mr. Wonderful, has revealed he now holds more crypto than gold. During an interview hosted by Daniela Cambone from Stansberry Research, O’Leary stated that his investment portfolio has a larger exposure to crypto than gold, however, he still advocates for holding both as they are “two different asset classes” and that comparisons between gold and Bitcoin are irrelevant: “I have 5% in gold. Crypto for the first time is more than gold for me, and I’m going to keep my gold. I see no reason to sell it.” “The best …

Hedge fund billionaire Ken Griffin and former United States President Donald Trump have both slammed digital currencies as a threat to the U.S. dollar. Griffin, the founder of the $38-billion hedge fund Citadel LLC, told the Economic Club of Chicago on Monday that crypto is “a jihadist call that we don’t believe in the dollar.” He expressed his dismay over the younger generation working on dollar alternatives in the crypto sector: “What a crazy concept this is, that we as a country embrace so many bright, young, talented people to come up with a replacement for our reserve currency.” “I …

Cryptocurrency markets rallied 12.5% over the past seven days to reach a $2.44 trillion market capitalization. However, that move doesn't seem to be inspiring confidence because the same level was tested 16 days ago when a 27% retrace followed Ether's (ETH) attempt to break $3,650 over the next six days. Regulation seems to be a key concerning factor for buyers as the United States House of Representatives is expected to vote on the $1 trillion infrastructure bill this month. In addition to defining who qualifies as a broker, the legislation would impose anti-money laundering (AML) and know-your-customer (KYC) type requirements …