Crypto Chronicles: BitOK's Weekly Recap of Top Regulatory News

The company claimed to be involved in crypto mining and sold "node licenses" for a special type of blockchain technology. These licenses were supposed to generate profits for investors. However, the SEC says the company was not actually doing what it claimed and was selling unregistered securities. The company's leaders and several others are facing legal action. The SEC found that the company's promises were false and meant to hide the fact that they were creating their own digital money. The company's token, called DEBT, lost 52% of its value after the SEC took action.

Source

FTX's argument is that its Dubai branch didn't really do any business before the bankruptcy filing, so it's not necessary for it to go through the same restructuring process. The court will start discussing this matter on August 23. FTX Dubai is a part of FTX's European division and holds around $4.5 million in accounts. Some of this money is restricted by Dubai's regulatory authority as a security for its license. FTX had filed for bankruptcy in November 2022 and was going through the bankruptcy process for 102 of its units worldwide.

Source

This means that individuals who are not professional investors can now trade cryptocurrencies on licensed exchanges. Two companies, HashKey and OSL, are among the first to receive these licenses. HashKey can operate a platform for trading cryptocurrencies and provide automated trading services. OSL can offer Bitcoin and Ether trading to regular investors. This makes cryptocurrency trading more accessible and transparent in Hong Kong.

Source

The senators believe that there's a gap of around $50 billion in unpaid taxes due to crypto-related activities. They're worried that if the tax rules aren't updated soon, the government could miss out on about $1.5 billion in taxes for the year 2024. These concerns arise from a law passed in 2021 to make crypto trading businesses report more about their activities for tax purposes. Warren and Sanders are urging faster action to address this issue.

Source

Despite the cryptocurrency law passed in 2022, the government hasn't yet made the necessary amendments to tax and civil codes to match the legal framework. This has led to confusion among crypto users, some of whom question if they need to pay taxes retrospectively for the past ten years. The founder of a Ukrainian crypto exchange called Kuna said that it's not possible for the government to collect taxes on transactions before having proper regulations in place. He criticized the government's lack of understanding about the industry.

Source