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The IMF published a paper that presents a practical legal-analytical framework to assess how private law rules can be designed to support the wide circulation and safe holding of token-based central bank digital currency (CBDC) primarily intended for retail use. It follows a previous IMF working paper that examined the legal foundations of CBDC under central bank law and its treatment under monetary law-the main public law aspects of CBDC. A private law framework is also needed, because unlike account-based CBDC, token-based CBDC constitutes from the legal perspective a new form of money and hence raises a lot of challenges under private law. This legal nature will shape how token-based CBDC can be transferred, held in custody, "deposited" with commercial banks, and pledged. It is also be crucial that private law rules establish with certainty how ownership and other rights in token-based CBDC can be transferred between economic agents. In most jurisdictions, the private law regime for token-based CBDC will likely need to be augmented by a comprehensive legislative intervention to provide a sufficiently robust and predictable legal foundation for this new digital currency. In designing such a legislative framework, countries will need to consider carefully whether to anchor it in a broader framework for digital money or assets.

A Law Faculty of the University of Oxford paper examined the legal risks of depositing crypto-assets with custodians in the event of insolvency, and suggests ways that regulation and legal practice can help to mitigate this risk. However a lack of international standards related to the legal status of crypto-assets, along with the global nature of blockchain-based transactions, can make it hard to determine which laws apply. https://www.law.ox.ac.uk/business-law-blog/blog/2020/06/failed-hopes-disintermediation-crypto-custodian-insolvency-legal

This article spells out how to build a USD stablecoin legal basis by leveraging the core commercial law principles of (i) focusing on the principles of settlement finality, (ii) rules for adverse claims, (iii) discharge of the underlying obligation, and (iv) the concept of a security entitlement. It maps out how these principles are embodied under the U.S. commercial laws of investment securities (UCC Article 8) and of payments (UCC Articles 3, 4, and 4A). The goal in doing so is to show how innovators can incorporate novel, technology-driven market practices and business models into the existing financial law framework in a proven and effective way - how to leverage what is working today and does not need to be invented again. Awareness of the availability of these commercial law tools, and their limitations, can provide important help to stablecoin developers and market participants in managing their exposure, designing efficient financial innovations, and controlling the risk to the broader financial market.

"The World Justice Project Rule of Law Index® is the world's leading source for original, independent data on the rule of law. Covering 139 countries and jurisdictions, the Index relies on national surveys of more than 138,000 households and 4,200 legal practitioners and experts to measure how the rule of law is experienced and perceived worldwide. "

The International Swaps and Derivatives Association (ISDA) published four new whitepapers that analyze the legal issues associated with using smart derivatives contracts on distributed ledger technology (DLT). The four papers consider these issues from a French, Irish, Japanese and New York law perspective. An earlier paper published in January explored the topic from the perspective of English and Singaporean law. The analysis concludes that it is unlikely a local court would reject an express choice of law by the contracting parties, whether under ISDA documentation or in any other agreement between the parties and a platform provider. The papers also highlight potential challenges in identifying the precise location of digital assets, which could lead to uncertainty over which jurisdiction's laws would apply.

"The Model Money Transmission Modernization Act, also known as the Money Transmitter Model Law, is a single set of nationwide standards and requirements created by industry and state experts. The law was approved in full by the CSBS Board of Directors in August 2021. As we move forward, CSBS will work to ensure that implementation among states is as uniform as possible, as states may require legislation, regulation or guidance changes to adopt the provisions contained in the law. Please refer to the materials below for the model law language. "

"The XRP judgment is "counterintuitive," said Hilary Allen, a law professor at American University Washington College of Law. "If we think about why the securities laws exist, the primary purpose is to protect retail investors. To offer protections to institutional investors and deny them to retail investors - to me that seems inconsistent to the purposes of the securities laws.""

"The XRP judgment is "counterintuitive," said Hilary Allen, a law professor at American University Washington College of Law. "If we think about why the securities laws exist, the primary purpose is to protect retail investors. To offer protections to institutional investors and deny them to retail investors - to me that seems inconsistent to the purposes of the securities laws.""

A draft law dedicated to the digital ruble has reportedly been filed in the State Duma, the lower house of the Russian parliament. The law introduces rules to determine how the new form of national decree will be issued and amends a series of legal acts to facilitate its implementation. The "Currency Regulation and Currency Control" law will be amended to secure the digital ruble's legal tender status, and changes to the federal law on "Personal Data" will allow the central bank to tap into personal information without asking for consent.

