Fintech

A Singaporean man has pleaded guilty in the United States to his role in one of the largest single-victim cryptocurrency thefts in the country, admitting to participating in a scheme that resulted in the theft of more than $245 million worth of Bitcoin. Malone Lam, 22, pleaded guilty to a federal racketeering conspiracy charge in Washington, D.C., after prosecutors accused him of helping organise a network that used sophisticated social-engineering techniques to gain access t

Newly examined financial records from Tether's early years have raised questions about the effectiveness of customer due diligence surrounding the issuance of USDT, after several entities and individuals that purchased the stablecoin directly from the company were later connected to sanctions evasion, money laundering, drug trafficking and other financial crimes. The records provide an unusual look at Tether's primary customer base during a period in which USDT was undergoing

US authorities have seized more than $560,000 in cryptocurrency allegedly intended to support Hamas, while simultaneously dismantling websites, servers and online communication infrastructure used to solicit digital-asset donations and recruit supporters. The operation represents another significant intervention against the use of cryptocurrency as a channel for terrorist financing and demonstrates the increasingly sophisticated methods being used by law enforcement to identi

The European Central Bank is advancing its plans to create an integrated European market for tokenised assets, with Executive Board member Piero Cipollone warning that the emergence of fragmented digital platforms could worsen existing divisions across Europe’s capital markets. Speaking on Wednesday at the Deutsche Bundesbank’s Symposium on “Future of payments: trends and innovations in Germany and Europe” in Frankfurt, Cipollone said the ECB was now translating into action a

Vietnam has formally expanded its anti-money laundering framework to address risks associated with crypto assets, marking another major step towards bringing the country's rapidly developing digital-asset market within the scope of financial regulation. The National Assembly approved amendments to the Law on Anti-Money Laundering alongside changes to legislation governing the State Bank of Vietnam and credit institutions. The amendments were approved with 94.6% of lawmakers v

Brazil is introducing a new safeguard for cryptocurrency transactions that will require regulated institutions to delay certain outbound virtual asset transfers for 24 hours before allowing them to proceed. The measure, adopted by the Central Bank of Brazil, is designed to give financial institutions additional time to identify potentially fraudulent or illicit transactions before digital assets leave their control and are transferred to foreign platforms or privately control

Cryptocurrency exchange HTX has come under renewed scrutiny over changes to its on-chain wallet infrastructure, with blockchain intelligence analysis indicating that the platform has repeatedly rotated wallets across several major networks. The activity has raised concerns among compliance professionals because frequent changes to the addresses used to hold and transfer exchange assets can make it more difficult to identify and monitor the financial flows associated with a la

The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) has warned that significant regulatory gaps in the oversight of decentralised finance (DeFi) platforms are creating opportunities for money launderers, cybercriminals and sanctioned actors to exploit blockchain-based financial services. In a newly published targeted report, the international standard setter outlines how many jurisdictions have yet to identify DeFi arrangements that fall within existing anti-money laundering (AML) and cou