It’s the biggest financial seizure in the history of the U.S. Department of Justice: $3.6 billion in Bitcoin that the government says was stolen in a massive hack in 2016. A summary of global news developments with CFR analysis delivered to your inbox each morning. Most weekdays. The new FinCEN rules would be less severe than those sanctions, indictments, and busts—a new regulatory process rather than a ban—but also far wider in scope, says Jason Somensatto, Chainalysis’ head of North America public policy. “The impact can be much broader,” says Somensatto. “They can say that this applies to all mixing services that people are interacting with.”
After high levels of volatility diminished the value of several prominent cryptocurrencies in 2022, a handful of crypto firms were unable to pay back their lenders, which were primarily other crypto firms. Many borrowers and lenders declared bankruptcy, including FTX, at the time the world’s third-largest cryptocurrency exchange. The collapse of FTX and other firms resulted in tens of billions of dollars in losses to investors, though traditional financial firms were relatively unscathed. Connect with us When an individual promotes a cryptocurrency or other digital asset defined as securities without disclosing that they are being paid by their issuers, that is known as touting - an illegal practice under US federal securities laws. Over the past five years, several celebrities have been sanctioned by the SEC for violating touting laws when promoting Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs).