Tech

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.

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.

A former Austrian intelligence official was convicted Wednesday of spying for Russia in the largest espionage trial in Austria’s postwar history, delivering a verdict that officials hope will help repair the country’s standing as a hub of hostile foreign intelligence activity.

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.

Standard Chartered plans to eliminate almost 8,000 jobs by 2030 as the Asia-focused bank shifts to an artificial intelligence-centered strategy, with its chief executive saying the cuts amount to replacing workers with technology rather than simple cost reduction.

Small towns, school districts, and utilities across the United States lack the staffing and basic cyberdefenses needed to fend off a new generation of AI-enabled hacking threats even as larger institutions scramble to shore up their systems.

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.

Polish lawmakers on Friday approved a bill regulating cryptocurrencies as a scandal over the collapse of the country’s biggest crypto exchange widened and questions deepened over whether President Karol Nawrocki, who has twice vetoed similar measures, will sign it into law.

The chief executive of Britain’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) said the regulator will no longer be able to defend against every illicit-finance threat equally and must openly prioritize what it focuses on as technology-linked scams continue to rise.