Crypto

The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission is moving to vacate a $5 million enforcement settlement reached with cryptocurrency exchange Gemini under the Biden administration, following a lobbying campaign by founders Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss.

Italian authorities are seizing more than €200 million ($232 million) in assets tied to late Mafia boss Matteo Messina Denaro, including funds derived from drug trafficking and laundered across Europe and beyond.

A landmark public-private initiative convened by the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) and the Institute of International Finance will soon begin testing a tokenized payment platform for cross-border settlements across multiple currencies and jurisdictions. 

Mainstream cryptocurrency companies including Kraken, Gemini, and Cumberland DRW transferred billions of dollars in bitcoin to ATM operators that authorities have repeatedly accused of facilitating scams targeting elderly and vulnerable Americans.

The United Kingdom announced a new package of sanctions Tuesday targeting cryptocurrency exchanges and a Kremlin-backed shadow finance network known as A7 as part of an effort to close off payment routes used by Russia to sustain its war against Ukraine. 

OFAC designated more than a dozen individuals and entities linked to the Sinaloa Cartel, targeting two separate networks accused of fentanyl trafficking and money laundering, including one that allegedly converted bulk U.S. drug cash into cryptocurrency for transfer to cartel leadership in Mexico.

Bitcoin Depot, formerly the largest operator of cryptocurrency ATMs in the United States, filed for voluntary Chapter 11 bankruptcy Sunday and took its roughly 9,700 kiosks offline.

Iran has launched a bitcoin-backed insurance service for shipping companies seeking to transit the Strait of Hormuz.

Iran’s largest cryptocurrency exchange has moved billions of dollars across two blockchains whose founders are among the most prominent backers of a digital currency venture co-founded by U.S. President Donald Trump and his family.

Hackers widely believed to be linked to North Korea appear to have used artificial intelligence to pull off two crypto heists in April that netted nearly $600 million. That more can be on the way is rattling the $130-billion decentralized finance sector.