Coin Market

US crypto rules like 'floor is lava' game without lights — Hester Peirce

Published

4 weeks ago

April 27, 2025

SEC Commissioner and head of the crypto task force, Hester Peirce, says US financial firms are navigating crypto in a way that’s similar to playing the children’s game “the floor is lava,” but in the dark.

“It is time that we find a way to end this game. We need to turn on the lights and build some walkways over the lava pit,” Peirce said at the SEC “Know Your Custodian” roundtable event on April 25.

The lava is crypto, says Peirce

Peirce explained that SEC registrants are forced to approach crypto-related activities like “the floor is lava,” where the aim is to jump from one piece of furniture to the next without touching the ground, except here, touching crypto directly is the lava.

“A D.C. version of this game is our regulatory approach to crypto assets, and crypto asset custody in particular,” she said.

Peirce said that, much like in the game, firms wanting to engage with crypto must avoid directly holding it due to unclear regulatory rules. “To engage in crypto-related activities, SEC-registrants have had to hop from one poorly illuminated regulatory space to the next, all while ensuring that they never touch any crypto asset,” Peirce said.

Source: US Securities and Exchange Commission

Peirce said that investment advisers are often unsure which crypto assets qualify as securities, what entities count as qualified custodians, and whether “exercising staking or voting rights” could trigger custody violations.

“The twist in the regulatory version is that it is largely played in the dark: burning legal lava and no lamps to illuminate the way.”

Peirce also said that a broker or ATS that cannot custody or manage crypto assets will struggle to facilitate trading, making it unlikely for a “robust market” to develop.

Echoing a similar sentiment, SEC Commissioner Mark Uyeda said at the event that as more SEC registrants work with crypto assets, it’s essential that they have access to custodial options that meet legal and regulatory requirements.

Uyeda said the agency should consider letting advisers use “state-chartered limited-purpose trust companies” with the authority to hold crypto assets as qualified custodians.

Meanwhile, the recently sworn-in chair of the SEC, Paul Atkins, said that he expected “huge benefits” from blockchain technology through efficiency, risk mitigation, transparency, and cutting costs.

He reiterated that among his goals at the SEC would be to facilitate “clear regulatory rules of the road” for digital assets, hinting that the agency under former chair Gary Gensler had contributed to market and regulatory uncertainty.

“I look forward to engaging with market participants and working with colleagues in President Trump’s administration and Congress to establish a rational fit-for-purpose framework for crypto assets,” said Atkins.

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Coin Market

‘No questions asked’ Bitcoin launderer gets 6 years in prison

Published

51 minutes ago

May 23, 2025

A US man operating what prosecutors called a “no questions asked” cash-to-Bitcoin conversion service has been sentenced to six years behind bars and was ordered to hand over millions of dollars.

Boston federal court Judge Richard Stearns sentenced Trung Nguyen, from Danvers, Massachusetts, to six years in prison followed by three years of supervised release, and ordered him to forfeit $1.5 million, the Boston US Attorney’s Office said on May 22.

Prosecutors said Nguyen ran an unlicensed money-transmitting business called National Vending between September 2017 and October 2020, which used various techniques he learned in an online course to evade authorities.

As part of the course, Nguyen was taught how to conceal his actual business from banks, crypto exchanges and state authorities by masquerading as a vending machine company that accepted cash deposits, had a list of fictional suppliers, and generally avoided using the phrase “Bitcoin” where possible.

Prosecutors say Trung Nguyen operated a fake vending machine business to obscure the cash deposits he was receiving. Source: Pacer

According to prosecutors, among Nguyen’s customer base were several scam victims who were tricked into converting cash into Bitcoin (BTC) by con artists overseas, as well as a drug dealer who sent $250,000 in cash across 10 transactions in 2018.

The Justice Department said Nguyen converted more than $1 million to Bitcoin and “purposely failed” to register with the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) despite being required to do so under federal Anti-Money Laundering regulations.

Nguyen also “failed to file Suspicious Activity Reports or Currency Transaction Reports on any of these transactions, including cash transactions of more than $10,000,” according to prosecutors.

Undercover cops sting Nguyen

Nguyen would often meet his clients in person to accept large sums of cash, which is how he was caught, prosecutors said.

A May 2023 indictment said that during several meetings with undercover law enforcement officers, he accepted cash and sent Bitcoin in return, taking just over 5% in commission.

The indictment said Nguyen used encrypted messaging apps and “technologies that made it more difficult” to trace his Bitcoin transactions and broke up the cash deposits into smaller sums over consecutive days and at different branches of the same bank to evade notice by authorities.

