Category: News

letter – digital wallet rule

In a letter to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) and Director Rohit Chopra (D), Republican House Financial Services (HFS) lawmakers urged the agency to reopen the comment period for the proposed rule (see it):  “Defining Larger Participants of a Market for General-Use Digital Consumer Payment Applications.” Comments closed on January 8 and would impact digital wallets for crypto among other non-bank areas.

Read the letter.

HFS Chair Patrick McHenry (R, NC), Rep. French Hill (R, AR), Chair of the Digital Assets, Financial Technology and Inclusion Subcommittee and Rep. Mike Flood (R, NE) signed on to the letter and said the rule would have “unknown effects on the digital asset ecosystem” among other reasons.

Given recent run-ins with the CFPB, it’s not surprising that HFS Republicans believe the CFPB and Biden-appointee Chopra are making a clear overreach. But, the industry has made it clear that the proposed rule is not gonna work.

Among many comments previously delivered in response to the rule, Paradigm government relations executive Alexander Grieve wrote on his company’s blog that problems with the new rule include:

1. 1. Overreach by the CFPB where it has no jurisdicton;
   2. “Broadly worded to capture crypto wallet software service providers that do not custody cryptoassets”;
   3. “The CFPB failed to adequately perform a fulsome cost-benefit analysis of the proposed rule.”

Continue reading “New CFPB Rule Impacting Digital Assets Gets Congressional Letter; Treasury, Crypto And Illicit Finance”

Hill and Himes

Rep. French Hill (R, AR) and Rep. Jim Himes (D, CT) appeared in sync at a Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD) event yesterday titled, “Fortifying the Crypto Future: U.S. National and Economic Security in the Virtual Realm.” See it.

Both Hill and Himes are members of the House Financial Services (HFS) Committee and support efforts to create a regulatory framework for digital assets.

Among the highlights of the Congressmens’ interview conducted by FDD’s Juan Zarate, Rep. Himes opined on his reasons to back the current stablecoin and digital asset market structure bills in the House:

“I was a technology banker in 1998-99, and to me this feels a lot like how we felt then about the Internet (…) it feels to me that’s this moment…. I’m also skeptical about some of the promised applications… (…) But from a prosperity, economic and a national security standpoint, you don’t want to be behind innovation.  The hard part is not putting in place a better or perfect regulatory regime (…) but, it’s not hard to do better than the one we’ve got with all the uncertainty. We shouldn’t be way behind on innovation and if we don’t make progress, we will be.”

Rep. Hill built on Himes’ comments:

“The private sector should be the leader. Our job is to provide the ways and means and the conditions of a fair-minded, open, regulatory framework and get out of the way.”

Moving on to the hot topic of terrorist financing and cryptocurrency, Rep. Himes agreed there is risk in digital assets but saw clear benefits with the public ledger of the blockchain. “I do think that there is a fundamental misunderstanding of how much you would like to have bad actors in a much more technological and auditable environment,” said Rep. Himes.

Noting the worldwide export of the U.S. money supply, Rep. Hill added in part, “We’ve got criminal elements using all forms of money -not just crypto. And crypto – when done properly – is the easiest place to be caught potentially. And also, if we want stop terror groups from having access to unlimited money, we might start with our own policy of giving $18 billion back to Iran, no matter how well-intentioned.” See the webcast.

Rep. Hill spoke to the pace of the stablecoin and digital asset market structure bills in the House today and admitted a significant “timing issue” with elections, but didn’t “feel obligated to move them together.” suggesting, perhaps, one bill could move. Continue reading “Hill And Himes On Bipartisan Digital Asset Efforts In The House; DeFi Defense Paper”

CFTC: ETFs aren’t regulations

It may not have been under his commodities oversight purview, but Commodity Futures Trading Commission Chair Rostin Behnam (D) is concerned that the recent approval of Bitcoin spot market Exchange-Traded Funds (or Products) is unlocking unnecessary risk for market participants.

