Proof of State is the Wednesday edition of Fortune Crypto where Leo Schwartz delivers insider insights on policy and regulation. Decentralization is a spectrum. Developers can talk all they want about their projects being governed by code, but not all blockchains and protocols are made equally. I say all this because, as no one should be surprised, Coinbase’s new blockchain, a layer-2 built on top of Ethereum called Base, is filled with scam tokens. That was the case before Base’s official...

Proof of State is the Wednesday edition of Fortune Crypto where Leo Schwartz delivers insider insights on policy and regulation. The myth of crypto as an untraceable haven for cybercriminals has long been busted, even if Bitcoin still carries the reputation as a dark web currency used to buy drugs and hire hitmen. If anything, blockchain’s immutable records provide better opportunities for insight into illicit activity than plain old cash, creating a golden age for law enforcement...

Proof of State is the Wednesday edition of Fortune Crypto where Leo Schwartz delivers insider insight on policy and regulation. Crypto has a way of generating intrigue around the most esoteric of institutions. How else could Rostin Behnam, the chair of the decidedly unglamorous Commodity Futures Trading Commission, become one of the most sought-after speakers after the collapse of FTX? The latest government group thrust into the limelight is the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, an...

After a stretch that has seen the world’s biggest crypto exchange bleed billions of dollars in assets, Binance announced today that customers would no longer be able to transfer U.S. dollars from bank accounts into the exchange to buy and sell cryptocurrency. A Binance spokesperson told Fortune that the company was temporarily suspending transfers as of Feb. 8, and would be notifying affected customers directly, adding that the change would affect only 0.01% of the exchange’s monthly active...

Cross-border payments have long been floated as one of the best potential use cases for cryptocurrency, but clunky interfaces and costly fees have hindered the expansion of a true blockchain-powered remittance platform. Jack Mallers, founder and CEO of the crypto platform Strike, is trying to change that. Through a new feature called Send Globally, Strike users can send money between currencies, utilizing Bitcoin as an intermediary. After launching in Nigeria, Kenya, and Ghana in December,...