Policy

The Bank of Russia has proposed mandatory KYC checks for all cryptocurrency transactions on domestic platforms, with a July deadline for legislation that would also require citizens to declare offshore holdings to the Federal Tax Service.

Victims of the $4 billion OneCoin fraud can now file for compensation from a pool of seized assets, but the scheme's mastermind — the so-called Cryptoqueen — has been missing since 2017.

The UK is finalising a comprehensive cryptoasset regime under the Financial Services and Markets Act that draws a sharp line between genuinely decentralised DeFi and protocols with identifiable controlling entities.

The US Senate's most ambitious crypto market structure bill is stuck in a four-way deadlock between banking lobbyists, crypto firms, Democrats and Republicans. If it doesn't clear the Banking Committee this month, it may not get another chance before the midterms.

Paris Blockchain Week 2026 opens tomorrow at the Carrousel du Louvre with four sitting French ministers, nearly twenty members of parliament, and senior executives from BNP Paribas, HSBC and JPMorgan in attendance.

The SEC's Division of Trading and Markets issued a no-action letter giving crypto wallet interfaces and DeFi front-ends a five-year window to operate without broker-dealer registration, subject to strict rules on fees, routing, and disclosure.

The ABA rejected a White House economic report dismissing stablecoin yield risks to bank deposits, arguing the Council of Economic Advisers studied the wrong question as the Clarity Act heads toward a make-or-break Senate markup.

Japan's cabinet has approved amendments reclassifying cryptocurrencies as financial instruments under the FIEA, introducing insider trading bans, ten-year prison terms for unlicensed operators, and a proposed flat 20 per cent capital gains tax.

The amendment to the Financial Instruments and Exchange Act would subject 105 cryptoassets to the same regulatory framework as stocks and bonds, ban insider trading, and cut the maximum tax rate on crypto gains from 55% to a flat 20%.

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission has staffed its new Innovation Task Force with five senior advisors drawn from private practice and the agency's own ranks, moving from policy blueprint to drafting actual rules for crypto, AI systems and prediction markets.

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.

UBS, PostFinance, Sygnum, Raiffeisen, Zürcher Kantonalbank and BCV have opened a controlled testing environment for a Swiss franc stablecoin alongside Swiss Stablecoin AG, an unusually large coalition by European banking standards.

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.

OKX Ventures and HashKey Capital have taken equity stakes in Vietnam Prosperity Crypto Asset Exchange, lifting the venue past the VND 10 trillion capital threshold Hanoi requires for its pilot crypto licensing regime. The deal closes an awkward gap in OKX's Southeast Asian footprint and turns a single domestic operator into the first serious candidate for one of five licences on offer.

FinCEN and OFAC jointly proposed rules that would treat permitted stablecoin issuers as financial institutions under the Bank Secrecy Act for the first time, imposing anti-money laundering programmes, suspicious activity reporting, and sanctions compliance obligations.

Despite Coinbase's chief legal officer declaring a deal was '48 hours away' in early April, the crypto market structure bill remains stuck as DeFi definitions and presidential conflicts of interest complicate negotiations.

The SEC's sweeping Regulation Crypto Assets framework — covering startup exemptions, fundraising relief, and an investment contract safe harbour — is now at the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, the final gate before public comment.

The FDIC board voted on 7 April to advance a comprehensive prudential framework governing how federally supervised banks can issue, back, and redeem payment stablecoins, including a two-business-day redemption requirement.