On the lighter side, words such as “cryptocurrency,” “blockchain” and “ICO” are joining “Bitcoin” in the dictionary as officially recognized and defined words.Featured stories by Amy Castor, Michael Scott, Jay Derenthal and Aaron van WirdumJapan Toughens Oversight, Penalizes Cryptocurrency ExchangesJapan is cracking down hard on cryptocurrency exchanges, having just recently penalized seven of them and requiring two to halt operations for one month. Japan’s Financial Services Agency (FSA) announced on March 8, 2018, that it came down on the exchanges due to their failure to provide proper internal control systems. All of the exchanges were ordered to step up efforts to improve security and prevent money laundering.Of the seven, Coincheck was served with its second business improvement order since the $530 million breach of NEM (XEM) were stolen from it earlier this year. All of the 260,000 users impacted by the theft will be paid back in Japanese yen, based on NEM rates at the time of the theft, the Tokyo-based company said.FinCEN Deals Major Regulatory Blow to ICOs and ExchangesIn the latest regulatory backlash against ICOs, the SEC has decided that, effectively, anyone who sells tokens is an unregistered money transfer business and anyone issuing an ICO is a money transmitter that is subject to the Bank Secrecy Act. Exchanges also qualify as money services businesses (MSBs) according to FinCEN. An ICO registered as a security, however, would not be considered a money transmitter. Anyone failing to register with FinCEN and failing to perform KYC AML compliance obligations could face prison under a felony conviction. Employees and investors of ICO companies could be held criminally liable as well.Wyoming Blockchain Bill Rockets Ahead for SigningWyoming has followed through on HB 70 by a vote of 23–7 and the bill is being sent to the state’s governor for signature. Through this legislation, lawmakers hope to carve out space for tech developers involved in the creation of what are known as “utility tokens.” The exemption would be directed at those utility tokens which are not marketed or promoted as investments and are able to be exchanged for goods and services. The bitcoin-friendly HB 19 is also currently working its way through the Wyoming legislature in an effort to exempt cryptocurrencies from the state’s money transmission laws.Halong Mining Is the First Bitcoin Mining Hardware Producer to Implement Overt AsicBoostAsicBoost was invented by former CoinTerra CTO Timo Hanke in 2016. The technology takes advantage of a quirk in Bitcoin’s proof-of-work algorithm, which lets miners take a sort of “shortcut” to find a new
