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Home | BakerHostetler

Bulls, Bears, and Blockchain™ – December 26, 2024

Blockchain Monitor

Weekly Blockchain Blog – December 23, 2024

What to Expect and How to Prepare: A Guide to Employing Foreign Workers in the Age of Trump

Teresa Goody Guillén Supports New SEC Nominee in Institutional Investor Article

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<a href="#digital">Digital Asset Companies Achieve Licenses, Launch Stablecoin Products</a>

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<a href="#crypto">Crypto Market Report Analyzes Key Industry Trends</a>

<a href="#fca">UK FCA Publishes Discussion Paper on Crypto Disclosures and Market Abuse</a>

<a href="#ofac">OFAC Sanctions Target Crypto Illicit Finance, Five Wallets Added to SDN List</a>

<a href="#doj">DOJ Targets Crypto Tax Evasion, ISIS Financing; NFT Co. Receives Wells Notice</a>

<a href="#password">Password Manager Attack Steals $5.4M; 2024 Crypto Crime Data Published</a>

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Digital Asset Companies Achieve Licenses, Launch Stablecoin Products

By <a href="https://www.bakerlaw.com/KeithRMurphy">Keith R. Murphy</a>

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According to a recent press release, Anchorage Digital, a digital asset platform and infrastructure provider, announced that the New York State Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) approved its subsidiary Anchorage Digital NY, LLC, for a BitLicense. Anchorage Digital reportedly has one of the only agency trading desks to receive a BitLicense from NYDFS. According to Anchorage Digital, the BitLicense will allow the company to work with more New York-based institutions, such as registered investment advisors and large institutional asset managers.

According to another recent press release, U.S. digital asset infrastructure company Ripple Labs announced that its Ripple USD (RLUSD), a U.S. dollar-denominated stablecoin, will now be available on global exchanges. Each RLUSD reportedly will be backed by U.S. dollar deposits, U.S. government bonds and cash equivalents, and Ripple intends to publish monthly attestations by an independent auditing firm of RLUSD’s reserve assets, according to the release. Ripple’s CEO notes in the release that the company chose to launch the stablecoin under the NYDFS limited purpose trust company charter regulatory standard.

In other stablecoin news, human resources and payroll provider Remote announced in a press release that companies can now use Remote to pay their contractors in 69 countries directly in stablecoins. The CEO/co-founder of Remote noted in the release that “[o]ne of the biggest hurdles companies face when hiring on international talent is providing fast, flexible, and reliable payments around the world.” Remote’s new capability of providing stablecoin payouts through a well-known financial services company reportedly will provide companies a near-instant capability to compensate contractors, while Remote maintains compliance at home and abroad. 

For more information, please refer to the following links:

<a href="https://www.anchorage.com/insights/anchorage-digital-receives-new-york-bitlicense" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Anchorage Digital Receives New York BitLicense</a>

<a href="https://ripple.com/ripple-press/raising-the-standard-for-stablecoins-ripple-usd-launches-globally/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Raising the Standard for Stablecoins: Ripple USD Launches Globally with Unmatched Utility, Experience, and Compliance</a>

<a href="https://remote.com/news/remote-teams-with-stripe-to-introduce-easy-compliant-stablecoin-payouts-for" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Remote teams with [] to introduce easy, compliant stablecoin payouts for contractors worldwide</a>

Crypto Market Report Analyzes Key Industry Trends

By <a href="https://www.bakerlaw.com/RobertAMusiala">Robert A. Musiala Jr.</a>

A major U.S. cryptocurrency exchange recently published its 2025 Crypto Market Outlook. The report “provides investors with deep dives that span the crypto universe, from altcoins to ETFs, staking to gaming, and much more.” A summary of the report notes the following takeaways:

Crypto markets are poised for transformative growth in 2025, continuing their momentum of maturation and adoption.

Key achievements in 2024 included a surge in bitcoin dominance, spot ETF approvals in the U.S., increased tokenization of financial products, stablecoins’ massive growth and greater integration into the global payments framework, and innovations in decentralized finance (DeFi).

