Regulation

FSB Appoints Top Crypto Regulator As Head Of Regulatory Cooperation

Published

2 weeks ago

September 3, 2019

Stefan

FSB appoints the well-known crypto regulator Ryozo Himino as the new head of the Standing Committee on Supervisory and Regulatory Cooperation as we are reading in the latest cryptocurrency news below.

In a press release that was issued on Monday, the Financial Stability Board announced Himino’s appointment. The statement shows that the new executive will serve a two-year term starting from the end of September this year. Himino is taking over from Norman Chan who was the head of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority. For the FSB, the new executive was appointed because of his huge experience in international policy regulatory matters and a huge knowledge of cryptocurrency. As a part of the FSA, Himino played a very important role in shaping Japan’s approach to regulating cryptocurrency and crypto exchanges. Many of the regulatory policies have centered around the safe custody of the customer funds by the crypto exchanges. Despite the efforts, the Japanese exchanges are still a target of hackers where they lose millions of tokens and money from their platforms.

Himino was also at the front of Japan’s efforts to convince the G20 in adopting streamlined cryptocurrency policies since the anti-money laundering laws are a key focus on the considerations around the crypto governance. The intergovernmental Financial Action Task Force also issued some guidelines on how the countries should oversee their local crypto industries from an AML compliance point of view. As 2018 ended, the crypto-related money laundering cases accounted for less than 2 percent of the total money laundering cases in Japan.

This was one of the reasons why the FSB appoints this new head of the sector because according to the Japanese media outlet Excite News, Himino’s new position will focus on Facebook’s proposed Libra cryptocurrency and its regulation. The reports indicated that the FSB wants Himino to leverage his experience in creating new laws that will govern Libra’s operations. The Libra crypto project still attracts heavy criticism from the finance sphere as we read in the altcoin news. The Executive board member from the European Central Bank described Libra as being the ‘’siren call of treacherous promises’’ and according to him, Facebook’s cartel-like Libra will severely damage the ECB’s ability to establish monetary policy in the region.

DC Forecasts is a leader in many crypto news categories, striving for the highest journalistic standards and abiding by a strict set of editorial policies. If you are interested to offer your expertise or contribute to our news website, feel free to contact us at editor@dcforecasts.com

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Stefan

Stefan has been a Bitcoin Specialist for over 5 years. Providing daily news and updates for DC Forecasts.

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Altcoin News

OKEx Korea Delisted Monero, Dash, And Other Privacy-Cryptos Over FATF Demands

Published

13 hours ago

September 16, 2019

Stefan

The latest cryptocurrency news show that the South Korean arm of the cryptocurrency exchange OKEx has decided to remove support for five major altcoins. It is true that OKEx Korea delisted Monero, Dash and other coins due to new international regulations. As a blog post originally published on September 10 shows, OKEx Korea confirmed that it would halt trading of Monero (XMR), Dash (DASH), Zcash (ZEC), Horizen (ZEN) and Super Bitcoin (SBTC) on October 10. As the exchange revealed, the main reason for this is that as since they are focused on privacy, the coins fall foul of the new guidelines set out by the intergovernmental body which is the Financial Action Task Force (FATF). OKEx Korea delisted these altcoins, the blog post confirms, showing:

“Support for trading of 5 different cryptocurrencies, XMR, DASH, ZEC, ZEN, SBTC, will be terminated.”

As the news site reported, the sweeping changes to crypto transaction rules currently demand businesses to identify the two parties which are sending funds to each other - if a transaction exceeds the limit of $1,000.

"According to the statement corresponding to FATF R.16, OKEx Korea has restricted its implementation as the ' travel rule' recommends that exchanges be able to collect relevant information such as the name and address of the sender and recipient of the virtual asset. privacy-oriented cryptocurrency, aka that ' the dark Coin "has decided to take the deal end-of-support measures of the corresponding event," the blog post showing that OKEx delisted the five altcoins shows.

This comes in period when more than 200 countries are forced to theoretically implement the rules by June 2020. Still, the altcoin news show that there are concerns that doing so is physically impossible for a lot of decentralized blockchains. Now that OKEx Korea delisted the five cryptocurrencies, all of them make it possible to identify the sender and recipient of a transaction by design. An OKEx representative was also featured on many best cryptocurrency news sites a while ago, telling that the coins will only be delisted on OKEx Korea (OKEx.com.kr) but will remain listed on the global OKEx platform. The value of these coins, as the coming altcoin news show, has remained unchanged.

