Regulation

What do progressive Democrats, Republican national security hawks and Wall Street traders have in common? They are all apparently enlisting in United States Senator Elizabeth Warren’s “anti-crypto army.” The progressive senator’s reported alliance with Marc Cohodes, a Wall Street short-seller who profited from the recent carnage at crypto banks, is the latest example.  Crypto natives

Cryptocurrency exchange Mercado Bitcoin was granted a payment provider license from Brazil’s central bank on June 2, according to local media reports. With the license, the company will launch its fintech solution MB Pay. “The approval of the Central Bank is a crucial step, as it allows us to continue expanding our business and providing

Officials in Japan are beginning to tighten their stance towards artificial intelligence (AI) after the country’s local privacy watchdog warned the ChatGPT parent company about its data collection methods.  On June 2, Japan’s Personal Information Protection Commission issued a statement, asking OpenAI to minimize the amount of sensitive data it collects for machine learning purposes.

Lawmakers with the United States House Financial Services Committee and House Agriculture Committee have released a draft discussion offering certain crypto assets a pathway to being labeled digital commodities. According to a discussion draft published on June 2, lawmakers proposed “establishing a functional framework” aimed at providing regulatory clarity for crypto firms in the United

Christy Goldsmith Romero, a commissioner with the United States Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), has commented on a proposal amending the government body’s Risk Management Program with respect to digital assets. In a June 1 notice, the CFTC said it would be opening a proposed rule change for amendments to its risk management requirements applicable

Venture capital firm the Digital Currency Group (DCG) and its CEO Barry Silbert have requested to consolidate two class-action lawsuits over alleged losses during the crypto winter. In a letter sent to United States District Judge Stefan Underhill in Connecticut, the defendants argued that both cases “arise from the same facts, present overlapping legal issues

RMB stablecoin team allegedly arrested On May 31, local news outlet PANewsLab reported that the developers for the offshore Chinese RMB and Hong Kong dollar stablecoin issuer CNHC had allegedly lost contact or had been taken away by law enforcement officials. A photo shows what appears to be an empty office building at CNHC’s Shanghai

Georgia, a major cryptocurrency-friendly country among Post-Soviet states, is preparing to start monitoring crypto firms to prevent money laundering and comply with sanctions. The National Bank of Georgia plans to launch mandatory supervision of virtual asset service providers (VASP) starting Sept. 1, 2023. NBG’s acting governor Archil Mestvirishvili said that the new regulatory measures will

The Australian government has announced a sudden eight-week consultation that will seek to understand whether any “high-risk” artificial intelligence tools should be banned. Other regions including the United States, the European Union and China have also launched measures to understand and potentially mitigate risks associated with rapid AI development in recent months. On June 1,

Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) is seeking to subpoena documents from Fenwick & West. That’s the law firm that served as the outside counsel to FTX, Alameda Research and SBF personally from “early in their development” until the FTX bankruptcy. Now SBF’s legal team wants to use the documents in his defense in the 13-count criminal case

Lawmakers in the European Union are seeking to implement a code of conduct for the development and implementation of artificial intelligence (AI) prior to their forthcoming EU AI Act.  In a joint meeting of the EU-U.S Trade and Technology Council in Sweden on May 31, the EU tech chief Margrethe Vestager said officials in the

Ben.eth, the pseudo-anonymous memecoin creator behind at least three controversial token launches in recent weeks could fall under the crosshair of United States regulators, crypto lawyers suggest. A previously little-known personality in the crypto community, Ben.eth has seen his Twitter following blow up nearly five-fold in May. The influencer has launched at least three memecoins

The United States Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has issued a staff advisory letter to registered derivatives clearing organizations (DCOs) and DCO applicants, reminding them of the risks associated with expanding the scope of their activities. The letter from the CFTC Division of Clearing and Risk (DCR) specifically addressed digital assets. Staff advisory letters can

Cryptocurrency exchanges in Japan are preparing for the enforcement of the Financial Action Task Force’s Anti-Money Laundering (AML) regulations known as the Travel Rule. Major Japanese crypto exchange bitFlyer on May 30 announced the adoption of measures in response to the enforcement of stricter AML measures targeting crypto transactions in Japan. bitFlyer has introduced restrictions

The race to snatch up Hong Kong retail crypto traders is about to kick off, with several cryptocurrency companies announcing plans to apply for a license come June 1. On May 29, the Hong Kong-based crypto exchange CoinEx became the latest to signal its entry to the city, saying it’s launching a local platform called BitHK,

Generative artificial intelligence models such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT are trained by being fed giant amounts of data, but what happens when this data is copyrighted? Well, the defendants in a variety of lawsuits currently making their way through the courts claim that the process infringes upon their copyright protections. For example, on Feb. 3, stock