Summary
TLDR: The Department of Justice and CFTC filed lawsuits against KuCoin for violations of anti-money laundering laws and operating unregistered futures and swaps. The DOJ cited BSA violations and compared KuCoin to Binance. Legislation to expand BSA to crypto companies is being proposed by US senators. Despite criticism, the DOJ has a strong case. Ethereum, Solana, and Binance Smart Chain dominate DEX volume. On-chain derivatives volumes are at record highs. Bitcoin has seen increased transactions and Ethereum hit a milestone in transactions. The market is maturing, with the majority of top cryptocurrencies remaining the same since 2021. HSBC launches a gold-backed token, Apple wins a lawsuit over anti-competitive behavior, and a blockchain startup backed by Steve Cohen raises $18 million. Blast avoids a rollback after a hack on an NFT project, highlighting the potential challenges of layer 2 scaling solutions.
Key Points
1. The Department of Justice and Commodity Futures Trading Commission filed lawsuits against KuCoin, alleging violations of anti-money laundering laws and operating an unregistered futures and swaps operation.
2. The DOJ brought the case against KuCoin under the Bank Secrecy Act for skirting KYC and AML policies, enabling the exchange to transmit suspicious and criminal funds.
3. Senator Elizabeth Warren is pushing for legislation that would expand the BSA to apply to nearly all industry participants in the crypto sector, including wallet providers and miners.