News by results: USA

Despite the loss in the value of over 80% in the crypto markets in the past year, data from Statista indicates that the number of cryptocurrency wallet owners has increased 32% and reached 31 million by the end of 2018. Widely used in many industries including automotive, travel and informatics, cryptocurrency has also become widespread in the real estate sector.

The U.S. Department of Defense says blockchain technology has “enormous” potential in helping improve disaster relief efforts.

The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has issued a cease and desist order against CoinAlpha Advisors LLC in addition to ordering a $50,000 penalty, according to a filing published Dec. 7.

Two new bills focusing on cryptocurrency market manipulation aim to “position the United States to be a leader in the cryptocurrency industry,” their sponsors claimed Dec. 6.

The U.S. Department of the Treasury Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Sigal Mandelker urged crypto industry players and regulators to prevent the illicit use of cryptocurrencies in a speech Dec. 3.

The Air Force Institute of Technology (AFIT), a graduate school run by the U.S. Air Force, has launched an educational tool for blockchain.

Ohio has become the first U.S. state to allow taxes to be paid in bitcoin.

In today’s edition of The Daily, we cover cryptocurrency-related news from different parts of the world. Documents have revealed that an arm of the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) plans to investigate the technology behind Bitcoin, while a teenager in Israel has been convicted of making bomb threats in exchange for BTC. In India, a major accounting firm has announced plans to hire more digital talent, and a capital-raising platform that intends to support security tokens has obtained regulatory approval in Singapore.

A market analysis revealing the number blockchain developers worldwide has placed India in second place to the United States, beating the UK, Canada, and France.

The U.S. Federal Election Commission (FEC) has released a new draft opinion that clears the way for people to mine cryptocurrencies as a way to support their preferred candidates.

The Bail Bloc initiative has started using cryptocurrency raised through charity to help people get out of U.S Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) pretrial incarceration, according to a tweet posted by a Bail Bloc co-founder Nov. 15.

Two cryptocurrency startups have agreed to register their initial coin offering (ICO) tokens as securities after settling charges with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

In a self-described “first,” the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has imposed civil penalties against two Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs) solely over their failure to register their token sales, according to an official Nov. 16 press release.

Acting U.S. attorney general (AG) Matthew G. Whitaker has come under fire for his association with an allegedly fraudulent patent company that involved cryptocurrency, U.S. news journal MotherJones reported Nov. 14.

U.S. fast-casual salad chain Sweetgreen has announced a second funding round to raise $200 million, mentioning blockchain among its key development areas, according to a press release published Tuesday, Nov. 13.

ShapeShift CEO Erik Voorhees has said that the growing debt of the US, which hovers at around $21.7 trillion as of November, will inevitably cause a big spike in crypto.

U.S. crypto investor law firm Silver Miller has filed arbitration claims against telecoms giants AT&T and T-Mobile for “SIM-swap”-related thefts, according to a press release published Nov. 8

The U.S. 2018 midterm elections saw crypto-friendly lawmakers securing governorships in three states, while maintaining two others.

A bipartisan group of U.S. senators is pushing for tighter sanctions against Venezuela's state-backed cryptocurrency, known as the petro.

A newly-published indictment by the U.S. Department of Justice charges seven alleged Russian intelligence agents with using cryptocurrencies as part of a broad "influence and disinformation" scheme.