Policy

Kevin Warsh's ethics filing reveals stakes in DeFi protocols, Ethereum scaling networks, a Bitcoin Lightning startup, and prediction markets — all of which he must divest before taking the job.

The European Central Bank's formal endorsement of centralised crypto oversight threatens the licensing arbitrage that has made Ireland, Luxembourg and Malta the preferred jurisdictions for exchanges seeking the easiest path to MiCA compliance.

Representatives Horsford and Miller have reintroduced the PARITY Act, a revised crypto tax bill that applies stock-market wash sale rules to digital assets while offering tax deferral on staking and mining rewards.

The FDIC has approved proposed rules requiring stablecoin issuers to honour redemptions within two business days, maintain one-to-one reserve backing, and meet capital and risk management standards — while explicitly excluding stablecoin holders from deposit insurance protection.

Three Democratic senators have opened a formal probe into the 25 April Mar-a-Lago event that sells access to President Trump based on holdings of his personal memecoin, demanding documents from promoter Fight Fight Fight LLC by 21 April.

The Hong Kong Monetary Authority handed its inaugural stablecoin issuer licences to HSBC and Anchorpoint Financial on Friday, selecting two winners from a field of 36 applicants and clearing the path for the city's first bank-issued HKD stablecoins within months.

In an extraordinary intervention, the DOJ and CFTC have asked a Phoenix judge to halt Arizona's criminal case against prediction market Kalshi, arguing that sports and election event contracts are swaps under federal law and beyond the reach of state gambling statutes.

The US Treasury will share the same cyber-threat intelligence it distributes to traditional banks with qualifying crypto exchanges, custodians and wallet providers, in an admission that digital assets are now inside the perimeter of core financial infrastructure.

Implied volatility on bitcoin options has fallen to its lowest level since January even as March CPI is expected to hit 3.4% year-on-year, up from 2.4% in February, driven by the Iran war energy shock.

South Korea's financial regulators have ordered all domestic crypto exchanges to adopt standardised withdrawal delays and eliminate individual exemption policies, a move designed to disrupt voice phishing scams that exploit the speed of crypto transactions.

The State Administration of Taxation and the National Financial Regulatory Administration jointly issued guidelines on 5 April that embed blockchain into the country's bank-tax data infrastructure, with a nationwide rollout targeted for 2029.

Risk assets reversed sharp losses within hours after the US president stepped back from a threat to annihilate Iranian infrastructure, accepting a Pakistani-brokered pause that sent oil tumbling 8 per cent from session highs.

An IRGC-linked intermediary is charging vessels up to $2 million per transit in stablecoins and Chinese yuan, formalising a sanctions-evasion toll system at the world's most critical oil chokepoint.

Blockchain investigator ZachXBT accuses Circle of failing to freeze $420 million in illicit USDC since 2022, while the stablecoin issuer blocked legitimate wallets days before the $285 million Drift hack.

Japan's FSA is transferring oversight of Bitcoin, Ethereum and 103 other cryptocurrencies from payment law to the country's securities framework, cutting capital gains tax to 20% and mandating exchange liability reserves.

Japan's FSA is advancing a sweeping overhaul that reclassifies 105 major cryptocurrencies as financial products, cutting the maximum tax rate from 55% to a flat 20%.

The landmark US crypto market-structure bill entered Easter recess without a markup date, imperilling its chances of becoming law before November's midterm elections.

A European Central Bank working paper reveals the top 100 token holders control over 80% of governance power in major DeFi protocols, challenging claims of decentralisation ahead of MiCA's July deadline.

The landmark US crypto regulation bill enters a critical window after Easter recess with stablecoin yield disputes unresolved and a May deadline looming before midterm politics freeze legislative action.