Nguyen was charged with operating an unlicensed money transmitting business and two counts of money laundering. He pleaded not guilty to all charges in June 2023.

A jury convicted him in November on the unlicensed money-transmitting business charge and on just one of the money laundering charges, finding him not guilty of a separate money laundering charge.

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Crypto perp futures coming ‘very soon,’ says CFTC’s Mersinger

Published

51 minutes ago

May 23, 2025

Crypto perpetual futures contracts could receive regulatory approval in the US “very soon,” says outgoing Commodities and Futures Trading Commission Commissioner Summer Mersinger.

Perpetual crypto futures “can come to market now,” Mersinger told Bloomberg TV on May 22.

“We’re seeing some applications, and I believe we’ll see some of those products trading live very soon,” she said, adding it would be “great to get that trading back onshore in the United States.”

Mersinger, who will leave the CFTC at the end of May, said having crypto derivatives trading and regulated in the US would be a “really good thing for these markets and would be really beneficial to the industry broadly.”

Crypto perpetual futures are derivative contracts that allow traders to speculate on the price of cryptocurrencies without actually owning them. Unlike traditional futures contracts that have expiration dates, perpetual futures can be held indefinitely. They can also be traded with high leverage.

Summer Mersinger on Bloomberg TV. Source: YouTube

Crypto perpetuals are not currently permitted in the US and are traded on large offshore centralized exchanges, such as Binance, OKX, and Bybit.

Binance is the largest with almost $95 billion in perpetual trading volume per day, according to CoinGecko. It offers over 500 crypto perpetual pairs with up to 125x leverage.

Mersinger said that the recent procedural vote to move forward the GENIUS stablecoin bill signifies “this asset class is clearly here to stay.”

“We really are going to make the United States the forefront of economic power that we can see from these tokens and this asset class.”

Mersinger leaving the CFTC

At the end of May, Mersinger will leave the CFTC to work at the Blockchain Association, a trade group with over 100 members that represents the crypto industry and economy.

On May 14, the Blockchain Association announced that its current CEO, Kristin Smith, would step down and Mersinger would assume the role on June 2.

“We have a very strong incoming [CFTC] chairman who has a great voice for the crypto industry and will be a real advocate for the industry and the agency at large,” she said, adding that she hopes to contribute more to the crypto industry through her new position.

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Coin Market

Swedish health firm jumps 37% on first Bitcoin buy, China EV seller to buy 1K BTC

Published

51 minutes ago

May 23, 2025

Shares in Swedish health tech company H100 Group AB rose 37% after it said it purchased Bitcoin for the first time as part of a new strategy, while China’s Jiuzi Holdings revealed its plan to stack 1,000 Bitcoin over the next year.

H100 said on May 22 that it spent 5 million Norwegian krone ($490,830) buying 4.39 Bitcoin (BTC) at an average purchasing price of around $111,785.

The company’s shares closed May 22 trading up 37% to 1.22 Swedish krona ($0.13) on the Nordic Growth Market following its disclosure of its Bitcoin purchase, Bloomberg data shows.

Source: H100

The strong trading day recovered some losses from the past two months, during which the firm’s shares have fallen by over 46%.

H100’s change in share price so far in 2025. Source: Bloomberg

The firm’s CEO, Sander Andersen, said he believes “the values of individual sovereignty highly present in the Bitcoin community aligns well with, and will appeal to, the customers and communities we are building the H100 platform for.”

H100 sells health tools for individuals who don’t want to rely on the “reactive health system,” Andersen said in a separate X post.

Andersen marked the first Bitcoin announcement and purchase as “Phase 1,” hinting at further buys.

China’s Jiuzi Holdings to stack 1,000 Bitcoin

Meanwhile, on May 22, the Nasdaq-listed Chinese electric vehicle retailer Jiuzi Holdings said its board approved a plan to buy 1,000 Bitcoin over the next year through additional stock issuance and cash purchases.

The company’s CEO, Tao Li, acknowledged the volatility that comes with investing in Bitcoin but is hopeful the move will strengthen the firm’s asset structure, risk resistance and profitability.

Jiuzi (JZXN) rose 7.3% to $3.09 on May 22, Google Finance data shows — a comparatively minor rise compared to other public companies that have recently announced Bitcoin buys.

Adopting Bitcoin as a treasury asset has become an increasingly popular trend of late, with 109 public firms now holding the cryptocurrency on their balance sheets, according to BitcoinTreasuries.NET data.

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