"In this Article, we take a more sober look at the tokenization phenomenon and, in doing so, describe what exactly it means when it comes to property rights. What can a purchaser of a token expect? How is a token actually connected to the underlying asset, if at all? What does the law-not the hype-have to say about it? We show that tokenization under the law actually has a long history, backed by practical economic considerations and animated by strong theoretical underpinnings. We also show that NFTs have neither of these attributes. Additionally, our Article surveys a dataset of terms of service from the most prominent NFT platforms in order to exploit both their disconnect from real legal effects and their puzzlingly contradictory promises about the relationships between buyers, seller, and the platform. Our project aims not only to inform current commercial law reform efforts, but it also offers a policy prescription for policing the NFT market."

Bank Indonesia reportedly is banning Indonesian financial institutions from accommodating cryptocurrency as a means of payment or other financial services tools. The ban is based on existing laws "[Cryptocurrency] is not legitimate payment instruments under the Constitution, Bank Indonesia Law, and Currency Law," Governor Perry Warjiyo reportedly said in the virtual seminar on Tuesday, June 15. He also explained that to ensure financial institutions conform to this policy, the central bank will mobilize field supervisors.

The Verkhovna Rada, the governing body of Ukraine, reportedly passed a law regulating payment methods that officially puts central bank digital currency (CBDC) on par with cash, bank accounts and electronic payments. The law mentions the "digital money of the National Bank of Ukraine - electronic form of a unit of account in Ukraine, emission of which is run by the National Bank of Ukraine."

There's a way cryptocurrency businesses can get around New York's notoriously hard-to-get BitLicense, and it runs through Wyoming. At least, so say members of the team that drafted the 13 crypto-friendly laws enacted by the Western state this year. One of those laws allows Wyoming to charter Special Purpose Depository Institutions (SPDIs), a new type of fully-reserved fiat bank that can also custody crypto assets. With an SPDI, crypto exchanges and other startups could operate in New York without going through the state's licensing rigmarole, under the same legal principles that exempt banks from needing state money transmitter licenses, Wyoming advocates said.

China implemented a new law governing the cryptographic passwords. This law came into effect ahead of the launch of the People's Bank of China-backed digital currency, which is expected to hit the market this year.

Trading volume between Hong Kong dollars and the U.S.-dollar pegged stablecoin USDT saw a surge in early June on the fiat-crypto trading platform TideBit. The surge followed the decision to strengthen Hong Kong's national security law, which was unveiled by Chinese legislators during the Two Sessions, the largest annual political gathering in mainland China. The second trading surge on the exchange followed the enactment of the new law on June 30.

The Peoples' Bank of China has included the digital yuan in the latest version of a proposed banking law, giving more legal clarity to the regulation of its national digital currency. The proposed law recognizes the renminbi in both physical and digital form. The new version will essentially also clear the way for the digital yuan to be the one and only official yuan-pegged token in mainland China by prohibiting circulation of any other yuan-pegged digital assets. Violaters of the regulation would have to forfeit any proceeds from issuing and selling of such yuan-backed digital tokens and face fines of up to five times the involved proceeds. http://www.pbc.gov.cn/goutongjiaoliu/113456/113469/4115077/index.html

The Albanian parliament signed a new bill into law to implement a legal framework for crypto-assets to regulate conditions for licensing and regulating all crypto-asset operators and stock exchanges. Severe fines are stipulated for anyone who violates the provisions of the new law. https://konsultimipublik.gov.al/Konsultime/Detaje/223

Central banks and related authorities are increasingly publishing papers explaining what the design of a central bank digital currency (CBDC) might look like. In itemizing the various design choices available, they explain that any design will be constrained by the necessity to "comply with AML law." However, no such constraint exists in reality and the various central bank papers that bring this up do no cite any specific law or regulation. It seems to be a tic on the part of the paper authors who seem to be assuming there must be such a law and are thus artificially limiting their design choices.

The National Bank of the Kyrgyz Republic is developing a draft law that would regulate crypto-asset exchanges. The bank will accept proposals for the draft law until November 27, after which they will be published on the official register by December 4. https://www.nbkr.kg/newsout.jsp?item=31&lang=RUS&material=100565

"Nobody seems to have any idea where the new cryptocurrency law came from, with no prior warning. It's cribbed from El Salvador's Bitcoin Law. But we have no idea who pushed this through, to what end."