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
Regulation
Australian lawmakers are taking a tougher stance against ransomware with a new plan that increases penalties for offenders. The new measures and proposed Surveillance Legislation Amendment announced by the federal government on Oct. 13 come after a 60% surge in cyberattacks on Australian businesses and state agencies last year. According to reports, these incursions cost
While Russia continues to enforce a ban on cryptocurrency payments as part of a law which took effect in January, the country has no plans at this time to completely prohibit trading by its citizens. According to an Oct. 12 report from local news agency Interfax, Alexey Moiseev, the deputy finance minister of the Russian
2B4CH, a Swiss non-profit think tank assisting the state in exploring cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin (BTC) and blockchain technology, is launching an initiative to potentially make Bitcoin one the country’s reserve assets. On Oct. 8, the association announced plans to start a federal popular initiative aiming to collect 100,000 signatures for introduction of Bitcoin to the
Front Row, a marketplace geared towards progressive organizations, has said it will be partnering with the Texas Democratic Party to pilot a program aimed at raising money for candidates and causes using nonfungible tokens. In an Oct. 11 announcement, Front Row said it had already minted digital images of key moments related to the progressive
Wyoming Senator Cynthia Lummis said the Treasury Department may be more of a threat to innovation in blockchain and cryptocurrencies in the United States than the Securities and Exchange Commission or the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. Speaking at the Texas Blockchain Summit in Austin on Friday, Lummis said her recent concerns with the federal agency
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
The Chinese government-backed blockchain project, the Blockchain-based Service Network (BSN), continues expanding its global presence by setting up two new portals in Turkey and Uzbekistan. Red Date Technology, the architect behind the BSN project, has signed an agreement with Turkish consultancy firm, Turkish Chinese Business Matching Center (TUCEM), to launch two international BSN portals in
The regulators are closing in. It’s one thing to unbundle market functions to their parts ― custody, aggregators and Prime Brokerage ― to satisfy institutional compliance departments. It’s another to keep regulators happy. From the Financial Action Task Force pushing forward with its guidance for Travel Rule compliance to the still-evolving European Markets in Crypto-Assets
Sri Lanka joins the global crypto adoption drive after setting up a committee for exploring and implementing blockchain and crypto mining technologies. A letter shared on Oct. 8 by Sri Lanka’s Director General of Government Information, Mohan Samaranayake, shows that the authorities have approved a recent proposal that aims to attract investments in the country’s
An official from the Office of the Attorney General has said the United States government is going to take a more active role in enforcement action against actors using cryptocurrencies for money laundering and other cybercrimes. Speaking at the Aspen Institute Cyber Summit on Oct. 6, Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco said the Justice Department
Financial services company, MoneyGram International, has partnered with the Stellar Development Foundation to enable consumers to send money using Circle’s popular stablecoin, USD Coin (USDC) and convert directly to and from fiat. Per a 6 Oct. announcement, MoneyGram has integrated support allowing crypto wallets connected to the Stellar Network to access its global retail platform.
Anatoly Aksakov, chairman of the Russian State Duma Committee on Financial Markets, argued that Russia needs to adopt new laws to protect retail investors from the potential losses of investing in crypto, local news agency Interfax reported Oct. 6. To this end, lawmakers in the country’s parliament are reportedly considering new legislation to limit cryptocurrency
Pat Toomey, a Republican member of the U.S. Senate Banking Committee, is attempting to pressure the nominee to head the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) into handing over her 1989 university honors thesis about Karl Marx. The Biden administration formally nominated Kazakh-born attorney Saule Omarova — who has been characterized by critics
Volodymyr Zelensky, president of Ukraine, has delayed the signing of the bill that would establish the nation’s regulatory framework around digital assets. The draft law, entitled “On virtual assets,” secured parliamentary approval on Sept. 8. However, according to an Oct. 5 statement issued by the presidential office, Zelensky remitted the legislation back to the parliament
International Monetary Fund, or IMF, managing director Kristalina Georgieva said more than half of all central banks in the world are exploring how to launch digital currencies. Speaking at a virtual conference hosted by Bocconi University on Oct. 5, Georgieva said the IMF was looking at central bank digital currencies, or CBDCs, and digital currencies