The European Parliament has passed a comprehensive set of anti-money laundering laws that target various financial services and entities, including cryptocurrency. The laws include enhanced due diligence measures and checks on customers' identity, and will give journalists and other interested entities free and direct access to beneficial ownership information in national registries. The package also establishes an anti-money laundering authority based in Frankfurt to oversee the implementation of the relevant frameworks. The EU Council still needs to formally adopt the package for it to become law, but concerns have been raised by crypto policy watchers that the requirements imposed on digital assets may be unfairly strict compared to other financial sectors.

The Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) of Hong Kong has announced that it has taken disciplinary action against China Ecotourism Group Limited (China Ecotourism) and its seven current and former directors in collaboration with the Hong Kong Stock Exchange (HKEX). The investigation mainly focused on improper conduct, including granting 13 loans totaling HKD363 million and RMB91 million to nine borrowers, and acquiring a 37.5% stake in a blockchain technology company for HKD35 million.

The city of Quincy in the suburbs of Boston, Massachusetts issued $10 million in municipal bonds using blockchain. JPMorgan was the exclusive underwriter for the tax-exempt seven-year bonds, which were issued using Onyx's private permissioned blockchain.

Tech giants including NVIDIA CEO Huang Renxun, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Microsoft CEO Nadella, and Alphabet CEO Pichai will join a new federal advisory committee in the United States. The committee's focus will be on the safe use of artificial intelligence in critical infrastructure in the United States. The committee will work with the Department of Homeland Security to provide recommendations for electric grid operators, transportation service providers, and manufacturing plants on how to use AI while protecting their systems from potential harm. US officials say the AI Security Advisory Committee is part of the US government's efforts to protect the economy, public health, and critical industries from AI threats and risks.

Currently only a few Hong Kong brokers with virtual asset retail licenses can subscribe to the Hong Kong Bitcoin ETF through the new share subscription method (PD/distributor), and after the ETF officially enters the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, all hundreds of Hong Kong brokers and banks can purchase it. The approved virtual asset ETF adopts the performance of the ChiNext CF Bitcoin Index (Asia-Pacific closing price), so the profit and loss risks of cash subscription for Bitcoin ETF are basically the same as those of directly buying Bitcoin. As the exchange ratio between Bitcoin and Bitcoin ETF is fixed, if physical subscription is used in the IOP stage, that is, Bitcoin is used to subscribe to Bitcoin ETF, the relevant ETF can be exchanged for Hong Kong dollars in the exchange if it is sold at a premium after listing, and then buy back Bitcoin at the same time to earn the price difference between on-exchange and off-exchange. (Finance News Agency)

On April 26th, the US SEC filed a lawsuit against bitcoin mining company Geosyn Mining and its co-founders, accusing them of falsely reporting the number of cryptocurrency mining equipment in operation and using customer funds for personal expenses, resulting in a $5.6 million investment fraud.

The Hong Kong Stock Exchange will begin trading Harvest's Bitcoin and Ethereum spot ETFs on April 30.

The UK Home Office announced in a press release on Friday that new powers to seize cryptocurrencies used in crimes have come into effect. The Home Office stated that due to these new regulations, police in the country will no longer need to make an arrest before seizing cryptocurrency holdings, making it easier to seize assets known to have been obtained through criminal means, even if seasoned criminals are able to protect their anonymity or are located overseas.

These new regulations were introduced following the passage of the Criminal Finances Act by the UK Parliament last year, which laid the groundwork for faster cryptocurrency seizures.

The Block Pro Headlines posted on X platform, stating that the SEC issued a Wells Notice to Consensys, accusing MetaMask of operating as an unlicensed broker.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) stated on Thursday that Americans should not use encrypted services provided by companies that have not registered as Money Services Businesses (MSBs) under federal law. The FBI also provided FinCEN's official tool for users to check whether a company is registered as an MSB.