Archive: February 2022

Two recent developments demonstrate the government's continued focus on cryptocurrency enforcement.

Bitcoin started the cryptocurrency frenzy in 2009, and since then there have been several new cryptocurrencies launched which are fast growing in interest and adoption. When purchasing cryptocurrency, it is important to understand how the wallets work that store your crypto. You must choose the right type of wallet to store your cryptocurrency and ensure its safety.

On November 23, the United States House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis announced that it has expanded its investigation into the role of FinTech companies in pandemic relief fraud. This expansion signals that the Department of Justice (DOJ) is not alone in setting its sights on investigating lenders and their FinTech partners. Businesses and individuals in the financial industry now must be prepared for congressional investigations.

Every month we provide the Global Blockchain Business Council’s Post-Trade Distributed Ledger group with a global regulatory FinTech updater, the latest version of which can be found here.

On 26 January 2022, the Payment Systems Regulator (PSR) published a consultation on remedies following its market review into card-acquiring services.

On 9 December 2021, the Payment Systems Regulator (PSR) published Policy Statement 21/3 ‘Regulatory framework for the New Payments Architecture central infrastructure services’ (PS21/3).

2021 has been a big year for InsurTech, with investment reaching record highs across the globe and new products hitting the market. Investors are finally giving InsurTech the attention it deserves. As the year wraps up, our eyes and ears are tuned in to see what 2022 might hold. We caught up with Matthew Cheong, Junior Legal Counsel at QBE Asia, to hear his predictions.

In his Blockchain Law column, Robert Schwinger takes a closer look at the “unsung players” in the blockchain world—the miners and validators who keep the blockchain infrastructure functioning. Who are they, what do they do, and what legal issues might they face?

Is the token holder – often the holder of some sort of digital currency – always free to choose which branch of the fork to take?

There is now nearly $150 billion of value locked into Decentralised Finance (DeFi) protocols and applications. DeFi provides incredible opportunities for the democratisation of financial services and could serve as the future of the financial services ecosystem, but it also comes with legal and regulatory uncertainty due to its novel structure.