Today in Crypto: Blockchain.com Valued at $14B; Turkey Seeks Thousands of Years Prison Time for Missing Exchange CEO

Robert Kopitsch, the secretary general of Brussels lobby group Blockchain for Europe, has been working with European Union lawmakers ahead of a parliamentary committee vote targeting crypto transfers, CoinDesk reported Thursday (March 31).

Kopitsch and others have been rallying supporters around the world to persuade members of the European Parliament’s Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs, which is set to vote on measures that might end all anonymous crypto transfers in the bloc.

The measures could also require verification of transfers to private or “unhosted wallets” and prohibit crypto transfers between the EU and tax havens.

Meanwhile, Bloomberg wrote Wednesday (March 30) that Blockchain.com has raised new funding to get a valuation of $14 billion.

The additional funding has more than doubled the company’s worth, per Bloomberg, showing that crypto firms are still popular with investors. This round puts Blockchain.com among the most valuable crypto companies.

In other news, Circle announced Thursday that global asset servicer BNY Mellon is the new primary custodian for USD Coin (USDC) reserves.

Circle provides internet-based payments and financial infrastructure for businesses of various sizes, and is the only company to issue USDC, one of the fastest growing digital currencies.

Continuing with crypto news, on Thursday, the Securities and Exchange Commission said companies listed in the U.S. acting as crypto custodians need to account for those assets as liabilities and disclose the associated risks to investors.

In its guidance, the SEC said that the custody of digital assets on behalf of others includes technological risks, involved in both safeguarding assets and rapidly-changing nature of the market, and legal risks, due to the questions around how these things would be treated in a court arrangement.

In addition, there are regulatory risks, given the lack of regulatory requirements for holding crypto products.

Finally, the executives of Istanbul-based crypto exchange Thodex are facing “thousands of years” in jail sentences, according to a Thursday report from Bloomberg that said the company halted trading and its CEO disappeared.

A Turkish prosecutor is seeking up to 40,564 years in sentencing for 21 defendants total, including CEO Faruk Fatih Ozer, 28, who has been missing for a year now. Footage had surfaced that led to police teams flying to four countries to try and locate him, but Ozer remains on the run.