News & Events

NEW YORK - 14 June, 2022: The HBAR Foundation and Merkle Science, the predictive crypto risk and intelligence platform, have today announced their partnership. This collaboration supports Hedera’s journey to build the world's first mass adopted public decentralized ledger, empowering network participants to better identify and mitigate crypto crime, comply with local and global regulations and protect consumers.

SINGAPORE - 26 May 2022: Today, Merkle Science, the predictive crypto risk and intelligence platform, announced a landmark partnership with the leading payment gateway, RelayPay. This partnership showcases the companies’ commitment to building a compliant ecosystem as digital assets become a linchpin of the financial industry.

On May 9, 2022, the Federal Reserve released its semi-annual Financial Stability Report, which highlighted the run risks of stablecoins. The Federal Reserve asserted that rapid growth is one of the risk factors that make stablecoins more vulnerable to runs. According to the report, the aggregate value of stablecoins has increased rapidly over the past year, to more than $180 billion in March 2022. Amidst the rising use of stablecoins, the government agencies are concerned about the prudential risks associated with stablecoins including losing value or becoming illiquid in case of a market run. 

On May 5, 2022, the Commodities Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) announced that the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York (SDNY) has issued a consent order against the co-founders of BitMEX, a crypto derivatives trading platform, Arthur Hayes, Benjamin Delo, and Samuel Reed.

Under the consent order, the three co-founders are required to pay a total of $30 million in civil monetary penalties for willfully violating the federal commodities regulations. The co-founders will pay $10 million apiece and are prevented from further violating Commodity Exchange Act (CEA) and other CFTC regulations. 

On May 3, 2022, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced that it is nearly doubling the Crypto Assets and Cyber Unit, bringing the headcount to a total of 50 positions. The SEC said that the 20 new additions include investigative staff attorneys, trial lawyers, and fraud analysts. 

On April 18, 2022, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), and the U.S. Department of Treasury issued a joint Cybersecurity Advisory to highlight the cyber threat associated with crypto thefts and the tactics used by a North Korean state-sponsored advanced persistent threat (APT) group. The advisory states that the APT group is commonly tracked by the cybersecurity industry as Lazarus Group, APT38, BlueNoroff, and Stardust Chollima.

On April 7, 2022, the U.S Secretary of Treasury Janet Yellen delivered her first speech on digital assets at the American University’s Kogod School of Business Center for Innovation. 

On April 4, 2022, the United Kingdom unveiled its plans to become a global cryptoasset technology hub. The UK’s vision was set out in a speech by the Economic Secretary to the Treasury, John Glen, at the Innovate Finance Global Summit. “If crypto technologies are going to be a big part of the future, then we in the UK,  want to be in, and in on the ground floor,” stated Glen.

On April 5, 2022, the U.S. Department of Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) announced that it has sanctioned the world’s largest and most prominent darknet market place Hydra Market and Russia-linked crypto exchange Garantex. These sanctions form a part of the coordinated international effort to disrupt the proliferation of malicious cybercrime services, dangerous drugs, and other illegal offerings available through Russia-based sites. The news follows German authorities’ announcement that they have shut down Hydra after securing server infrastructure and seizing 543.3 BTC worth around $25 million. Additionally, the OFAC added more than 100 crypto addresses belonging to Hydra and Garantex to its SDN list.