Ukraine is strong
The news in crypto, like with everything else, has been dominated by what's happening in Ukraine. A significant amount of crypto ($37 million as of now) has been donated to the Ukrainian government and its army by this generous community. Sam Bankman-Fried also donated $25 to every Ukrainian user on the FTX platform immediately when the invasion started. Good vibes all around for my friends in this community who are doing what they can. Our hearts go out to Ukraine.
If you want a place to donate fiat currency, can’t go wrong with the Ukraine Red Cross.
You can also send your bitcoin or tether or ether to the address on the official Ukraine webpage here:
Ukraine is home to a sizeable tech and crypto community, featured in Fortune just last month. Many exchanges and development projects have Ukrainian devs who code remotely. Binance went to great lengths to get their devs out. Some devs are staying, putting down the laptops, and taking up arms to defend their country. God save them and their families.
The Ukrainian government asked crypto exchanges to block all crypto transactions to all Russian users (regardless of whether they are sanctioned parties) and the crypto exchanges universally responded that was not a request they could accommodate.
While there has been some knee-jerk discussion in the media about whether Russia could use crypto to evade sanctions, the consensus among experts is that it would be unlikely that sanctioned parties could move significant amounts of money in crypto without being readily tracked and without encountering roadblocks as their crypto transactions interact with the regular payment system. (See comments from crypto forensic firm Chainalysis here)
That said, the Biden administration has noted they may study how to more directly target crypto transactions involving parties under sanction, in a way that would not destroy the crypto market for other users.
The Biden Administration's executive order on cryptocurrency has been delayed by the events in Ukraine.
Gary is Still At It
The SEC's proposed rule that, in part, would adjust the definition of exchange to include a broader array of transactions, continues to generate pushback from the crypto community. Many are concerned that the SEC's amended definition may apply broadly to DeFi applications and other unintended parties. One commenter notes that it may apply even to the new NFT market on ebay.
If you are as concerned as I am about this new rule, write to the SEC.
The Long Arm of the Law
The Justice Department has charged the founder of BitConnect with defrauding investors of $2.4 billion.