USA

Minnesota Representative to Reintroduce Hard Fork Tax Reform Bill: Minnesota Congressional Representative Tom Emmer has announced plans to reintroduce a bill meant to “provide temporary safe harbor for the tax treatment of hard forks of convertible virtual currency in the absence of administrative guidance.” Representative Emmer participated in a panel on the relationship between government and the crypto industry at Consensus 2019 on May 13, 2019, wherein he first announced an attempt to continue the fight for his hard fork bill. Joined by industry leaders and government personalities, Emmer publicly acknowledged the sort of limbo that crypto holders find themselves in when one of their cryptocurrency holdings undergoes a hard fork. When a coin forks in such a way, tax agencies currently have grounds to consider the new “forkcoin” assets as undeclared income.

SEC Delays Bitcoin ETF Decision, BitGo Moves on BTC Custody Ahead of Bakkt, eToro Adds Gold and Silver Stablecoins: The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has delayed its decision on the Bitwise exchange-traded fund (ETF) proposal filed with NYSE Arca. Palo Alto-based BitGo, a security and custody solutions company holding roughly $2 billion in crypto for its clients, has announced a new service for institutional investors. It will now provide an off-chain settlement and clearing system to minimize the risks associated with trading and moving large volumes of crypto assets. The social trading platform eToro is adding two new stablecoins pegged to gold and silver to its crypto asset exchange eToroX.

SEC Slaps Blockchain Author Alex Tapscott, Firm With Fines Over Securities Violations: The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has fined blockchain author Alex Tapscott and his investment firm NextBlock Global over securities violations. The SEC says that Canada-based NextBlock had been offering securities that were not registered with the SEC “in any capacity” and that false misrepresentations were made about the firm when soliciting investors. The agency has therefore ordered Tapscott, co-author of the book “Blockchain Revolution,” to pay a $25,000 penalty and also issued a cease-and-desist on further securities violations by him or his firm. The SEC said it had taken into account the remedial acts “promptly undertaken” by Tapscott and NextBlock when agreeing the terms of the settlement. It also said that, following the firm’s payment of a 700,000 Canadian dollar (roughly US$520,000) administrative penalty, it had not imposed a further civil penalty on the company.

SEC Negotiations Have Cost Kik $5 Million, Says CEO: Kik’s CEO says the company has spent $5 million engaging with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) over what the regulator claims was an unregistered securities sale.Kik, a messaging platform founded by Canadian entrepreneur Ted Livingston in 2010, raised $98 million in an initial coin offering (ICO) at the end of 2017 to support its kin cryptocurrency and ecosystem. The SEC later indicated the sale may have violated U.S. securities laws, and that SEC staff would recommend bringing an enforcement action against the company. Livingston told CoinDesk at Token Summit in New York that this hasn’t happened yet, but that both his firm and the regulator have been in talks since late 2017.

Tether and Bitfinex Ask New York Attorney General for Fund Accessibility: Attorneys for Tether and Bitfinex are hoping to get the former access to its reserves amid a legal dispute with New York Office of the Attorney General (NYOAG). In a letter sent to the New York County Supreme Court, attorneys representing iFinex (the parent organization of Bitfinex) and Tether took issue with the restrictions that had been placed on Tether’s transactions with related parties as part of an ongoing case against them, stating that the NYOAG had no basis for disallowing tether (USDT) holders and other affiliated entities from redeeming their tokens.

Floyd Mayweather, DJ Khaled Escape Lawsuit Brought By ICO Investors: Boxer Floyd Mayweather, music producer DJ Khaled and two employees of an ICO project have been dismissed from an investor lawsuit by a federal judge. According to a new court document, an omnibus order on motions to dismiss by Mayweather, Khaled, Steven Sykes and Steven Stanley, all of whom promoted or participated in the Centra Tech initial coin offering, was filed by federal Judge Robert Scola, of the Southern District of Florida. Scola said the plaintiffs failed to prove that they had bought Centra’s CTR tokens as a result of the defendants’ actions. Mayweather and Khaled both notably promoted Centra Tech’s offering, encouraging their respective fanbases to participate in what was later deemed to be an unregistered securities sale. They, along with Sykes and Stanley, were sued by investors in the offering, who alleged that the defendants violated securities law.

Boston Fed Announces Plans To Design a Blockchain ‘Supervisory Node’: The Federal Reserve of Boston is starting a new blockchain experiment this summer. The Massachusetts state regulator has been one of the earliest and most involved government bodies to dip their toe into the new technology. It has been quietly developing blockchain systems since 2016 but has said very little about their plans. Now the first results of those trials are out and the Boston Fed published a white paper on its proof-of-concepts on ethereum and Hyperledger Fabric. Now it’s getting ready for the next stage, Boston Fed’s vice president of IT Paul Brassil told CoinDesk. The team is going to look into possible opportunities to set up a “supervisory node,” a regulatory surveillance tool that should be able to connect to various banking blockchains in the future. This node will watch the money flows and settlements between different banks, Boston Fed’s senior vice president Jim Cunha said.

Crypto-Friendly US Congress Members Join New Fintech Task Force: The U.S. House of Representatives is launching a new task force aimed specifically at financial technology — including blockchain. The new task force, referred to as the FinTech Task Force, was established by the House Financial Services Committee by a voice vote Thursday, and will examine blockchain and cryptocurrency tools, among others. The task force will be headed up by Massachusetts Rep. Stephen Lynch. Its initial list of issues includes regulating fintech from both domestic and international perspectives; lending and using “alternative data” for loan underwriting; examining the legal and regulatory frameworks for payments, as well as the infrastructure; and data privacy.

Crypto Investor Awarded Over $75 Million in SIM-Swapping Hack Case: U.S.-based cryptocurrency investor and entrepreneur Michael Terpin has won over $75 million in a lawsuit related to a SIM-swapping fraud. Terpin filed the case against 21-year-old Nicholas Truglia earlier this year, saying the Manhattan resident had defrauded him of cryptocurrencies after gaining control of his cellphone number. California Superior Court has now ordered Truglia to pay Terpin $75.8 million in compensatory and punitive damages, Reuters reported Saturday citing court documents. Terpin had complained of losing three million unspecified cryptos via the hack in early 2018, which were worth $23.8 million at the time, according to the report. In a SIM-swap scam, hackers pose as the owners of victims’ mobile phone numbers, convincing telecom providers to grant them access to their calls and messages by issuing a SIM with the same number. In this way, they can gain access to important accounts, such as those held at crypto exchanges.