Crypto NFT Today: The Latest Blockchain, Cryptocurrency and NFT News: March 22 – 28
Welcome to another edition of Crypto NFT Today! If you enjoy cryptocurrency, NFTs, and riding emotional, and sometimes sketchy, roller coasters, you’ve come to the right place. So put on some soothing music and let’s go!
US Senator Ted Cruz is introducing a new bill to block CBDC
Texas Republican Senator Ted Cruz introduced a new bill to prevent the US Federal Reserve from issuing a “direct-to-consumer” digital currency.
In a statement, Cruz wrote that his bill was intended to prevent the Fed from engaging in a central bank digital currency (CBDC) “that could be used as a financial surveillance tool by the federal government.”
“The American people should be able to spend their money as they choose without the possibility of every transaction being tracked by the government,” Cruz said.
Last month, Congressman Tom Emmer of Minnesota also introduced a House bill that would block a CBDC, saying it could be “easily weaponized” as a tool of government control to “stifle politically unpopular activity.”
Legislation has also been introduced in several states to prohibit the use of a CBDC.
Advocates push back on White House reports slamming crypto
Crypto industry insiders are expressing outrage over a recent White House report that includes a chapter undermining trust in digital currencies.
Released on March 20, the president’s annual economic report was the first to include a section on digital assets. The 35-page chapter is dedicated to discrediting the “Busy Appeal of Cryptoassets” and includes a section on a FedNow payment system, which is a retail CBDC.
The chapter argues that cryptocurrencies have failed to deliver on promised benefits such as financial inclusion and improved payment methods. “Instead, their innovation has been mainly about creating artificial scarcity to support the prices of crypto-assets – many of which have no fundamental value,” the report said.
Instead, the report claims that crypto innovations have been about creating artificial scarcity to support asset prices. It also argues that cryptocurrencies are inferior to sovereign currencies, such as the US dollar, because crypto prices fluctuate too much to be a reliable store of value.
The finance minister now says that the US can also repay deposits like smaller banks
On Tuesday, Janet Yellen said in a speech to the American Bankers Association that the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) will provide deposit support to smaller, regional banks in case the banking crisis deepens.
After failures at several major banks, including Silicon Valley and Signature, the government guaranteed all deposits, beyond the $250,000 promised by the FDIC.
Yellen had previously testified before the US Senate that uninsured depositor protections would not be extended to all banks that fail – only those that pose a systemic risk to the financial system. This led to accusations from senators that the administration was setting up a system to pick winners and losers.
“The steps we took were not focused on helping particular banks or classes of banks. Our intervention was necessary to protect the broader U.S. banking system. And similar actions may be warranted if smaller institutions suffer deposit runs that pose the risk of contagion,” Yellen said the bankers.
The study estimates nearly $70 billion in crypto stolen since 2011
On Tuesday, Crystal Blockchain released a report detailing the fraudulent activities and security exploits of digital assets since 2011. The report states that there were 461 incidents in 45 countries that resulted in $16.7 billion being stolen.
The report states that until 2021, crypto exchanges were the biggest target for thefts, but since then attackers have focused on decentralized finance. Centralized Exchange (CEX) hacks now cause the least possible loss from theft.
“By 2022, the ratio of cex to decentralized exchange hacks was as high as 1:13,” Crystal’s researchers note. The largest decentralized exchange hack to date was $650 million against the Ronin network bridge in March 2022. Most of the funds stolen from Ronin were transferred to the crypto mixing service Tornado Cash.
Crystal researchers noted that “Tornado Cash remains the most popular money laundering service on the Ethereum Blockchain.”
