digital asset custody
Industry association GBBC Digital Finance (GDF) and the International Securities Services Association (ISSA) announced the publication of a primer on digital asset custody (DAC) yesterday. In a press release, the associations explained, “This report is a primer to help move the knowledge of DAC forward by bringing to the forefront, the opportunities and barriers DAC providers have to successfully navigate moving to these new digital technologies and ways of working.” The target market is traditional finance and financial service professionals.
On the regulation front, the associations see three key challenges for DAC globally: 1) the differences in asset definition; 2) the location-specific regulatory compliance obligations; and, 3) the overall impact of regulatory incompatibilities or inconsistencies between jurisdictions.”
Download the primer – 66 pages (PDF).
Download “key takeaways” from the primer – 11 pages (PDF).
The Staff Accounting Bulletin 121 from the SEC, which focuses on custody and has drawn the ire of Congress, is listed as a resource for the primer.
real-time enforcement
Over the weekend, the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) warned it was going to go-hard on new crypto marketing rules taking effect on Monday. And then… they delivered with a list of 146 violations by marketers yesterday alone.
The FCA – the UK’s version of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) – said, “Consumers should check the ‘Warning List‘ before making any investment in crypto. The list will help consumers understand where firms’ promotions may be breaking the law and to consider the promotion with the full information available.”
JPMorgan on Ethereum
JPMorgan analyst Nikolaos Panigirtzoglou said in a research report last Thursday that an increasingly concentrated pool of “liquidity providers or node operators” is making the Ethereum network more centralized. Panigirtzoglou writes that a “concentrated number of liquidity providers or node operators could act as a single point of failure or become targets for attacks or collude to create an oligopoly that would promote their own interests at the expense of the interests of the community.” CoinDesk covers the report here.
tokenization opp
The American Bankers Association (ABA) is having its annual convention in Nashville this week. Within the three-day agenda is only one piece of digital assets-related content – a panel discussion titled “Tokenized Deposits and Blockchain Tech.” The ABA describes the panel: “This session is not about cryptocurrency. Instead, join us for an engaging panel discussion that delves into the innovative realm of tokenized deposits and blockchain.” VaultLink, the ABA and Rob Morgan, the CEO of USDF Consortium, join the discussion. See the entire program.
use case: curing cancer
Decentralized science or DeSci is at the center of a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) called VitaDAO – and pharmaceutical firm Pfizer is investing. The Block reports that Pfizer has committed $4.6 million in capital to date. In turn, VitaDAO has launched its first biotech firm called Matrix Biosciences and collaborating with New York State’s University of Rochester’s Aging Research Center on cancer treatments for the aging that will begin with “preclinical studies testing novel hyaluronic acid-based compounds found in long-living cancer-resistant naked mole rats.” Read more.
explainer: air-gapped wallets
Crypto publication Unchained takes on the arcane topic of air-gapped crypto wallets and why they are important. Spoiler alert: they are arguably the safest form of crypto wallets. The definition of “air gapped” teases the wider implications: “An air-gapped crypto wallet is a wallet that is detached from any kind of wireless connection, including Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and NFC devices. Fully air-gapped wallets also don’t support USB drives.” Read more.
still more tips
Illicit activity in Ethereum staking is low. It’s still enough to spook big finance firms – DL News
Why NFL Alumni Are Turning to NFTs to Support Retired Football Players – Decrypt
Opinion: Dollar Hegemony Is Here to Stay, for Worse and (Mostly) Better – Bloomberg