blockchain tipsheet

unprecedented sanctions

Fortune’s Leo Schwartz reported on X late yesterday that District Judge Robert Shelby, an Obama appointee, has sanctioned the SEC for a “gross abuse of power” in the DEBT Box lawsuit. Schwartz says Judge Shelby “found the agency misrepresented facts to obtain a restraining order against a Utah-based crypto firm.” Read more (subscription).

The Block notes that the SEC will have to pay DEBT Box’s legal costs and “sanctions.” But, is it all too little, too late for DEBT Box?

Retweeting the sanctions news, House Financial Services Chair Patrick McHenry (R, NC) didn’t hold back on X last night: “Chair [Gary] Gensler’s enforcement team’s egregious misconduct will have broad implications on SEC authority beyond his crypto crusade. Gensler requested more funding for enforcement last year, now a judge calls out the SEC’s abusive and deceptive legal practices. This must end.”

what you should know: But, is it all too little, too late for DEBT Box? The company’s business was destroyed due to the Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) put on it at the request of the SEC and approved by the Court. The biggest ramifications may be the political calculus going forward between Chair Gensler and Democratic leadership. Do they soften their digital assets stance?  The rumored April HFS oversight meeting with Chair Gensler ought to be good theater.

SEC overreach

A House Financial Services (HFS) Capital Markets Subcommittee hearing tomorrow titled, “SEC Overreach: Examining the Need for Reform” will be something to keep an eye on even though the focus is not digital assets, specifically. But, the just-announced DEBT Box outcome will no doubt be top-of-mind.

Overall, the House majority Republicans appear to be upping the ante against the SEC and its Chair Gary Gensler at the hearing with 12 new bills and another joint resolution devoted to reining in the securities agency. From the hearing memo: “This hearing will examine Chair Gensler’s approach to policymaking at the SEC, which has sparked significant concerns.”

See the hearing page. And, read the Committee Memorandum.

The list of witnesses to appear in front of the Subcommittee and its Chair Ann Wagner (R, MO) will include the following at least (more to come… Better Markets from Dem leadership, perhaps?): Jennifer Schulp, Director of Financial Regulation Studies, Cato Institute; David Burton, Senior Fellow, The Heritage Foundation; John Gulliver, Executive Director, Committee on Capital Markets Regulation.

what you should know: Last month, a Joint Resolution [H.J.R.109] rescinding the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) SAB 121 made it successfully out of an HFS markup with bipartisan support and rebuked the SEC for its overreach when it comes to crypto custody for traditional financial firms. A House Floor vote is next for the resolution as well as progress in the Senate. Continue reading “SEC Cited For Abuse Of Power In DEBT Box Case; Fed Chair Bitcoin”

was “crypto,” now “onchain”

On the Unchained podcast on Friday, host Laura Shin wisely noticed that her guest – Coinbase’s Jesse Pollak, who originally created his company’s Layer 2 blockchain Base – was using the term “onchain” rather than “crypto” in the course of their conversation on the latest Ethereum upgrade.

She asked him why “onchain” and not “crypto”? He replied in part (edited):

“(…) The thing that I think is really powerful is… instead of hearing ‘crypto’ or ‘web3’ and thinking about speculation, pump and dump and all of this legacy of the crypto industry that has really been driven by speculation for the last decade… people hear ‘onchain,’ they get to see it in a new light, they get to analogize it to ‘online’ – which is this thing that has transformed their lives over the last 20 years – and they see it first and foremost as a technology.

They say, ‘If I come onchain, I can earn more money for my business or I can cut out the middlemen who are taking my creative work and profiting off of it. Or I can play this new game that wasn’t previously possible, or I can collaborate and send money to anyone in the world instantly and for free….

Those are not about speculation, it’s not about making more money, it’s about taking a technology and making your life better. I think that is the theme of onchain – it’s about upgrading our systems.

It’s about acknowledging that a lot of the stuff we’ve been doing with money is built on systems that are 50-100 years old. And if we use technology, software, blockchains to build new experiences and to bring the world onchain, we actually make everyone’s life better.

