The Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control released a new wave of sanctions against Russian industrial companies, as well as people and entities that helped Russia move money throughout the war in Ukraine. Included on the list is one cryptocurrency wallet which is on the Ethereum blockchain and is owned by a United Arab Emirates resident from Ireland. A wallet tied to his company reportedly received over $5 million in tether’s stablecoin since the beginning of the war.

According to an announcement from the New York Attorney General’s office, Brooklyn-based cryptocurrency trading platform Coin Café is required to pay back $4.3 million to defrauded investors after allegedly misleading customers about “exorbitant and undisclosed fees.” The company received a BitLicense in January 2023.

The New York Federal Reserve and Monetary Authority of Singapore have released a report stating that CBDC systems operating on different types of networks can be used for cross-border and cross-currency payments.

French officials said this week that cryptocurrency companies leaving the U.S. due to regulatory uncertainty are “welcome” to operate under France’s regulatory framework. The country has about 74 cryptocurrency countries registered under its regulatory regime called PSAN. Benoît de Juvigny, Secretary General of the Autorité des marchés financiers (AMF), said, “If American players want to benefit, in the very short term, from the French regime, and from the start of 2025 from European arrangements, clearly they are welcome.”

European Union finance ministers have approved the EU’s directive on administrative cooperation (DAC8). The landmark legislation would require crypto companies to disclose the identity of owners of digital assets on their balance sheets. This is part of an effort to prevent individuals from hiding their wealth from taxation using cryptocurrency markets. The rules would take effect in 2026.

House Financial Services Committee Ranking Member Maxine Waters (D-CA) has reportedly released a draft stablecoin bill for House Democrats to review. The bill is an updated version of a bipartisan draft that was released last fall and comes after committee Republicans decided to move forward on their own stablecoin bill last month. Committee Democrats have until May 17 to provide feedback on the bill and the committee’s Digital Asset Subcommittee will hold a hearing on stablecoins on May 18.

Coinbase, the United States’ largest cryptocurrency exchange, announced that former Sen. Patrick Toomey (R-PA) and former Reps. Tim Ryan (D-OH) and Sean Patrick Maloney (D-NY) would join the company’s Global Advisory Council to help the company “navigate an increasingly complex and evolving landscape in the U.S. and internationally.”

The Government Accountability Office released a report stating that “poor governance and unsatisfactory risk-management practices” led to the collapse of Signature Bank in March and that potential contributing factors included exposure to the cryptocurrency industry. It says, “Signature Bank had exposure to the digital assets industry and declining liquidity in the months prior to failure...[and] was unable to fully understand the bank’s liquidity positions in the days and hours before failure.”

Sens. Jim Risch (R-ID) and Bob Menendez (D-NJ) introduced a bill that would “require reports on the adoption of cryptocurrency as legal tender in El Salvador.” This seems to be a reintroduction of the Accountability for Cryptocurrency in El Salvador Act which was introduced in February 2022.