Israeli court rules authorities can seize crypto in 150 blacklisted wallets

Tel Aviv’s Magistrate Court has reportedly issued a ruling allowing Israel’s government to seize all the crypto in more than 150 digital wallets that it hablacklisted for allegedly funding terrorist groups.  According to a Dec. 18 local Israeli media report, Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz says the court’s Dec. 15 ruling has already allowed authorities to […]

US regulator to seek feedback on DeFi’s impact on financial crime

A United States financial regulator is looking to gain feedback from the banking industry about how decentralized finance (DeFi) may affect the bureau’s efforts to stop financial crime. The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) said it is “looking carefully” at DeFi, while the agency’s acting director, Himamauli Das, said the digital asset ecosystem and virtual […]

US consumer watchdog probes crypto firms over deceptive ads

Several crypto firms are facing a probe from the United States Federal Trade Commission (FTC) over possible deceptive or misleading advertisements relating to cryptocurrencies. According to a Dec. 6 report from Bloomberg, FTC spokeswoman Juliana Gruenwald said the watchdog is investigating “several firms for possible misconduct concerning digital assets.” Gruenwald did not provide further details […]

INX submits bid for Voyager Digital’s assets

Trading platform INX has submitted a bid for an undisclosed amount to purchase the assets of crypto brokerage firm Voyager Digital. In a Nov. 30 announcement, INX said it had sent a non-binding letter of intent for Voyager’s assets following the platform filing for bankruptcy in July. According to INX CEO Shy Datika, the bid […]

FTX crisis leads to record inflows into short-investment products

Institutional investors have responded to the negative sentiment caused by FTX’s collapse, with record institutional inflows into crypto-focused short-investment products. According to CoinShares’ chief strategy officer James Butterfill, 75% of the total inflows by institutional crypto investors for the week ending Nov. 18 were placed in short investment products — essentially a bet that crypto […]

FTX bankruptcy freezes millions worth of crypto company funds

The collapse of the cryptocurrency exchange FTX continues to have knock-on effects throughout the crypto industry with multiple crypto-focused companies reporting significant amounts of their capital stuck on FTX. Between Nov. 11 to 14 three crypto companies announced large losses with one of them having to lay off workers to deal with the crisis. On […]

IRS introduces broader ‘Digital Assets’ category ahead of 2022 tax year

American taxpayers will find a broader, more defined category encompassing cryptocurrencies and nonfungible tokens (NFTs) in their 2022 IRS tax forms. The draft bill released by the Internal Revenue Service features a well-defined Digital Assets section that outlines if and how taxpayers will account for the use of cryptocurrencies, stablecoins and NFTs. Page 16 of […]