The American financial regulator SEC is investigating one of the biggest decentralized exchanges in the world – Uniswap, and according to recent reports, SEC is focusing on the exchange’s investor and marketing services.
According to a Uniswap spokesperson, the company is “committed to complying with the laws and regulations governing our industry and to providing information to regulators that will assist them with any inquiry.”
Apparently the investigation was initiated by the SEC chair, Gary Gensler. He recently commented that decentralized finance (DeFi) projects are a source of concern for the agency since such exchanges offer rewards and incentives to their users.
So far the investigation is just in its initial stages and SEC did not comment on whether they intend to press any kind of charges or not.
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It is a little concerning, but only time will tell what will come of this investigation.

The Australian financial regulator ASIC recently issued a sharp warning against investing in cryptocurrency-related assets when the provider of those assets is not licensed.
ASIC specifically focused on unlicensed entities with dubious credibility that offer cryptocurrencies and promise unrealistic or even guaranteed profits.
To quote them: “ASIC urges Australians to be wary of investing in crypto- asset- related financial products and services where the provider does not hold an AFS license or an AML” and they also added, “an entity is required to be licensed by the ASIC if they provide financial services (such as advising or dealing) concerning financial products offered in Australia.”
ASIC also warned the public that the cryptocurrency scams have increased by 20% compared to last year.
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What I wonder is, however, whether such sharp warnings would be followed by any further regulatory actions.

Greater Manchester Police’s Economic Crime Unit in the UK recently seized USB sticks that contain almost 22 million US dollars in Ethereum, following an investigation.
Authorities initially found some 9.5 US dollars and then found another 12.7 US dollars in Ethereum.
This seizure was a result of a big crackdown on alleged cryptocurrency scam which include fake savings and trading services and targeted victims all over the world – people from the UK, mainland Europe, China, Australia, the US and Hong Kong were all targeted. On top of everything else, the scammers apparently told their victims that the transactions were handled by Binance Smart Chain.
Two suspects were arrested – a 25-year old woman and a 23-year old man, but were later released for unknown reasons.
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Scammers are getting more and more brazen these days, claiming Binance was involved.

Spot trading volumes on the cryptocurrency market are at their lowest for 2021, according to a recent report. They have shrank with a whopping 31.5% in July to 1.9 trillion USD although there were some positive developments in the industry, like the rumours that Amazon may start accepting cryptocurrencies as well as a certain level of institutional endorsement for crypto assets in Germany.
However, despite those developments, the market was severely affected by China’s recent crackdown on the industry in its territory, when it ordered banks and payment providers to stop transactions with digital coins, and then it banned Bitcoin mining in the Sichuan province.
Exchanges also were not spared from the regulatory scrutiny all over the world, with Binance being the biggest target. Regulatory criticism was also aimed at stablecoins, focusing on the potential risk they pose to consumers and the financial system.
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In the current climate that shrinking is really not unexpected, although it is disappointing to see it happen.

Japan is looking into introducing more stringent cryptocurrency regulation. The local financial regulator, the Financial Services Agency (FSA) and the Ministry of Finance are working on establishing a totally new regulatory framework.
So far the Ministry of finance is hiring more operatives while the regulator FSA is focusing on the future of cryptocurrency regulations. The FSA also founded a new division as part of the agency that will be focusing on various cryptocurrency-related affairs, though for the moment there are no available details.
According to recent reports, however, Japanese officials are worried about how privately held funds are influencing financial systems and regulators want to know what the consequences of using stablecoins are.
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Japan has long been welcoming to cryptos so they likely won’t ban the industry but the regulators will probably want to have a closer oversight on it.

After three years of investigation Brazillian police apprehended people participating in a massive crypto-investment fraudulent scheme. The company behind the scam, Bitcoin Banco Group, has operated as a hidden investment fraud agency for a while now and it has been investors’ funds.
According to recent reports, the company has stolen from more than 7000 investors and has made off with 300 million US dollars (that’s 1.5 billion Brazillian reals). The company was led by one Cláudio Oliveira, a.k.a ‘The Bitcoin King’. He was arrested along with his accomplices.
About 90 federal police officers participated in the operation called “Operation Daemon”, investigating the company’s money-laundering operations, bankruptcy crimes and various embezzlement activities. They were assisted by both US and European agencies.
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It’s good the scammers were arrested, now let’s see whether they’ll be convicted too.

A recent report by the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) revealed that the Commission discovered a 30 million USD scam that involved Initial Coin Offerings. The scam was led by one Boaz Manor, as well as his associate Edith Pardo. Those two were already convicted, but three more of their accomplices were discovered to have taken part of the scam.
According to court documents in New Jersey, the defendants aided Manor and Pardo’s schemes by concealing their positions while having leadership roles in the scam.
According to an official press release, the names of the three defendants are Cristine Page from New York, Michael Gietz from Idaho, and Ali Asif Hamid from Idaho.
All three have been charged by SEC with aiding in the violation of antifraud federal securities policies and breaching security registration requirements.
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One ICO scam down, thousands more to go, sadly.

The cryptocurrency scam problem is getting bigger in South Africa and in an attempt to curb that the government Is looking for a way to regulate the cryptocurrency industry in the country.
Since Bitcoin and various other altcoins are making their way from the underground to the mainstream and more and more serious companies are investing in them, various financial regulators all over the world are finally taking notice of these developments  and focusing on the increasing number of crypto service providers, which so far have worked without any regulation.
South Africa had a particularly bitter experience in that regard, unfortunately. Late in 2020 a massive scandal erupted when the largest Ponzi scheme ever run in the country fell apart. Said scheme, as you can imagine, was presumably traded with Bitcoin. That scandal and others like it forced the local financial regulators to come up with tighter and more specific rules aimed at the cryptocurrency industry.
The South Africa Intergovernmental Fintech Working Group (IFWG) issued a statement:
“Crypto assets will be brought into the South African regulatory purview in a phased and structured manner” and added “it is, however, reiterated that with or without regulation, crypto assets remain inherently risky and volatile.”
IFWG made 25 different recommendation regarding how to regulate the crypto market and those recommendations will be reviewed the SA financial regulator - the Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA).
In January 2021, the daily volume of cryptocurrency assets being traded in South Africa exceeded 147 million dollars and this may the SA Reserve Bank announced its for its own digital currency for general use.
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Regulating cryptos is probably a much better way to curb the scams than banning cryptos.