Law Decoded: Crypto cities, investor protection nation, Nov. 8–15

November 15, 2021 Coin Telegraph

Major U.S. cities embrace crypto as federal regulators remain much harder to bring around.

As the U.S. federal government — acting through its Securities and Exchange Commission — continues to valiantly protect investors and the public interest from the grave dangers of a spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund, one major American city after another begin embracing or at least exploring the potential of crypto and blockchain technology to improve various aspects of city finance, administration and residents’ monetary well-being. Following the lead of Miami, New York, Tampa and Jackson, Tennessee, it is now Philadelphia that is looking into the ways to implement blockchain solutions in city government.

The hope is that a series of city governments’ successful ventures into the crypto space will eventually make the federal government adopt a more “municipal” perspective.

Below is the concise version of the latest “Law Decoded” newsletter. For the full breakdown of policy developments over the last week, register for the full newsletter below.

Spot Bitcoin ETF denied

Last Friday, following two deadline extensions, the SEC formally disapproved asset manager VanEck’s spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund application that was first filed in March 2021. The regulator maintained that the applicant failed to demonstrate the existence of a “comprehensive surveillance-sharing agreement with a regulated market of significant size related to the underlying or reference Bitcoin assets,” which is essential for preventing manipulation and fraud.

In the SEC’s view, surveillance-sharing is sufficient in the case of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange’s BTC futures market but is not up to standard when it comes to spot markets that underlie the bulk of CME’s Bitcoin futures’ pricing. A recent letter from Representatives Emmer and Soto highlights the limitations of the agency’s argument well.

Commissioner Crenshaw on DeFi

In an article published in the International Journal of Blockchain Law, SEC Commissioner Caroline Crenshaw has shared her thinking on some of the regulatory issues around the domain of decentralized finance. On the most fundamental level, she believes that DeFi products may be securities and should be viewed according to applicable securities laws.

The commissioner’s key thesis comes down to the need for DeFi market participants to come forward and voluntarily comply with securities laws, specifically those around risk disclosure. She also warned that those who fail to comply could become subject to the SEC enforcement action and incur heavy penalties.

CBDC watch

People’s Bank of China governor Yi Gang discussed the plans for the digital yuan’s cross-border expansion, while the managing director of the Monetary Authority of Singapore revealed a strong retail focus of the nation’s prospective CBDC. Over in Russia, an updated timeline for the release of the digital ruble trial was revealed, with a prototype platform expected to be ready for testing by early 2022. Concurrently, Russian lawmakers have begun preparing the legislative base for the digital currency’s nationwide adoption. Meanwhile, the Bank of England gave itself ample time to consider all the pros and cons of implementing the digital pound, marking “the second half of the decade” as the earliest time for the possible launch.

Law Decoded: Which currency is the paycheck of your city’s mayor in? Nov. 1–7

November 8, 2021 Coin Telegraph

bitcoin regulation

The infrastructure bill has passed, much to the crypto community's chagrin, yet the key battles lie ahead.

Even though crypto has long attained relevance as an independent political issue, at times it gets entangled with the broader dynamics of the political process. The notorious infrastructure bill — a major pillar of the Biden administration’s economic agenda — suddenly passed in the U.S. House last Friday despite congressional Democrats’ original agreement to vote on the party’s other legislative priorities first. Having passed 228 to 206, the bill is moving to President Biden’s desk. Along with authorization of massive spending on roads, bridges and broadband internet access, it carries a handful of consequential crypto-related provisions that remained unchanged since the crypto community had vocally protested its tacit addition to the bill.

Disheartening as it is, this setback is not irreversible: Crypto advocates haven’t yet exhausted the full range of tools available to challenge the contestable tax reporting and financial surveillance rules.

Below is the concise version of the latest “Law Decoded” newsletter. For the full breakdown of policy developments over the last week, register for the full newsletter below.

Better roads, more surveillance

The definition of a “broker” as it relates to an entity facilitating crypto transactions in the context of tax reporting is perhaps the major issue that the crypto folk have taken with the infrastructure bill language. The concern here is that, as it is currently worded, the definition can encompass actors such as node operators or protocol developers, requiring them to report information about transaction counterparties that they don’t have access to, thus making compliance impossible. It remains up to the Treasury Department, however, to define the exact rules for applying the norm, which provides room for the crypto industry to try and negotiate reasonable terms.

