Unbanked Hong Kong Chief Carrie Lam: “I Have Piles of Cash at Home”

Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam says she is currently unbanked and keeps piles of cash stashed at her home courtesy of US sanctions. Alongside 14 Chinese and Hong Kong officials, Lam has been slapped with punitive measures that effectively cut her off from the banking system. The US government announced the sanctions in response … Read more

A New Bitcoin Mining Pool Claims It Has Tools to Censor Blockchain Transactions

A blockchain and technology company claims its new bitcoin mining pool is embedded with tools that enable the pool to censure transactions in the blocks they mine. According to a statement issued by the DMG, the parent company to Blockseer mining pool, this ability allows the latter to “exceed” the compliance requirements of the U.S. … Read more

OFAC Warns Americans Against Facilitating Ransomware Payments

The U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) recently issued an advisory highlighting the sanctions risk American citizens face if they help facilitate ransomware payments. In the advisory, the OFAC says it will “continue to impose sanctions on those who materially assist, sponsor, or provide financial, material, or technological support for … Read more

P2P Bitcoin Exchange Paxful Shuts Down Venezuela Operations to Comply With US Sanctions

Peer-to-peer (P2P) crypto exchange Paxful is shutting down its operations in Venezuela, apparently, to comply with U.S. economic sanctions against the leftist government of disputed president Nicolas Maduro. On Tuesday, a Paxful spokesperson told news.Bitcoin.com that the exchange will now start restricting new accounts and closing old ones, as part of the shutdown process. “Current … Read more