The near-collapse of algorithmic stablecoin TerraUSD is just one more example of crypto-based financial alchemy doomed to failure and why DeFi returns are anything but “riskless.” — There are no two more sexy words to an investor than “passive income,” except perhaps for “risk-free returns,” though technically the latter is three words (to be pedantic). Which is why Luna, UST and Anchor Protocol rode a wave of speculation to become multi-billion dollar cryptocurrency projects with marquee backers.

Every decade or so, a catalyst is provided for a major economic crisis. The nineties had the dotcom bubble, the noughties had the sub-prime mortgage crisis and the twenties will have cryptocurrencies. — Living on the banks of the mighty Mekong River that flows from the Tibetan Plateau across thousands of miles through Indochina and into the South China Sea, Tran Nguyen knows how high his home needs to be built above the banks.

Major gaps remain in the global financial services licensing regime, allowing nefarious actors to engage in regulatory arbitrage that appears to be facilitating some of the more egregious violations of sanctions. — Not all drivers’ licenses are made equal. Whereas some countries are more than happy to recognize the drivers’ licenses of others, there is no automatic reciprocity when it comes to recognizing your right to drive a vehicle in a foreign country.

The recent Hamas attack in Israel has drawn into sharp focus the use of cryptocurrencies, especially stablecoins, to facilitate terrorism financing, increasing the urgency to monitor stablecoin activity. — Soon after Hamas’ bloody attack on Israel, public attention was immediately drawn to one of the more problematic use cases of cryptocurrencies. Israeli authorities had from easlier this summer, listed a string of cryptocurrency wallet addresses as being associated with entities and organizations Israeli authorities classified as terrorist organizations, a…

We’ve seen this one before — a closely associated ecosystem managed and run by one of crypto’s biggest personalities and a “staking” system that doesn’t send the stablecoins where they’re advertised? — When one of crypto’s biggest players Justin Sun was rumored to be taking over the embattled Huobi, many wondered what the pasty-faced personality wanted with a cryptocurrency exchange well past its prime.

Both crypto proponents and skeptics are claiming a legal victory from the recent U.S. District Court decision between the SEC v. Ripple Labs, but how can one decision make everyone a winner? Turns out it can’t. — Like the famous theoretical physics thought experiment “Schrodinger’s Cat” — the recent U.S. District Court decision in SEC v. Ripple Labs was both a win and a loss, depending on the observer’s perspective.

Segments of the crypto industry have long dabbled in “compliance theater” the peddling of procedural window dressing without achieving any of the functional goals of regulatory compliance — investor protection. — In the spring of 2021 against the backdrop of a roaring crypto market, Samuel Lee (not his real name) received a pitch deck for a crypto hedge fund he had never heard of. Leafing through the 20-page document, Lee, who had already been considering an investment in the crypto sector…

Recent DCG filings reveal a world of pain for investors they may not be even aware of. — For an abridged version of this article, please read DataFinnovation - ChainArgos - 4AC’s excellent treatise here, otherwise please read on for the full fat version. TL:DR A DCG portfolio company appears to be managing DCG CEO Barry Silbert’s personal assets which DCG’s investors are paying for. Crypto lender Genesis Global…

Could the story of how one man’s inability to pay for his meal using cash sparked off the modern credit card industry portend the future of cryptocurrencies? — The year is 1949 and postwar America is experiencing an economic boom the likes of which have never been witnessed. While much of the world’s industrialized economies lay in ruin, the United States of America’s industrial prowess is just coming into stride.