Another problematic clause, which has attracted attention later on, is provision 6050I that establishes extensive surveillance requirements for those who receive $10,000 or more worth of crypto. Many observers have called the norm unconstitutional, with Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong labeling it a “disaster.”

Crypto mayors’ race

Meanwhile, New York City is getting its first Bitcoiner mayor. The state of New York has been known as a tough jurisdiction for crypto businesses to operate in, yet things could be getting better once Eric Adams takes office on the first day of 2022. One of the first statements that the mayor-elect made was a pledge to make New York a crypto-friendly destination by fostering talent for crypto-related jobs, removing barriers to the industry’s growth, and even considering a city coin project akin to MiamiCoin. Even if Adams’ Bitcoin advocacy remained confined to the realm of publicity alone, having a top official in one of the major global financial centers pushing the crypto agenda is still a massive win for the industry.

Dude, where’s my spot Bitcoin ETF?

Representatives Tom Emmer and Darren Soto, the crypto industry’s stout hearts, have put the Securities and Exchange Commission’s boss, Gary Gensler, on the spot over the agency’s apparent reluctance to approve applications for exchange-traded funds based on spot Bitcoin rather than BTC futures. The central point of their letter to Gensler is that the regulator’s argument about derivatives-based products offering more robust investor protections than those tracking spot prices does not hold much water.

8-word crypto amendment in Infrastructure Bill an ‘affront to the rule of law’

November 5, 2021 Coin Telegraph

Coin Telegraph

A proposed bill waiting for vote in Congress contains a “dangerous” amendment.

Legal experts have warned that a section of the Infrastructure Bill, which is due for a vote today, amends a part of the tax code and makes a failure by businesses and individuals to report digital asset transactions a criminal offense.

University of Virginia School of Law lecturer Abraham Sutherland said it is a separate provision to the controversial “broker” provision that attracted all the attention when the bill was in the Senate:

“It’s bad for all users of digital assets, but it’s especially bad for decentralized finance. The statute would not ban DeFi outright. Instead, it imposes reporting requirements that, given the way DeFi works, would make it impossible to comply.”

Meltem Demirors, CSO at CoinShares, raised her concerns on Twitter about what she sees as the unconstitutional and anti-American nature of the amendment.

this bill is unconstitutional and inherently anti-American

private citizens have the right to financial privacy and financial freedom

absolutely shameful to see this https://t.co/O9FkVC2CF4
— Meltem Demir◎rs (@Melt_Dem) November 4, 2021

The amendment to section 6050I is a part of the infrastructure bill, which is scheduled to come to a vote in the House of Representatives today, Nov. 5th.

Since 1984, section 6050I of the tax code has required businesses and individuals that receive either physical cash or a bank transfer in excess of $10,000 to file Form 8300 and report the sender’s personal information, such as name, address, and Social Security number to the IRS. The eight word amendment in the new bill includes “any digital asset” in the definition of “cash.”

This raises obvious privacy concerns when applied to DeFi and cryptocurrency transactions and is unworkable for many projects.

Sutherland explained on the October 26th episode of Unchained with Laura Shin that Section 6050I quickly evolved to become a crime-fighting tool in the drug war throughout the 1980’s. He said, “This really is not so much about tax, it’s about crime fighting.”

If 6050I is applied to digital assets transactions, businesses and many individuals who fail to report the digital assets sender’s information to the IRS would be considered felonious criminals. Banks and other financial institutions are exempt, however. Sutherland wrote in a piece on DeCential explaining the ramifications in detail and concluded the amendment would be costly, unworkable, and dangerous.

“The amendment to section 6050I is an affront to the rule of law and to the norms of democratic lawmaking. It was slipped quietly into a 2,700 page spending bill, allegedly as a tax measure to defray the bill’s trillion-dollar price tag even though section 6050I is in fact a costly criminal enforcement provision. The proposal deserves attention now, while there is still time to stop it.”

With just a 221-213 majority in the House of Reps and a united Republican opposition, the Democrats need near unanimity on their own side to pass the legislation

NY Mayor-elect Eric Adams will take his first three paychecks in Bitcoin

November 5, 2021 Coin Telegraph

Coin Telegraph

The Mayor-elect said he plans to make New York the “center of the cryptocurrency industry” after he takes office in January.

New York Democrat Mayor-elect Eric Adams revealed on Twitter today he intends to take his first three paychecks in Bitcoin. Adams also doubled down on his plans to make New York the “center of the cryptocurrency industry” after he takes office in January.

