Category Security

XRP ( XRP-USD ), the third largest cryptocurrency in the world, lost nearly a third of its value on Wednesday, when investors responded to official accusations from the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) alleging that the token is an unlicensed bond.

The SEC filed lawsuits on Tuesday against U.S. company Ripple, whose founders created XRP. Two Ripple executives also face charges.

The SEC alleged that Ripple and its executives sold unlicensed securities, violating the rights of investors in the lawsuit. The watchdog said the group had illegally raised $1.3bn (£968m) since 2013 by selling XRP tokens without SEC authorization.

Read the entire story at: finance.yahoo.com.

Devoid of any regulatory framework in the last four years, we have been operating in limbo when it comes to developing and advancing encryption products. Innovators in the fintech and blockchain industries have the ability and vision to create products that solve real problems for everyone, from individuals to big banks and governments, but without a clear path forward, these products cannot grow and scale to their full potential.

Regulation should not be a guessing game. Since 2019, when the Securities and Exchange Commission declared that neither Bitcoin (BTC) nor Ethereum (ETH) are securities, the sector is stagnant. Without clarity, blockchain innovation will be limited to just two currencies - the industry is much bigger than that. The lack of regulation stifles the immense potential that encryption and blockchain provide.

A new administration presents a new opportunity for elected officials across the political spectrum to develop clear policies and regulations that allow banks, fintechs and corporations to custody and use encryption to improve efficiency and provide a better customer experience.

Read the full story at: techcrunch.com.

Bloomberg reports noted that Bolund highlighted the key characteristics the country wants the new digital currency to have. Some of its core functions include the availability of digital currency to a wide range of people across the country while using it to make payments for digital services.

This latest decision to create a digital currency for Sweden is coming at a time when the world's leading countries are looking to research, develop and launch their digital currency. According to a recent survey by the Central Bank of Sweden, only one tenth of the country's population carries out its cash transactions. In the report, the Central Bank notes that the main reason most people switched to digital payments was the coronavirus pandemic that devastated the entire world at the beginning of the year.

The Central Bank said that to whet the appetite of those who ask for a digital payment system of the crown decided to embark on research to create the digital currency. In addition, the Central Bank said it has already started its pilot program and is scheduled to end in February next year. According to a statement from The Governor of the Central Bank of Sweden, Stefan Ingves, he wants the Central Bank to develop e-krona so that it can be used as a bargaining chip across the country.

Read the full story at: tokenhell.com.

Southeast Asia's largest bank, DBS Group Holdings, has announced that next week it will launch its own bitcoin and cryptocurrency exchange. The platform will also provide custody services to retail, institutional and elite investors.

DBS Digital Exchange is the name of the bank platform that will facilitate trading with bitcoin, Ethereum's ether, bitcoin cash and Ripple's XRP. They can be exchanged for four fiat currencies: the Singapore dollar, the US dollar, the Hong Kong dollar and the Japanese yen.

Piyush Gupta, director of DBS, said they are "ready to start trading cryptocurrencies next week." The exchange already has the approval of the Monetary Authority of Singapore to operate on assets of organized markets, such as stocks, bonds and private equity funds.

Read the full story at: explica.co.

Brian Brooks is the administrator of the federal banking system and director of the Office of The Compttose of The Currency (OCC). The OCC oversees nearly 1,200 national banks, federal savings associations, and federal branches of foreign banks that conduct approximately 70 per cent of all U.S. banking businesses.

"What we need is clarity about what is allowed and therefore we need some guidance, for example, if banks can directly connect to blockchains as payment networks, the answer has to be yes," explained Brooks, who previously served as chief legal officer at Coinbase. He emphasized that some aspects of the new regulation will provide clarity about the nature of cryptographic assets.

He continued, "We need some guidance, for example, on whether banks can connect directly to blockchains as payment networks. The answer has to be yes. We need answers about banks that can cost cryptocurrencies so that institutions feel comfortable adopting them. And you saw what happened when we gave that clarity. "

Read the full story at: news.bitcoin.com.

A large number of businesses and business ventures have gone bankrupt due to geographical differences or low revenue as a result of inaccessibility or inadequacy of interaction with potential customers and payment methods. Cross-border payments provide an easy way to send funds between territories, regardless of language barriers and other potential problems. It has many benefits and disadvantages and this guide set out to explain it in detail.

