• CFTC strategic plan
    Regulation

    CFTC’s new strategic goals are good news for crypto… and bad

    The commission wants a ‘holistic framework’ to promote innovation in digital assets, but it also plans to come down hard on those who break the rules

    The goal that will be of most interest to crypto-focused firms is the third one: to encourage innovation and enhance the regulatory experience for market participants at home and abroad. This will undoubtedly be music to the ears of international businesses that have ended up being bogged down with red tape and regulatory uncertainty.

  • Telegram discontinues TON testnet
    Alt coins,  Regulation,  United States

    Telegram Open Network pulls the plug on testnet, in final blow to doomed project

    The grim milestone marks the end of a sorry journey for TON, almost a year after the testnet first launched

    In a July 6 update, the development group driving TON wrote: “Our remaining validators will be switched off not later than 1.08.2020. Please save all relevant data and terminate your testing process.”

  • Telegram SEC settlement
    Cryptocurrencies,  People,  Regulation

    Telegram and SEC agree on settlement, $1.2B to be returned to investors

    ‘We hope the regulatory environment for blockchain technology in the US becomes more favorable for others in the future,’ Telegram CEO Pavel Durov says

    For eight months, the encrypted messaging app and the regulator have been coming to blows—with the SEC claiming the company’s $1.7 billion sale of gram tokens was an illegal securities sale. Under the deal announced on June 26, Telegram would pay an $18.5 million penalty and return $1.2 billion—about 70% of the funds raised—to investors.

  • SEC shoots down Telegram
    Alt coins,  Regulation

    SEC shoots down Telegram’s TON blockchain

    Well-known cryptocurrency lawyer Stephen Palley tells Modern Consensus that the Telegram Open Network blockchain’s demise will create headaches for projects funded in similar ways

    Telegram CEO Pavel Durov announced on May 12 that his messaging platform’s active involvement with TON is over—using a blog post to lambast the U.S. judge who effectively stopped the project from going ahead.