We have written often about the efforts of the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (here and here) and Commodity Futures Trading Commission (here and here) to regulate in the cryptocurrency space. On May 19, 2022, the U.S. Department of Commerce entered the fray by publishing in the Federal Register a Request for Comments (RFC) under the title “Developing a Framework on Competitiveness of Digital Asset Technologies.” The impetus for the publication was President Biden’s…
On May 16, 2022, the Australian Tax Office issued a publication that identified four key focus areas for the 2021-22 tax year. These four are areas where the ATO says they see people making mistakes. One of the areas is capital gains from crypto assets. The ATO plans to ensure that there is an appropriate level of scrutiny on correct reporting of deductions and income for the priority areas. The ATO warned that taxpayers who…
BitMEX is one of the world’s largest cryptocurrency trading platforms. Last year, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York entered a Consent Order that the U.S. Commodities Futures and Trading Commission agreed to with five companies charged with operating BitMEX. The order required the BitMEX entities to pay a $100 million civil monetary penalty. (read more here). Earlier this year, the three co-founders of the company plead guilty to violating the Bank Secrecy Act…
For those who have followed for some time the law that has developed around blockchain, there is a strong likelihood they associate the term DAO (decentralized autonomous organization) with the well-publicized hack that took place in 2016 with respect to one of the relatively early ICOs (initial coin offering) of an organization called Slock.it UG. The objective of that DAO — referred to as The DAO — was to operate a for-profit entity that would…
On April 25, 2022, European Central Bank Executive Board member Fabio Panetta delivered a speech at Columbia University in New York in which he was very critical of cryptoassets. As indicated in the title of the speech — “For a Few Cryptos More: the Wild West of Crypto Finance” — Mr. Panetta compared cryptocurrencies to the Wild West gold rush in the United States in the second half of the 19th century (while also working…
On April 27, 2022, lawmakers in the Central African Republic unanimously approved legislation that made Bitcoin legal tender. Bitcoin can now be accepted alongside the CFA Franc. The CAR is one of six central African countries (Cameroon, Chad, Republic of Congo, Gabon and Equatorial Guinea ) that share the CFA franc — a regional currency that is backed by France and pegged to the Euro. Opposition leaders are apparently challenging the move and are concerned…
We have written often about how the US SEC has, to date, refused to authorize a spot Bitcoin exchange traded fund (click here), while other countries such as Canada have done so (click here). Australia’s main market, the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX), has now given the green light for its first Bitcoin ETF, as reported by the Australian Financial Review. Cosmos Asset Management could launch its bitcoin ETF as early as April 27. Interestingly, however,…
On April 7, 2022, the US Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) issued a Financial Institution Letter (“FIL”) requiring that all FDIC-supervised institutions that intend to engage in, or that are engaged in, any activities involving or related to crypto assets notify the FDIC. Because the overwhelming majority of U.S. banks are insured by the FDIC, the FIL means that nearly all banks must now disclose their crypto activities to the FDIC. The definition of crypto…
In a Statement published on March 23, 2022 (as translated using Google Translate), the Thai Securities and Exchange Commission announced that, starting April 1, 2022, digital assets (e.g., Bitcoin) will be banned as a method of payment. Business operators who find that customers are using digital assets to pay for goods or services must notify the user and take action against them, such as suspending or terminating their accounts. The Statement provided a number of…
An earlier post discussed that BitMEX, one of the world’s largest cryptocurrency trading platforms, entered a Consent Order with the U.S Commodities Futures and Trading Commission under which it agreed to pay a $100 million civil monetary penalty. Subsequently, in February 2022, two BitMEX co-founders, Arthur Hayes and Benjamin Delo, pled guilty to violating the BSA in February 2022. On March 9, 2022, the third co-founder, Samuel Reed, pled guilty to violating the Bank Secrecy…