The clear statement of political support for cryptocurrency came in response to an earlier tweet by Bitcoin podcaster Anthony Pompliano:

“Who is going to be the first American politician to accept their salary in bitcoin?”

Miami Mayor Francis Suarez, who won reelection earlier this week, replied to the tweet saying that he plans to take his next paycheck in Bitcoin.

I’m going to take my next paycheck 100% in bitcoin…problem solved! @Sarasti can you help? https://t.co/v4YdPZ0tYc
— Mayor Francis Suarez (@FrancisSuarez) November 2, 2021

This prompted Adams to respond by one-upping his Republican colleague:

“In New York we always go big, so I’m going to take my first THREE paychecks in Bitcoin when I become mayor”.

The race to become the first politician in the U.S. to accept their salary in crypto is indicative of the friendly rivalry between NY and Miami to become the leading crypto hub in America. After he won the Democratic nomination for Mayor in June, Adams promised in his victory speech that NY would become the “center of Bitcoins”.

“Miami, you had your run,” he said at the time.

In an interview with Bloomberg radio on Wednesday, Adams vowed to “look at what’s preventing the growth of Bitcoin and cryptocurrency in our city.” He also indicated plans to follow Suarez’s footsteps with the creation of MiamiCoin.

In that scheme individuals use Stacks, a smart contracts and application layer built on Bitcoin, to mine MiamiCoin, with 30% of the revenue going back to the city to fund public projects. The remaining 70% of revenue can be locked to earn rewards in Bitcoin and Stacks.

“He has MiamiCoin that is doing very well — we’re going to look in the direction to carry that out.”

NY has some of the strictest crypto exchange rules in the US. NY-based crypto analyst Stephen Chen from Inflation Hedge Coin told Cointelegraph that he hopes the new Mayor Elect’s support will see some more pro-crypto amendments to the 2015 BitLicense regulations.

New York introduced the controversial BitLicense regulatory regime in June 2015, which has been criticized for being hostile to crypto. The BitLicense applies to crypto organizations involved in transferring, buying, selling, exchanging or issuing crypto.

NY residents are only legally allowed to buy and sell tokens from registered organizations. There are currently 105 approved virtual currencies in the state.

Law Decoded: Post-ETF policy landscape and Novi fears, Oct. 18–25

October 25, 2021 Coin Telegraph

Australia

The Bitcoin ETF approval has been the biggest, but by no means the only, policy-related story of the last week.

The biggest regulatory story of the week, if not the year, has been the United States Security and Exchange Commission’s lack of opposition to the launch of the first-ever Bitcoin (BTC) exchange-traded funds, which took eight long years to materialize. While the first ETFs are tracking CME-traded Bitcoin futures rather than the asset’s spot price, the crypto space is already anticipating a pure-Bitcoin ETF as a logical next step. This bar might prove to be immensely difficult to clear, however, as SEC Chair Gary Gensler seems far less convinced of the stringency of investor protections that such products offer.

Below is the concise version of the latest “Law Decoded” newsletter. For the full breakdown of policy developments over the last week, register for the full newsletter below.

Crypto and the national security game

The U.S. Treasury Department revealed last week that the increasing use of digital assets poses a growing threat to the nation’s sanctions program. Adversaries can now use these alternative financial rails to mitigate the effects of U.S.-imposed sanctions within the dollar-denominated realm. Just a few days later, a high-ranking Treasury official reiterated the department’s heightened focus on targeting crypto infrastructure used by bad actors. The official also made it clear that there is an understanding within the department that most crypto transactions serve perfectly legitimate purposes.

Novi anxiety

It took mere hours for a group of Senate Democrats to get extremely nervous about Facebook’s limited pilot of its digital wallet, Novi, run in partnership with Coinbase and Paxos. The test saw a remittances corridor opening between the U.S. and Guatemala for a small number of users, whereby they could send and receive Pax Dollar (USDP), a dollar-backed stablecoin.

A group of five senators, including vocal crypto critic Elizabeth Warren and Banking Committee Chairman Sherrod Brown, responded with a letter condemning Facebook’s “revived effort to launch a cryptocurrency and digital wallet,” citing numerous scandals surrounding the company as a justification for why it cannot be trusted to come anywhere near launching private money.

