With crypto regulation reportedly set to ramp up in Australia over the next 12 months, Kraken Australia’s Managing Director Jonathon Miller thinks that a strict crypto regime could stifle local competition. The Senate Committee on Australia as a Technology and Financial Center, led by crypto-friendly Senator Andrew Bragg tabled 12 extensive recommendations for regulation of the digital asset and Fintech industry last month. The proposals included a new licensing regime for crypto exchanges, new laws to govern decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs), and an overhaul of capital gains tax in decentralized finance (DeFi) to name a few. In an exclusive interview …

Morgan Harper, a former senior advisor at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, is coming out as 'crypto curious' in her race to be the Democratic nominee for one of Ohio’s U.S. Senate seats. In a Nov. 9 thread on Twitter, Harper said she was interested in the possibilities Bitcoin (BTC) and other cryptocurrencies could mean for policy in Ohio. According to the Democratic candidate, Bitcoin can take the place of many functions of traditional banks by passing on “the wealth of the network” to all users rather than a handful of large shareholders. “There are crypto projects out there that …

According to new legislation passed by the upper house of the country's national parliament today, crypto businesses in Kazakhstan may soon be subjected to Anti-Money Laundering (AML) regulations, as reported by local news outlet Vlast. The new law extends the country's financial monitoring system to cover crypto service providers. The new legislation would also establish a legal institution of public officials. When a firm launches its cryptocurrency trading service or issues digital assets, it would have to notify the Ministry of Digital Development, Innovation and Aerospace Industry in Kazakhstan. The institution will be in charge of conducting a risk assessment, …

The biggest regulatory story of the week, if not the year, has been the United States Security and Exchange Commission’s lack of opposition to the launch of the first-ever Bitcoin (BTC) exchange-traded funds, which took eight long years to materialize. While the first ETFs are tracking CME-traded Bitcoin futures rather than the asset’s spot price, the crypto space is already anticipating a pure-Bitcoin ETF as a logical next step. This bar might prove to be immensely difficult to clear, however, as SEC Chair Gary Gensler seems far less convinced of the stringency of investor protections that such products offer. Below …

Stablecoin project Diem has distanced itself from Facebook in response to senators calling for the immediate cessation of the firm’s Novi crypto wallet. Diem also claimed senior regulators had called it “the best-designed stablecoin project that the U.S. government had seen.” In a Tuesday letter sent to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, the senators, including crypto critic Elizabeth Warren, voiced their “strongest opposition to Facebook’s revived effort to launch a cryptocurrency and digital wallet.” Earlier that day, the Novi wallet was launched in partnership with Coinbase, with a pilot in the United States and Guatemala to enable users to buy, send …

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 …

As cryptocurrency adoption continues apace in the United States, lawmakers want to better understand how it’s used — for both legal and illegal purposes. The Ransom Disclosure Act, introduced by Senator Elizabeth Warren and Representative Deborah Ross, would require victims of ransomware attacks to disclose information about ransom payments to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). The bill, introduced on Tuesday, aims to gather critical data on fiat and cryptocurrency payments and protect investors from cybercrimes. In an ongoing effort to curb illicit financial activities in the U.S., Warren’s legislation aims to develop “a fuller picture” of ransomware attacks: “My …

Liberal Senator Andrew Bragg has told a local industry event that Australia’s digital asset plan to create cryptocurrency-related legislation is “coming” soon and could be enacted in 2022. He also backed plans to run the sector on renewable energy as part of the government's yet-to- be-established goal of achieving ‘net zero’ carbon emissions. Speaking at the virtual NFT Fest event supported by Blockchain Australia on Thursday, Bragg stated that the select Senate committee investigating the topic will publish its report by the end of October and that it will include regulatory recommendations that can be legislated over the next 12 …

Fall is traditionally the open season for United States financial regulators. The thicket of news coming out of Capitol Hill, federal courts and various regulatory agencies can feel overwhelming around this time, especially for those of us residing outside of these venerable institutions’ purview. It is also clear that the outcomes of these legal battles will have tremendous effects on crypto markets, adoption and, generally, the relationship between state power and the industry worldwide. But that is not the only reason for anyone interested in how the old world adapts to digital finance to follow U.S. developments closely. Gensler of …

Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren, known by many as an outspoken cryptocurrency skeptic in the United States government, criticized outages at exchanges and high transaction fees during periods of price volatility. In a Tuesday hearing of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs with Securities and Exchange Commission chair Gary Gensler, Warren claimed the crypto industry had fallen short on providing solutions for financial inclusion in the United States. She mentioned the price drops among cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) last week, saying “$400 billion in market value disappeared” while many users reported problems accessing major exchanges …

Australian buy now pay later (BNPL) giant Afterpay — now part of Jack Dorsey's Square — has said that it is likely to pursue cryptocurrency services once the regulatory framework is clear. Following Afterpay’s submission to the Senate inquiry into “Australia as a Technology and Financial Center,” which posited that merchants could slash payment costs by utilizing cryptocurrencies, representatives spoke to the inquiry on Sept. 8. Afterpay’s vice president for public policy and communications Damian Kassabgi said that “this idea of being able to exchange currencies from person to person or to a merchant without going through the traditional rails …

Crypto-related companies and figures have provided evidence about being de-banked by Australian financial institutions to a Senate inquiry. Crypto investment firm Aus Merchant, global remittance provider Nium and small peer-to-peer crypto brokerage platform Bitcoin Babe were speaking on a panel as part of the Senate inquiry into “Australia as a Technology and Financial Centre” on Wednesday. All three are registered with financial intelligence regulator AUSTRAC and are subject to reporting requirements; however, they all echoed similar sentiments of being de-banked without a concrete explanation as to why. Michaela Juric, the founder of the peer-to-peer trading business dubbed after her nickname …