Karsten Wenzlaff, Advisor
August 26th, 2025
Karsten Wenzlaff is a Crowdfunding and Fintech Expert from Germany. He is Secretary-General of Digit[...]
Category Archives: Blockchain, Crypto, Digital Assets Regulations
Ledn Receives VASP Regulatory Approval in the Cayman Islands
Ledn Newswire | May 9 2023
Ledn Inc. ("Ledn"), a global financial services provider for digital assets, has announced that it has received registration and regulatory approval as a Virtual Asset Service Provider (VASP) from the Cayman Islands Monetary Authority (CIMA).
- Ledn, a leading financial technology company, recently announced its regulatory approval in a respected international financial services hub.
- Kenneth Ng, Ledn's Chief Legal Officer, highlighted the company's dedication to serving clients' needs while adhering to the highest regulatory standards. Ledn sees this approval as a crucial milestone as they continue expanding globally and introducing innovative products and services to their growing client base.
See: Ledn to acquire Arxnovum Investments, a fully-registered, Canadian digital asset investment manager
- Ledn offers savings accounts and loans to clients in over 130 countries, with a focus on providing digital asset-based products that help individuals build long-term wealth. The company, which offers a range of digital asset financial products and services, including Bitcoin-backed loans and digital asset savings accounts, will soon service its global client base through its regulated VASP subsidiary under the supervision of CIMA.
- For more information about Ledn and its services, visit their website at www.ledn.io.
Adam Reeds, Ledn, co-founder and CEO:
We are very pleased to have obtained regulatory approval in a well-respected international financial services hub, which is further testament to what we have been carefully building at Ledn, especially during a period when many of our industry peers are faltering.
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The National Crowdfunding & Fintech Association (NCFA Canada) is a financial innovation ecosystem that provides education, market intelligence, industry stewardship, networking and funding opportunities and services to thousands of community members and works closely with industry, government, partners and affiliates to create a vibrant and innovative fintech and funding industry in Canada. Decentralized and distributed, NCFA is engaged with global stakeholders and helps incubate projects and investment in fintech, alternative finance, crowdfunding, peer-to-peer finance, payments, digital assets and tokens, blockchain, cryptocurrency, regtech, and insurtech sectors. Join Canada's Fintech & Funding Community today FREE! Or become a contributing member and get perks. For more information, please visit: www.ncfacanada.org
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Kraken, Web3 Foundation, Republic Crypto to Testify in Front of House Subcommittee on Digital Assets Financial Inclusion and Regulatory Gaps
Crowdfund Insider | | May 8, 2023
Last week, the House Subcommittee on Digital Assets, Financial Technology, and Inclusion announced a joint hearing with the Agriculture Subcommittee on digital assets, titled "The Future of Digital Assets: Measuring the Regulatory Gaps in the Digital Asset Markets."
- The hearing, scheduled for Wednesday, May 10, 2023, at 9:30 AM ET, will feature notable witnesses and will be live-streamed on the Committee website.
- The House Subcommittee hearing on digital assets will feature witnesses from Republic Crypto, Kraken Digital Asset Exchange, and Web3 Foundation, among others.
See: Industry Thinks Feds Are Trying to Kill Crypto, White House Denies It
- The discussion aims to address the inconsistent classification of digital assets as securities or commodities by the SEC and CFTC, which has created regulatory uncertainty.
- The hearing memo highlights the Howey Test, which is used to determine if an asset is a security, and notes contradictions between federal and state regulators' interpretations.
- The current legislation related to the hearing, the Resolution Expressing Support for Blockchain Technology and Digital Assets, acknowledges the need for Congress to create a consistent regulatory framework for digital assets and determine oversight rules.
