De-Risking or Decoupling? China- US Bilateral Trade Falls More Than 10% This Year

Analysts have criticized the new ‘de-risking’ strategy that the U.S. is currently using against China, explained by U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan in April, clarifying that national security was over economic costs. These de-risking policies might affect bilateral trade, which fell by 11.2% to $217.9 billion during the first four months of 2023. ‘De-Risking’ […]

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov Explains ‘Multipolar’ World View in Brazil

Sergey Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister, started his tour of Latin America on April 17, landing first in Brasilia to hold high-level talks with Brazilian President Luiz Inacio ‘Lula’ da Silva and Brazilian Foreign Minister Mauro Vieira. Lavrov insisted that Russia was building a “multipolar” world, while Vieira rejected the unilateral sanctions enacted against Russia. […]

Crypto Exchange Kraken Settles With Treasury Department Over Sanctions Violations

Crypto exchange Kraken has settled with the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) over its apparent violations of sanctions against Iran. The cryptocurrency exchange has agreed to remit $362,159 to settle its potential civil liability and invest an additional $100,000 in certain sanctions compliance controls. Kraken Settles With OFAC The […]

Don’t Forget the Importance of Censorship Resistance

Since people are once again talking about self-custody as one of crypto’s unique strengths, I would like to remind everyone about an equally important fundamental value proposition of crypto that, in the early days, was touted as the killer feature. I’m talking about censorship resistance. The following opinion editorial was written by Bitcoin.com CEO Dennis […]

Coin Center Sues US Treasury Over Tornado Cash Ban — Lawsuit Says Government’s Action ‘Was Unlawful’

The non-profit that focuses on policy issues facing cryptocurrencies, Coin Center, has filed a lawsuit against the Treasury department, the secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen, and the Office of Foreign Assets Control’s (OFAC) director Andrea Gacki. Coin Center’s court filing says that the government’s sanctioning of Tornado Cash exceeds the Treasury’s statutory authority. The […]

US Treasury Charges Bittrex With Sanctions Violations, Crypto Exchange Agrees to Settle With Regulator

On October 11, the U.S. Treasury department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) and the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) announced that it has settled charges with the cryptocurrency exchange Bittrex. The crypto exchange was accused of sanctions violations and failure to “implement effective sanctions compliance controls” between March 2014 and December 2017. Crypto Exchange […]

Github Partially Reinstates Tornado Cash Codebase, Open Source Code Set to Read-Only Mode

The internet hosting and software development subsidiary of Microsoft, Github, has partially unbanned the Tornado Cash repositories following the recent sanctions enforced by the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Asset Control (OFAC). Github’s decision follows the U.S. Treasury updating the public, noting that U.S. persons can copy, view, and discuss the open-source code. Github’s […]