Last October, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) – the U.S. Treasury Department's money laundering watchdog – announced a proposal to label crypto mixers as a "primary money laundering" concern, a move that alarmed a broad swath of the crypto industry. Treasury Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Brian Nelson addressed this move and more at CoinDesk's Consensus 2024 last month in Austin, Texas on stage. The following transcript has been lightly edited (and the bulk of my questions have been slimmed down to their gist).
The only thing worse than meme coins is complaining about the financialization of memes.
The creator of the Ordinals and Runes protocols discussed his motivations on stage at Consensus 2024.
In an interview at Consensus 2024, the Galaxy Digital CEO was asked about a plethora of regulatory and legislative issues affecting crypto.
Conference attendees give their say on market sentiment.
While many in the industry cheered the passing of the Financial Innovation and Technology for the 21st Century Act yesterday, many other raised criticisms and concerns.
Laszlo Hanyecz is famous for spending 10,000 bitcoin on two pizzas. But his involvement with Bitcoin development goes much deeper than food purchases.
This week, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission might approve spot ether exchange-traded funds (ETFs), the House of Representatives may vote in favor of a crypto market structure bill, the company behind a decentralized exchange is arguing with the SEC, and that's all just in the U.S. All of these topics will come up at Consensus 2024 next week.
The U.S. is holding its presidential election this fall. More than half a dozen other countries and bodies are likewise holding – or have held – elections this year. Some candidates and lawmakers have already addressed crypto, whether appealing to the industry or just commenting on the technology. The extent to which there is such a thing as a "crypto voter" remains unclear, but it is undeniable that there is a wave of attention directed at this industry.
It’d be foolish for people to vote against their own interests.
Last month, Ethereum incubator ConsenSys sued the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for an injunction asking a federal court to block the regulator from investigating its MetaMask offering or from declaring Ether (ETH) a security. It's the latest company to follow a growing trend of preemptive litigation against the SEC.
Robinhood apparently made strenuous efforts to comply with the agency, even applying to become a special purpose crypto broker-dealer. The SEC is likely to sue for alleged securities violations in any case.
His four-month sentence was vindication for the Binance founder’s legal strategy.
There was a lot of news last week, but maybe the biggest news came Wednesday when the U.S. Department of Justice arrested two co-founders of Samourai Wallet, a bitcoin wallet that offered mixing services. The arrest ramps up the federal government's efforts to tamp down on what it sees as money laundering enabled by privacy tools, and sets up a continuation of that broader conversation on where the right to transact in privacy fits within national security interests.
Following DOJ action against Samourai Wallet and a possible Metamask investigation, Wasabi Wallet and Phoenix are closing their U.S. offerings. Is non-custodial crypto under threat?
One of the closely watched indicators of retail interest is booming.
As expected, Sam Bankman-Fried's legal team filed a notice of his intent to appeal his conviction on fraud and conspiracy charges. So far all we have is just the notice – the actual brief won't come for some time yet.
The famously pre-planned, programmatic event, currently predicted for April 19, is surprisingly hard to predict at minute scales.
The DEX received a Wells Notice from the regulator, suggesting an enforcement action is imminent. While we don’t know the nature of the potential charges, the news raises the threat of legal jeopardy for decentralized finance.
Known for her fiery dissenting opinions, "Crypto Mom" discusses how the SEC operates, why she wants to see crypto thrive and her "Safe Harbor" proposal to allow projects to decentralize.
Sam Bankman-Fried is going to prison. He won't be spending time in a maximum security facility, and he'll be placed as close to his family in the San Francisco Bay Area as possible, but he's going to prison nonetheless – and he'll be there for the next 25 years.
The activist's new book "Governable Spaces" explores ways blockchains can help people experiment with self-governance online.
Two mid-levels executives were detained without charge for more than a month, one escaped. Here’s what we know so far about Nigeria's legal battle with Binance.
Known for popularizing the term “singularity,” the cypherpunk writer, who died this week, was prophetic about the age of artificial intelligence and cryptocurrency.
As BTC gets Wall Street approval and developers build new applications on the network, Bitcoiners are ditching some of their previous siege mentality.
Cheaper L2 transactions. Data blobs. Proto-Danksharding. Everything you need to know about tomorrow’s changes.
What’s different this time? ETFs, Wall Street and a lack of celebrity influencers — for now.