An idea to tokenize or track US gold reserves to make their movements transparent on a blockchain won’t work in the same trustless way as Bitcoin does, but doing so could help the cryptocurrency, says a research analyst.

Greg Cipolaro, global head of research at New York Digital Investment Group (NYDIG), said in a March 21 note that Trump administration officials, including Elon Musk, have floated using a blockchain to track US gold and government spending — an idea supported by crypto executives.

“Here’s the thing about blockchains. They’re not very smart,” Cipolaro said. “They’re limited in the information they convey. For example, Bitcoin has no idea what the price of Bitcoin is or even the current time.”

He said the tokenization or tracking of gold reserves on a blockchain could help with audits and transparency but would still “rely on trust and coordination with central entities” compared to Bitcoin, which “was designed to explicitly remove centralized entities.”

Cipolaro added that tokenization and blockchain-tracking ideas aren’t competitive with the crypto market and might help to increase awareness of it, which “could ultimately benefit Bitcoin.”

It comes amid calls from some for an independent audit of the United States’ gold reserves.

Republican Senator Rand Paul last month seemingly called on Musk’s federal cost-cutting project to investigate the US government’s gold stash at the Bullion Depository in Fort Knox, which the US Mint says holds around half of the country’s gold. 

The Treasury audits and publishes reports on gold holdings at Fort Knox and other locations across the US every month, but President Donald Trump and Musk have both parrotted decades-old conspiracy theories about the gold and questioned whether it’s all still there.

Source: Elon Musk 

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They have both pushed for an independent audit of Fort Knox. The vaults were last opened in 2017 for Trump’s then-Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin to view the gold and before that, in 1974 to a congressional delegation and a group of journalists.

The Mint’s website says that no gold has gone in or out of Fort Knox “for many years,” except for “very small quantities” used to test the gold’s purity during audits. 

Trump’s Treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, said last month that Fort Knox is audited every year and “all the gold is present and accounted for.”

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The US Treasury Department says there is no need for a final court judgment in a lawsuit over its sanctioning of Tornado Cash after dropping the crypto mixer from the sanctions list.

In August 2022, Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctioned Tornado Cash after alleging the protocol helped launder crypto stolen by North Korean hacking crew the Lazarus Group, leading to a number of Tornado Cash users filing a lawsuit against the regulator. 

After a court ruling in favor of Tornado Cash, the US Treasury dropped the mixer from its sanctions list on March 21, along with several dozen Tornado-affiliated smart contract addresses from the Specially Designated Nationals (SDN) list, and has now argued “this matter is now moot.”

Because Tornado Cash has been dropped from the sanctions list, the US Treasury Department argues there is no need for a final court judgment in the lawsuit. Source: Paul Grewal

“Because this court, like all federal courts, has a continuing obligation to satisfy itself that it possesses Article III jurisdiction over the case, briefing on mootness is warranted,” the US Treasury said. 

However, Coinbase chief legal officer Paul Grewal said the Treasury’s hope to have the case declared moot before an official judgment can be made isn’t the correct legal process.

“After grudgingly delisting TC, they now claim they’ve mooted any need for a final court judgment. But that’s not the law, and they know it,” he said.

“Under the voluntary cessation exception, a defendant’s decision to end a challenged practice moots a case only if the defendant can show that the practice cannot ‘reasonably be expected to recur.’”

Grewal pointed to a 2024 Supreme Court ruling that found a legal complaint from Yonas Fikre, a US citizen who was put on the No Fly List, is not moot by taking him off the list because the ban could be reinstated again at a later date.

Source: Paul Grewal

“Here, Treasury has likewise removed the Tornado Cash entities from the SDN, but has provided no assurance that it will not re-list Tornado Cash again. That’s not good enough, and will make this clear to the district court,” Grewal said.

Six Tornado Cash users led by Ethereum core developer Preston Van Loon, with the support of Coinbase, sued the Treasury in September 2022 to reverse the sanctions under the argument that they were unlawful.

