House returns to White House
The primary creator of President Biden’s 2022 Executive Order on digital assets is returning to the White House after two years in the private sector. Carole House announced on LinkedIn, “I am deeply honored, humbled, and excited to return to government appointed in the Biden Administration, where I am serving as the Special Advisor for Cybersecurity and Critical Infrastructure Policy at the White House National Security Council!” Read more.
From April 2021 to June 2022 – during the time she helped create the E.O. – she was the part of the White House’s National Security Council, where she served as Director of Cybersecurity and Secure Digital Innovation.
Not all of House’s recent private sector service in the past two years was necessarily private.
She has served on Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) Commissioner Christy Goldsmith Romero Technology Advisory Committee (TAC). In January, TAC’s Subcommittee on Digital Assets and Blockchain Technology – House is a co-chair – presented a thoughtful, new study on Decentralized Finance -or DeFi.
With Goldsmith Romero being recommended by the White House for the FDIC Chair currently, the re-appointment makes even more sense.
more tips:
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- Carole House appears as witness at House Financial Services (HFS) FinCEN hearing in February 2024 – blockchain tipsheet
- “TRM Talks” podcast from January 2024 where House discussed the mechanics involved in the creation of the digital assets Executive Order issued by the White House in March 2022. She says [at 18:11], “Not everyone was happy with the Executive Order. Some people felt it was too generous. Some, too mean. Overall, I was very pleased – the interagency was very happy with it.” Listen to it.
what you should know: Is the White House truly turning from an “anti-crypto” to a pro-crypto stance? And, does everything change post-election if President Joe Biden is re-elected? Questions remain and House will likely be tasked with growing trust of the Administration in the digital assets community. Votes are at stake.
House and D.C. roundtable
If news last week that a member of the Administration will join Rep. Ro Khanna (D, CA) and Mark Cuban on stage for “a blockchain roundtable in Washington D.C.” next month, it seems now that Ms. House will be the likely representative.
hearings and noms
Brendan Pedersen of Punchbowl News’ The Vault says that Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen will testify in front of the House Financial Services (HFS) Committee on July 9 regarding “international finance.” On the same day, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell will testify to the Senate Banking Committee. Read more on X.
Politico’s Eleanor Mueller added on X that Chair Powell will be at HFS on July 10, then “FDIC and other noms” will at Senate Banking on July 11. Presumably, this means FDIC Chair nominee and current CFTC Commissioner Christy Goldsmith Romero will appear on the 11th.
Trump at Bitcoin convention
Axios reports that former President Donald Trump will speak at the Bitcoin 2024 convention which is taking place in Nashville, Tennessee from July 25-27.
Axios says, “Trump wouldn’t be the only presidential candidate at the convention. Independent contender Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is slated to speak there, as are former GOP candidate Vivek Ramaswamy and Sens. Bill Hagerty (R, NT)and Marsha Blackburn (R, TN).” See speakers.
more tips:
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- Crypto May Become the New ‘Trump Trade,’ Bernstein Analysts Say – Bloomberg on Yahoo
stablecoin insurance
Pointing to an article published by the Kansas City Federal Reserve last week (see it), Ledger Insights digs into the details of stablecoin insurance.
The Kansas City Fed says it is pursuing the topic because, currently, no such insurance exists and that’s bad for financial stability preparedness. But, there’s hope. The Fed claims “that well-established methods can be used to estimate the price of a potential guarantee against stablecoin losses. Specifically, we show that stablecoin insurance can be priced using methods pioneered by Black and Scholes (1973) and Merton (1974, 1977). ” Read more the KC Fed.
Ledger Insights reads all the data and offers its observation, “A key goal (of the Fed article) was to understand the cost-benefit of the process. The authors didn’t draw this conclusion, but we’d observe that the cost of insurance would be easily covered by interest on the stablecoin reserves….” Read Ledger Insights.
sanctions and crypto
New European Union sanctions are putting more pressure on crypto firms to keep track of who’s buying and selling crypto. In fact, 2,200 Russian entities have been added to a new EU sanctions list says Reuters.
“It’s a lot of extra due diligence that will be required,” Isabella Chase, blockchain analytics firm TRM Labs tells DL News. She adds “crypto firms are going to need a solid grasp on which businesses are involved in supporting the Russian military… “You have to know the weapons networks, and then you’re also going to have to know the non-EU crypto asset service providers that are facilitating that movement of funds.”
volatility
The Wall Street Journal covers the latest gyrations of cryptocurrencies – especially the king of crypto coins, Bitcoin, as the market has experience a steady downturn in recent weeks. The WSJ says, “Short-term drivers include German authorities selling bitcoins they seized from crime, and news that defunct exchange Mt. Gox could start to repay clients (PDF) soon..”
still more tips
Biden Likely to Win Popular Vote, but Not Presidency, Prediction Market Signals – CoinDesk
Opinion: Wall Street isn’t ready to manage crypto ETFs – Hadley Stern, former Global Head of Custody at BNY Mellon, on Blockworks
President of Jump Crypto steps down – Cointelegraph
Mark Cuban sells Pudgy Penguin for $30,000 along with several other NFTs – The Block
How often does the SEC lose crypto lawsuits? (June 4) – Protos