Regulatory

🇨🇳 China's controversial cryptocurrency landscape has taken a new twist after the Shanghai High People's Court ruled that Bitcoin has a 'certain economic value' and is a virtual asset protected by the country's laws.

🇸🇻 Tuesday 17 May, 32 central banks and 12 financial authorities (44 countries) met in El Salvador to discuss financial inclusion, digital economy, banking the unbanked, the Bitcoin rollout and its benefits in El Salvador.

😠 Testifying before a congressional subcommittee, Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) chair Gary Gensler threatens more action against unregistered crypto exchanges.

Crypto collapse

😭 The Terra blockchain was officially halted at a block height of 7603700. Terra validators have decided to halt the Terra chain to prevent governance attacks following severe $LUNA inflation and a significantly reduced cost of attack.

😎 Jake Chervinsky tweets his thoughts for policymakers as they consider the path forward for stablecoin regulation. He states there's no sugarcoating it, it's among the most painful weeks in crypto and history and one we will reckon with for a long time to come.

⚠️ The European Supervisory Authorities (EBA, ESMA and EIOPA - the ESAs) warn consumers that many crypto-assets are highly risky and speculative. These are not suited for most retail consumers as an investment or as a means of payment or exchange.

The Netherlands

🤓 [Dutch] DNB's Chief Innovation Officer, Patrick de Neef, writes in his new 'What if...' blog that it is very important to take a close look at innovations that you think can't go wrong. Before you know it, there will be a crash innovation, as the recent crypto crash shows us, he says.

❌ [Dutch] For the first time, the Dutch Central Bank (DNB) is intervening in illegally operating crypto companies. Many foreign crypto exchanges have not registered with DNB, which means that the bank cannot supervise the money flows. The regulator already threatened fines, periodic penalty payments and declarations against the companies in August last year.
➡️ Simon Lelieveldt (payments and digital money regulation/compliance expert) reacts to this development in an extensive tweet thread. Click this link if you're interested in his strong opinion on this matter.

🤑 [Dutch] The Dutch Data Protection Authority and the rest of the European privacy supervisors, together the European Data Protection Board (EDPB), believe that new European bills that oblige financial institutions to carry out extensive check on customers must be substantially amended.

Is DNB intervening with illegally operation crypto companies? (Dutch)
In recent years, DNB has started a case against 18 crypto companies regarding the registration process for supervision. This is according to a document from the central bank that has been unnoticed until now. Possibly, the regulator will now also target international companies, which operate in the Netherlands. This episode of the Cryptocast also discusses the bitcoin market, with on-chain analyst Rational Root.

The 5 biggest lessons from Terra/Luna's collapse, according to Tascha Che (English)
In this episode of Unchained Podcast, Tascha Che, founder of Tascha Labs, unpacks the Terra/Luna debacle and reveals what she believes are the five main takeaways from its collapse. Highlight from the show are: how blockchains mirror national economies, whether the UST collapse will affect the stablecoin development and further regulation and what caused Terra's downfall.

"Thread: some still open contradictions in my thoughts and my values, that I have been thinking about but still don't feel like I've fully resolved."

- Vitalik Buterin (co-founder euthereum)
Click this link if you want to read Vitalik's whole thread of thought.

💰 The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) released its report on the Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) measure in place in France.

🫣 The World Bank published its report on fintech and the future of finance. The report explores the implications of fintech and the digital transformation of financial services for market outcomes on one side, and regulation and supervision, on the other, and how these interact.

🔥 The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development released a report about institutionalisation of crypto assets and DeFi. The report examines institutional participation in markets for digital assets.

🏦 The Bank for International Settlements (BIS) published a Working Paper about the institutional adoption of cryptocurrencies. On top of that, the BIS also released a Working Paper on how to build regulation in to decentralised finance.

😜 The European Data Protection Board (EDPB) uploaded their letters to the European institutions on the protection of personal data in the AML-CFT legislative proposals.

Postscript

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