Government Financial News

The White House will reportedly be issuing an executive order as early as next week directing government agencies to study different aspects of the digital asset space with the goal of creating a comprehensive regulatory framework.

Earlier in February, Indian Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced a tax proposal that would bring the relatively unregulated digital asset space under the purview of tax authorities.

As reported by Canadian news outlet The Globe and Mail, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (Canada's federal police force) sent letters to several cryptocurrency exchanges demanding that they "cease facilitating any transactions" with more than 30 specific cryptocurrency wallet addresses linked to the ongoing truck protests in the country. The letter writes:

Jared Polis, the governor of Colorado, has announced that the state government plans to allow residents to pay taxes in cryptocurrencies as early as summer 2022.

Ohio’s eighth district congressman Warren Davidson has introduced the “Keep Your Coins” bill in the House of Representatives to protect individuals’ self-custodied crypto wallets from U.S. government agency control.

Members of the U.S. Senate Banking Committee have reportedly divided along party lines regarding President Joe Biden’s pick of Sarah Bloom Raskin as vice chair for supervision for the Board of Governors at the Federal Reserve.

House Financial Services Committee member and New Jersey Representative Josh Gottheimer has introduced legislation which would have the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation back stablecoins in a similar manner to fiat deposits.

Amid more reports on the Bank of Russia rejecting the finance ministry’s proposal of cryptocurrency regulation, the central bank has kicked off trials of its own digital currency.

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has signed a decree affirming the country’s formal support of free circulation of cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin (BTC).

Amid the Russian government continuing working hard to come up with cryptocurrency regulations, a federal ministry has made another proposal regarding the crypto mining industry.

Several storylines that had been long in the making dominated last week’s news cycle in the cryptocurrency policy and enforcement department. The Russian government has made another huge step on the path toward creating a tailored regulatory framework for digital assets, unveiling its consolidated view that crypto is to be treated as currency rather than swept under the rug of a blanket ban. While this movement in the direction of crypto’s formal legitimization is a welcomed development, a host of questions persists related to both the exact shape of the new regime and its enforcement.

On Feb. 14, the Securities and Exchange Commission, or SEC, announced actions against crypto lending company BlockFi over its failure to register high-yield interest accounts that the agency deems to be securities.

As payment methods continue to evolve, new innovations are improving financial infrastructures that have been in use for years. Currently, central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) are a topic that has grabbed the attention of many nations worldwide including the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Last year, El Salvador dominated headlines as the first country to adopt Bitcoin as legal tender. The move is controversial both in and outside of the country, heralded for its potential to bring financial services to large portions of El Salvador’s unbanked population and criticized for its top-down implementation. This has created a sense of uncertainty and made some Salvadorans feel they lacked a choice, despite locations like El Zonte already accepting Bitcoin (BTC) as payment through organic developments that predate the law.

In her monthly Expert Take column, Selva Ozelli, an international tax attorney and CPA, covers the intersection between emerging technologies and sustainability, and provides the latest developments around taxes, AML/CFT regulations and legal issues affecting crypto and blockchain.

crypto community, in reaction to central bank governor Shaktikanta Das' statement that private cryptocurrencies are a big threat to India's financial and macroeconomic stability, has said crypto assets could help unlock the country's innovation, job-creation and economic potential. Also, the exchanges said they praised the stance of the central bank and the government that customer protection is a priority. «The good thing is that the government and regulators have been very consultative in their approach to the industry, and there is broad understanding that customer protection is of utmost importance. It is encouraging to see India thinking progressively about crypto at par with global counterparts like the US, Dubai, and Singapore,» said Ashish Singhal, founder and CEO, CoinSwitch.

Czechia, a country of 10.7 million people in Central Europe, is known for its beautiful capital (Prague), rich history, and good beer. Within the last decade, however, one can now add cryptocurrency adoption to that list. In fact, the Trezor wallet, the first cryptocurrency hardware wallet in the world, was invented here in 2014, and is still going strong. Its parent company, SatoshiLabs, has expanded into creating secure chips for electronic hardware via Tropic Square and advancing cryptocurrency education via Invity.

Chris Sununu, who has served as the Governor of New Hampshire since 2017, has established a commission aimed at investigating the technology and laws around digital assets in addition to recommending new legislation.

Michelle Rempel Garner, a member of the House of Commons of Canada, has introduced a bill proposing the government set up a framework to encourage the growth of the cryptocurrency sector in the country.

El Salvador faces another whipping from a traditional finance firm for its "forbidden" love for Bitcoin (BTC). 

Jason Powell, a member of the Tennessee House of Representatives, has introduced a bill proposing counties, municipalities, and the state to invest in cryptocurrencies and nonfungible tokens, or NFTs.