Bank of Zambia and the country's securities regulator are "testing technology" to enable the regulation of cryptocurrencies, said Technology and Science minister Felix Mutati on the ministry's website. The country's move aims to "achieve an inclusive digital economy." Speaking in the city of Lusaka, Zambia's capital, the minister claimed that "cryptocurrency is the future that the country desires to achieve", but a policy framework is required to support this "revolutionary technology." According to Mutati: "[...] the testing of the technology on regulating cryptocurrency will be upscaled in due course as part of deliberate measures to achieve an inclusive digital economy …

In a year of crypto upheavals, the United States Securities and Exchange Commission’s settlement with crypto exchange Kraken, announced on Feb. 9, set off yet another tremor. Agency chief Gary Gensler took to mainstream media last week to explain the agency’s action, which seemed to be an attack on crypto staking — part of the validation mechanism used by a number of blockchain platforms, including Ethereum, the world’s second-largest network. The immediate issue, in the agency’s view, was that Kraken had been selling unregistered investment products. Indeed, it was advertising big returns on staking crypto — up to 21%, Gensler …

The settlement between Kraken (Payward Ventures) and the United States Securities and Exchange Commission set off alarm bells in the crypto community this month. Apparently, Kraken — one of the most compliance-minded crypto exchanges in existence — decided to buy its peace rather than fight with the SEC for years over whether it was offering unregistered “securities” through its staking program. The nature of the settlement is that Kraken neither admitted nor denied the SEC’s allegations, and the existence of the settlement, technically speaking, cannot be used as legal precedent for any argument either side of the issue might present. …

The world’s biggest cryptocurrency, Bitcoin (BTC), is connecting more countries as the government of El Salvador is opening a “Bitcoin Embassy” in the United States. El Salvador, a country that adopted Bitcoin as legal tender in 2021, is expanding its Bitcoin strategy with a new partnership with the government of Texas. The intergovernmental collaboration aims to set up a Bitcoin Embassy, or El Salvador’s representative office, in Texas in order to work on new joint projects to promote Bitcoin adoption. Milena Mayorga, ambassador of El Salvador to the United States, announced the news in a statement on Twitter on Feb. …

The crypto industry will “probably” start using euro, yen, or Singapore dollar based stablecoins in the future, reducing its reliance on US dollar based stablecoins, according to a Feb. 14 statement on Twitter Spaces by Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao, also known as “CZ.” CZ gave the statement in answer to a question about the crypto industry using gold as a standard of value instead of the US Dollar. CZ agreed that it “makes sense” to use gold. However, “most people’s costs are still in fiat currencies.” For this reason, most people calculate their investment returns in dollars, which is why …

Taurus, a digital asset infrastructure provider for financial institutions in Europe, has raised $65 million in a Series B capital raise led by Credit Suisse. The funding round also saw participation from several other institutional investors, including Deutsche Bank, Pictet Group, Cedar Mundi Ventures, Arab Bank Switzerland, and Investis. According to the announcement, the funds raised will be used by Taurus to bolster its growth strategy in three primary areas, which include; recruiting top engineering talent to continue developing its platform, expanding its sales and customer success organization to enhance its infrastructure solutions with new offices in Europe, the UAE, …

The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) settled with Kraken on Feb. 9 for an action taken against the exchange’s staking rewards program. Kraken paid a $30 million fine and agreed to halt the program. Set aside for a moment the irony that the SEC is going after a solvent firm in the crypto space with a decade-long reputation as a good actor. Kraken has been helping settle verified Bitcoin (BTC) claimants from the hacking of rival exchange Mt. Gox over a decade ago. It invented the use of Merkle Root data to create verifiable proof of reserves. It …

What is monetary policy? Monetary policy refers to the actions taken by a central bank or monetary authority to manage the supply of money and interest rates in an economy, with the aim of promoting economic growth and stability. To affect the price and accessibility of credit, this may entail altering the money supply, setting interest rates or utilizing other instruments. The ultimate goal of monetary policy is to achieve and maintain a healthy economy. This usually involves balancing multiple objectives, such as: To ensure economic stability, lessen the effects of economic shocks and promote sustainable economic growth, central banks …

United States authorities appear to be resurrecting past techniques to crackdown on crypto firms and banks offering services to the industry, several sources told Cointelegraph. The alleged strategy consists of isolating the traditional financial system from the crypto market by spanning "multiple agencies to discourage banks from dealing with crypto firms," aiming to lead crypto businesses to become "completely unbanked," according to Nic Carter — co-founder of venture firm Castle Island and crypto intelligence firm Coin Metrics. The claims rely on conversations he had with bank executives, including crypto native and traditional banks, Carter told Cointelegraph. "They tell me they …

New Hampshire is on the verge of becoming a national leader in cryptocurrency if its legislature follows through on recommendations made by a commission appointed by Governor Chris Sununu. The recommendations would establish a legal framework for blockchain and crypto businesses in the state, providing clarity and certainty to entrepreneurs and regulators while avoiding the onerous and largely pointless special rules federal regulators and members of Congress want to impose on the industry. The proposed rules would also protect consumers, depositors and investors. Blockchain businesses presently exist in something of a legal gray area in the United States. Congress has …

The crypto community celebrated a victory in court on Jan. 30 when the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) admitted in the remedies hearing of the LBRY case that secondary sales of its LBC coin were not securities sales. John Deaton, who represents Ripple in court in the SEC’s case against it, was so excited that he created a video for his Twitter-hosted CryptoLawTV channel that evening. Deaton, a friend of the court, or amicus curiae, in the case, recounted a conversation he had with the judge that day. “Look, let’s not pretend. Secondary market sales are a problem,” …

United States lawmakers with the Senate Banking Committee have announced three witnesses scheduled to appear before a hearing scheduled on Feb. 14. At the time of publication, the U.S. Senate Banking Committee’s hearing titled ‘Crypto Crash: Why Financial System Safeguards are Needed for Digital Assets’ had witnesses including Vanderbilt University law professor Yesha Yadav, Duke Financial Economics Center policy director Lee Reiners, and Linda Jeng, a lecturer at Georgetown University Law Center’s Institute for International Economic Law. The hearing will be one of the first in the 118th session of the U.S. Congress exploring the regulation of cryptocurrencies following a …