Regulation

IRS Is Hunting Cryptocurrency Traders With Warning & Action Letters

Published

1 day ago

September 15, 2019

Stefan

The latest cryptocurrency news put the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) in the focus. According to reports, the IRS is hunting suspected cryptocurrency holders and traders who may have misreported digital assets on their tax returns. As the sources show, there have been more than 10,000 warning and action letter sent by the authority. Letters such as the 6174-A, 6173 and CP2000 have all appeared in the mailboxes of many cryptocurrency traders all around the United States. A lot of crypto tax software companies are also on the hunt list - and have seen an influx of customers coming to them for tax help out of fear of penalties. As many best cryptocurrency news sites showed, the main problem and reason why IRS is hunting traders is the misreporting of their documents. However, traders claim that the authority does not have all of the necessary information - and that the information they have is extremely misleading. For those of you who don't follow our Bitcoin and altcoin news, cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin in the US are treated as a property from a tax perspective - and not a currency. Just like many other forms of property (stocks, bonds, real estate etc.) the capital gains and losses are incurred on the bills. It also doesn't come as a surprise that a lot of traders are not paying taxes on their crypto activity. This is why the IRS is hunting traders - which is also why it makes sense to start out carrying out these enforcement campaigns. In general, cryptocurrency users are constantly transferring crypto in and out of the exchanges. Therefore, the exchanges have no way of knowing how, when, where or at what cost the cryptocurrencies are acquired. They can only see what appears in the wallet on the specific platform. The second a person transfers crypto in or out of an exchange is when the exchange loses the ability to give users an accurate report detailing the cost basis and the fair market value of the cryptocurrencies. Both of these aspects are mandatory components for tax reporting. All in all, the IRS is hunting traders without all the information. So, if you receive a warning letter from the IRS, you should not panic. As long as you are properly filing your crypto gains and losses, you should be fine.

Regulation

First Crypto Banks In Switzerland Are Seen As A “Game Changer”

Published

1 day ago

September 15, 2019

Stefan

Cryptocurrency banks are a new thing on the horizon - and they are already showing up in Switzerland. As sources report, the first crypto banks in the country could open the floodgates to the integration of cryptocurrencies as well as other digital assets in the established financial sector. Some of them include the names of Sygnum and SEBA, which were among the recent provisional banking and securities dealers in Switzerland. They have been awarded licenses by the official Swiss regulator last week - and both entities are interested in becoming fully fledged banks once they complete some of the final routine regulatory hurdles. The CEO of Sygnum Swizerland, Manuel Krieger, was featured on many best cryptocurrency news sites that reported about the first crypto banks. As he said:

“This is the first time such licenses have been granted worldwide, so Switzerland is playing a pioneering role. We now have a responsibility as an enabling platform to help banks and other financial players make the step into the digital asset world.”

Other members of the bank and officials agreed that crypto will apparently "come out of the shadows once these assets are done in a 100% compliant manner" This, according to the official who runs the group's Singapore operation, is a "game changer." What is very interesting is the fact that Swizerland has been one of the leading players in the global adoption of tokenized digital assets and DLT technology. The country is in the process of updating its financial legislation to incorporate the new technology. To remind you with a piece from our altcoin news, Switzerland is also the home to Facebook's Libra cryptocurrency foundation - which was set up in Geneva. Other established players such as the Swiss stock exchange and state owned telecom giant Swisscom are also involved, as well as a number of startups. The benefits of tokenizing all types of financial assets in a purely digital format and then trading them on DLT ledgers are believed to be manifold - and instantaneous settlement might help big time in the future. Even though there are some critical voices about the adoption, the fact that Swizerland houses the first crypto banks is definitely a positive sign for the entire industry.

Regulation

China Plans Crackdown On Crypto Mining In Inner Mongolia

Published

1 day ago

September 15, 2019

Stefan

Big news come from China as the regulators of the Chinese autonomous province of Inner Mongolia plan a complete clean up of the province and its crypto mining enterprises. It seems that China plans crackdown on the crypto mining industry in this province. As the local crypto outlet ChainNews reported a while ago, there have been five departments within the province of Inner Mongolia which determined the need to rectify the mining industry in the province. The organizations named included the Development and Reform Commission, the Public Security Department, the Office of the Ministry of Industry, The Financial Office and the Big Data Bureau.

“The virtual currency ‘mining’ industry belongs to the pseudo-financial innovation unrelated to the real economy, and should not be supported," the report summed up, indicating that China plans crackdown.

China's regulatory approach towards crypto mining has been somewhat inconsistent, sources reported. This left it unclear what exactly what the recent notice will mean for miners operating in the province of Inner Mongolia. In a tweet with a reaction to the ChainNews' report, a partner at Primitive Ventures and popular crypto commentator (featured on many best cryptocurrency news sites) named Dovey Wan wrote:

“I doubt this will have any impact.”

What's also interesting is that as of the end of May, China was responsible for 70% of the global BTC mining. At the time, reports showed that China plans crackdown and that regulators were investigating illegal mining operations in Sichuan - a province which is responsible for 70% of the Bitcoin (BTC) mining thanks to the electricity generation of the Dadu River Basin. In April this year, reports in the altcoin news also showed that the National Development and Reform Commission in the country was considering a ban on crypto mining throughout the country. This tentative ban led to speculation that mining would be forced to leave the country or go underground - which was clearly a troubling proposition for the Chinese regulators. China currently houses the majority of the world's hash power and so far, no ban like this has entered into law. Meanwhile, the recent Bitcoin and coming altcoin news show an increase on the markets.