On Friday, May 20, global leaders from the top seven largest economies shared an official statement from its attending finance ministers and central bank governors. The statement called for swift, consistent, and comprehensive regulation of crypto-assets, and also mentioned the need for the regulation of cross-border crypto payments.

Das Kommuniqué der @G7 Finanzminister*innen und Notenbankgouverneur*innen finden Sie auf ➡️ https://t.co/nZ9SXDUig4 #G7 #G7GER #Finanzpolitik

— BMF (@BMF_Bund) May 20, 2022

The document states that in light of recent turmoil in the crypto-asset market, the G7 urges the Financial Stability Board to develop and implement regulations. The statement also mentions stablecoins and comes just over a week after the crash of the Terra Luna UST token, which saw over $400 billion USD in market capitalization wiped out.

While UST is an algorithmic stablecoin backed by crypto-assets and other coins like USDC are backed by fiat currency, the G7 and Janet Yellen have made stablecoins a cornerstone in their argument for increased regulation. Additionally, the G7 called for “rapid implementation of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) ‘travel rule’ and stronger disclosure and regulatory reporting.” It added that “no global stablecoin project should begin operation until it adequately addresses relevant legal, regulatory and oversight requirements through appropriate design.”

The FATF is an intergovernmental organization that was founded in 1989 on the initiative of the G7, originally to develop policies to combat money laundering. The “travel rule” refers to providers of virtual assets who will need to collect and share customer data for transactions that exceed a certain monetary value.

Elsewhere in NFTs, Beeple’s Twitter account was hacked, resulting in victims losing over $438 thousand USD.