We previously reported that India’s Parliament was going to be considering legislation that would largely ban the use of private cryptocurrency. Bloomberg is now reporting that cryptocurrency investors in India will be given a transition period of three-to-six months after the implementation of the new law to liquidate their investments. While banning cryptocurrencies, the Indian government will allow the use of technology underlying the cryptocurrency for research. We also reported on the strict steps the…
In a February 5, 2021 letter, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) warned all banks in the country that that they are prohibited from dealing in cryptocurrencies or facilitating payments for cryptocurrency exchanges. Thus, all banks and other financial institutions were directed to identify persons transacting in or operating cryptocurrency exchanges and make sure that such accounts were closed. The letter included a warning that breaches of the directive would “attract severe regulatory sanctions.” After…
Previous posts have talked about India’s interesting relationship with cryptocurrency. In 2018, India’s central bank, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), had banned domestic financial institutions from providing banking services to cryptocurrency exchanges in India. In March 2020, the India Supreme Court struck down the RBI ban as unconstitutional. The report last month that the Indian government was weighing a proposal to impose an 18% goods and services tax on Bitcoin transactions was looked on…
On January 26, 2021, federal prosecutors in New York unsealed a criminal complaint against 24-year old Jeremy Spence (aka “Coin Signals”). As alleged, Spence took cryptocurrency worth over $5 million from more than 170 individual investors after making false representations in connection with these cryptocurrency funds. The allegations in the complaint allege the following scheme: From November 2017 through April 2019, Spence solicited investors in various cryptocurrency investment pools that Spence had created and managed. …
Russia is continuing its unpredictable relationship with cryptocurrency. At one time, there was talk of the country banning cryptocurrency, though that never happened. Russia eventually legalized it, but did not allow cryptocurrency to be used to make payments. In December 2020, Reuters reported that President Vladimir Putin signed an order requiring that Russian public officials would have to declare cryptocurrency holdings starting January 1, 2021. Now, Coindesk and Coin Telegraph are reporting that, under a…
We have previously reported about how India’s central bank, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), had banned domestic financial institutions from providing banking services to cryptocurrency exchanges in India, and how, in a decision on March 4, 2020, the India Supreme Court struck down the RBI ban as unconstitutional. Now, the Times of India is reporting that the Indian government is weighing a proposal to impose an 18% goods and services tax on Bitcoin transactions. …
At the start of the pandemic people wondered what the crisis would do to the crypto-asset market. As we left 2020, Bitcoin hit an all-time high and the crypto-asset world was moving into the mainstream and becoming subject to regulation around the world. On 16 December 2020, the FCA announced that cryptocurrency businesses that have filed to register with the FCA may continue operating under a temporary licensing regime for six months as the regulator…
There has been talk over the past month about the possibility of the Trump administration issuing certain requirements relating to crypto-wallets. Just the rumors led to pushback. On November 25, 2020, for example, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong tweeted explanations of why he believed this was a bad idea and how the additional friction of such reporting requirements would kill many of the emerging use cases for crypto. He added, “Just like the U.S. benefited enormously…
A mutual legal assistance treaty (MLAT) is an agreement between countries for the purpose of gathering and exchanging information in an effort to enforce public or criminal laws. It is often used to target crimes such as money laundering and drug trafficking. On November 4, 2020, the U.S. Department of Justice announced that, under an MLAT request from Brazil, it had seized virtual currency worth an estimated $24 million. According to documents filed in the…
Earlier this week, crypto-currency watchers noticed that there had been movement of about 70,000 Bitcoin from an account that had been dormant for many years. That mystery has now been solved. The U.S. Department of Justice announced on November 5, 2020 that it had seized the account. At the time of the seizure, the Bitcoin were worth more than $1 billion. According to the allegations of the civil forfeiture complaint, from 2011 until October 2013…