Government Financial News

In a Friday announcement, Pham said Keaghan Ames will be her counselor and senior policy adviser at the CFTC starting May 23. Ames worked at Credit Suisse for more than two years as vice president and head of U.S. regulatory policy, which included advising executives on digital assets regulation. He will be joining the CFTC from the Institute of International Bankers, where he has been the director of government affairs since July 2021.

The United States Senate has confirmed the nomination of Jerome Powell as the chair of the board of governors of the Federal Reserve System until 2026.

The Federal Ministry of Finance (BaFin) published a 24-page document on Tuesday outlining clear income tax rules for cryptocurrency and virtual assets. Tax practitioners, businesses and individual taxpayers now have clear direction on the tax requirements for acquiring, trading and selling cryptocurrencies.

According to United States Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, the stablecoin market is not at the scale at which the drop in the price of TerraUSD (UST) and Tether (USDT) below $1 would present a threat to the country’s financial stability.

The administration of the newly-elected President of South Korea, Yoon Suk-yeol, wastes no time in its drive to maintain the country’s stature as a center for innovation as it hopes to roll out comprehensive crypto legislation in 2023 and institutionalize the sector by 2024.

The Central Bank of Chile has delayed its plans for a central bank digital currency (CBDC) saying the issuance of a digital Chilean peso requires a deeper analysis of the benefits and risks, promising a new report towards the end of the year.

A group of eight organizations focused on the environment have called on different government agencies under the Biden administration to implement new approaches in response to Proof-of-Work and other crypto mining operations.

United States Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen called on U.S. lawmakers to develop a "consistent federal framework” on stablecoins to address risks to financial stability.

Bitcoin (BTC) mining has always been a controversial topic. But, Bitcoin’s proof-of-work (PoW) model has reached new levels of concern as senior decision-makers and investors pay closer attention to environmental, social and governance factors. 

The United States continues to be a global leader in embracing the cryptocurrency industry thanks to the work of Sen. Patrick Toomey, with the White House being at the forefront of crypto regulation. Last year, President Joe Biden signed a $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill — and it included some new legislation that would impact the crypto sector. And more recently, the U.S. president announced a “whole-of-government” approach to regulating cryptocurrency in an across-the-board executive order directing multiple government agencies to answer specific questions on cryptocurrencies. The U.S. for the last year has clearly been seeking to help make the crypto industry more sustainable, which will make it significantly easier for cryptocurrency platforms to operate.

The Bahamas Prime Minister Philip Davis told Cointelegraph that the region has a regulatory regime in place that will enable crypto businesses to operate within its jurisdiction. During an interview at SALT’s Crypto Bahamas conference, Davis shared that The Bahamas recently published a white paper framework that will allow crypto businesses to “grow and prosper,” while letting companies understand the region’s expectations. He added:

Decentralized finance firm Qredo has received approval for registration as a Bitcoin (BTC) service provider in El Salvador.

Anthony Scaramucci, the founder of the hedge fund SkyBridge Capital, thinks that the next United States presidential candidacy will likely be pro-cryptocurrency given that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) recently announced the approval of a fourth Bitcoin  (BTC)futures exchange-traded fund (ETF).

The United States government is growing increasingly concerned about Bitcoin (BTC) in retirement savings, with two Senators flagging some issues in Fidelity Investments’ plans to include Bitcoin (BTC) in 401(k) accounts.

The government of Kazakhstan has laid out new reporting requirements for cryptocurrency mining operators with a keen eye on how the industry's energy usage affects the local power grid.

Gavin Newsom, the governor of California, has signed an executive order aimed at harmonizing a regulatory framework for blockchain between the federal government and the U.S. state as well as spurring innovation in the space.

Although cryptocurrency may still be misunderstood on Capitol Hill, crypto is becoming more political as its influence gains traction. For instance, lobbying by those involved in the cryptocurrency industry has reached new heights. A report from the nonprofit consumer advocacy group Public Citizen found that the number of lobbyists for cryptocurrency-related issues rose from 115 in 2018 to 320 in 2021. The report further indicated that the number of representatives within the cryptocurrency industry increased from 47 to 157 during that time period. 

Popular podcaster Joe Rogan just gets Bitcoin (BTC). In his most recent podcast with Khalil Rountree, a renowned mixed martial (MMA) fighter, Rogan explained that BTC is something that the “government didn’t see coming.”

The Empire State made two appearances on the regulatory stage last week, and neither was entirely reassuring. 

The recent European Union proposal requiring centralized crypto exchanges and custodial wallet providers to collect and verify personal information about self-custodial wallet holders shows the dangers of recycling traditional finance (TradFi) rules and applying them to crypto without appreciating the conceptual differences. We can expect to see more of this as countries look to implement the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) Travel Rule, initially designed for wire transfers, to transfers of crypto assets.

We have all been there. You see something, hear something, or feel something, and want to share that feeling or observation with someone else. Do you pick up the phone? Send over a text? Record a voice note?