International wholesale payments generally refer to payments or transfers of funds that are made between financial institutions. These payments are made with the objective of supporting the client's activities or the cross-border activities of the financial institution, i.e. foreign exchange, stock and debt trading, commodities and securities, derivatives, borrowing and lending, etc.

However, cross-border cryptographic payments are delineated. The low cost and accessibility of cross-border cryptographic payments depend on the type of digital asset being used. It can be very expensive to make transactions through Bitcoin, Ethereum, and some other cryptocurrencies.

Read the full story at: coinspeaker.com.

Representatives Rashida Tlaib, Jesús "Chuy" and Stephen Lynch, all Democrats, presented the Stablecoin Tethering Act and Bank Licensing Enforcement (STABLE) on Wednesday. The press release said it would regulate stablecoins by identifying the stablecoin of the Libra project led by Facebook, which has since been renamed Diem, as an example of the type of projects targeted, CoinDesk reports.

Rohan Gray, an assistant professor at Willamette University College of Law in Oregon and an adviser to the three representatives, told CoinDesk that the bill really defines what a deposit is with regard to digital assets. In your opinion, stablecoins are effectively a form of native Internet deposit.

Several stablecoin issuers currently operate in the United States without bank permits, including the CENTER consortium (composed of Circle and Coinbase), Gemini and Paxos. Algorithmic stable coins like basis.cash or cryptographic guarantee tokens like DAI also seem to fit into this project.

Read the full story at: asiatimes.com.

Are central banks legally allowed to issue digital currencies? In an attempt to answer this question, the legal department of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has published a document in which it makes a complete review of existing financial legal provisions. In this sense, it concludes that a reform of the laws is necessary so that the digital currencies of the central bank (CBDC) can acquire the status of legal course.

In the report, IMF advisers pointed out that cbdc issuance should be based on a sound legal basis that is consistent with central bank law. Although in many cases this law only authorizes the issuance of coins in paper or plastic. Nothing is legally backed in digital format, which represents a challenge.

However, the document proposes a form: "in any case, this lack of legal basis can be corrected by changes to the law of the central bank". However, he clarifies that even if the CBDC issue has a solid legal basis under central bank law, its status under monetary law will continue to "raise many complex issues." Especially since digital currencies do not represent a new currency and can only be considered as a form of payment expressed in currencies, according to the report.

Read the full story at: explica.co.

Since its inception, the blockchain industry has stood out among other technologies because of the power it gives users, ensuring a consistent flow of data. The emergence of self-hosted wallets, also known as self-custody portfolios, allows individuals to have full control over their cryptoassets.

Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong has surfaced rumors that the U.S. Treasury and Secretary Steven Mnuchin are rushing to pass a law that will directly affect self-hosted digital asset portfolios before the end of his term.

The executive expressed his concerns via Twitter on Wednesday and pointed out some of the "unintended side effects" that the regulation may bring.

Read the full story at: fxstreet.com.

The Washington Examiner found that Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe wrote a letter to SEC President Jay Clayton earlier this month, pointing to U.S. concerns about China's dominance over the digital currency, as more than half of the world's cryptocurrency "mining" operations are located in that country, and how the Chinese government is meditating on its own state-controlled digital currency , which would make it difficult for U.S.-based companies and innovations to compete.

The letter, which was not previously disclosed, signals a push by President Trump's spy chief to convince the SEC to implement rules that make it easier for U.S.-owned cryptocurrency companies to compete against those based and controlled by China. Attached was a copy of a letter that Senator Tom Cotton sent to Clayton over the summer.

Cotton, an Arkansas Republican who strongly criticizes China, first sent a letter to Clayton in December 2018, stating that the SEC needs to "develop a clearer policy articulation and ultimately formal guidance from the Digital Currency Commission " to ensure that U.S. companies have a chance to lead. The senator addressed the same issue in a July 2020 follow-up letter to Ratcliffe and White House national security adviser Robert O'Brien, lamenting how "so far the Commission has concluded that only two digital assets should be considered non-securities - Chinese-controlled Bitcoin and Ether." Cotton also argued that" the continuing lack of regulatory clarity not only harms digital assets developed in the United States but also puts American national and economic security at serious risk."

Read the full story at: washingtonexaminer.com.