ChainCatcher news, according to CryptoSlate, the Bank of Canada released an internal research discussion paper on March 21, analyzing flash loans and their policy relevance and potential risks. The research report defines flash loans as blockchain-native financial instruments that allow users to borrow crypto assets without collateral, provided that the loan must be repaid within a single atomic transaction.It is noteworthy that such internal discussion papers represent the central bank's comprehensive research outcomes on important issues and fall within the broad responsibilities of the Bank of Canada to assess the impact of emerging technologies on financial stability and market structure.Report author Jack Mandin points out that although flash loans are currently limited to blockchain networks, their underlying concept could extend to tokenized financial infrastructure if technical conditions are met. Such concepts include atomic risk-free lending, which could give rise to new systems supporting atomic transactions and programmable assets. The research also raises concerns about financial stability. If financial institutions begin to integrate smart contract lending, it could directly trigger risks.Furthermore, when blockchain assets (including those involved in flash loan activities) are embedded in traditional financial products (such as exchange-traded funds), it may create systemic risks.

ChainCatcher news, according to CoinDesk, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has released new regulations clarifying that certain stablecoins do not fall under the category of securities and may be exempt from trading reporting obligations. Some analysts believe that the stablecoins covered by the SEC's new regulations may not include those issued by Tether, as the SEC pointed out that acceptable reserves for stablecoins do not include precious metals or other crypto assets, both of which are included in Tether's reserves.In addition, the SEC also requires that any token must be redeemable for U.S. dollars at any time, but Tether's terms of service suggest that there may be minimum redemption amounts or delays in redemption.

ChainCatcher News, U.S. Representatives Tom Emmer and Darren Soto have reintroduced the "Securities Clarity Act," aimed at clarifying the legal distinction between crypto assets and securities contracts, providing a compliance pathway for innovative projects. The bill has received support from Coin Center, the Blockchain Association, and others, and is seen as an important prelude to legislation on the structure of the U.S. crypto market. The bill emphasizes that "investment contract assets" should be distinct from the securities issuance to which they were originally attached, laying the legal groundwork for the reclassification of digital assets as commodities after decentralization.

ChainCatcher news, regulatory expert Amy Lynch stated that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) may redefine the attributes of cryptocurrencies, with most tokens potentially classified as commodities, thus falling outside the SEC's jurisdiction. The SEC's lawsuit against Ripple Labs over the issuance of the XRP token has become a key indicator, as the SEC previously accused it of issuing unregistered securities. Importantly, this case is seen as a legal basis for classifying most cryptocurrencies as securities subject to SEC oversight.

ChainCatcher news, EigenLayer announces the redefinition of AVS (Active Verification Service) as "Autonomous Verifiable Service".EigenLayer stated that when it first introduced the concept of Active Verification Service (AVS) in February 2023, it intended to describe how EigenLayer ensures the correctness and security of services built in a decentralized environment. Currently, there is a better way to describe what AVS represents; "active verification" describes how these services are continuously monitored and verified to ensure they are functioning properly. The two key features of the autonomous verifiable framework are: autonomy and verification. The combination of autonomy and verifiability will be EigenLayer's uniqueness.EigenLayer further added that its implementation has no technical changes, but is simply an improvement in terminology to better reflect the potential of these services.

ChainCatcher news, Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin responded to the question of whether "rollups are overall good for Ethereum or are they leeches, and whether ETH really needs these L2s." He stated that Ethereum currently adopts a hybrid L1 + L2 scaling solution, but it is still necessary to clearly define the transaction scope of both L1 and L2 layers.Vitalik indicated that moving all transactions to L2 could weaken ETH's position as a medium of exchange and a store of value, and cross-L2 operations would still rely on L1. At the same time, keeping all transactions on L1 is also not feasible, as it could lead to centralization and fail to meet the ever-growing demand for on-chain transactions. It is essential to find an appropriate balance between these two extremes to provide users with the optimal solution.

ChainCatcher news, recently, the People's Court of Pingjiang County, Hunan Province announced multiple criminal judgments involving the BKEX exchange, clearly defining the platform's contract trading as gambling behavior, and holding relevant employees and agents criminally responsible for the crime of operating a casino.The judgment shows that BKEX was founded by Ji Jiaming in 2018 in Chengdu, mainly providing virtual currency exchange and spot trading services. In 2021, the platform launched perpetual contract trading features, allowing users to bet on the price fluctuations of virtual currencies like BTC and ETH using USDT, suspected of using the internet to gather crowds for gambling. By the time of the incident, BKEX had accumulated a net profit of approximately 54.798 million USDT (equivalent to about 300 million RMB), with 270,000 contract trading users, of which over 60,000 were active users.Due to the founder Ji Jiaming being on the run, this case mainly targets platform employees and agents. The judgment involves 2 employees and 6 agents, among them, an employee named Zheng Lei, who served as a wallet engineer responsible for technical support for fund circulation, was sentenced to 2 years and 1 month in prison, with a 2-year and 1-month probation, and fined 150,000 yuan; another employee, Wang, was responsible for KYC verification and fund settlement, sentenced to 1 year and 11 months in prison, and fined 52,000 yuan. Agent Dong was sentenced to 1 year and 6 months in prison, with a 1-year and 6-month probation, and fined 35,000 yuan for developing downline participants for gambling profits. The related illegal gains have been confiscated and turned over to the national treasury.The court determined that the defendants were all accomplices, and some individuals received lighter penalties due to pleading guilty and actively returning stolen goods.Earlier in 2023, news from BKEX exchange: due to suspected "money laundering" and cooperating with the police for evidence collection, it will suspend withdrawals.

ChainCatcher message, according to feedback from @alexzuo4, Polymarket has been defined as a gambling site by Singapore and has been blocked.Users logging into the Polymarket official website in Singapore will be prompted with "This website is an illegal gambling site hosted by an unlicensed gambling service provider, and users may face a fine of up to $10,000 or up to 6 months of imprisonment."

ChainCatcher news, according to The Block, the UK government submitted a bill to Parliament on September 11, aiming to officially define crypto assets (including NFTs and RWAs) as property. Minister of State for the Ministry of Justice, Heidi Alexander, stated that previously digital assets were not clearly defined within the property law framework in England and Wales, leaving asset owners in a legal gray area. If the bill is passed, it will introduce a third category of property in addition to the existing "real property" and "rights property," granting specific digital assets personal property rights.Alexander emphasized that the bill aims to maintain the UK's leading position in the global crypto space and attract more businesses and investments. Digital assets contribute £34 billion to the UK economy each year. The bill is a response to the UK Law Commission's 2023 report, which noted that while digital assets do not fall under real property or rights property, they should be regarded as property.