Crypto policy advocacy group Coin Center followed through with a similar suit in October 2022.

In August 2023, a Texas federal court judge sided with the US Treasury, ruling that Tornado Cash was an entity that may be designated per OFAC regulations. On appeal, a three-judge panel ruled in November that Treasury’s sanctions against the crypto mixer’s immutable smart contracts were unlawful.

US Treasury had a 60-day window to challenge the decision, which it did; however, the US court sided with Tornado Cash, overturning the sanctions on Jan. 21 and forcing the government agency to remove the sanctions by March.

Related: US Treasury under Trump could take a different approach to Tornado Cash

Its founders are still facing legal strife, however. The US charged Roman Storm and fellow co-founder Roman Semenov in August 2023, accusing them of helping launder over $1 billion in crypto through Tornado Cash. 

Semenov is still at large and on the FBI’s most wanted list. Storm is free on a $2 million bond and expected to face trial in April. 

Meanwhile, Tornado Cash developer Alexey Pertsev was released from prison after a Dutch court suspended his “pretrial detention” as he prepared to appeal his money laundering conviction.

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The UK should begin taxing crypto purchases in a bid to sway Britons to invest in local stocks, which could boost the country’s economy, says the chair of investment bank Cavendish, Lisa Gordon.

“It should terrify all of us that over half of under-45s own crypto and no equities,” Gordon told The Times in a March 23 report. “I would love to see stamp duty cut on equities and applied to crypto.”

Currently, the UK lumps a 0.5% tax on shares listed on the London Stock Exchange, the country’s largest securities market, which brings in around 3 billion British pounds ($3.9 billion) a year in tax revenue.

Gordon added that a cut could sway people to put their savings into shares of local companies, which could then spark other firms to go public in the UK and help the economy.

In comparison, she called crypto “a non-productive asset” that “doesn’t feed back into the economy.”

“Equities provide growth capital to companies that employ people, innovate and pay corporation tax. That is a social contract. We shouldn’t be afraid of advocating for that.”

The country’s Financial Conduct Authority said in November that crypto ownership rose to 12% of adults, equivalent to around 7 million people. A majority of crypto owners, 36%, were under the age of 55 years old.

Gordon said that many had “shifted to saving rather than investing,” which she claimed “is not going to fund a viable retirement.”

A 2022 FCA survey found that 70% of adults had a savings account, while 38% either directly held shares or held them through an account allowing nearly 20,000 British pounds ($26,000) of tax-free savings a year — around three in four 18-24 years olds held no investments.

A quarter of 18-25 year olds and a third of 25-44 year olds held any investment in 2022. Source: FCA

But in a follow-up survey, the regulator reported that in the 12 months to January 2024, the cost of living crisis had seen 44% of all adults either stop or reduce saving or investing, while nearly a quarter used savings or sold their investments to cover day-to-day costs.

Gordon is a member of the Capital Markets Industry Taskforce, a group of industry executives aiming to revive the local market, which Cavendish would benefit from as it advises companies on how to navigate possible public offerings.

Related: Will new US SEC rules bring crypto companies onshore?

Consulting giant EY reported in January that the London stock market had one of its “quietest years on record,” with just 18 companies listing last year, down from 23 in 2023.

At the same time, EY said 88 companies delisted or transferred from the exchange, with many saying they moved due to “declining liquidity and lower valuations compared to other markets” such as the US.

However, Gordon claimed the UK is a “safe haven” compared to markets such as the US, which has lost trillions of dollars in its stock markets due to President Donald Trump’s tariff threats and fears of a recession.

Crypto markets have also slumped alongside US equities, with Bitcoin (BTC) trading down 11% over the past 30 days and struggling to maintain support above $85,000 since early March.

In the past 24 hours, at least, Bitcoin is up 2%, trading around $85,640.

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