Regulation

The big news this week happened on April 16th, when a major power outage in Xinjiang wreaked havoc on the BTC hash rate. According to local sources, the hash rates on Ant Mine Pool fell by 21.93%, BTC.com by 18.5%, Binance Mine Pool by 22%, and Huobi Mine Pool by 25.5%. Reports from Cointelegraph linked

Jackson, Tennessee is the latest city in the United States moving to adopt Bitcoin (BTC) payments and mining, following recent crypto developments in Florida. Jackson Mayor Scott Conger announced Wednesday that the city is actively exploring the option to pay its employees in cryptocurrency in addition to mining Bitcoin and adding it on the city’s

A British government-sanctioned task force has proposed a dispute resolution framework that would keep cryptocurrency and smart contract disagreements out of the courts. A 14-page report published by LawTechUK’s “U.K. Jurisdiction Taskforce” puts forward new Digital Dispute Resolution Rules that aim to provide a standardized means of dealing with smart contract disputes. Under the remit

The U.S. House of Representatives on Tuesday passed H.R. 1602 — the Eliminate Barriers to Innovation Act — introduced by Congressman Patrick McHenry (R-NC). H.R. 1602 was among six bipartisan financial services-related bills passed by Congress on Tuesday with the McHenry-sponsored legislation focusing on regulatory clarity for cryptocurrencies. Introduced back in March, the bill seeks

The Norwegian Tax Administration has issued a warning to crypto traders in advance of Norway’s April 30 deadline to file tax returns. According to a notice from the Norwegian Tax Administration on Wednesday, the government agency advises all taxpayers who owned or sold crypto in 2020 to enter it on their returns or “risk paying

The United Kingdom Chancellor of the Exchequer announced the launch of a CBDC task force this week, bringing together the Bank of England and Her Majesty’s Treasury to coordinate the exploration of a potential central bank digital currency. Depending on the feedback received from various areas of industry, academia, and civil society, the task force will

A Republican lawmaker from Ohio is preparing legislation that would reportedly be aimed at preventing U.S. citizens from evading taxes on their crypto earnings. In an interview with CNBC’s Squawk Box today, Senator Rob Portman said he hoped to introduce a bill with bipartisan support after the next congressional recess which would address the problem

Buying something with Bitcoin (BTC) in Turkey will soon be illegal, and the topic of crypto payments has become a political debate since the Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey’s April 16 announcement that it will forbid the use of cryptocurrency as a payment method. The regulation, which will go into effect on April

Facebook-backed digital currency project Diem could yet launch its first stablecoin in 2021 as a small-scale pilot, according to an anonymous source.  Cited in a CNBC report published on April 20, the source claimed that the Switzerland-based nonprofit The Diem Association is still intending to launch its pilot for a United States dollar-backed stablecoin later

A lawsuit accusing crypto exchange Bibox of selling six unregistered securities was thrown out of a U.S. District Court after Judge Denise Cote ruled the plaintiff had failed to file the complaint within 12 months of trading the tokens. Plaintiff Alexander Clifford filed the class-action complaint on June 3, 2020, seeking to recover investments he

A new ranking of global central bank digital currencies, or CBDCs, places the Bahamas at the top of the leaderboard in terms of retail applications – offering an important glimpse in the race to issue government-backed cryptocurrencies. In its 2021 CBDC Index, global consulting firm PwC surveyed the level of central-bank maturity in deploying cryptocurrencies

Several South Korean financial authorities are planning to join forces to combat illegal operations involving cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin (BTC). The interagency crackdown comes in response to growing concerns over speculative investments and potentially illegal activities amid the ongoing boom in crypto markets, Koo Yun-cheol, head of the Office for Government Policy Coordination, said Monday. “There

Many users on social media have started an online campaign for Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan to bring back pro-crypto adviser Zia Ullah Bangash. On Saturday, Bangash, the science, technology, and information technology adviser to Mahmood Khan, the chief minister of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, announced he would resign his position. Bangash cited “unavoidable circumstances” in his

Li Bo, recently appointed deputy governor of the People’s Bank of China, or PBoC, reportedly spoke on the benefits of crypto as an investment tool while highlighting regulatory uncertainty in the country surrounding digital assets. According to Chinese journalist Colin Wu, Li made the comments at the Boao Forum in southern China on Sunday. The

In October 2019, unknown hackers infiltrated a Canadian insurance company by installing the malware BitPaymer, which encrypted the firm’s data and IT systems. The hackers demanded a ransom of $1.2 million be paid in Bitcoin (BTC) in return for the decryption software needed for the firm to regain access to its systems.  The firm’s United

Ever since the publication of Satoshi Nakamoto’s white paper back in November 2008, “Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System,” the term “blockchain” has been synonymous with digital currencies in the sense of the underlying technology that allows for the transfer of value, peer-to-peer.  What’s interesting is that the term “blockchain” is not used once in