On Thursday, Mark Zuckerberg took to Facebook to announce the end of Trump's reign — on the platform anyway. Yesterday's rally on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. turned into a storm of the Capitol itself by Trump supporters following a speech in which the president said "we will never concede." In his post this morning, Zuckerberg noted that Trump had used his platform on Facebook extensively for campaigning, often delving into disinformation and conspiracy theories, especially since the November election. Following yesterday's violence, Zuckerberg said that "the current context is now fundamentally different, involving use of our platform to incite …

With just two weeks left in office, President Donald Trump has sent out a new executive order targeting Chinese payment apps. The Tuesday order bars United States citizens or people located in the U.S. from using nine Chinese payment apps. It continues the White House's earlier efforts to cut off the U.S. market from Chinese-owned apps like TikTok. Yesterday's order repeats earlier concerns of data collection by the Chinese Communist Party: "The continuing activity of the PRC and the CCP to steal or otherwise obtain United States persons’ data makes clear that there is an intent to use bulk data …

Major venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, also known as a16z, is the latest crypto-related form to oppose a recently proposed regulation in the United States. According to a blog post by a16z general partner Kathryn Haun, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network has issued "a rushed, non-vetted rule under the cloak of the holidays that violates the government’s own established rulemaking procedures." FinCEN, which operates under the purview of Steven Mnuchin's Department of the Treasury, introduced a proposed regulation late last month that would restrict money services business, as well as U.S.-registered cryptocurrency exchanges, from transacting with so-called "self-hosted" wallets. Effectively, …

The United States is in desperate need of open-minded cryptocurrency regulations from the incoming Biden administration, according to Galaxy Digital CEO Mike Novogratz. Appearing in a Thursday segment of CNBC’s Sqwuak Box, Novogratz said the Bitcoin (BTC) bull market has proven resilient to the recent wave of anti-crypto rhetoric coming from Capitol Hill: “It tells you about how powerful this bull market is [...] They are throwing lots at the system, and it’s not actually impacting it.” Nevertheless, for the cryptocurrency industry to truly succeed in the long run, more regulatory clarity is needed. Referring to the incoming Biden administration, …

Elad Roisman will take over as Chairman of the United States Securities and Exchange Commission effective immediately, according to Commissioner Hester Peirce. Peirce broke the news on Twitter Thursday morning, where she congratulated Roisman for his appointment. Congratulations, Chairman Roisman! I look forward to your leadership of the SEC. — Hester Peirce (@HesterPeirce) December 24, 2020 Both Republican commissioners, Peirce and Roisman were the leading candidates to replace Jay Clayton as Chair. Clayton resigned from his position on Wednesday in a statement posted on the SEC’s website. The move was widely expected as Clayton had previously indicated his desire to …

According to The Daily Beast, outgoing United States President Donald Trump is considering granting clemency to Ross Ulbricht — the founder and operator of the pioneering darknet market, Silk Road. Ulbricht was arrested in 2013 and received two life sentences without parole for non-violent offenses in 2015. The anonymous sources relied on in the report claim that the White House counsel’s office has been reviewing documents related to Ulbricht’s case, and that the president has been made aware of the situation. Two sources claim that Trump has privately expressed sympathy for Ulbricht and has considered his name for the next …

With just 44 days before Joe Biden’s inauguration as President of the United States, players in the crypto space are imploring Donald Trump to use his pardoning power for Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht. In a recent tweet from Jason Williams, the Morgan Creek Digital Assets co-founder pleaded for Trump to “do the right thing” by pardoning Ulbricht as well as whistleblower Edward Snowden. Peter McCormack of the What Bitcoin Did podcast followed suit a few days later, adding WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to the list of potential pardons. .@realDonaldTrump's legacy as president may be remembered very differently if he …

In a lawsuit filed today in the U.S. District Court of New Jersey, Binance alleged that an article published by Forbes was defamatory and caused "millions of dollars" in damages. While there are already questions forming around the merits of the lawsuit, one thing is no longer in doubt: Binance is getting serious. Binance has retained the services of Charles Harder, the attorney best known for representing Hulk Hogan (Terry Gene Bollea) in a suit against Gawker Media. He procured an award of $115 million in compensatory damages and a further $25 million in punitive damages for his client in …

Acting Comptroller of the Currency Brian Brooks — soon to be confirmed in the role full time — has revealed another way for U.S. crypto custody providers to receive a charter to operate as a federally-approved bank. In a Nov. 17 interview with Forbes, Brooks stated that there are currently three methods for payment companies to become a federally chartered bank. The first option is to apply for a non-depository national bank charter, and the other two are to buy a depository institution or apply for a National Trust Bank charter. But Brooks said the Office of the Comptroller of …

Following the Associated Press’ call earlier today that President-elect Joe Biden had won victory over incumbent Donald Trump in the U.S. presidential race, the 174 year-old organization -- which has been covering elections since 1848 -- subsequently published their call on the Ethereum and EOS blockchains, triggering at least one prediction market outcome. However, some have expressed skepticism about the validity of using such a call as an oracle, raising broader questions about certainty and determinism in smart contract-based prediction markets. On Oct. 15, 2020 Everipedia -- the for-profit encyclopedia and blockchain company -- announced they would be supplying data …

Sam Bankman-Fried, the CEO of Hong Kong-based cryptocurrency derivatives exchange FTX, donated $5.2 million to Joe Biden’s presidential campaign. As the Wall Street Journal reported on Oct. 28, Biden’s presidential campaign received a total of $79.5 million from the top 100 donors describing themselves as CEOs. Bankman-Fried is reportedly the second-largest “CEO-contributor” to the campaign after Michael Bloomberg, a co-founder of the eponymous financial and media company, who donated $56 million. The major contributions by CEOs to both Biden and current president Donald Trump are still only a drop in the bucket. Both campaigns together with their outside backers raised …

On the eve of the United States presidential election, most mainstream polls are pointing to a highly likely Joe Biden victory, though this isn’t reflected in crypto prediction markets. For Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin, the “big difference” between them presents something of a puzzle, and he’s offered three guesses as to why such a disparity has emerged. In what he posed as a pro-prediction market or favorable view, Buterin suggested that these markets “correctly incorporate the possibility of heightened election meddling, voter suppression, etc. affecting the outcome.” In contrast, statistical models perhaps “just assume the voting process is fair.” To …