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Proposals to stop social media stars promoting unlicensed companies were approved by the National Assembly Thursday.

The UK Treasury and Home Office plan to tighten their grip on crypto money launderers and kleptocrats, according to the latest three-year Economic Crime Plan published on Thursday. 

“The government will set out ambitious plans to protect consumers and grow the economy by robustly regulating cryptoasset activities – providing confidence and clarity to consumers and businesses alike,” the policy paper reads, adding that this is in order to make the UK “an attractive destination for cryptoassets and cryptoasset innovation in the world.”

As part of this, the UK expects criminals will use less-regulated crypto exchanges and services in the future, requiring more coordinated law enforcement action between countries. The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) is already working closely with international counterparts on a “bilateral basis” to exchange information.

The plan points to goals such as cutting fraud, reducing money laundering, recovering criminal assets, combatting kleptocracy and driving down sanctions evasion.

It also outlines the agencies which will be responsible for overseeing these, including the Treasury, Home Office, trade body CryptoUK, the Crown Prosecution Service and HMRC. 

UK illicit cryptoasset transactions

Based on estimates of UK transaction volumes, illicit cryptoasset transactions linked to the UK in 2021 likely equated to at least £1.24 billion ($1.5 billion), or about 1% of total transaction value, with a possibility they were significantly higher, the National Crime Agency found. 

The economic crime plan follows the NCA’s creation of a “crypto cell” as it kicked off the recruitment of a group of law enforcement officers specifically focused on digital assets.

With reporting by Stephanie Murray.

© 2023 The Block Crypto, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.

FTX founder and former CEO Sam Bankman-Fried pleaded not guilty to charges of attempted bribery and campaign finance violations unveiled in two recent superseding indictments.

The court also ruled that the 3AC liquidators’ service of a subpoena to Davies via Twitter complied with due process.

Sometimes they really are out to get you. The government’s regulatory attack on crypto is an abuse of power that risks sending a vital industry overseas, to no gain for consumer protections.

Tokenizing financial and real-world assets could be the “killer use-case” that blockchain needs to drive a breakthrough, with trillions of dollars worth of securities tokenized by the end of the decade, according to Citi’s latest global perspectives and solutions report. 

“Almost anything of value can be tokenized,” Citi wrote in its March report. The bank forecasts up to $4 trillion in tokenized digital securities and up to $5 trillion of central bank digital currency could be circulating in major economies in the world, half or which could be linked to distributed ledger technology.

While the potential for tokenization via blockchain technology has been touted for some time now, it’s not quite at the point of mass adoption, said Kathleen Boyle, managing editor of the Citi GPS. Since blockchain is a back-end infrastructure technology without a prominent consumer interface, its innovations are less visible. 

Inflection point

Despite innovation taking time, the space is approaching an inflection point, Boyle said, and the promised potential of blockchain could soon be realized.

“Successful adoption will be when blockchain has a billion-plus users who do not even realize they are using the technology,” Boyle said. That will likely be driven by the adoption of central bank digital currencies, tokenized assets in gaming and blockchain-based payments on social media. 

Mainstream adoption requires enablers including, decentralized digital identities, zero-knowledge proofs, Oracles, and secure bridges. Legal plumbing is also essential, as are regulatory considerations to allow adoption and scalability without “hindering innovation.”

“Although we think mass adoption could still be six to eight years away, momentum on adoption has positively shifted as governments, large institutions, and corporations have moved from investigating the benefits of tokenization to trials and proofs of concept,” Boyle said. 

Fink’s forecast on tokenization

Citi isn’t alone in saying this. BlackRock’s Larry Fink wrote about the operational potential of the underlying technologies in digital assets in his annual letter to shareholders earlier this month, saying they have “exciting applications.”

“In particular, the tokenization of asset classes offers the prospect of driving efficiencies in capital markets, shortening value chains, and improving cost and access for investors,” Fink said. 

© 2023 The Block Crypto, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.

The startup will have a second close in the coming weeks for the round at a $1.4 billion valuation.

Kraken has filed a pre-registration undertaking with the Ontario Securities Commission as it works towards becoming a registered Restricted Dealer in Canada.

The Supreme Court of Denmark ruled that profits from the sale of bitcoin constitute a taxable event, upholding a previous ruling by the Danish High Court.

The Supreme Court considered two instances of profiting from bitcoin. The first involved an entity that acquired bitcoin from a third party and the second involved miners who earn bitcoin as a reward for securing the network. The Court ruled that both entities would have a tax liability if they sold their coins.

For people in the first instance, the court ruled that their bitcoin purchase was speculative in nature. As such, any sales by them should not be tax-free according to Denmark’s State Tax Act. As for miners, the Supreme Court ruled that their bitcoin acquisitions via mining constituted revenue and should attract taxes if they sell.

In 2018, Danish tax authorities identified 2,700 individuals owing taxes on bitcoin profits. At the time, it was reported that these individuals sold $8 million worth of bitcoin via a Finland-based exchange.

© 2023 The Block Crypto, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.