united states

Democratic presidential candidate blasts Biden and Trump on crypto: ‘Not the right people to lead’

Representative Dean Phillips was the sole Democratic presidential candidate to address the Crypto Presidential Forum after Republicans Vivek Ramaswamy and Asa Hutchinson.

Dean Phillips, a member of the United States House of Representatives running against Joe Biden for the Democratic nomination in the 2024 presidential election, said there are currently “very few” people in Congress who understand digital assets.

Speaking at the Crypto Presidential Forum in New Hampshire on Dec. 11, Phillips said he didn’t “know it all” about financial technology and cryptocurrency but criticized U.S. President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump for their positions. The U.S. lawmaker was the third presidential candidate to address the New Hampshire crowd after Republicans Vivek Ramaswamy and Asa Hutchinson.

“The two leading candidates right now, on both the left and the right, for the U.S. presidency are absolutely not in positions to understand it, prepare us for it, anticipate it, and lead us into the next century,” said Phillips, referring to crypto. “Joe Biden and Donald Trump, at their age and stage of life, are simply not the right people to lead us forward.”

More US senators back Elizabeth Warren’s AML bill targeting crypto

The legislation, reintroduced in July, already has the support of several U.S. lawmakers, but critics have suggested it could threaten financial freedom and privacy.

Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren, an outspoken critic of digital assets in the United States government, has announced that five more senators have agreed to cosponsor one of her bills aimed at cracking down on money laundering.

In a Dec. 11 announcement, Senator Warren said Senators Raphael Warnock, Laphonza Butler, Chris Van Hollen, John Hickenlooper and Ben Ray Luján had backed her Digital Asset Anti-Money Laundering Act, reintroduced in July. According to Warren, the legislation specifically targeted illicit uses of crypto assets for money laundering and financing terrorism.

“I’m glad that five new senators are joining the fight to take action, including three members of the Banking Committee,” said Warren. “Our bipartisan bill is the toughest proposal on the table cracking down on crypto’s illicit use and giving regulators more tools in their toolbox.”

CZ must stay, Do Kwon to be extradited: Law Decoded

A Seattle district court ruled out CZ’s departure to the UAE, and the Montenegrin justice minister plans to grant the United States request for Do Kwon’s extradition.

Binance founder Changpeng “CZ” Zhao has been ordered to stay in the United States until his sentencing in February 2024, with a federal judge determining there’s too much of a flight risk if the former exchange CEO is allowed to return to the United Arab Emirates. Seattle district court Judge Richard Jones wrote in his order:

“The defendant has enormous wealth and property abroad, and no ties to the United States […] His family resides in the UAE and it appears that he has favored status in the UAE. Under these circumstances, the Court finds that the defendant has not established by clear and convincing evidence that he is not likely to flee if he returns to the UAE.”

Jones accepted Zhao’s guilty plea to one count of Bank Secrecy Act violations, which the Binance founder submitted over two weeks ago on Nov. 21 alongside a $4.3 billion settlement with U.S. agencies. Now, the ex-CEO of Binance faces up to 18 months in prison.

DOJ unveils extensive monitorship over Binance operations

Binance’s new compliance obligations include cooperation to grant U.S. authorities access to all documents, records and resources upon request.

Binance compliance commitments with the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) were unsealed on Dec. 8, revealing a significant government oversight of the crypto exchange operation and business activities.

In an analysis shared on X (formerly Twitter), John Reed Stark, a former Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) official, classified the “exhaustive list” of Binance’s new compliance commitments as a “consulting firm’s wish list” that will likely shut down the platform.

Binance’s new obligations are described in an 11-page document and include cooperation to grant authorities access to documents, records and resources at their request, including access to information related to its “former employees, agents, intermediaries, consultants, representatives, distributors, licenses, contractors, suppliers, and joint venture partners,” noted Stark.

Tether announces wallet-freezing policy for OFAC-sanctioned persons

Tether is expanding control sanctions to the secondary market in an effort to cooperate with regulators in the United States.

Stablecoin issuer Tether has announced another step toward cooperation with law enforcement and regulatory agencies by initiating a voluntary wallet-freezing policy, according to a blog post on Dec. 9.

Since Dec. 1, Tether has been offering secondary market controls to freeze activity connected with sanctioned persons on the United States Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) Specially Designated Nationals (SDN) List. Companies and individuals controlled or owned by sanctioned countries are included on the list.

According to Tether, the policy will supplement existing security protocols and is a “proactive effort to work even more closely with global regulators and law enforcement agencies.”

