In a joint statement, the Federal Reserve, Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and Office of the Comptroller of the Currency said issuing and holding cryptocurrencies is "likely to be inconsistent with safe and sound banking practices."

FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried pleaded not guilty to criminal charges Tuesday, a move that lays the foundation for one of the most high-profile white-collar fraud trials in recent years.

At the start of 2022, Biden administration officials were cautious about how to regulate the commingling of cryptocurrencies and traditional finance. By the end of the year, agencies had taken a tougher stance, and the downfall of FTX portended more of the same in 2023.

The FTX collapse and other recent disasters in the cryptocurrency space show that there is an urgent need for oversight. A self-regulatory body would get there fastest, while preserving the ethos of cryptocurrency.

Even as DeFi remains mostly unregulated, it offers no shield against the legal consequences of alleged fraud.

Federal agencies' complaints against FTX's leaders have led to scrutiny of the banks it worked with. While it's unlikely the bankers will be held accountable for the cryptocurrency exchange's wrongdoing, the case could make it more difficult any bank that wants to work with crypto-related businesses.

Sam Bankman-Fried has tried to suggest he didn't know what was happening at sister firm Alameda Research, which Caroline Ellison ran from Hong Kong while he was in the Bahamas. That casts his role in FTX's collapse as mismanagement rather than fraud. But Gary Wang, who was FTX's co-founder and based in the Bahamas with Bankman-Fried, doesn't fit into that picture.

Sam Bankman-Fried was released on a $250 million bail package after making his first U.S. court appearance to face fraud charges over the collapse of FTX, the cryptocurrency exchange he co-founded.

The remains of Sam Bankman-Fried's former empire FTX Group are drawing interest from some of the largest names in distressed investing, in a daredevil bet that heavily discounted creditor claims on the bankrupt cryptocurrency conglomerate will ultimately pay off.

Banks, fintechs and credit unions are cautiously investing in technology and customer experience as next year's economy remains uncertain.

The top U.S. financial regulators are worried about the prospect of deeper ties between digital-asset firms and Wall Street.

The crypto exchange Binance.US will buy Voyager Digital's assets out of bankruptcy in a deal worth $1.022 billion, a discount to an earlier, failed sale struck with FTX.

Investors are learning the hard way, again, that highflying new financial products, with little or no regulatory oversight, tend to crash.

The framework has little immediate impact in the U.S., where banks are broadly prohibited from crypto-related activities, but it establishes a baseline for future regulatory efforts.

Goldman mulls deeper cuts, FDIC names fund leaders and more in banking news this week.

Mazars Group, the accounting firm used by the crypto giant Binance Holdings and other big players in the industry to vouch for their assets held in reserve, has halted all work for crypto clients, dealing a blow to an industry seeking to shore up confidence in the wake of FTX's collapse.

Customer outflows from Binance's cryptocurrency trading platform are slowing, according to blockchain data from two digital-asset analytics firms.

With skepticism about cryptocurrency growing among members of Congress, a handful of lawmakers, including Republican Sens. Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming and Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania, are trying to convince colleagues that the FTX fiasco doesn't diminish the underlying value of digital currency.

Banks must seek and obtain prior approval before engaging in cryptocurrency-related activities, and those that already engage in such activities must immediately notify the agency, the New York State Department of Financial Services said.