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The National Crowdfunding & Fintech Association (NCFA Canada) is a financial innovation ecosystem that provides education, market intelligence, industry stewardship, networking and funding opportunities and services to thousands of community members and works closely with industry, government, partners and affiliates to create a vibrant and innovative fintech and funding industry in Canada. Decentralized and distributed, NCFA is engaged with global stakeholders and helps incubate projects and investment in fintech, alternative finance, crowdfunding, peer-to-peer finance, payments, digital assets and tokens, blockchain, cryptocurrency, regtech, and insurtech sectors. Join Canada's Fintech & Funding Community today FREE! Or become a contributing member and get perks. For more information, please visit: www.ncfacanada.org
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White House Proposes 30% Digital Asset Mining Energy (DAME) Excise Tax
The White House | May 2, 2023
New proposal in this year’s Budget, the Digital Asset Mining Energy (DAME) excise tax to balance the economic and environmental costs of cryptomining where after a phase-in-period, firms would face a tax equal to 30 percent of the cost of the electricity they use in cryptomining.
- Currently, cryptomining firms do not have to pay for the full cost they impose on others, in the form of local environmental pollution, higher energy prices, and the impacts of increased greenhouse gas emissions on the climate. The DAME tax encourages firms to start taking better account of the harms they impose on society.
See: B.C. Government Temporarily Suspends Requests for Electricity Connetions from Crypto Miners
- While crypto assets are virtual, the energy consumption tied to their computationally intensive production is very real and imposes very real costs, as highlighted in a chapter of this year’s Economic Report of the President. The amount of electricity used in cryptomining in the United States in 2022 was similar to what is used to power all the country’s home computers or residential lighting.
- Cryptomining activities pose significant environmental, social, and economic concerns due to their high energy consumption and negative spillover effects (OSTP 2022).
- Low-income neighborhoods and communities of color disproportionately bear the burden of pollution from electricity generation (Thind et al. 2019).
- The unpredictable power demands of cryptomining can lead to increased electricity prices, strained electrical grids, and potential safety hazards (Chelan County 2018).
- The geographically mobile nature of cryptomining further exposes local utilities to financial risks associated with capacity investments that may become unnecessary.
See: Canada: Release Of Draft Tax Legislation For Consultation including GST/HST for Crypto Mining
- China banned such activity completely in 2021, as have eight other countries;
- Three Canadian provinces also have announced or enacted cryptomining moratoriums.
- Some U.S. States and localities are now charging higher electricity prices for or restricting the activity.
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The National Crowdfunding & Fintech Association (NCFA Canada) is a financial innovation ecosystem that provides education, market intelligence, industry stewardship, networking and funding opportunities and services to thousands of community members and works closely with industry, government, partners and affiliates to create a vibrant and innovative fintech and funding industry in Canada. Decentralized and distributed, NCFA is engaged with global stakeholders and helps incubate projects and investment in fintech, alternative finance, crowdfunding, peer-to-peer finance, payments, digital assets and tokens, blockchain, cryptocurrency, regtech, and insurtech sectors. Join Canada's Fintech & Funding Community today FREE! Or become a contributing member and get perks. For more information, please visit: www.ncfacanada.org
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Industry Thinks Feds Are Trying to Kill Crypto, White House Denies It
Intelligencer | | May 1 2023
Image: Unsplash/Ricardo Arce
Are the Feds Trying to Kill Crypto?
- Protego Trust, founded by a lawyer turned venture capitalist, was betting big that it could be the squeaky-clean, bona fide bank that crypto needed to win Wall Street’s business. It had spent $80 million pursuing a coveted approval for a national trust charter, winning conditional approval in 2021. It then raised more than $100 million — at a reported $2 billion valuation — from big crypto companies, including Coinbase.
- “We courted regulation. We did everything that was required in order to build a pristine financial institution to serve the most discerning institutional clients,” says Protego founder Greg Gilman. But when Protego told the OCC in February that it had completed all of the agency’s requirements for full approval, its application was denied on a technicality — one that the OCC had never mentioned before, according to a person familiar with the situation.
- It has led to an almost universal conviction that financial regulators are purposefully trying to put them out of business — not by barring them explicitly but rather through the recent appearance of a web of policies, both written and unwritten, that together make it unfeasible or impossible for crypto firms to operate in the U.S.
