Today in Crypto: The Taliban Bans Crypto

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) asked Grayscale Investments about its “securities law analysis” of tokens in a few smaller crypto trusts, a Coindesk report said on Saturday (August 27).

The SEC’s questions show the uncertainty surrounding Grayscale’s crypto trusts and show that the regulator is considering cracking down on tokens it says should fall under US securities law.

Grayscale disclosed the investigation in documents filed in June and mid-August. In the disclosures, Grayscale acknowledges that three cryptocurrencies from the Stellar (XLM), Zcash (ZEC), and Horizen (ZEN) blockchains “may currently be a security, based on the facts as they exist today.”

In other news, Afghanistan’s central bank has passed a nationwide ban on cryptocurrency, with the Taliban arresting many dealers who illegally traded digital tokens, Bloomberg wrote Friday (August 26).

Some Afghan citizens used crypto to preserve their wealth and protect it from the Taliban, as crypto was used to move money in and out of the country after it was shut down from the global banking system.

Afghanistan now joins China, which banned crypto transactions in September 2021.

Meanwhile, Singapore is reviewing crypto-related businesses in its city-state as more regulations are set to begin, Bloomberg wrote Friday.

The Monetary Authority of Singapore has sent a questionnaire to some applicants and holders of its digital payments license, asking them about business activity and holdings.

The questions aim to assess the financial strength of these companies and their interconnection. Some of the data needed includes major tokens held, major lending and borrowing counterparties and amount lent, as well as major tokens staked through decentralized funding protocols.

Finally, bitcoin was stuck around $20,000 on Sunday (August 28) – showing the crypto market was retreating with the US stock market, Bloomberg wrote.

Bitcoin was coming off a 7.6% two-day decline as Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell took a tough stance on inflation at the Jackson Hole conference on Friday.

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