Cryptocurrency advocates in the United States have been increasingly putting efforts to support the industry, with crypto lobbying spending growing significantly in recent years. Crypto-related lobbying expenditure in the U.S. totaled at $4.9 million in 2021, more than doubling from $2.3 million in the previous year, according to a new study by the crypto analytics startup Cryptohead.io. The study is based on lobbying tracking data obtained from research and government transparency group Open Secrets. According to Cryptohead’s findings, the total lobbying expenditure over the past five years amounted to more than $9.5 million. Back in 2017, the total spending on …

The company behind four major Washington, D.C.-based professional sports teams has announced FTX US will be its official crypto exchange and nonfungible token partner. In a Monday announcement, Monumental Sports and Entertainment, or MSE, said FTX US would be the official crypto partner of the Washington Capitals hockey team, Washington Wizards men’s basketball team, Washington Mystics women’s basketball team and the Capital City Go-Go basketball team as part of a multi-year deal. According to MSE, FTX US’ NFT platform will have exclusive rights to future token drops by the four teams and the exchange will be a partner for an …

The biggest regulatory story of the week was a United States House Committee on Financial Services hearing squarely focused on crypto. Even the event’s title — “Digital Assets and the Future of Finance: Understanding the Challenges and Benefits of Financial Innovation in the United States” — conveyed a different vibe than countless previous Congressional meetings that had been first and foremost about investor protection or security risks or threats to financial stability. Judging from reactions from many industry participants and experts, the exchange has been received as an overwhelming net positive, with legislators asking informed questions and otherwise acting like …

Canadian Bitcoin mining company Bitfarms is planning to build its first data center in the United States following the purchase of a land plot in Washington State. In a Nov. 11 announcement, Bitfarms said it aimed to establish mining operations in the U.S. capable of 620 petahashes per second using 6,200 Bitmain rigs fully powered by hydroelectric energy. The firm has already purchased a 24 megawatt hydro power farm in Washington for $26 million, but plans to expand to 99 MW by developing additional farms in the area. Bitfarms CEO Emiliano Grodzki said the firm had chosen Washington for its …

Anthony Albanese, chief operating officer of Andreessen Horowitz’s (a16z) crypto division, and Katie Haun, general partner at the firm, are among a high-powered delegation from the venture capital giant who will engage with lawmakers and administration officials in the United States on crypto regulations. According to CNBC on Wednesday, the move is part of efforts by the Silicon Valley-based VC outfit to promote favorable regulation of the emerging Web 3.0 ecosystem. Speaking to CNBC, a16z global policy chief Tomicah Tillemann decried the broken state of the current Web 2.0 status quo. According to Tillemann, Web 3.0 offers an alternative to …

Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong claims that the United States Securities and Exchange Commission is the only government branch that is unwilling to meet with the firm. Speaking on Anthony Pompliano’s Best Business Show on Friday, Armstrong said that during his visit to Washington after Coinbase went public in April, the SEC was the “only regulator” that refused to meet with him: “I reached out to the SEC. I tried to get a meeting with them. They told me that they weren’t meeting with any crypto companies.” “I was kind of surprised by that because there are so many different regulators …

Not Legal Advice... is a monthly column from Zachary Kelman, Cointelegraph’s general counsel. He is a New York-licensed attorney specializing in political, legal and regulatory issues surrounding Bitcoin, digital currencies and blockchain technology. For two decades, United States presidents kept the American military in Afghanistan to back the fragile local government, tasked with keeping the Taliban at bay. Earlier this month, the U.S. military left, and the Afghan government that the U.S. armed forces supported collapsed like a pitched tent whose pole had been removed. It was obvious to all observers that fundamental change in Afghanistan was always impossible, and …

United States Senators have cast their votes, and the contentious HR 3684 infrastructure bill cleared in the upper Congress chamber. Now, the gigantic document of over 2,700 pages and amounting to almost $1 trillion is heading to the House of Representatives, including the provisions expanding the definition of a cryptocurrency broker, designed to beef up crypto and decentralized finance (DeFi) tax compliance. The $1 trillion can’t come out of thin air, right? While the bill in effect simply follows Financial Action Task Force (FATF) guidelines, doomsayers are already declaring the end is nigh, haunted by visions of the dreaded Internal …

United States lawmakers will soon destroy a massive opportunity for job creation and a diverse workforce in blockchain technology if they do not amend infrastructure bill HR 3684, which would require blockchain developers to attain broker status on U.S. soil. HR 3684 does not recognize the taxonomy of the asset class. Not every crypto asset falls under the definition of security — many are transactional tokens and used as consensus mechanisms essential to distributed ledger technology. Requiring broker status for every blockchain developer indicates that U.S. lawmakers have yet to understand blockchain technology or cryptocurrency’s complex and diverse set of …

A Washington court has ruled against one individual and five companies that sued the Grant County Public Utility District No.2 for suddenly creating a new electricity pricing schedule for power consumed by “emerging industries” in December 2018. On March 12, Judge Rosanna Peterson of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Washington found that the plaintiffs were unable to demonstrate that the country violated federal electricity laws. Cryptocurrency mining nearly tripled the annual electricity demand in Grant County The miners first began operating in the county during 2017 — with the municipality then-offering among the cheapest electricity available …

Major Danish bank Saxo Bank has predicted that Asia will launch its own blockchain-based digital asset in its new report of smashing predictions for 2020. The latest edition of “Outrageous Predictions” by Saxo Bank also forecasts that President Donald Trump will likely lose the 2020 elections, while Hungary will leave the European Union. The report was issued on Dec. 3, according to a tweet by the bank. Saxo Bank claims that Asia will launch a new reserve asset in order to “confront a deepening trade rivalry and vulnerabilities from rising US threats to weaponise the US dollar and its control …

Major South Korean bank KB Kookmin Bank is planning to integrate blockchain technology into its internal processes. As local news outlet Korea JoongAng Daily reported on Oct. 7, KB Kookmin stated that blockchain technology could provide a spectrum of benefits to the financial industry, including the issuance of digital tokens, funding, custodial services and trading. Taking a proactive approach toward blockchain adoption As for the bank itself, it intends to deploy decentralized ledger technology to fight money laundering, improve verification services, custodial services and token offerings. Lee Woo-yeol, chief information officer at KB Kookmin, said that the bank should take …