- Critics tend to see as neither legitimate nor productive — are now calling what’s happening to crypto “Operation Choke Point 2.0.” Indeed, the Gensler-led crackdown over the past six months has, according to many in the sector, pushed things to a crisis point, forcing a desperate decision: Fight against the federal government or flee the country.
See: 16z: 2023 State of Crypto (and Index)
Sheila Warren, CEO of the Crypto Council for Innovation:
I think all the conspiracy theorists are definitely onto something. There is enough circumstantial evidence to say, ‘Oh yeah, that’s a real thing.
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Decrypt | André Beganski | Mar 2, 2023
The Democratic presidential candidate endorsed the view that recent turmoil in the U.S. banking sector was fallout from a "war on crypto."
- Democratic presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has criticized the perceived "war on crypto" waged by the FDIC and SEC, claiming they lack authority to do so. Kennedy opposes a U.S. central bank digital currency and argues that this war on crypto negatively impacts major banks.
- Referencing an article written by Ellen Brown titled “How the War on Crypto Triggered a Banking Crisis,” Kennedy said Brown makes a “strong case” that a government-led campaign against the digital assets industry led to several historic bank failures in March, specifically Silicon Valley Bank, Signature Bank, and Silvergate Bank.
- Whether or not there’s a concerted effort to uproot crypto from the U.S. financial system is a contentious topic.
FFCON23 Video: Strategies for Canadian Fintech Companies Amidst Regulatory Crackdowns
- The Federal Reserve issued clarity days after Kennedy’s anti-CBDC remarks, saying the launch of its FedNow payments system is neither a digital currency nor a replacement for cash, which Kennedy appeared to conflate with a CBDC.
- While certain Democrats like Elizabeth Warren have slammed crypto numerous times and made criticism of the industry a key pillar of their political platform
Ellen Brown makes a strong case the FDIC/SEC war on crypto caused failures of SVB, Signature, and Silvergate banks. FDIC and SEC have no authority to wage an extra-legal war on crypto that leaves major banks as collateral damage. #Kennedy24https://t.co/HMZuW7Rr1H
— Robert F. Kennedy Jr (@RobertKennedyJr) May 2, 2023
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The National Crowdfunding & Fintech Association (NCFA Canada) is a financial innovation ecosystem that provides education, market intelligence, industry stewardship, networking and funding opportunities and services to thousands of community members and works closely with industry, government, partners and affiliates to create a vibrant and innovative fintech and funding industry in Canada. Decentralized and distributed, NCFA is engaged with global stakeholders and helps incubate projects and investment in fintech, alternative finance, crowdfunding, peer-to-peer finance, payments, digital assets and tokens, blockchain, cryptocurrency, regtech, and insurtech sectors. Join Canada's Fintech & Funding Community today FREE! Or become a contributing member and get perks. For more information, please visit: www.ncfacanada.org
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Coinbase Requests U.S. Court to Compel the SEC to Respond to Their 2022 Rulemaking Petition
Coindesk | Nikhilesh De | Apr 25, 2023
Crypto exchange Coinbase (COIN) has asked a federal court to force the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to respond to its petition filed last year asking for formal rulemaking within the digital assets sector.
- Coinbase filed an Administrative Procedure Act challenge against the SEC on Monday. The exchange asked the Third Circuit Court of Appeals to order the SEC to provide "regulatory clarity" around how existing securities laws might apply to the digital asset sector.
- The filing is a preemptive move by the crypto exchange to argue that the SEC's approach doesn't provide sufficient regulatory guidance for U.S. crypto firms.
See: Coinbase and Kraken Reaffirm Plans to Stay Operational in Canada Amidst Changing Regulatory Landscape
The filing said:
It is widely recognized – including by a sitting SEC Commissioner – that existing SEC registration and disclosure requirements are incompatible with digital assets, which differ fundamentally from the stocks, bonds and investment contracts for which the securities laws were designed and that the SEC traditionally has regulated. The SEC at a minimum must set forth how those inapt and inapposite requirements are to be adapted to digital assets. But the SEC has refused to do even that.
