Today in crypto, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has issued new requests under its $1.4 billion deal with El Salvador, aiming to restrict Bitcoin purchases by the public sector in the country, and the US Securities and Exchange Commission dropped its investigation of Yuga Labs, as well as its lawsuit against Kraken.
IMF deal to ban public sector “Bitcoin accumulation” in El Salvador
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is looking to restrict Bitcoin purchases by El Salvador as part of an extended $1.4 billion funding arrangement with the country.
On March 3, the IMF issued a new request for an extended arrangement under its fund facility to El Salvador, filing several new documents, including a staff statement update and a statement by its executive director for El Salvador.
The technical memorandum of understanding indicated a condition of “no voluntary accumulation of BTC by the public sector in El Salvador.”
Additionally, the memorandum requested the restriction of public sector issuance of “any type of debt or tokenized instrument that is indexed to or denominated in Bitcoin and implies a liability to the public sector.”
An excerpt from the IMF’s technical memorandum of understanding with El Salvador. Source: IMF
The IMF’s latest loan conditions reinforced prior commitments from the Salvadoran government to limit its engagement in Bitcoin-related economic activities.
Yuga Labs says SEC stopped investigating the NFT firm
Yuga Labs, the company known for making once high-priced non-fungible tokens (NFTs), said on March 3 that the SEC closed its investigation into the company.
“After 3+ years, the SEC has officially closed its investigation into Yuga Labs,” the company said in a March 3 X post. “This is a huge win for NFTs and all creators pushing our ecosystem forward. NFTs are not securities.”
Source: Yuga Labs
Bloomberg reported in October 2022 that the SEC, under former Chair Gary Gensler, opened a probe into Yuga Labs to determine if certain NFTs functioned more like stocks and could be considered securities.
The probe was part of a wider investigation into determining the security status of NFTs that included probes into NFT creators and marketplaces.
The SEC has been reeling back its actions in the crypto space under the Trump administration. Late last month, NFT marketplace OpenSea said the agency closed its investigation into the platform, which came just hours after the SEC dropped its lawsuit against crypto exchange Coinbase.
SEC drops Kraken lawsuit
Earlier on March 3, the SEC dropped its lawsuit against crypto exchange Kraken roughly 15 months after accusing the exchange of operating as a broker-dealer without registration.
Kraken said that the suit was dropped with no penalties paid and no changes to the exchange’s business.
Kraken described the lawsuit as a “wasteful, politically motivated campaign.” With the lawsuit in the rearview mirror, it “clears the path toward a stable, forward-thinking regulatory regime,” the exchange said.
Since President Donald Trump took office, the SEC has dismissed its lawsuits against Coinbase, OpenSea, Gemini and Robinhood, signaling a changing of the guard at the agency.
Meanwhile, the SEC’s newly created Crypto Task Force has met with several industry representatives to discuss regulations and ways to create a clear framework for policing digital assets.
