gm: SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce Critiques SEC’s Approach to Crypto SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce has been an outspoken advocate for crypto and a candid critic of her own agency’s approach to regulating crypto markets. In an extensive chat with Dan Roberts and Stacy Elliott she discussed FTX, Gary Gensler, DeFi, and the problems with the Howey Test. Don’t miss this…
Amid growing interest in self-custody solutions, Bitcoin-centric startup Foundation Devices announced today that it has closed a $7 million seed funding round. The Boston-based company said that it will use the cash to continue developing its crypto “digital sovereignty” products, which include both hardware and software wallets. Blockchain investment firm Polychain Capital led the round, with Greenfield Capital, Lightning Ventures, Unpopular…
Welcome to Law Decoded, your weekly digest of all the major developments in the field of regulation. The FTX drama escalated last week when the Royal Bahamas Police Force arrested its former CEO, Sam Bankman-Fried, at the request of the United States government. Within hours, politicians, crypto executives and influencers had all booted up their Twitter apps to comment on…
According to a myriad of social media posts, the meme crypto project Shiba Inu is planning to launch the highly anticipated Shibarium, a layer two (L2) project that was supposed to launch this year in the third quarter. Shiba Inu supporters believe the Shibarium launch is imminent as a number of community members have been sharing animated images of countdown…
Jo Johnson, the brother of former United Kingdom prime minister Boris Johnson, has reportedly stepped down from his role as an adviser to Binance, according to a report by the U.K.’s Telegraph. According to the report, Jo Johnson had been advising Binance during the exchange’s efforts to expand into the United Kingdom. The former British prime minister’s brother, also known as…
There’s hardly a project, protocol, or institution that hasn’t felt the sting of contagion in 2022. The lucky ones are ending the year having had to downsize their workforce to weather what seems to be an increasingly severe crypto bull market. The unlucky ones—and there have been many—are facing liquidation, lawsuits, and jail time. The contagion—or tendency for a financial…
Binance has acquired Indonesian crypto asset trader Tokocrypto, according to local reports on Dec. 19. The purchase was confirmed in a tweet by Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao (CZ), who characterized the deal as having “just injected more cash and increased our shareholding a bit.” Changes are expected at the exchange. Tokocrypto founder Pang Xue Kai will reportedly step down as…
In brief Fortnite creator Epic Games will pay $520 million in FTC settlements regarding allegations over in-game purchases and protecting young players. Epic Games is valued at $31.5 billion and is working to “build the metaverse.” Epic Games, creator of popular online action game Fortnite and a self-described metaverse builder, will pay a total of $520 million in settlements to…
We’re thrilled to announce that Kraken now supports withdrawals to Taproot (Bech32m) Bitcoin addresses! Taproot is an upgrade to the Bitcoin protocol that aims to improve the privacy and efficiency of the world’s first and largest cryptocurrency. Taproot included three proposals — Schnorr, Taproot, and Tapscript — which delivered key aggregation, Merklized Alternative Script Trees (MAST), and an improved version…
Former FTX chief executive officer Sam Bankman-Fried, who is currently facing multiple charges related to wire fraud and securities fraud, reportedly said he wanted to see the indictment against him before agreeing to extradition to the United States. Appearing in an emergency hearing of the Bahamas Magistrate Court on Dec. 19 for the first time since his bail was denied,…
