Crypto Weekly Roundup: California Bill Pending, Facebook NFTs, CoinSwitch Kuber Speaks Out on ED Research

California Crypto Bill Awaits Signing

This week, crypto investors have focused on California, where the Digital Financial Assets Bill was passed on August 30. The bill requires crypto exchanges and businesses to obtain a license from the California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation in order to operate in the state. .

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The Blockchain Association, a crypto advocacy group, expressed its displeasure and urged lawmakers to reject the bill, saying “the licensing provisions are designed to install the same type of onerous licensing regime and reporting that has held back the growth of the crypto industry”.

The bill stipulates that stablecoins must be authorized by the state regulator or issued by banks. This has worried stablecoin issuers. From the perspective of US regulators, these companies need to show enough USD reserves for their tokens. Popular stablecoins like Tether and USD Coin have market caps in the tens of billions of dollars. The condition of the bill, however, is expected to be removed in 2028.

The bill, which will take effect from January 2025, is now waiting for Governor Gavin Newsom to sign it into law. This should happen before September 30.

NFT in the meta-ecosystem

Since May 2022, Facebook’s parent company, Meta Platforms Inc., has been rolling out features that allow its users to post and share NFTs, or what it calls “digital collectibles,” on Instagram. This was originally limited to US-based creators and collectors. In August, however, the feature was expanded to 100 countries.

On August 29, Meta announced that it was allowing users to post their digital collectibles to Facebook and Instagram. Some Facebook users have expressed concerns about the security of their digital wallets which provide access to expensive NFTs.

In its recent NFT market report, research firm Elliptic showed that more than $100 million worth of NFTs were stolen by scammers between July 2021 and July 2022. Of these, 4,600 NFTs were stolen in July only.

Speaking out after the raids

Co-founder and CEO of CoinSwitch Kuber, Ashish Singhal, claimed in a tweet that the Enforcement Directorate’s (ED) “engagement” with CoinSwitch Kuber was unrelated to money laundering allegations. money or the law on the prevention of money laundering.

The agency reportedly probed the company regarding the operation of its crypto platforms and exchanges.

The executive also explained that crypto is a new asset class in the country and that CoinSwitch Kuber is conducting “constructive dialogues” with stakeholders to educate them about the company’s business practices.

CoinSwitch Kuber was valued at around $1.9 billion last year and its notable investors include Andreessen Horowitz and Coinbase Ventures.

Last month, the ED froze ₹64.67 crore in bank deposits from crypto exchange WazirX as part of a money laundering investigation.