#government

With MiCA's launch on the horizon, Croatia's government is hard at work developing rules to address the shortcomings. This includes a June directive that mandates all cryptocurrency companies to register within a two-month period. Officials are now on the path to implement "passporting," a MiCA feature that permits financial entities from a single country to serve the entire European Union under their home country's rules. Croatia's intention with these moves is to make the nation more appealing to cryptocurrency companies than other EU countries.

Rishi Sunak is directing public funds toward acquiring high-performance artificial intelligence chips to ensure the country remains competitive in the global race for computing capabilities. The government has initiated talks with major IT firms such as Nvidia, AMD, and Intel to secure resources for a national “AI Research Resource.” This effort aligns with prime minister’s vision to establish Britain as a leading force in the field of artificial intelligence. Though the project has been allocated £100 million, there are concerns that this funding might fall short of the government’s AI aspirations. Government officials are advocating for additional funding in the coming months to match the scale of this initiative. Graphics Processing Units (GPUs) are vital components in constructing AI systems like ChatGPT, with the latest version trained on as many as 25,000 Nvidia chips.

Partnering with Paxos Trust, financial giant PayPal has unveiled PayPal USD (PYUSD), focusing on swift and budget-friendly payments. With backing from dollar deposits, short-term government securities, and similar cash equivalents, PayPal's CEO, Dan Schulman, envisions the stablecoin bolstering the company's foothold in the digital currency space: "The vision over time is that this becomes a part of the overall payments infrastructure."

The United States Government Accountability Office (GAO) has published a report suggesting that a more robust regulatory framework is required for the use of blockchain in finance. The report highlighted the lack of regulation around crypto asset trading platforms and stablecoins and identified non-security crypto asset spot markets as the main regulatory gap. According to the GAO, Congress could address these issues by designating a federal regulator to oversee these markets. Moreover, the report suggests a need for more regulatory coordination and proposes the establishment of a formal mechanism to identify risks and respond to them within an agreed timeframe.

Cheongju’s administration has reached out to seven South Korean crypto exchanges, including Upbit and Bithumb, to investigate the holdings of around 8,520 individuals who owe a minimum of 1 million won ($750) in local taxes. After the investigation, authorities in Cheongju aim to seize cryptocurrency assets from such tax evaders. Crypto have increasingly been used for hiding assets in South Korea. Over the span of 2021 and 2022, a total of around $180 million worth of crypto were seized by the South Korean government from individuals who evaded their taxes.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has received permission from a U.S. judge to request assistance from the South Korean government in questioning Daniel Shin, co-founder of Terraform Labs. Officials plan to question Shin in connection with their own lawsuit against Do Kwon and to obtain documents related to Chai Corporation, a secondary company that was also used in the illegal scheme.

Ilya Lichtenstein and Heather Morgan, a husband and wife duo of crypto hackers, have pleaded guilty to federal money laundering conspiracy charges related to the 2016 hack of the cryptocurrency exchange Bitfinex. Their guilty plea comes after a year and a half since their arrest and charges in February 2022 and seven years after the initial hack. According to the government’s allegations, Lichtenstein hacked into Bitfinex and stole 119,754 bitcoins, which were valued at $72 million at the time and are now worth approximately $3.5 billion, for his personal benefit.