At an American Bar Association meeting on Friday, Behnam said in a speech (read it) : “I fear that the regulatory approval of bitcoin ETPs introduces risk that, in spite of yellow flags, market participants, retail and institutional alike, may mistake the technical approval of a product—with actual regulatory oversight of the cash commodity digital assets. The concerns I have publicly voiced for the better part of six years regarding the digital asset commodity spot market have only become magnified. The need for federal legislation over cash market digital assets has never been more critical, and I will continue my call for action.”

more tips:

BlackRock’s Bitcoin ETF First to Reach $2B in AUM – CoinDesk

what you should know: In Behnam’s mind, you can’t approve a product before you approve the regulation around the product. Meanwhile, Democratic leadership led by Securities and Exchanger Commission (SEC) Chair Gary Gensler is saying that the regulation exists already for digital assets – securities law – and all crypto tokens are securities. Behnam has clearly broken from the current Dem leadership point-of-view exhibited by his past support of DCCPA and his stated belief that some tokens are commodities including stablecoins.

blockchain’s big use case: AI

The public form is now available for the requests for comment on the use of AI (artificial intelligence) in CFTC-regulated markets. All comments are due by April 24 here. Continue reading “ETFs Make Regulation More Important Than Ever Says CFTC Chair; Brown AML Bill Updates”

digital assets delayed

House Financial Services Chair Patrick McHenry (R, NC) appeared on CNBC’s Squawk Box yesterday morning and expressed frustration with his caucus as well as a defiant hope that it was still possible to move legislation this year in spite of Congressional gridlock. Digital legislation is delayed in 2024, most assuredly.

From the interview:

Chair McHenry: “Look when the House basically attempted to commit political suicide – Republicans in the House tried to commit political suicide in the fall – it gummed up three or four months of House Floor action. So, I’ve got major policies in capital formation, data privacy and crypto that we haven’t moved across the House floor. And I intend to get those moves across the House Floor this year. We can still do big deals -we can still do big deals, even amidst the longest presidential campaign, general election campaign, in American history. We can still get these things done and build consensus and I think there’s a need for market structure on crypto…”

Joe Kernen, CNBC: “The recent ETF and watching the SEC Chair sort of…. kicking and screaming, really …. after, you know, the court said one thing… ‘That’s no way to run a railroad, is it?'”

Chair McHenry: “It’s ineptitude and [the SEC] went kicking and screaming after the courts demanded they take this action. Now, you have more legitimate money coming in, flowing into crypto, some structure being provided to a new asset class that has its problems and needs some clarity – and under federal law – to remedy it.” Continue reading “McHenry Speaks: Digital Assets Delayed; Ethereum ETFs Delayed By SEC”

staff hears constituents

In Fortune, reporter Leo Schwartz takes a look at how Massachusetts blockchain companies are not hesitating to try and meet with Senator Elizabeth Warren’s (D, MA) office in the interest of educating the Senator and her staff on blockchain technology from a constituent’s perspective.

See a tweet from their visit to the Capitol last week.

Waev Data founder Phil McMannis, whose company is based in Boston, said that he reached out to the Senator’s office and was able to book a meeting with Gabrielle Elul, a Warren staffer who serves as an economic policy advisor. Schwartz reports, “McMannis, along with the representatives from other crypto companies and a Coinbase [Stand With Crypto] lobbyist, laid out their concerns about Warren’s proposed bill to Elul, along with elucidating what they view as the non-financial use cases of crypto, such as health data privacy and creator financial empowerment.” Read more.

multiple AML bills

Chair Sherrod Brown (D, OH), continues to bang the drum from his pulpit in Senate Banking on the use of crypto in illicit financing for terrorism and fentanyl – to name just a couple – and now he’s working on a digital assets anti-money-laundering bill of his own. And that’s not all as Politico reported on Wednesday, “‘Sanctions-related proposals are also on the table,’ [Chair Brown] said, though he underscored that ‘it’s not been decided yet.’ Sen. Jack Reed (D, RI) said in October that Brown was looking at combining relevant bills from Reed and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D, MA), among others, in the wake of the Hamas attacks on Israel.” Read more. Continue reading “Blockchain Companies Visit Their Senator; North Korea Still Hacking Crypto”

SRO on crypto comms

FINRA, the self-regulatory body for securities within the financial industry – and reports into the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) – updated its past (November 2022) crypto guidance to members saying this week, “This update does not create new legal or regulatory requirements or new interpretations of existing requirements, nor does it relieve firms of any existing obligations under federal securities laws and regulations. Rather, this update poses questions for firms to consider as they review and supervise their retail communications concerning Crypto Assets.”