The thunder from down under

Big news from Australia captured the crypto crowd’s attention as an Australian Senate committee tasked with devising measures to make the nation a leading technology and financial center rolled out a far-reaching report on the state and prospects of crypto regulation. The report, which was met favorably by the industry, could lay the groundwork for Australia to join the ranks of the world’s more crypto-friendly jurisdictions.

How will DOJ’s new crypto enforcement team change the game for industry players, good and bad?

October 15, 2021 Coin Telegraph

bitcoin regulation

In a bid to catch up with cybercriminals, the Justice Department is pooling all crypto expertise in one place.

On Oct. 6, the United States Department of Justice, or DOJ, announced the creation of a specialized unit, the National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Team, or NCET, tasked with prosecuting criminal misuses of digital assets and crypto infrastructure, as well as tracing and recovering the ill-gotten cryptocurrency.

The move continues the U.S. authorities’ push to disrupt the corners of the crypto ecosystem that are thought to facilitate illicit activity, such as ransomware attacks. What does the government’s crypto enforcement ramp-up hold for the larger digital asset space?

Pooling crypto expertise

The new unit will operate according to the principles articulated almost exactly one year ago in DOJ’s Cryptocurrency Enforcement Framework. The document, for one, asserts the Department’s broad jurisdiction over criminal activity that affects financial or data storage infrastructure inside the U.S.

In addition to investigating its own cases and supporting the efforts of U.S. Attorneys’ Offices across the country, the NCET will promote cooperation between all relevant federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies in addressing cryptocurrency-related crime. The team is also tasked with training and advising law enforcement officers on crypto matters and developing investigative strategies.

Operatives for the new task force will come from of both the Money Laundering and Asset Recovery Section and the Computer Crimes and Intellectual Property Section of the DOJ, as well as from a number of U.S. Attorneys’ Offices.

In a conversation with Cointelegraph, Kevin Feldis, partner at law firm Perkins Coie, called both MLARS and CCIPS “very respected components of the Department of Justice,” whose members are “well versed in handling cross border investigations and coordinating with law enforcement around the globe.”

New tool for existing policies

The NCET is expected to direct its enforcement efforts at illegal or unregistered money services, ransomware payments infrastructure, and various other marketplaces where digital money meets criminal activity. None of this is particularly new, and the DOJ is simply putting together a more streamlined, coordinated mechanism for tackling cybercrime and potentially recovering stolen funds.

The announcement also extends the string of developments that illustrate the Biden administration’s commitment to enforcement-first stance on cybercrime, including criminal activity facilitated by crypto.

Jackson Mueller, director of policy & government affairs at digital asset firm Securrency, commented to Cointelegraph:

This announcement should not come as a surprise to those of us following the Biden administration and its efforts, whether through federal financial regulators, the Treasury Department, the President’s working group on stablecoins, among others, to apply greater scrutiny and enforcement actions against the broader ecosystem.

Mueller added that the emergence of the NCET signals the government’s preference for more enforcement-focused policies rather than the orientation toward engagement and cooperation that many in the industry would prefer to see.

Michael Bahar, chair of cybersecurity practice at global law firm Eversheds Sutherland, traces the roots of the NCET initiative back to Joe Biden’s May 2021 executive order, that made it a top priority to bring to bear the full scope of federal government authorities and resources to protect the nation’s computer systems against cyber-attacks. Bahar further commented:

As part of that all-of-government effort, the U.S. Department of Justice is leveraging its decades of experience in following the money and in rooting out money laundering, both to catch the perpetrators and return the money, as well as to undercut the financial incentive for criminals to engage in ransomware attacks in the first place.

Ron Brisé, government affairs and lobbying attorney at law firm Gunster, said that the DOJ is “Connecting the dots across all of its sections to bring a more centralized focus to cryptocurrency-related investigations and prosecutions.” Brisé added that he wouldn’t be surprised to see certain individual states replicate the federal initiative, instituting their own cryptocurrency enforcement teams in the near future.

Wider implications

Granted, rooting out bad actors of the cryptocurrency sector who give the entire industry a bad name in the eyes of the public (and, quite often, in policymakers’ eyes) is a noble endeavor. Yet, there is also room for legitimate concern for those crypto players who act in good faith and invest substantial resources in compliance – that is, for the overwhelming majority of industry participants.

A scenario where overly aggressive enforcement could create additional burden for legitimate actors is not difficult to envision.