Crypto lawyer wants to depose Changpeng Zhao for civil case

The Moskowitz Law Firm, which represented many crypto investors in class-action lawsuits, cited the former Binance CEO’s “unique knowledge” of issues in calling for his deposition.

Adam Moskowitz, who has been the lead attorney in a number of civil cases involving crypto firms, filed a motion to take a deposition from former Binance CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao.

In a Dec. 8 filing in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Flordia Miami Division, Moskowitz said Zhao’s testimony would be “crucial to the claims and defenses of all parties” involved. The law firm filed the motion as part of a $1 billion lawsuit against Zhao, Binance and crypto influencers, which a court ordered stayed in August.

Moskowitz and his firm have represented several clients in cases against high-profile crypto firms and related entities. He was counsel for many victims of the collapse of FTX in a lawsuit targeting celebrities who promoted the crypto exchange, as well as a suit claiming investors suffered losses from soccer star Cristiano Ronaldo touting Binance’s nonfungible tokens.

US senators target crypto in bill enforcing sanctions on terrorist groups

Senator Elizabeth Warren isn’t leading the charge on this bill linking crypto transactions to terrorism; it comes from Senators Mitt Romney, Mark Warner, Mike Rounds and Jack Reed.

A bipartisan group of lawmakers in the United States Senate introduced legislation aimed at countering cryptocurrency’s role in financing terrorism, explicitly citing the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas on Israel.

In a Dec. 7 announcement, Senators Mitt Romney, Mark Warner, Mike Rounds and Jack Reed said they had introduced the Terrorism Financing Prevention Act. The bill would expand U.S. sanctions to include parties funding terrorist organizations with cryptocurrency or fiat. According to Senator Romney, the legislation would allow the U.S. Treasury Department to go after “emerging threats involving digital assets” in the wake of the Oct. 7 attacks as well as actions by the terrorist group Hezbollah.

“It is critical that the Department of the Treasury has the necessary counter-terrorism tools to combat modern threats,” said Senator Rounds. “The Terrorism Financing Prevention Act takes commonsense steps toward rooting out terrorism by sanctioning foreign financial institutions and foreign digital asset companies that assist them in committing these heinous acts.”

Bitcoin’s many deaths: Is crypto market past ‘point of no return?’

Bitcoin has been declared dead more times than you’d think amid downswings in the market, but it’s always managed to bounce back.

Bitcoin and the broader crypto market have been gleefully declared dead more than a few times during bear markets, but some experts say it would take a genuinely extreme set of events for it to truly die.

According to 99Bitcoins — a website that, among other things, tracks how many times Bitcoin (BTC) has been declared dead by mainstream media outlets — the largest crypto by market cap has died 474 times since 2010.

Often, the proclamation is met with cheering by crypto skeptics as evidence that BTC is not a viable asset, but it might not be so simple to kill off crypto — at least according to some experts in the space.

SEC discussing ‘key technical details’ with spot crypto ETF applicants: Report

In November, the commission separately met with representatives of BlackRock and Grayscale to discuss their spot crypto exchange-traded funds.

Officials with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission are reportedly discussing aspects of Bitcoin (BTC) exchange-traded funds, or ETFs, proposed by asset managers.

According to a Dec. 7 Reuters report, industry insiders said the SEC and certain asset managers were discussing “key technical details” related to U.S. exchanges listing shares of a spot Bitcoin ETF. To date, the commission has never given the green light to any spot cryptocurrency exchange-traded product, instead postponing decisions on applications for the maximum allowable time.

Memos released by the SEC in November showed the commission separately met with representatives of BlackRock and Grayscale. Both asset managers and Hashdex, ARK 21Shares, Invesco Galaxy, VanEck and Fidelity have filed for spot BTC or Ether (ETH) ETF listings.

Montenegrin official plans to extradite Do Kwon to the United States: Report

The Terraform Labs co-founder had been awaiting extradition to either the U.S. or South Korea after being arrested and charged in Montenegro.

Terraform Labs co-founder Do Kwon will reportedly be extradited to the United States rather than South Korea to face criminal charges.

According to a Dec. 7 Wall Street Journal report citing people familiar with the matter, Justice Minister Andrej Milović in Montenegro plans to grant U.S. officials’ request for extradition. Kwon was arrested in Montenegro in March and sentenced to four months in prison for using falsified travel documents. He has also been charged in the U.S. and South Korea for his alleged role in the collapse of Terraform Labs.

Milović reportedly said the announcement would be made public “in a timely manner.” If extradited to the U.S., Kwon faces eight charges, including commodities fraud, securities fraud, wire fraud and conspiracy to defraud and engage in market manipulation related to his time at Terra. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission also charged Kwon with “defrauding investors in crypto schemes” in February.