Key trends for 2025 include decentralized peer-to-peer exchanges, decentralized prediction markets, artificial intelligence (AI) agents equipped with crypto wallets, innovations in stablecoins and payments (bringing crypto and fiat banking solutions closer together), undercollateralized on-chain lending (facilitated by on-chain credit scores), and compliant on-chain capital formation.

Despite widespread crypto awareness, blockchain technology remains largely obscure, but technological innovations are poised to change this, as more projects focus on improving the user experience by abstracting away blockchain complexities and enhancing smart contract functionality.

The foundations for greater regulatory clarity in the U.S. were laid in 2024, setting the stage for greater advancements in 2025.

For more information, please refer to the following link:

<a href="https://www.coinbase.com/institutional/research-insights/research/market-intelligence/2025-crypto-market-outlook" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">2025 Crypto Market Outlook</a>

UK FCA Publishes Discussion Paper on Crypto Disclosures and Market Abuse

By <a href="https://www.bakerlaw.com/RobertAMusiala">Robert A. Musiala Jr.</a><a href="https://www.bakerlaw.com/VeronicaReynolds"></a>

The United Kingdom’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) recently published a discussion paper titled Regulating cryptoassets: Admissions &amp; Disclosures and Market Abuse Regime for Cryptoassets. According to a press release, the FCA will use the discussion paper “to help inform the development of our rules for cryptoasset admissions and disclosures (A&amp;D) and cryptoasset market abuse (MARC).” The press release notes that the proposals in the paper “aim to reduce consumer harms and promote confidence and trust in the UK cryptoasset market by: improving regulatory clarity so that there are clear and consistent ‘rules of the game’ for firms and consumers; making sure consumers have the information they need before buying or selling cryptoassets; requiring controls and processes to bring about fair and orderly trading conditions; and further reducing risks of money laundering and losses to fraud.” The FCA is requesting comments on the discussion paper, which can be submitted through the FCA’s website and are due by March 14, 2025.

<a href="https://www.fca.org.uk/publication/discussion/dp24-4.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">FCA Discussion Paper: Regulating cryptoassets: Admissions &amp; Disclosures and Market Abuse Regime for Cryptoassets</a>

<a href="https://www.fca.org.uk/publications/discussion-papers/dp24-4-regulating-crypoassets" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">FCA: DP24/4: Regulating cryptoassets – Admissions &amp; Disclosures and Market Abuse Regime for Cryptoassets</a>

OFAC Sanctions Target Crypto Illicit Finance, Five Wallets Added to SDN List

The U.S. Department of the Treasury (Treasury) recently published two press releases announcing new sanctions by its Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) targeting money laundering and other illicit finance activities involving cryptocurrencies. The first press release announced that OFAC has sanctioned “two individuals and one entity involved in a network that launders millions of dollars of illicit funds generated by the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) information technology (IT) workers and cybercrime to support the DPRK Government.” According to the press release, the sanctioned individuals and entities are based in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and “worked through a UAE-based front company to facilitate money laundering and cryptocurrency conversion services that funneled … illicit proceeds back to Pyongyang.”

The second Treasury press release announced that OFAC has sanctioned “a dozen individuals and entities based in multiple jurisdictions, including the head of the Houthi-aligned Central Bank of Yemen branch in Sana’a, for their roles in trafficking arms, laundering money, and shipping illicit Iranian petroleum for the benefit of the Houthis.” According to the press release, as part of the action “OFAC identified five cryptocurrency wallets associated with Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Qods Force (IRGC-QF)-backed Houthi financial official Sa’id al-Jamal (al-Jamal).” OFAC has added the five cryptocurrency wallet addresses to the Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons List (SDN List).