(…) Our mantra for the industry is that it’s time for change. And it’s time for us to embrace this new language – the language of ‘onchain’ – that really centers crypto as a technology change that is upgrading our systems to make the world a better place.”

more tips:

• • “How Ethereum’s Dencun upgrade could lead to the rise of millions of Layer 3s” (podcast) – Unchained

what you should know: In addition to a mantra, Pollak’s response could be the leading edge of a maturation for an industry. For cynics, the view could be that Pollak’s serving another cupful of wishful crypto thinking. Continue reading “Moving From Crypto To Onchain Says Coinbase Exec; Campaigning for Crypto And 2024”

do not approve

A March 11 Congressional letter signed by Senator Jack Reed (D, RI), author of the CANSEE Act, and Senator Laphonza Butler (D, CA) expresses concern to Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chair Gary Gensler about the recent approval of Bitcoin spot market Exchange Traded Products (ETPs) saying the Commission has provided “a green light for Wall Street to sell volatile cryptocurrency investments to ordinary Americans through their brokerage and retirement accounts.”

Since approval of the Bitcoin ETPs, the price of Bitcoin has doubled and poured fuel on the fire in regards to support for future crypto-backed products – such as an Ether ETP.

Going forward, the Senators tell Chair Gensler that the SEC “is under no obligation to approve such products, and given the risks, it should not do so.” Read it.

(h/t @Alexander Grieve)

more on terrorism, digital assets

Politico added more (or different) color to the use of crypto by the terrorist organization Hamas when comparing to a story reported on Wednesday by The Wall Street Journal.

Politico says the new letter from Treasury on crypto assets is from Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo and was sent to Senate Banking Chair Sherrod Brown (D, OH). The letter “warned of continuing concerns about the extent to which Hamas and other terrorist groups will turn to digital currency for financing.” Read a bit more.

more tips:

• • Politico also covers new findings by The Atlantic Council on global CBDC adoption. Read here, too.

Continue reading “Senators Reed And Bulter Say No New Crypto ETPs; The Crypto Registered Voter”

CFPB rule hearing

The House Financial Services (HFS) Subcommittee on Digital Assets, Financial Technology and Inclusion hearing led yesterday by Chair French Hill (R, AR) on the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau (CFPB) proposed rule on non-banks, i.e. payment apps.

At the hearing’s open, Chair Hill highlighted bipartisan concerns about the rule which he said could unnecessarily inhibit industry and innovation, limit consumer choice and, in general, is an overreach by the agency. Crypto and digital wallets are swept up in the rule.

See hearing video and witnesses’ prepared testimony.

Over the course of the hearing, of the five witnesses, only Professor Christopher Odinet from the University of Iowa supported the rule.

Chair Hill added in his opening remarks, “There is no doubt that this proposal will decrease incentives to innovate in the payments space and leave consumers encumbered with fewer firms from which to choose a payment method–that decreases competition.” Read the entire statement here.

However, Democratic leadership led by HFS Ranking Member Maxine Waters (D, CA) and Subcommittee Ranking Member Steven Lynch (D, MA) staked out its familiar position around consumer protections and fears of “Big Tech’s” undue influence and therefore supported the rule.

Crypto skeptic Rep. Brad Sherman (D, CA) proffered his support for the rule and connected it to the digital assets industry and lobbying. In the Q&A, Rep Sherman delivered some zingers to the lobbying community, “This initial pre-rule is long past due. I’ve been in this town for a long time, and I’ve snuck in at least once to ‘Lobbying 101″ secret classes. The rule is very simple. The teaching is simple…”

Sherman continued, “If the facts are on your side, argue the facts. If you’re on the side of good public policy, argue the public policy. And if the facts are against you and the public policies are against you, argue the procedure. That is mostly what we have here. People telling us that the procedure is somehow off now the most extreme of those arguments is to have the cryptocurrency industry come in and say how god-awful outrageous it is that somebody would treat crypto as a currency. If you aspire to be a currency you should aspire to be regulated like a currency.”

In addition to all HFS Republicans expressing concern during the hearing, a January 5 letter (see it) showed seven HFS Democrats who have their own reservations including Rep. Jim Himes (D, CT), Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D, NJ) and Rep. Wiley Nickel (D, NC). Continue reading “New Treasury Report On Hamas, Crypto; Digital Assets Hearing Sees Bipartisan CFPB Rule Concerns”

IP & NFTs

JPEGs of illustrated monkey pictures and the like don’t get a lot of notice by the Congressional set. But the underlying ownership via the blockchain and non-fungible tokens (NFTs) has attracted interest when it comes to intellectual property.

Yesterday, a whopping 112-page report by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office (USPTO) and the U.S. Copyright Office was delivered to Senate Judiciary’s Subcommittee on Intellectual Property.

