Federal regulators aim to treat crypto and traditional currency equally for financial institution reporting.

Key Takeaways

▪️US agencies aim to treat cryptocurrencies as traditional money for reporting purposes.
▪️Final rulemaking on crypto as money expected by September 2025.

Several top US federal agencies are collaborating to revise the definition of “money” to strengthen reporting requirements for financial institutions handling domestic and cross-border cryptocurrency transactions.

The US Department of the Treasury’s semiannual regulatory agenda, released on August 16, reveals an upcoming federal effort to level the regulatory playing field for cryptocurrencies and traditional fiat currency.

The Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System and the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network intend to revise the meaning of “money” used in the Bank Secrecy Act.

According to the agenda, the agencies aim to ensure that the rules apply to transactions involving convertible virtual currency, defined as a medium of exchange that either has an equivalent value as currency or acts as a substitute for currency, but lacks legal tender status.

 The proposal will also extend reporting requirements to digital assets with legal tender status, including central bank digital currencies.

The final notice of proposed rulemaking is currently scheduled for September 2025, subject to clearance. This move comes as the US government recently shifted approximately 10,000 Bitcoin linked to a dated Silk Road raid on August 14.

In addition to crypto, the Department of Justice is actively amending regulations and legal mandates for artificial intelligence.

 On August 7, the DOJ asked the United States Sentencing Commission to update its guidelines to provide additional penalties for crimes committed with the aid of AI.

These recommendations seek to expand beyond established guidelines and apply to any crime aided or abetted by simple algorithms.

In June, the US Supreme Court overturned the Chevron doctrine, significantly affecting the SEC’s regulatory authority over crypto policies.

In May, the US Treasury and IRS introduced new tax regulations for crypto brokers, requiring transaction reporting and record-keeping of token costs starting in 2026.

Earlier this month, Senators Wyden and Lummis criticized the DOJ’s treatment of crypto software services as equivalent to unlicensed money-transmitting businesses, highlighting potential conflicts with the First Amendment.

This regulatory push reflects the growing recognition of crypto and digital assets as significant components of the financial system. By aligning reporting requirements for crypto with those of traditional currency, regulators aim to enhance transparency and combat potential illicit activities in the crypto space.

@ Newshounds News™

Source: CryptoBriefing and Federal Register

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IOTA News: Tangle Treasury Implements New Anti-Fraud Measures to Protect Grant Distribution

▪️ The Tangle Treasury has implemented significant improvements in data and financial security, introducing a new anti-money laundering (AML) and counter-terrorist financing (CTF) policy.

▪️ Nicole O’Brien will lead as the AML/CTF officer for IOTA’s Tangle Treasury, overseeing adherence to best practices, improving internal protocols, and training staff.

The IOTA and Shimmer communities received an important update from the Tangle Treasury regarding the enhanced backend improvements.

 The latest advancements currently focus on boosting data and financial security while refining proposal reviews and grant management processes.

Thus, in an effort to mitigate risks associated with fund allocations, the Tangle Treasury unveiled a new counter-terrorist financing (CTF) and anti-money laundering (AML) policy.

The broader goal here is to safeguard the Treasury’s primary mission of issuing grants to other promising projects while minimizing the risk of the funds falling into the hands of scammers and other malicious players.

These improved screening features will further enhance the Treasury’s operational efficiency while protecting community investments. As we know, the Tangle Treasury has made significant strides in enhancing internal processes while ensuring community funds’ safety.

With its AML and CTF policy, Tangle DAO has also implemented additional protective measures such as conducting rigorous background checks and enhanced know-your-customer (KYC) procedures for all the proponents as well as grant recipients such as proof-of-address, proof of identity, screening against sanction lists from major countries and blocs, as well as checks for politically exposed persons (PEP).

IOTA Tangle Treasury Appoints Nicole O’Brien

In order to oversee all these processes, IOTA’s Tangle Treasury has appointed Nicole O’Brien as its CTF/AML officer. In her role, O’Brien will ensure adherence to best practices, enhance internal protocols and provide training for staff members.

