The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has given its approval for the listing and trading of spot Ether exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in the country. This decision marks another significant milestone for the SEC this year. The regulatory green light was granted to several companies, including VanEck, BlackRock, Fidelity, Grayscale, Franklin Templeton, ARK 21Shares, Invesco Galaxy, and Bitwise. The SEC’s Trading and Markets Division, rather than a committee vote, approved the rule changes for spot Ether (ETH) ETFs. Unlike Bitcoin (BTC) ETFs, which started trading immediately after approval, spot Ether ETFs may take a few weeks or months to debut on exchanges as the filers are still awaiting their S-1 SEC registration.
In Hong Kong, the Office of the Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data (PCPD) has concluded its investigation into the Worldcoin project. The PCPD found that Worldcoin’s operations in Hong Kong violated the Personal Data (Privacy) Ordinance. Privacy Commissioner Ada Chung Lai-ling issued an enforcement notice to Worldcoin, demanding an immediate halt to all project operations in Hong Kong that involve scanning and collecting irises and facial images of the public using iris scanning devices. The PCPD stated that the collection of face images was unnecessary, as the iris scanning device operators could verify the humanness of participants in person at the operating locations, making the scanning or collection of face images redundant.
Binance.US has successfully appealed the suspension of its money-services business license in Florida. The Florida First District Court of Appeal ruled that the emergency suspension order issued by the state Office of Financial Regulation (OFR) lacked legal justification. The suspension of Binance.US’s Florida license was a response to Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao’s guilty plea in federal court for violating U.S. Anti-Money Laundering law. The appeals court cited state law, which stated that the OFR can only suspend a money-services business license through fair procedures and after exploring less severe alternatives to suspension.
The CBDC Anti-Surveillance State Act has passed the U.S. House of Representatives in a largely partisan vote. The bill, which still needs to be voted on in the Senate, aims to amend the Federal Reserve Act of 1913. Its purpose is to prohibit Federal Reserve banks from offering certain products or services directly to individuals, restrict the use of central bank digital currency for monetary policy, and serve other purposes. The bill was backed by Republicans who expressed concerns about potential abuse of a central bank digital currency (CBDC), while Democrats focused on innovation, the competitiveness of the U.S. dollar, and criticism of the bill’s drafting. Representative Brad Sherman referred to the bill as a “word salad” that favored “crypto bros.”