Weekly Update #31
Mark Collins & Demetrius TSEAS
regulation:
NYDFS Announces New Guidelines for Cryptocurrency Listings: November 15, New York State Treasury serviceGeneral services including non-profits, forums, news sheets…See more (NYDFS) issued guidanceSetting new enhanced standards for listing and delisting virtual currency coins for all virtual currency (VC) businesses under “BitLicense”. Under previous guidance, a VC entity that previously had an approved coin listing policy may not self-certify any coins until it has submitted to the Department and received approval a coin listing policy that meets the standards in section (A). We have an approved coin destruction policy that complies with the Guidelines and meets the criteria in section (B) of the Guidelines. After DFS approves the coin listing policy, VC institutions can proceed with self-certification of the coins, allowing New York or New York residents to use the coins for approved virtual currency business activities. The Department will not approve a coin listing policy that is not accompanied by a coin delisting policy. For new coins, VC firms must conduct a comprehensive risk assessment that includes the following factors: technical design and technical risks; operational risks cybersecurity risks; market and liquidity risk; illicit financial risks; legal risks; Reputational Risk Regulatory Risk. Additionally, VC firms should consider the following: Conflicts of interest and customer protection issues. Under the new guidelines, VC firms cannot self-verify anonymity-enhanced coins designed to obfuscate the identity of individuals or companies. stablecoinStablecoins can also be privately issued cryptocurrencies or algorithms. Not included in the green list Now only includes:: BitcoinThe term “Bitcoin” refers to the Bitcoin network,…See more (BTC) Ethereum (ETH) and six stablecoins: Gemini Dollar (GUSD), GMO JPY (GYEN), GMO USD (ZUSD), Pax Gold (PAXG), Pax Dollar (USDP), and PayPal Dollar (PYUSD). . x Stablecoin approved by VC firm to be issued in New York
Philippines issues DLT-based tokenized bonds. On November 16, the Philippine Board of Finance (BTr) presentation The Philippines has offered its first Philippine Peso-denominated Tokenized Treasury Bond (TTB) to raise at least P10 billion from the domestic bond market. BTr has seen strong demand. The book reached 31.426 billion pesos ($560 million), more than three times the target issue size of 10 billion pesos ($180 million), and ultimately raised $270 million. TTB is a one-year fixed rate government security paying 6.5% interest semi-annually, issued in the form of a digital token and maintained in BTr’s distributed ledger technology (DLT) registry. BTr implements a dual registry structure where the DLT registry runs in parallel with the National Registry of Scripless Securities (NRoSS), with NRoSS serving as the primary registry. TTB is available to qualified institutional buyers at this time, but may expand to the wider public over time.
BIS examines anonymity and privacy considerations for CBDCs. Issued by the Bank for International Settlements on November 17 Working papers nr. 1147 Title: Central Bank Digital Currencies and Privacy: A Randomized Survey Experiment. “ Privacy is one of the key features to consider in the design of central bank digital currencies (CBDCs). Randomized online survey using a nationally representative sample of over 3,500 participants to examine how willingness to use CBDC as a payment method varies depending on level of privacy and provision of information about the privacy benefits of using CBDC Perform an experiment. We found that both factors significantly increased participants’ willingness to use CBDC when purchasing privacy-sensitive products, by up to 60%. Our findings provide useful insights regarding the design and public adoption of CBDCs. “.
The U.S. SEC charged Kraken with operating an unregistered stock exchange. November 20 Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) charged Payward Inc. and Payward Ventures Inc., together known as Kraken, operate Kraken’s cryptocurrency trading platform as an unregistered stock exchange, broker, dealer and clearing agent without registering with any regulatory agency. The SEC also alleges that Kraken’s business practices, lack of internal controls and record-keeping practices pose a variety of risks to customers. As alleged in the complaint, Kraken mixes customers’ money with its own money, including paying operating expenses directly from accounts that hold customer cash. Kraken also reportedly mixed customers’ cryptocurrency assets with its own, creating assets that its own auditors identified as a “significant risk of loss” for customers.