<a href="https://home.treasury.gov/news/press-releases/jy2752" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Treasury Disrupts North Korean Digital Assets Money Laundering Network</a>

<a href="https://home.treasury.gov/news/press-releases/jy2757" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Treasury Maintains Pressure on Houthi Procurement and Financing Schemes</a>

DOJ Targets Crypto Tax Evasion, ISIS Financing; NFT Co. Receives Wells Notice

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) recently published multiple press releases announcing cryptocurrency enforcement actions. The first press release announced that a defendant has been sentenced to two years in prison “for filing a tax return that falsely underreported the capital gains he earned from selling $3.7 million in bitcoins.” According to the press release, the defendant lied to his accountant by submitting a false summary of his gains and losses from the sale of his bitcoins, failed to report bitcoin sales on his tax returns, and “took several sophisticated steps to attempt to conceal his transactions on the bitcoin blockchain by moving his bitcoins through multiple wallets, meeting an individual in person to exchange bitcoins for cash, and using mixers, which are designed to conceal the individual who made the particular transaction.”

A second DOJ press release announced that a defendant has been convicted for charges relating to his efforts to provide material support to the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS), a foreign terrorist organization. According to the press release, the defendant engaged in transfers of over $185,000 in cryptocurrency for the benefit of ISIS.

And a third DOJ press release announced that a defendant was sentenced to 48 months of imprisonment, followed by two years of supervised release, for stealing approximately $4.5 million from his former employer, a cryptocurrency research firm. According to the press release, the defendant fraudulently diverted funds from the company’s cryptocurrency wallets and bank accounts.

In a final notable action, according to recent reports, non-fungible token (NFT) platform CyberKongz recently announced on a popular social media platform that it has received a Wells notice from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The company reportedly wrote that the SEC has indicated “with very concerning rhetoric that you cannot have a token (ERC-20) in tandem with a blockchain game without registering it as a security.”

<a href="https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/early-bitcoin-investor-sentenced-filing-tax-returns-falsely-reported-his-cryptocurrency" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Early Bitcoin Investor Sentenced for Filing Tax Returns that Falsely Reported His Cryptocurrency Gains</a>

<a href="https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/virginia-man-convicted-crypto-financing-scheme-isis" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Virginia Man Convicted for Crypto Financing Scheme to ISIS</a>

<a href="https://www.justice.gov/usao-ct/pr/cryptocurrency-firm-executive-sentenced-4-years-federal-prison-stealing-446-million" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Cryptocurrency Firm Executive Sentenced to 4 Years in Federal Prison for Stealing $4.46 Million from Employer</a>

<a href="https://cointelegraph.com/news/nft-platform-cyberkongz-hit-wells-notice-sec" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">‘Major implications’ for gaming tokens as CyberKongz hit with SEC Wells notice</a>

Password Manager Attack Steals $5.4M; 2024 Crypto Crime Data Published

According to recent reports, a well-known password manager application was breached in a hack that allowed the attacker to steal $5.4 million in cryptocurrencies from approximately 40 users of the application. A white hat hacker team advised that cryptocurrency private keys and wallet seed phrases stored on the password manager before 2023 are at risk. The white hat team advised that persons who use the application to store private keys and seed phrases should move their cryptocurrency funds “before hackers move them for you.”

In other news, blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis recently published a blog with data from its forthcoming Chainalysis 2025 Crypto Crime Report. Among other findings, the blog notes the following:

“In 2024, funds stolen increased by approximately 21.07% year-over-year (YoY) to $2.2 billion, and the number of individual hacking incidents increased from 282 in 2023 to 303 in 2024.”

“Although DeFi still accounted for the largest share of stolen assets in the first quarter of 2024, centralized services were the most targeted in Q2 and Q3.”

“In 2023, North Korea-affiliated hackers stole approximately $660.50 million across 20 incidents; in 2024, this number increased to $1.34 billion stolen across 47 incidents — a 102.88% increase in value stolen.”

<a href="https://cointelegraph.com/news/lastpass-threat-actor-steals-over-5-million-from-40-victims?utm_source=rss_feed&amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;utm_campaign=rss_partner_inbound" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">[] threat actor steals $5.4M from victims just a week before Xmas</a>

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