Kevin Feldis of Perkins Coie believes that DOJ’s focus on ramping up criminal investigations and building capacity to recover illicit crypto proceeds will also likely mean more government scrutiny throughout the industry. Feldis added:

The legal and regulatory landscape is still evolving, and investing in compliance and being a good crypto corporate citizen will likely serve industry players well in the face of this increased government enforcement focus by the DOJ, SEC and others.

At the same time, the kind of expert enforcement that is competent enough to single out criminals while not imposing excessive burden on the good guys could be a boon to the sector. Having all of the DOJ’s most crypto-savvy people within one well-coordinated force could also lead the NCET to yielding its enforcement authority in a targeted fashion.

Gunster’s Ron Brisé notes that the emergence of a specialized crypto unit within the Justice Department could be seen as beneficial, all things considered. He commented:

From a bigger perspective, if there is recourse for those whose digital funds get stolen, the levels of confidence for both consumers and crypto business will increase.

Indeed, if the NCET lives up to its stated mission rather than casting nets that are unnecessarily wide, the crypto space will become a safer place for legitimate financial activity.

CFTC slaps Tether and Bitfinex with a combined $42.5 million fine

October 15, 2021 Coin Telegraph

CFTC slaps Tether and Bitfinex with a combined .5 million fine

bitcoin regulation

The settlement triggered concerns that the CFTC's role in stablecoin regulation could be misunderstood by the public.

On Oct. 15, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, or CFTC, handed sister crypto companies Tether and Bitfinex fines totaling $41 million and $1.5 million, respectively, citing violations of the Commodity Exchange Act, or CEA, and of a prior CFTC order.

The regulator has found that Tether, the firm behind an eponymous stablecoin, has only held sufficient fiat reserves to back the dollar-pegged asset for 27.6% of time during the 26-month period under review between 2016 and 2018. The agency also stated that Tether violated the law by holding part of the reserves in non-fiat financial instruments, as well as by comingling operational and reserve funds.

In a simultaneous action, the commodity futures watchdog settled charges with Bitfinex for facilitating “illegal, off-exchange retail commodity transactions in digital assets with U.S persons” on its platform, in addition to operating “as a futures commission merchant, or FCM, without registering as required.”

In a concurring statement, CFTC Commissioner Dawn Stump backed the action while also expressing concerns that the settlement could “provide users of stablecoins with a false sense of comfort” as they may falsely conclude that CFTC regulates stablecoins and oversees their issuers.

While the CFTC has applied a broad definition of a “commodity” to stablecoins in the present case, Stump distanced the Commission from regulating this asset class and having “daily insight into the businesses of those who issue” stablecoins.

Tether issued a rebuttal statement, insisting that it “maintained adequate reserves” at all times. The firm explained its decision to settle by its willingness to “resolve this matter in order to move forward and focus on the future.”

Coinbase unveils its Digital Asset Policy Proposal to spark conversation around comprehensive crypto regulation

October 14, 2021 Coin Telegraph

bitcoin regulation

One of the crypto industry's major players seeks to boost the public debate on how to best fit digital assets into the regulatory perimeter.

On Oct. 14, cryptocurrency exchange platform Coinbase published its Digital Asset Policy Proposal, a document offering both a justification and conceptual framework for comprehensive regulation of digital assets in the United States.

Coinbase presented the proposal as a product of dozens of meetings with industry participants, policymakers, crypto innovators and academics that the company’s representatives had held in the last several weeks.

The firm’s intention is for the proposal to “animate an open and constructive discussion regarding the role of digital assets in our shared economic future” and offer good-faith suggestions on what a sensible approach to crypto regulation might look like.

The document opens with enumerating the benefits of the emerging system of digital finance for both consumers (democratization of financial markets) and regulators (more transparency and new ways to combat illegal activity). The authors further maintain that laws drafted in the 1930-s are a poor foundation for regulating the Internet-native asset class, and that forcing digital assets into the legal framework developed before the computer age could lead to stifling crypto innovation in the U.S.

A more tailored and therefore more constructive approach, according to Coinbase, should rest on four key principles: Defining a separate regulatory framework for digital assets; designating a single regulator to oversee digital asset markets; protecting and empowering holders; promoting interoperability and fair competition.

In a separate op-ed published on the same day in Wall Street Journal, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong argued that the proposed framework is not meant to benefit his company alone.