The U.S. Treasury announced the largest settlement in history with Binance for violations of U.S. AML and sanctions laws. On November 21, the U.S. Department of the Treasury (DoJ), through the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), and the IRS criminalA criminal is an individual or group of people who have been convicted. Investigation (CI); took unprecedented collective action Binance Holdings Ltd. and its affiliates (collectively, Binance) will be held liable for violations of the following: Bank Secrecy Protection ActThe Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) is a U.S. law that targets the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA). (BSA), USA Anti-Money Laundering (AML)Anti-money laundering (AML) rules are designed to help prevent money laundering. and various sanctions programs. FinCEN’s settlement agreement requires significant compliance measures, including assessing a $3.4 billion civil penalty, imposing five years of monitoring, and ensuring Binance’s complete withdrawal from the United States. OFAC’s settlement agreement imposes a $968 million fine and requires Binance to comply with a series of tough sanctions compliance obligations, including full cooperation with watchdogs overseen by FinCEN. Effective immediately, Changpeng Zhao (CZ) will step down as CEO of Binance and be succeeded by Richard Teng, who until now was Binance’s Global Head of Regional Markets. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said “Binance ignored its legal obligations in its pursuit of profits. Deliberate failures allowed money to flow through the platform to terrorists, cybercriminals and child abusers. ” Binance issued a resolution together with the DoJ. Binance BlogCZ, former CEO of Binance He shared his decision to step down as CEO of Binance via X (formerly Twitter). postFinCEN’s consent order is available here. here.
Kwon Do-won, who leaves Montenegro in a hurry: Terraform Labs co-founder Do Kwon could face extradition to the United States or South Korea, subject to approval by a Montenegrin court. The final decision rests with Montenegro’s Justice Minister after Kwon was arrested on suspicion of attempting to flee the country using forged documents, and he faces charges in the United States and South Korea. court decision
Cryptocurrency News:
BTC User Accidentally Costs $3.1 Million in Fees A Bitcoin user unintentionally paid $3.1 million in transaction fees for transferring 139 BTC, making it the 8th highest fee in Bitcoin history. The sender transferred more than half of the actual value to the destination without knowing the non-cancellable policy for replacement fees. addressIn the context of cryptocurrency, an address is encrypted information.Speculation suggests a combination of high fees and Replace-by-Fee (RBF) selection. wordIn the world of digital currencies, nodes are…More Policy contributed to the incident. Mempool
Binance is seeing relatively few outflows following the DOJ decision. blockchainBlockchain is a shared digital ledger or… Read more About 24 hours after the U.S. Department of Justice reached a $4.3 billion settlement with Binance, analytics firm Nansen said there had been no “massive outflows” from Ethereum, despite net outflows of $956 million. Binance’s total holdings have grown to over $65 billion, and while withdrawals continue, Nansen noted that past events, including the SEC lawsuit in June 2023, bankruptcy rumors in December 2022, and the FTX aftermath, have further increased outflows. Nansen
Bittrex ceases operations: Bittrex Global announced its intention to cease operations, beginning December 4 with a halt to trading activities. The decision, announced on November 20, follows plans by its US-based counterpart to suspend operations in response to regulatory uncertainty, while the platform provides advice to users. Convert your US dollar holdings to euros cryptocurrencyCryptocurrency (or cryptocurrency) is a digital asset. Before December 4th to avoid withdrawal problems. Bittrex
Atomic seeks to dismiss the class action lawsuit: The company that operates Atomic walletA wallet is a device (a hardware device, program, or service). has asked to dismiss a U.S. class action lawsuit over the $100 million hack, arguing that the suit should be filed in Estonia, where the company is headquartered, because it has “no U.S. ties.” In its motion to dismiss in Colorado district court, Atomic Wallet highlighted its end-user license agreement that obliges it to sue in Estonia and stressed that only one user in Colorado was affected by the incident. bloomberg
Hacks and Exploits:
HTX restores functionality after hacking. Cryptocurrency exchange HTX, formerly known as Huobi, restored Bitcoin services following a $30 million hack on November 22. In the update, HTX noted that deposits and withdrawals are now possible for a variety of currencies, including BTC, ETH, TRX, and USDT. , founder Justin Sun expects all functionality for other cryptocurrencies to be gradually restored by next week. presentation
KyberSwap Hacker: On November 22nd, KyberSwap offered a 10% bounty reward to hackers who stole $46 million and left a negotiating note. KyberSwap requested that 90% of the stolen funds be returned by 6:00 AM (UTC) on November 25. Otherwise, hackers will be urged to “keep running,” and the team expressed openness to further discussions via email. Cointelegraph
HECO Bridge: In a series of recent cyberattacks, two projects linked to Justin Sun suffered losses of $86.6 million from the HECO Chain’s Ethereum bridge and $12.5 million from a hot wallet belonging to HTX. This comes just 12 days after Sun’s Poloniex suffered $126 million in losses, with Sun’s repeated security breaches and security breaches totaling $233 million in losses across its projects over the past three months. It raised concerns about potential regulatory scrutiny. Rectangle