Regulation

Welcome to Finance Redefined, your weekly dose of essential decentralized finance (DeFi) insights — a newsletter crafted to bring you the most significant developments from the past week. This week in DeFi saw the hacker behind the $8.9 million SafeMoon exploit agree to return the majority of the stolen funds. According to the project’s developers,

The United States Treasury did a risk assessment of decentralized finance (DeFi) and found the sector lacking in several ways, Assistant Treasury Secretary for Terrorist Financing and Financial Crime Elizabeth Rosenberg reminded an audience at the Atlantic Council think tank on April 21. Get ready for more regulation, she said. Rosenberg referred to a report

Jeremy Sheridan, former assistant director of the United States Secret Service Office of Investigations, has warned that certain FTX customers could become targets if their personal information were to be made public. In an April 20 declaration filed with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware, Sheridan supported a motion from the debtors

Hot on the heels of the European Parliament passing the Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) regulation, Ukrainian regulators have stated publicly that they will adopt the legislative package in their own country as well. The Deputy Chairman of the Tax Committee of Ukraine, Yaroslav Zheleznyak, said on his Telegram channel on April 20 that “We, along

Criticisms of the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) are mounting as the agency remains unrelenting in its war on crypto. On April 21, Web3 venture capital firm Paradigm published a policy piece on the problems with SEC registration. It claimed that SEC chair Gary Gensler’s “attempt to brute force crypto assets that may

Nigerian crypto exchange Roqqu has been granted regulatory approval to operate in South Africa, allowing users to purchase cryptocurrencies and withdraw funds with the country’s fiat currency, the South African Rand, according to local media reports.   South Africa has been a top priority for Roqqu as the exchange seeks to expand its dominance in the

Hashing It Out Episode 16 explores one of the most popular use cases for cryptocurrencies: payments. Elisha Owusu Akyaw is joined by Ran Goldi, vice president of payments at Fireblocks, to explore the rapidly evolving world of crypto and payments, the steps necessary for adoption, the role of stablecoins, and the hurdles — such as

A California judge has combined three investor lawsuits against defunct crypto bank Silvergate Bank involving the bankrupt crypto exchange FTX. On April 19, United States District Judge Jacqueline Scott Corley of the Northern District of California ruled that the three lawsuits would be consolidated. Each accuses Silvergate of helping to facilitate investor fraud by the

Russia is taking further steps to mitigate global sanctions in place since the invasion of Ukraine in 2022. According to local media reports, the country’s central bank plans to create new institutions to mine crypto assets and settle international payments.  In a meeting in the State Duma — one of the chambers of the Russian

The European Commission has launched a new research unit that will investigate the impact of the algorithms made and used by prominent online platforms and search engines such as Facebook and Google. The research unit dubbed the European Centre for Algorithmic Transparency (ECAT), launched on April 18 and will help the Commission identify and address any

A long sentence is being sought by United States prosecutors for an executive in a crypto shadow banking case that has dragged on for five years. On April 18, U.S. District Attorney Damian Williams filed a request in advance of the sentencing of Reginald Fowler which is scheduled for April 20. Fowler, the former minority

United States Federal Reserve Board governor Michelle Bowman spoke at Georgetown University on April 18 to “offer a perspective” on central bank digital currency (CBDC). The Fed plays an important role in the conversation about CBDC, Bowman said. Her examination of the problems a CBDC might solve and the design and policy issues it entails

A court in Singapore has extended creditor protection for Babel Finance by another three months, Bloomberg reported on April 18. According to Babel co-founder and former CEO Flex Yang, the moratorium will now last until July 21, enabling the firm to pursue its restructuring plan via a new decentralized finance (DeFi) project known as Hope.

The United Kingdom could “turbocharge” its crypto sector and be an “innovation hub for the Web3 economy” as part of a vision laid out by cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase. The comments by the exchange coincide with an April 17 Sky News report that the U.K. Treasury is set to revive the Asset Management Taskforce with a

Last week came in preparation for April 19, when the United States House Financial Services Committee will hold a hearing on stablecoins. The hearing will include information collected by various federal government agencies over the last year. Among the participants are Jake Chervinsky, the chief political officer at the Blockchain Association, and Dante Disparte, the

Hong Kong’s push to become a crypto hub has opened an opportunity for not just crypto companies but many state-affiliated banks in China as well. The Chinese banks have shown interest in building partnerships and onboarding regulated crypto companies in Hong Kong, despite a blanket bank on crypto-related activities in mainland China. The Hong Kong

Recent turmoil in the banking sector has shown that Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) can withstand a shaky economy, outperform other asset classes and function like gold, says ARK Invest chief executive Cathie Wood — though one long-time investor still isn’t sold. Wood explained in an April 15 interview that Bitcoin’s resilience throughout the most

A new draft bill providing a framework for stablecoins in the United States was published on the House of Representatives’ document repository, a few days before a hearing on the topic on April 19. The draft puts the Federal Reserve in charge of non-bank stablecoin issuers, such as crypto firms Tether and Circle, respectively issuers

The United States House Committee on Financial Services a.k.a the Financial Services Committee will hold a hearing on April 19 to discuss stablecoins’ position as a means of payment and whether or not the ecosystem needs supporting legislation. The Financial Services Committee issued a memorandum to announce an upcoming hearing titled “Understanding Stablecoins’ Role in

The law firm representing victims affected by the FTX collapse have publicly appealed to NBA superstar Shaquille O’Neal to show “courtesy and honor” by actually accepting their legal complaint after several unsuccessful attempts. In an April 14 tweet, The Moskowitz Law Firm revealed its team have been standing outside O’Neal’s TNT studios in Atlanta “all