7/10/22 Round Up

DeFi Weekly Roundup

July 10, 2022

Federal 

  • A new advisory notice released by the US Office of Government Ethics bars government officials who privately own cryptocurrencies from working on regulations and policies that could affect the value of digital assets.
  • A potential class-action lawsuit filed in a California federal court last week accuses key players in the Solana ecosystem of illegally profiting from SOL, the blockchain’s native token that, according to the suit, is an unregistered security.
  • The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation is looking into Voyager Digital marketing of deposit accounts for cryptocurrency purchases, an FDIC official said, confirming a report in the Wall Street Journal.
  • One of the top officials at the Federal Reserve made it abundantly clear that the central bank – which is also a powerful financial watchdog – is paying careful attention to the flaws showing up as the crypto sector founders.
  • The Treasury Department announced a new framework for international engagement on digital assets—as mandated by President Joe Biden’s executive order. The release describes Departments ongoing efforts to do things through multilateral institutions like promote development of central bank digital currencies, lower the costs of cross-border payments and crack down on money laundering.

State 

  • Below is a summary of the latest legislative developments that have occurred this past week in state legislatures. Our master state legislative tracker working document can be found here. 
    • Arizona: HB 2204 – Would add virtual currency and NFT’s to tax deduction eligible assets. The bill passed both houses and was signed by the governor on 7/6.
  • New Jersey: A.4355 – Requires public high school students to receive financial literacy instruction on higher education costs, student financial assistance, and cryptocurrencies.
  • California: S.B.786 – Would allow county recorders to issue birth, death and marriage certificates by means of blockchain.
  • Colorado and Utah are moving ahead with programs that will permit taxes to be paid in cryptocurrency, but the idea has been shelved in other states. 

International

  • Despite China’s sweeping bans on cryptocurrencies, domestic web3 talent is quietly flourishing, with many venturing beyond the country’s border according to a report from TechCrunch. 
  • The Monetary Authority of Singapore says it is considering more restrictive crypto regulations in a letter to the country’s parliament.
  • Trading volumes have plummeted in India after a new 1% tax on all transactions began being enforced on 7/1. 
  • Binance, operating as Moon Tech Spain has received registration with the Bank of Spain as a Virtual Asset Service Provider.
  • Russia’s financial monitoring agency, Rosfinmonitoring, said on Friday it was using software to track cryptocurrency transactions and hopes to improve its capabilities, as Moscow ushers in regulation on what one lawmaker dubbed “cryptomania”.
  • The Binance Head of Policy capped off a lightning round of lobbying in the EU last week ahead of legislators meeting next week to iron out policy divisions over MiCA.

Industry

  • Three Arrows Capital, a crypto hedge fund, filed for Chapter 15 bankruptcy in the Southern District of New York federal court after weeks of speculation about the company’s solvency.
  • Meta will shut down Novi, the social media company’s digital wallet payments pilot, on 9/1, all but ending the libra stablecoin experiment three years after the company then known as Facebook unveiled its ambitious but ultimately doomed crypto payments gamble.