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CNBC | MacKenzie Sigalos | Apr 24, 2023
Longtime BTC bull: ‘Crypto is dead in America'
- Tech investor Chamath Palihapitiya, who said two years ago that bitcoin has replaced gold and predicted the digital currency would climb to $200,000, has a much more cautious view on cryptocurrencies these days. Palihapitiya blamed crypto’s demise largely on regulators, who have gotten much more aggressive in their pursuit of bad actors in the industry.
- In February, the agency proposed rules that would change which crypto firms can custody customer assets. In March, the SEC issued crypto exchange Coinbase a Wells notice — typically one of the final steps before it files charges — warning the company that it identified potential violations of U.S. securities law.
- Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong told CNBC that his company is preparing for a yearslong court battle with the commission, and is also considering relocating outside the U.S. if it doesn’t get improved regulatory clarity.
See: SEC Wins LBRY Protocol Case: Is Every U.S. Crypto A Security?
House Financial Services Committee Chairman Rep. Patrick McHenry, R-N.C.:
You’re punishing digital asset firms for allegedly not adhering to the law when they don’t know it will apply to them. The SEC’s approach was “driving innovation overseas and endangering American competitiveness.
Gary Gensler, Chair, SEC:
We have a clear regulatory framework built up over 90 years,” he said, adding that the exchanges “are “noncompliant generally, and they need to come into compliance.
Continue to the full article --> here
The National Crowdfunding & Fintech Association (NCFA Canada) is a financial innovation ecosystem that provides education, market intelligence, industry stewardship, networking and funding opportunities and services to thousands of community members and works closely with industry, government, partners and affiliates to create a vibrant and innovative fintech and funding industry in Canada. Decentralized and distributed, NCFA is engaged with global stakeholders and helps incubate projects and investment in fintech, alternative finance, crowdfunding, peer-to-peer finance, payments, digital assets and tokens, blockchain, cryptocurrency, regtech, and insurtech sectors. Join Canada's Fintech & Funding Community today FREE! Or become a contributing member and get perks. For more information, please visit: www.ncfacanada.org
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Progress Stablecoin Legislation or Risk the Financial Future
Cato Institute | Jack Solowey | Apr 20, 2023
Yesterday, the House Financial Services Committee’s Subcommittee on Digital Assets, Financial Technology, and Inclusion held a hearing on stablecoins (cryptocurrencies pegged to the value of an asset like the dollar).
- The committee deserves recognition for taking the all‐important first step: admitting we have a problem. Witnesses largely agreed on the shortsightedness of U.S. hostility to decentralized financial technology and the need for regulatory clarity, comments from lawmakers indicated that a common‐sense solution on stablecoins, unfortunately, remains far off.
- A bill posted on the committee’s website before the hearing—a draft stablecoin framework that first circulated last fall—needs work if it is to rein in the excessive regulatory discretion that hinders a competitive stablecoin market and undermines American developers and consumers.
- To their credit—Subcommittee Chairman French Hill (R‑AR) and Committee Chairman Patrick McHenry (R‑NC) acknowledged that the bill is but a jumping off point for future revisions—an “infant” in Rep. Hill’s words (and an “ugly baby” in Rep. McHenry’s phrasing from last fall).
See: OpEd: Draft U.S. Bill on Stablecoins Highlight Differences with CBDCs
- How to achieve sensible stablecoin legislation?
- A stablecoin bill will need to embrace competition from new entrants. This can be accomplished by reducing the regulatory discretion that disserves U.S. businesses and users, avoiding overreactions to experimental instruments, and opening the doors to non‐traditional market participants.
- A stablecoin bill should not grant regulators open‐ended leeway to reject the applications of stablecoin issuers. Instead, legislation should focus on objective criteria related to reserve assets and disclosures rather than vague factors like a project’s future benefits, contribution to financial stability writ large, overall convenience, or ability to promote financial inclusion.
