Bitcoin Daily: China Regulator Eyes Digital Currency Veteran As Chief; Crypto Firm Founder Charged With ICO Fraud

The China Securities Regulatory Commission, China’s security watchdog, is setting up a technology regulation bureau and will announce Yao Qian as its new department chief, the Chinese business publication Caijing said on Wednesday (Dec. 11), as reported by Coindesk. Yao was the head of China’s central bank digital currency initiative.

Yao’s hiring was anticipated because of his contribution to the development of the central bank digital currency (CBDC) and his deep understanding of FinTech and blockchain, according to Caijing.

The new division was launched with the aim of integrating advanced technology and the regulation of China’s securities markets, enabling precise data analytics.

The Securities and Exchange Commission charged a digital-asset entrepreneur and his company — Eran Eyal, founder of UnitedData, doing business as Shopin — on Wednesday (Dec. 11) with defrauding investors in an initial coin offering (ICO) that raised more than $42 million from hundreds of investors.

From August 2017 to April 2018, Eyal and his company allegedly conducted a fraudulent unregistered securities offering by selling Shopin Tokens in an ICO.

Shopin planned to use the funds to compile profiles on shoppers that would be maintained on the blockchain and track purchase histories across online retailers. It would then use the information to recommend products.

Twitter and Square CEO Jack Dorsey announced plans to support an independent team “of up to five open source architects, engineers, and designers to develop an open and decentralized standard for social media,” according to Coindesk.

“The goal is for Twitter to ultimately be a client of this standard,” Dorsey said.

The new team would follow a model similar to Square Crypto, a bitcoin-focused entity separate from Dorsey’s FinTech unicorn Square.

Lawmakers in the Netherlands are looking into upping the maximum prison sentence for anyone committing payment fraud with cryptocurrency and money transfer apps, according to TheNextWeb.

Cybercriminals that commit payment fraud with banking and money transfer apps like Tikkie can face one to four years in prison. A bill from Minister Ferdinand Grapperhaus could institute new legislation with a maximum sentence of six years, NOS reported on Tuesday (Dec. 10).