Debra Brookes’ new role with the New York State Department of Financial Services may suggest more of a focus on regulation through enforcement. An attorney who has been working at New York’s Department of Financial Services, or NYDFS, since 2013, Brookes has served in key roles in the department’s Enforcement Division, Financial Frauds and Consumer Protection Division, and Consumer Protection and Financial Enforcement Division before becoming deputy virtual currency chief for its Research and Innovation Division in March. Prior to that, she worked as a trial attorney with the United States Department of Justice for five years, leading and participating …

Powers On... is a monthly opinion column from Marc Powers, who spent much of his 40-year legal career working with complex securities-related cases in the United States after a stint with the SEC. He is now an Adjunct Professor at Florida International University School of Law, where he teaches a course on 'Blockchain, Crypto and Regulatory Considerations.' I was downstairs at a bar on the Upper East Side of Manhattan that Thursday evening, December 11, 2008, playing a friendly game of Texas Hold ‘em when the calls began. One after the other they came, and they continued at the office …

A lackluster cryptocurrency market did little in offsetting Yearn.finance’s bullish bias as the price of its governance token, YFI, reached new record highs in United States dollars on Tuesday — just shy of $70,000. YFI price hits new highs in USD The YFI/USD exchange rate added $6,258, or 10.02%, to reach $68,748 ahead of the London opening bell. The pair quickly retraced lower as traders decided to realize their profits, hitting roughly $67,067 as of 7:36 am UTC. Nevertheless, the drop appeared marginal compared to the prevailing uptrend, hinting that YFI could continue its upward momentum following a short-term consolidation …

Babel Finance, a Hong Kong-based cryptocurrency financial services provider, has secured $40 million in venture capital financing to expand its offerings to more institutional clients. The Series A investment round was led by Zoo Capital, Sequoia Capital China, Dragonfly Capital, BAI Capital and Bertelsmann, and Tiger Global Management, the company announced Monday. Venture capital and private equity funds from North America, Asia and Europe participated in the raise. Flex Yang, CEO of Babel Finance, said the investment round will aid the company in meeting growing institutional demand for crypto assets: “The alliance with our new investors from traditional finance is …

Tokenization platforms are “overwhelmingly centralized” and lack the scalability needed to be a force in the open finance movement, according to developers behind a new protocol. AMPnet says there is no shortage of innovative projects that are making their vision for a more inclusive financial future — but crucial pieces in the puzzle are currently missing. “Houses, apartments, renewable energy power plants, land, traditional financial instruments, company equity and much, much more are all locked away — not to be used or seen by the blockchain market. Five hundred trillion dollars in assets — just waiting to be brought to …

Europe’s leading financial app Revolut has finally enabled Bitcoin withdrawals four years after it first provided crypto trading services to some users, and a year after it extended trading to all 7 million users worldwide. Revolut first added Bitcoin, Litecoin, and Ethereum trading for premium users back in 2017, however they have only been able to withdraw it as fiat until now. The financial tech firm announced today the beta launch of Bitcoin withdrawals with exclusive access first given to its U.K.-based top-tier Metal customers. Revolut also plans to roll out withdrawals worldwide — it has users in the U.S., …

Rosa Gumataotao Rios, the 43rd treasurer of the United States, will be joining Ripple’s board of directors. In an announcement from Ripple today, the company said Rios, who served as the U.S. treasurer from 2009 to 2016 under President Barack Obama, will be the newest member of the firm’s leadership team. Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse cited Rios’ experience in both the public and private sectors as well as her success in “rapidly accelerating businesses” in the company’s decision to bring her on board. “Ripple is one of the best examples of how to use cryptocurrency in a substantive and legitimate …

This is Part Two of a multipart series on blockchain and crypto in China. Read Part One about the digital yuan here. When Satoshi Nakamoto introduced the Bitcoin (BTC) white paper over a decade ago, it was hard to imagine what role the cryptocurrency sector would play in global finance. Some argue that the invention of blockchain technology is comparable to the revolution brought on by the invention of the internet back in the 1980s. Starting as a niche space for tech enthusiasts, in just 12 years Bitcoin has become a serious player in the financial field, with its market …

Although the crypto space has been around for more than a decade, William Stromberg, CEO of mainstream investment management outfit T. Rowe Price, thinks the asset class is still finding its sea legs. "It's early days,” Stromberg told the Baltimore Business Journal in an interview when asked if “T. Rowe Price will ever start investing in cryptocurrencies.” “We have some research going on around it,” the CEO added. “Some companies, just really a handful, have tried to put together products where one can buy and own crypto-related currencies.” So far, a crypto-free strategy is working for Stromberg. Quarter one of …

John Whelan, the head of Banco Santander’s blockchain lab in Madrid, recently touted the potential for increased decentralized ledger technology adoption in mainstream finance. Speaking during a webinar organized by Fintech Surge and the Future Blockchain Summit on Wednesday, Whelan remarked: “I could imagine a future where there is a global settlement network for an asset class of securities that operates in a fully controlled, private, permissioned layer-two on top of a public blockchain network.” While acknowledging that current public blockchain networks might not be optimized for high-frequency transactions, Whelan highlighted their suitability for settlements in the financial services arena. …

Two trading apps have risen to the top of Apple's App Store in recent days. Robinhood holds the number one position, with Coinbase in second, at the time of publication on Friday. In third: popular social media platform TikTok. YouTube, Instagram and Snapchat hold the fourth, fifth and sixth positions, respectively. One possible conclusion is that folks are now more interested in swapping crypto and financial assets than they are in interacting on various social media platforms — a conclusion noted by CNBC in an article on Friday. Robinhood saw significant coverage in January when the company halted purchases of …

If 2021 has taught us anything about digital currencies, it’s that big banks and major payments providers are now feeling more comfortable with Bitcoin (BTC). While the CEO of PayPal and other large corporations are expressing excitement for crypto payments and salaries paid in Bitcoin, executives from Visa, JPMorgan and ING all agree that Bitcoin is still an investment vehicle rather than a currency. This notion was revealed during a panel discussion entitled “Buying with Bitcoin,” which took place during Forbes’ “2021 Blockchain 50 Symposium: Crypto Goes Corporate” online event. Michael del Castillo, associate editor at Forbes, led the discussion …