He maintained that, while Coinbase is big enough to absorb the costs of unclear regulatory environment, it is smaller firms, retail consumers, and the Unites States’s position as a global technological leader that stand to benefit from forward-looking regulation of the digital asset space.

Bitcoin rewards triggered shopping frenzy for cardholders: BlockFi data

October 13, 2021 Coin Telegraph

Bitcoin

Owners of the Visa-backed Bitcoin rewards card amassed over 124 BTC collectively over 90 days, BlockFi data shows.

Bitcoin (BTC) turned out to be a far more attractive prize than airline miles or other cashback rewards, new data from BlockFi suggests.

It’s been three months since the New York-based crypto loans startup launched its Visa-backed Bitcoin rewards credit cards, BlockFi Rewards Visa Signature Credit Card, to customers. The card offers rewards in Bitcoin instead of using a more traditional points system.

According to the company, if the average Bitcoin rewards card owner continues the shopping habit seen in these first three months, they'll be on track to spend more than $30,000 per year on average. This is almost six times the average of $5,111 per cardholder in the United States.

“The fact that cardholders are pacing towards over 2 billion dollars in annualized spend reinforces BlockFi’s mission to provide clients with broader access to financial products and services that allow them to invest in cryptocurrency more easily,” BlockFi Co-founder and CEO Zac Prince told Cointelegraph.

BlockFi said its Bitcoin rewards card has grown past 50,000 owners across all 49 states, excluding New York, where the card is not available. California accounts for over 20% of total spending while Washington D.C., California, Texas and Florida follow as the highest spending states.

Cardholders have amassed more than 124 BTC in rewards collectively during the program’s first three months, with Costco, Amazon and Home Depot being the top three merchants. The spending behavior ranges from everyday purchases like groceries, utilities, and home improvement projects to more significant purchases.

“For the Bitcoin maximalist, Compass Mining has been a top merchant for those who want to earn even more bitcoin from their home mining rigs,” the announcement reads.

Available to use anywhere Visa is accepted, BlockFi’s card enables its owners to earn 1.5% back in the original cryptocurrency with an introductory 3.5% rate. Due to the price movements of Bitcoin, cardholders who were paid out rewards at their 3.5% intro rate made an effective rate of over 4.25%. Customers earning the standard 1.5% back were also getting a 1.8% effective rate, the BlockFi team explained for Cointelegraph.

Law Decoded: Putting your Bitcoin where your mouth is, Oct. 4–11

October 11, 2021 Coin Telegraph

bitcoin regulation

Debt ceiling uncertainty erodes trust in the dollar, DOJ announcements the National crypto enforcement team, SEC investigates Circle.

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 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 monetary behavior (Lummis had been hodling BTC since 2013). Such consistency will be a norm in blockchain-based governance systems where individuals’ interests are aligned with those of the entire community and where all information that could be of remote public interest is transparent.

Below is the concise version of this newsletter. For the full breakdown of policy developments over the last week, register for the full newsletter below.

Debt ceiling staved off

Last week finally saw the resolution, if temporary, of the weeks-long saga around the U.S. federal government’s borrowing cap, and there is now certainty that the Treasury will be able to meet its financial obligations until early December at least. This time around, the unimaginable prospect of the nation’s default on its debt seemed a bit less unimaginable than usual as Senate Republicans took a stand to protest what they see as an irresponsible Democratic spending spree.

While opinions on the short-term effects of the debt ceiling uncertainty on the crypto market differed, there was a near consensus around the notion that in the long run, political weaponization of federal debt policy will erode trust in the greenback.

Letting the watchdogs out

It has emerged that Coinbase is not the only major crypto industry player that is being harassed by the Securities and Exchange Commission. Circle, the firm behind USD Coin, has revealed receiving an investigative subpoena from the agency back in July, also stating its willingness to “cooperate fully.”

Over in the enforcement realm, a major announcement came from Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco, who has recently been prominent in the DOJ’s efforts to combat ransomware and cyberattacks. Speaking at the Aspen Institute Cyber Summit, Monaco said that the Justice Department had launched the National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Team in order to boost the government’s capacity to disrupt financial networks facilitating cybercrime.

100+ CBDCs are coming

Kristalina Georgieva, managing director of the International Monetary Fund, has spoken favorably of digital currencies last week. Expectedly, those were the central bank digital currencies that sit tight within the regulatory perimeter. More interestingly, Georgieva shared some previously undisclosed numbers on how many countries are at some stage of exploring or developing CBDCs.

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