These advancements, along with improved data security, bookkeeping, and the introduction of standard operating procedures (SOPs) for finance administration and grant management, will help boost the Tangle Treasury’s efficiency and professionalism.

Further updates, including a call for new proposals, will likely come in the coming weeks.

The IOTA Tangle is an innovative form of Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) specifically created for Web3 while using a unique structure based on directed acyclic graphs (DAG) instead of the conventional blockchain model, per the CNF report.

Recently, IOTA has put a major focus on enhancing trust and security, especially for its Identity wallets, per the CNF report.

Also, the European Identity Wallet seeks to transform the Identity verification process by allowing users to log into websites without passwords while securely sharing verified information with simplicity.

In collaboration with the European Commission, IOTA has introduced a new prototype solution using distributed ledger technology (DLT) in order to boost the management of the intellectual property rights marketplace while allowing users to utilize automated, transparent digital contracts, eliminating the need for traditional negotiations, reported CNF.

 @ Newshounds News™

Source:  Crypto News Flash

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Cardano Founder Charles Hoskinson Launches $1 Million Bug Bounty Challenge Ahead of the Chang Hard Fork

▪️ Charles Hoskinson, Cardano’s co-founder, has announced a $1 million prize for hackers who successfully breach its newly introduced Lace Paper Wallet.

▪️ At the Rare Evo 2024 event, Hoskinson highlighted the upcoming Chang hard fork and the transition to the Voltaire Era.

Cardano’s (ADA) Charles Hoskinson has announced a $1 million bug bounty challenge to the ADA community pending the implementation of the long-awaited Chang Hard Fork.

Speaking at the recent Rare Evo 2024 event, Hoskinson announced that the newly introduced Lace Paper Wallet would be the object at the center of this challenge, with participants expected to breach its defense. 

The Lace Paper Wallet Bug Bounty Program would run until the end of 2024, or someone successfully breaches its security and retrieves the Non-Fungible Tokens (NFT) inside.

The Web3 wallet was developed by Cardano’s (ADA) parent company, Input Output Global (IOG), with Paper Wallet integrated to beef up its security. According to reports, the added features would enable users possessing PGP keys to use a single encrypted QR code to restore their wallet.

This is, I think, the most secure paper wallet ever generated in the history of our industry.

In a video posted on X on August 17, Hoskinson expressed confidence in the wallet, boasting of its protection against attacks that encourage malicious actors to gain control of private keys to facilitate an authorized transaction.

Hoskinson Highlights Other Updates in the Cardano

At the Rare Evo 2024 event , Hoskinson highlighted the demonstration of the powerful scaling solution, Hydra, featuring the classic game “Doom”.

According to experts, this underscores its capabilities of handling high-throughput, real-time applications. Also, the expected Voltaire Era, which the Chang Hard Fork would introduce, was highlighted.

As we explained earlier, this upgrade would transfer governance controls to the community. According to Cardano’s Emurgo, the first phase was initiated in July 2024 with the next part expected in the fourth quarter of 2024 (Q4 2024).

The Chang Hard Fork is a technical component of the Voltaire era of the Cardano roadmap, which focuses on implementing a sustainable and distributed governance framework. With the first part set to be initiated in July 2024, the next part of the Hard Fork upgrade is set to happen by Q4 of this year.

The second phase would mark the full-force decentralized governance and an exit from the technical bootstrapping phase.

The Delegate Representatives (DReps) are also expected to be introduced as a governance body. In addition to the possibility of the SPOs voting on governance actions, a Constitutional Committee would be online to grow membership above the seven of the interim committee.

Finally, the community will take charge of the Treasury withdrawal.

Cardano users will be able to propose treasury debits via governance actions. The three bodies (Constitutional Committee, DReps, and SPOs) will vote on them, and if approved, ADA will be moved out of the treasury.

From that point forward, the future of the Cardano blockchain will be in the hands of its community, along with its power to draft and ratify the Cardano Constitution. This will mark a monumental step not only for the network but also for the blockchain industry as a whole, as Cardano will be the first truly distributed and community-run blockchain network.

At press time, ADA was trading at $0.33, having declined by 2% in the last 24 hours.

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Source:  Crypto News Flash