The report was originally the bipartisan brainchild of former Senator Patrick Leahy (D, VT) and Senator Thom Tillis (R, NC) who “requested that the USPTO and the Copyright Office (collectively, ‘the Offices’) jointly undertake a study to examine current and future applications of non-fungible tokens; how intellectual property laws apply to NFTs and assets associated with NFTs; intellectual property-related challenges arising from the use of NFTs; and potential ways to use NFTs to secure and manage intellectual property rights.”

Download it here (PDF). Continue reading “U.S. Patent and Trademark, Copyright Offices Deliver NFT Report On Intellectual Property”

Trump on crypto

That may have been the most Donald Trump has ever said to the media about cryptocurrency… Yesterday morning, the former President appeared on CNBC with one of the business channel’s anchormen, Joe Kernen, and former SEC Chair Jay Clayton and answered a wide range of questions.

Kernen asked former President Trump about Bitcoin, crypto and regulation. He responded, “Well, it’s taken [on] its own life. I do little things sometimes for fun and make money with it. (…) Sometimes we’ll let people pay through Bitcoin or we’ll let people get involved… If you think of it, it’s an additional form of currency. I used to say I want one currency, I want the dollar, I don’t want people leaving the dollar. And I feel that way. But I will tell you that it has taken on a life.”

“I did a thing that people smile at but.. it was wild. We did a thousand sneakers, a limited edition sneaker run. You could go through our crazy new currencies because that’s what I call them, crazy new – whether it’s Bitcoin or others. So many people were buying these things. Ultimately, the last pair of sneakers sold for approximately, I hear, $450,000. It was a limited edition, a run. They were gold, nice, cute -we thought it was just a very small thing, a branding thing. We had a good time with it. The last pair sold for $450,000. People were going crazy for these sneakers. You probably were, too. Everybody was .. every friend has [asked] me for a pair of sneakers.” Continue reading “Trump Talks Crypto And Bitcoin; FDIC Vice Chair Lambasts SEC Over SAB 121”

crypto super PACs

The influence of crypto-powered Political Action Committees (PACs) on upcoming Senate races such as Senate Banking Chair Sherrod Brown (D, OH) and Senator Jon Tester (D, MT) is the subject of a weekend article by Politico’s Jasper Goodman. Josh Vlasto, a representative for an amalgamation of Fairshake, Defend American Jobs and Protect Progress, tells Goodman, “…we will evaluate a candidate’s leadership on issues important to the crypto and blockchain community, the viability of a candidate, the importance of the election, and our ability to impact the race.” Read all about it.

crypto super PACs – spend

Looking at the latest OpenSecrets.org database figures, each of the PACs seems to have a different strategy for spending on candidates.

Defend American Jobs has supported four Republican candidates thus far according to available data:

• • Gov. Jim Justice (WV) for Senate
  • Senator Jim Banks (IN) is running for re-election
  • State Rep. John Bradford (NC) is running for Congress
  • State Rep. Tim Moore (NC) is running for Congress

Fairshake PAC has supported a bipartisan list of members mostly from House Financial Services according Open Secrets data. But, by far the largest campaign donation was to oust Rep. Katie Porter (D) from the California race for U.S. Senate. See the list.

Finally, Protect Progress shows donations for two first-time, Democratic, U.S. Congressional candidates: Shomari Figures (AL) and Julie Johnson (TX). Continue reading “Crypto Super PACs Eye Senate Races; Stablecoin Bill Swirls In Senate”

Powell on CBDC

At the urging of Sen. Kevin Cramer (R, ND) during yesterday’s Senate Banking Federal Reserve oversight hearing, Fed Chair Jerome Powell tried to put to rest any interest the Fed may have in Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs).

Powell said, “We’re nowhere near recommending – let alone adopting – a Central Bank Digital Currency in any form. The idea is that as technology has evolved, money has become digital.”

“But, the government doesn’t issue digital money. It’s digital if you look at your bank account. People don’t hold those physical dollars. They’re digital.”

“So, the thought was that the government could create a digital form of money that people could then transfer among themselves. Of course, that raises the concern that if that were a government account, the government would see all your transactions. And that’s just something we would not stand for or do or propose here in the United States.”

“That is how it works in China, for example. If we were ever to do something like this – we are a very long way from even thinking about it – we would do this through the banking system. The last thing, we the Federal Reserve would want, would be to have individual accounts for all Americans or any Americans for that matter. Only banks have accounts at the Fed.”

“So, it’s really just a question of following technology as it evolves in a way that serves the public better. People don’t need to worry about a Central Bank Digital Currency. There is nothing like that remotely close to happening anytime soon.” Continue reading “Chair Powell Denies Fedreal Reserve Interest in CBDC; Appropriations For Blockchain”