Well-known cryptocurrency advocacy group Blockchain Association has decided to relocate to Washington, DC from its present location in New York State.
Blockchain Association CEO Kristin Smith wrote in a letter to Coindesk that the organisation is shifting resources out of New York State and expanding its full-time staff in Washington DC.
The move is believed to be because of the increase in regulatory pressure on the digital assets market. It came immediately after New York Governor Kathy Hochul approved a legislation making it the first US state to forbid mining of specific type of cryptocurrencies.
Smith further said in the letter that their objective remains the same, i.e., promoting the growth of cryptocurrencies in the United States.
The New York legislation is believed to be part of a wider crackdown on the digital assets market by federal regulators after the collapse of the FTX crypto exchange.
Securities Token Platform Launches MPC Wallet For Institutions
Securities token platform INX has introduced a new Web 3.0 wallet with compliance capabilities for institutions. The new wallet makes use of multi-party computation (MPC) technology and was developed in collaboration with wallet infrastructure provider BitGo.
According to a statement on Twitter on May 3, 2023, the wallet allows institutions to control which employees are allowed to use the tokens held within it.
Also, when holding INX securities tokens, the new wallet enables institutions to adhere to cybersecurity and custody standards in the financial sector. The private key that manages a certain account is not accessible to a single person. Instead, the MPC technology divides the key into three or more “shards” that must be combined in order to sign transactions.
Former OpenSea Manager Convicted In NFT-Insider Trading Case
Nathaniel Chastain, a former product manager at OpenSea, has been convicted of wire fraud and money laundering in a non-fungible token (NFT) insider trading case.
Prosecutors in a New York federal court while pronouncing the verdict on May 3, 2023, claimed Chastain profited from inside information about which NFTs would be featured on the marketplace.
According to Reuters, Chastain oversaw the decisions which NFTs would be displayed on the website’s non-fungible token (NFT) marketplace. Prosecutors claimed that after making these choices, he routinely bought these NFTs and afterwards sold them again after they had been highlighted.
On June 1, 2022, Chastain was accused of engaging in these purported transactions while committing wire fraud and money laundering.
