Category: Blockchain & Smart Contracts

1
AUSTRALIA: Treasury Releases Token Mapping Consultation Paper
2
The Future of Stable (Bank) Coins?: President’s Working Group on Financial Markets Urges Legislation Limiting Stablecoins to Insured Banks
3
UK JURISDICTION TASKFORCE STATEMENT ON CRYPTO ASSETS AND SMART CONTRACTS – A “WATERSHED MOMENT”
4
Japan’s New Crypto Regulation – 2019 Amendments to Payment Services Act and Financial Instruments and Exchange Act of Japan
5
International FinTech Watch: China Announced Positive Stance on Blockchain Technology
6
A Future without Crypto Futures?
7
”A lot of water to flow under the bridge”: central banks around the world provide their initial response to Facebook’s Libra
8
New FATF Guidance Will Significantly Impact the Crypto Industry
9
Banks Invest in Developing a Digital Blockchain Settlement System
10
ECB Task Force recommends regulation of crypto-asset gatekeepers

AUSTRALIA: Treasury Releases Token Mapping Consultation Paper

By Daniel Knight and Oliver Herrmann

New licensing requirements for crypto service providers are coming, following a series of consultations launched last week by Treasurer, Jim Chalmers. The Government approach focuses on strengthening enforcement, bolstering consumer protection and ultimately establishing a new licensing framework.

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The Future of Stable (Bank) Coins?: President’s Working Group on Financial Markets Urges Legislation Limiting Stablecoins to Insured Banks

By Judith Rinearson, Jeremy M. McLaughlin, and Daniel S. Nuñez Cohen

On 1 November 2021, the President’s Working Group on Financial Markets (PWG), in conjunction with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and the Comptroller of the Currency, issued a long-awaited joint “Report on Stablecoins” (Report). Per the press release (and a speech by Undersecretary of Treasury Nellie Liang), the Report is intended to “identify regulatory gaps related to “payment stablecoins” (defined as stablecoins that are designed to maintain a stable value and “therefore have potential to be used as widespread means of payment”), and to present recommendations for addressing those gaps.”

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UK JURISDICTION TASKFORCE STATEMENT ON CRYPTO ASSETS AND SMART CONTRACTS – A “WATERSHED MOMENT”

By Judith Rinearson and Philip Morgan

On November 18, 2019, Geoffrey Vos, Chancellor of the UK High Court, announced the launch of a “Legal Statement on Crypto Assets and Smart Contracts,” which he described as a “watershed moment” for English Law.  The statement, which can be found here, brings new clarity to the likely status of both smart contracts and cryptocurrencies under English law. 

A committee of experts has prepared the statement and, although technically it carries no binding legal authority, it is likely to be regarded as the most authoritative position available until the matters it covers are dealt with specifically by the English courts or by revised legislation.

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Japan’s New Crypto Regulation – 2019 Amendments to Payment Services Act and Financial Instruments and Exchange Act of Japan

By Tsuguhito Omagari and Yuki Sako

Japan will fundamentally change its crypto asset regulations effective in spring of 2020.

In May, 2019, the National Diet, the Japanese national legislature, passed an amendment bill to the Payment Services Act (the “PSA”) and the Financial Instruments and Exchange Act (the “FIEA”), which was promulgated on June 7, 2019 (the “2019 Amendment”).  The 2019 Amendment will become effective within one year from promulgation, following further rulemaking by the Japan Financial Services Agency (the “JFSA”) to implement the 2019 Amendment, which is anticipated sometime soon and includes public comment process.

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International FinTech Watch: China Announced Positive Stance on Blockchain Technology

By Jim Bulling and Wendy Li

On 24 October 2019, China President Xi Jinping expressed strong support for blockchain, which was depicted as “a core technology” to promote China’s industry innovation and digital economy development. In his speech, he also noted that blockchain technology has already been applied in a number of sectors like digital finance, internet of things, intelligent manufacturing and supply chain management, and that since China has a solid foundation of blockchain technology, it should seize the opportunity to build up blockchain industrial ecology and accelerate the integration of blockchain, AI, big data and other cutting edge technologies.

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A Future without Crypto Futures?

By Jim Bulling, Felix Charlesworth and Charles McDonald

The UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has touted further regulation of cryptocurrency markets. In their Consultation Paper (Paper) published on 3 July 2019, the FCA has announced it will begin the consultation process on its proposed move to ban the sale, marketing, and distribution to retail consumers of derivatives and exchange traded notes (ETNs) that reference certain types of cryptoassets.

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”A lot of water to flow under the bridge”: central banks around the world provide their initial response to Facebook’s Libra

Jim Bulling and Felix Charlesworth

The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) along with several other central banks, have provided their initial responses to the recent announcement by Facebook (in conjunction with businesses such as MasterCard, Spotify and PayPal) of its plans to create a new blockchain based currency and payment system known as Libra.

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New FATF Guidance Will Significantly Impact the Crypto Industry

By Jeremy McLaughlin and Judie Rinearson

The Financial Action Task Force (“FATF”), an intergovernmental organization aimed at combatting money laundering and thwarting terrorist financing, recently issued final recommendations for the regulation of cryptocurrencies.  Although the recommendations are not binding on members–it will be up to each of FATF’s 37 member countries to determine whether to enact the recommendations through legislation or regulation–it is expected that they will have widespread adoption and significant implications for the cryptocurrency industry.

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Banks Invest in Developing a Digital Blockchain Settlement System

By Jim Bulling, Felix Charlesworth and Andrew Fay

Late last month, several of the world’s largest banks invested $50 million in a digital cash settlement project with the aim of developing a more efficient clearing and settlement system. The new technology, referred to as the ‘utility settlement coin’ (USC), has been a work in progress since 2015, after Swiss bank UBS Group and London-based technology startup Clearmatics announced to the market that they had commenced working on the project.

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ECB Task Force recommends regulation of crypto-asset gatekeepers

By Giovanni Campi

The European Central Bank’s Internal Crypto-Assets Task Force (“ICA-TF”) issued a report analysing the implications of crypto-assets for financial stability, monetary policy, payments and financial markets infrastructures (“FMIs”).

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