- A stablecoin bill should simply address stablecoins’ primary risks and financial risk in business: that fiat asset‐backed projects have the reserves and redemption policies they claim to.
- Lastly, stablecoin legislation should allow flexibility when it comes to the types of businesses issuing stablecoins.
- Not only should non‐bank and state‐chartered entities be allowed to become lawful issuers, but so too should businesses from diverse sectors, including those traditionally outside of finance.
- Preventing companies with other lines of business from issuing stablecoins—or affiliating with those doing so—would risk further constraining financial inclusion and competition.
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The National Crowdfunding & Fintech Association (NCFA Canada) is a financial innovation ecosystem that provides education, market intelligence, industry stewardship, networking and funding opportunities and services to thousands of community members and works closely with industry, government, partners and affiliates to create a vibrant and innovative fintech and funding industry in Canada. Decentralized and distributed, NCFA is engaged with global stakeholders and helps incubate projects and investment in fintech, alternative finance, crowdfunding, peer-to-peer finance, payments, digital assets and tokens, blockchain, cryptocurrency, regtech, and insurtech sectors. Join Canada's Fintech & Funding Community today FREE! Or become a contributing member and get perks. For more information, please visit: www.ncfacanada.org
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SEC Asserts DeFi is Caught Under Securities Rules, Reopens Proposal to Widen Definition of Exchanges
Coindesk |Jesse Hamilton| Apr 17, 2023
Image: Coindesk TV
Unless Congress legislates otherwise, U.S. oversight will hold most of the crypto world inside the SEC’s jurisdiction as the agency moves to make its reach increasingly explicit.
- The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's (SEC) warning shot last week that decentralized finance (DeFi) could be thrown into its expanding definition of what makes a securities exchange is the latest move to formalize what Chairman Gary Gensler has been saying: Crypto belongs in the securities world and will be regulated that way.
- the agency voted 3-2 to reopen an existing proposal to widen how it defines operations that need to be regulated as securities exchanges, is aimed at bringing in new technologies that would now include DeFi. To comply with this and other SEC initiatives, crypto operations would have to decide whether to make fundamental changes – such as increased centralization. Some of those changes could threaten what’s different about their approach to money and investing.
See: Should the SEC Be Allowed to Wage an Unsupervised Dirty War on Crypto?
Jason Gottlieb, Laywer at Morrison Cohen in New York:
The SEC is simply seeking to ban DeFi protocols in America. In doing so, the SEC is substituting its own opinions for Congress' prerogative on a major question, central to the future of the American economy. [The change] would sweep decentralized software protocols into a regulatory framework that was not built for them, and with which they literally, technologically cannot comply.
The SEC has now mostly arrayed its pieces on the regulatory battlefield:
- It targeted trading platforms as unregistered exchanges, and has warned Coinbase its turn for an enforcement action is coming.
- It labeled a number of tokens, yield products and staking services as securities.
- It proposed a rule that would likely insist investment firms custody their crypto assets outside of the industry.
- It proposed a “best execution” rule that would include any firms trading crypto security tokens.
- Apart from last week’s vote to add DeFi to its exchange definition, last year the agency proposed a new way to define securities dealers that could similarly rope in DeFi activity.
Read: Hong Kong Rolls Out Red Carpet to Crypto Firms Including Mainland China
- In testimony prepared for a Tuesday hearing of the House Financial Services Committee, SEC Chairman Gary Gensler said that "nothing about the crypto markets is incompatible with the securities laws." He also criticized crypto platforms for trying to fulfill multiple roles without registering for federal oversight, and noted that calling yourself a DeFi platform is not an excuse to defy the securities laws.
- Gensler's rhetoric is being put into action with the latest enforcement action against Bittrex and last month's case against Beaxy. Commissioner Peirce, who has been called "Crypto Mom" for her past support of the sector, said that this marks a "very consequential moment" and that the enforcement division will ultimately make the calls on how DeFi transactions fit into SEC rules.
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CNBC Christina Wilkie | Apr 18, 2023
Gensler defends SEC’s crypto crackdown in marathon House hearing
- Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Gary Gensler faced a barrage of criticism from House Republicans on Tuesday over his agency’s crackdown on cryptocurrency trading platforms.