The industry body lists off a bulleted list of issues it sees with recent, crypto asset, member communications such as: “Unclear and misleading explanations of how Crypto Assets work and their core features and risks.” FINRA wants its members to do better and, no doubt, is being “encouraged” to do so the SEC. This week’s “update” provides a list of questions for FINRA members to consider before it starts its next crypto asset communications campaign.

Read the guidance.

Pokemon cards are securities

Yesterday, Politico analyzed the recent court news in the Coinbase and Binance complaints brought by the SEC. A partner at the law firm representing Coinbase – William Savitt at Wachtell Lipton – makes the case for overreach by the regulator saying, “The SEC’s regulatory reach does not go beyond securities… And if it’s permitted to regulate here, it’s permitted to regulate everywhere.” – “everywhere” as in your Pokemon cards says Savitt. Read more. Continue reading “FINRA Updates Its Guidance On Crypto Communications; SEC Finds More Fraud”

more sanctions, crypto involved

The U.S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has imposed a new fifth round of sanctions against members of the terrorist organization Hamas coming out of the October 7 terror attacks in Israel.

Brian Nelson, Under Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, said in a release, “Hamas has sought to leverage a variety of financial transfer mechanisms, including the exploitation of cryptocurrency, to channel funds to support the group’s terrorist activities.”

The latest action isn’t specific about the dollar levels involved in the terrorist financing identified and how much of it was cryptocurrency. Regarding one of the implicated terrorist financial networks: “Hamas has directly co-opted and utilized some corrupt money exchanges in both the West Bank and Gaza to launder funds for the terrorist group. Since at least 2020, Hamas has also used cryptocurrency to transfer some funding in support of operational costs in the West Bank as a means of mitigating the risks of physically moving cash, circumventing border crossings, and evading monitoring by authorities.”

Read the press release: “U.S., UK, and Australia Target Additional Hamas Financial Networks and Facilitators of Virtual Currency Transfers” – treasury.gov Continue reading “Treasury Sanctions Terrorists, Sees Crypto Involvement; Judiciary Gets Hagerty AML Legislation”

the presidential platform

Last week, former President Donald Trump made digital assets part of his 2024 presidential campaign platform in no uncertain terms.

According to The Hill, Trump told a campaign crowd in New Hampshire, “Tonight, I am also making another promise to protect Americans from government tyranny. As your president, I will never allow the creation of a central bank digital currency.” Read more in The Hill.

what you should know: By vowing to block creation of a Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC), the President Trump takes up the cause of the myriad pieces of anti-CBDC legislation introduced by Republicans – and some Democrats – in Congress.

Trump’s comment may have also put new momentum behind a House Floor vote for bills such as House Majority Whip Tom Emmer’s (R, MN) CBDC Anti-Surveillance State Act [H.R. 5403] which passed out of a House Financial Services markup in July. Whip Emmer tweeted on Friday, “I agree with President Trump; CBDCs pose a serious threat to Americans’ right to financial privacy.”

Trump’s CBDC comment may be fortuitous for House Republicans who increasingly need some wins while their Caucus struggles to fund the government.

election fundraising

Former President Donald Trump has not been shy about using NFTs (non-fungible tokens) for fundraising. CoinDesk reported that nearly $7 million had been amassed in crypto and NFT licensing fees as of last August.

In fact, over the weekend, three Trump NFT collections tracked by NFTPriceFloor showed a combined market capitalization of approximately 22,000 Ether or $54 million.

Good news for his NFT holders, he’s launching a Bitcoin ordinal NFT, too, which costs a mere $9,900. Read about it in CoinDesk. Continue reading “CBDCs Ascend The Presidential Platform; Illicit Finance Bill From Senators Hagerty, Lummis”