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The legal struggle between crypto exchange Binance and the United States Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) continues. The SEC has accused Binance.US of noncooperation in the ongoing investigation. The agency points out that Binance.US’s holding company, BAM, has produced only 220 documents during the discovery process. Many of those materials “consist of unintelligible screenshots and documents without dates or signatures,” the SEC said. The regulator added that BAM has refused to produce essential witnesses for deposition, instead agreeing only to four depositions of witnesses it has unilaterally deemed appropriate. 

Meanwhile, Magistrate Judge Zia Faruqui of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia issued an order granting the SEC’s motion to unseal or remove the redaction from 18 sealed documents and another nine partially sealed or redacted documents. The partially sealed documents total 117 pages. Among them are internal Binance.US documents, emails and SEC court filings, including the memorandum on Binance.US’s compliance with SEC discovery efforts.

Amid lawsuits from the SEC and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, Binance.US announced that it was laying off a third of its staff, with its president and CEO Brian Shroder also departing the firm. Later, an additional two executive departures were reported as both head of legal Krishna Juvvadi and chief risk officer Sidney Majalya decided to quit the company.

As a result of the tumult, trading activity on Binance.US has tumbled to new lows in September. The lowest point hit by trading activity in the month was $2.97 million, a significant drop compared to the same period in 2022 when the trading volume was around $230 million.

No crypto ban in India as the nation works on legislation 

India is working on a crypto regulatory framework based on the joint recommendations of the International Monetary Fund and the Financial Stability Board that could result in legal legislation in the next five to six months. Sidharth Sogani, the CEO of a blockchain analytic firm that offered consulting services to several G20 committees and nations, told Cointelegraph that India is currently working on a five-point regulatory approach focusing on global collaboration on certain aspects, such as crypto taxation.

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EU lawmakers vote for a crypto tax reporting rule 

Lawmakers in the European Parliament voted overwhelmingly to support the eighth iteration of the Directive on Administrative Cooperation (DAC8) — a cryptocurrency tax reporting rule. The session saw DAC8 receive overwhelming support from 535 members of parliament and just 57 against, with 60 abstentions. DAC8 aims to empower tax collectors with the authority to track and assess all cryptocurrency transactions conducted by organizations or individuals within the member states. Some DAC8 critics have opined that it takes oversight ability away from individual member states. 

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Anti-CBDC bill reintroduced to Congress

U.S. Representative Tom Emmer and 49 original co-sponsors revived the CBDC Anti-Surveillance State Act in the U.S. House of Representatives in a bid, they claim, to protect American citizen’s right to financial privacy. Emmer first proposed the bill to address central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) in January 2022. It was formally introduced to Congress in February 2023 to limit the U.S. Federal Reserve from minting a programmable digital dollar, which Emmer claims is a “surveillance tool that would be used to undermine the American way of life.”

The bill specifically prohibits the Fed from issuing a CBDC to individuals, which Emmer says would stop it from mobilizing into a retail bank able to collect personal financial data. It also prohibits the central bank from using any CBDC to implement monetary policy.

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Crypto’s path to legitimacy runs through the CARF regulation

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Crypto’s path to legitimacy runs through the CARF regulation

Crypto’s path to legitimacy runs through the CARF regulation

The CARF regulation, which brings crypto under global tax reporting standards akin to traditional finance, marks a crucial turning point.

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Tokenized equity still in regulatory grey zone — Attorneys

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Tokenized equity still in regulatory grey zone — Attorneys

Tokenized equity still in regulatory grey zone — Attorneys

The nascent real-world tokenized assets track prices but do not provide investors the same legal rights as holding the underlying instruments.

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Rachel Reeves hints at tax rises in autumn budget after welfare bill U-turn

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Rachel Reeves hints at tax rises in autumn budget after welfare bill U-turn

Rachel Reeves has hinted that taxes are likely to be raised this autumn after a major U-turn on the government’s controversial welfare bill.

Sir Keir Starmer’s Universal Credit and Personal Independent Payment Bill passed through the House of Commons on Tuesday after multiple concessions and threats of a major rebellion.

MPs ended up voting for only one part of the plan: a cut to universal credit (UC) sickness benefits for new claimants from £97 a week to £50 from 2026/7.

Initially aimed at saving £5.5bn, it now leaves the government with an estimated £5.5bn black hole – close to breaching Ms Reeves’s fiscal rules set out last year.

Read more:
Yet another fiscal ‘black hole’? Here’s why this one matters

Success or failure: One year of Keir in nine charts

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Rachel Reeves’s fiscal dilemma

In an interview with The Guardian, the chancellor did not rule out tax rises later in the year, saying there were “costs” to watering down the welfare bill.

“I’m not going to [rule out tax rises], because it would be irresponsible for a chancellor to do that,” Ms Reeves told the outlet.

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“We took the decisions last year to draw a line under unfunded commitments and economic mismanagement.

“So we’ll never have to do something like that again. But there are costs to what happened.”

Meanwhile, The Times reported that, ahead of the Commons vote on the welfare bill, Ms Reeves told cabinet ministers the decision to offer concessions would mean taxes would have to be raised.

The outlet reported that the chancellor said the tax rises would be smaller than those announced in the 2024 budget, but that she is expected to have to raise tens of billions more.

It comes after Ms Reeves said she was “totally” up to continuing as chancellor after appearing tearful at Prime Minister’s Questions.

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Why was the chancellor crying at PMQs?

Criticising Sir Keir for the U-turns on benefit reform during PMQs, Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch said the chancellor looked “absolutely miserable”, and questioned whether she would remain in post until the next election.

Sir Keir did not explicitly say that she would, and Ms Badenoch interjected to say: “How awful for the chancellor that he couldn’t confirm that she would stay in place.”

In her first comments after the incident, Ms Reeves said she was having a “tough day” before adding: “People saw I was upset, but that was yesterday.

“Today’s a new day and I’m just cracking on with the job.”

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Reeves is ‘totally’ up for the job

Sir Keir also told Sky News’ political editor Beth Rigby on Thursday that he “didn’t appreciate” that Ms Reeves was crying in the Commons.

“In PMQs, it is bang, bang, bang,” he said. “That’s what it was yesterday.

“And therefore, I was probably the last to appreciate anything else going on in the chamber, and that’s just a straightforward human explanation, common sense explanation.”

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