- In a House Financial Services Committee hearing, Republicans argued that the SEC's disclosure rules were not suitable for decentralized digital currency exchanges and could push digital platforms overseas, weakening America's status as a hub for cryptocurrency innovation. They also argued that the SEC's regulation by enforcement was not sustainable. However, SEC Chairman Gary Gensler rejected these notions, stating that the crypto industry understands the law and should come into compliance if providing exchange, broker-dealer, and clearing services of crypto security tokens.
- The prospect of legislation to regulate digital currencies has faded this year, but major crypto industry groups are planning to spend millions of dollars this year to lobby Congress and the Biden administration.
See:
Wall Street Opposes a Controversial Retail Investor Proposal by SEC Chair Gary Gensler
SEC Ignores All Recommendations by the Small Business Capital Formation Advisory Committee
Gary Gensler, SEC Chairman:
We have a clear regulatory framework built up over 90 years. The exchanges are “just a bunch of intermediaries in this market that think they have a choice. They don’t have a choice. They’re noncompliant generally, and they need to come into compliance.
Fortune | Justin Doom | Apr 18, 2023
House committee chair blasts SEC’s Gensler on defining Ether: ‘You won’t answer my question, and you’re the head of that agency’
“Back in 2018,” said the chair of the House Financial Services Committee, at a Tuesday hearing, “then-SEC Corporation Finance Director Bill Hinman stated that he believed Ether was not a security. Last month, CFTC Chair [Rostin] Behnam expressed his view that Ether is a commodity. The state attorney general of New York asserted in a court filing last month that Ether is a security. Clearly, an asset cannot be both a commodity and security. Do you agree?”
Gary Gensler, chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission, smirked.
“Actually,” he responded, “all securities are commodities under the Commodity Exchange Act. It’s that we are excluded commodities. But I would agree that a security cannot be also an excluded commodity and an included commodity.”
McHenry, an advocate of establishing rules for stablecoins, pushed onward.
“Okay. How would you categorize Ether then?”
“I think,” continued Gensler, “that the general sweep of what Congress did, not just in the ’30s but as—”
“I’m asking you, sitting in your chair now, to make an assessment under the laws as [they] exist: Is Ether a commodity or a security?”
“Without speaking to any one—”
“I know, you’ve repeatedly said you’re not going to speak to one, except you’ve spoken to one: Bitcoin. So I’m asking you to speak to a second one, [with] the second-largest market cap.”
“In speaking to the tokens,” replied Gensler, “there’s 10 to 12,000. If there’s a group of entrepreneurs—”
“I’m asking you about one.”
“…”
McHenry later asked Gensler if they could at least agree on how the existing lack of clarity was affecting the marketplace.
“I think that the clarity is there,” Gensler said. “The law is clear.”
Answered McHenry: “Let me be explicit about this: The market doesn’t see it.”
For two years, Democrats gave @GaryGensler a pass for his disastrous agenda. It's time for accountability. From his destructive climate disclosure rule to his regulation by enforcement of digital assets, Chair Gensler’s agenda has weakened capital markets & stifled innovation. https://t.co/coo8kvmpYe
— Patrick McHenry (@PatrickMcHenry) April 18, 2023
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The National Crowdfunding & Fintech Association (NCFA Canada) is a financial innovation ecosystem that provides education, market intelligence, industry stewardship, networking and funding opportunities and services to thousands of community members and works closely with industry, government, partners and affiliates to create a vibrant and innovative fintech and funding industry in Canada. Decentralized and distributed, NCFA is engaged with global stakeholders and helps incubate projects and investment in fintech, alternative finance, crowdfunding, peer-to-peer finance, payments, digital assets and tokens, blockchain, cryptocurrency, regtech, and insurtech sectors. Join Canada's Fintech & Funding Community today FREE! Or become a contributing member and get perks. For more information, please visit: www.ncfacanada.org
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