Tag: cryptocurrency

letters – market structure

In two new Congressional letters, House Financial Services Committee (HFS) Committee Ranking Member Rep. Maxine Waters (D, CA) requested last Friday that U.S. Treasury and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) provide comments on the new digital assets market structure bill being driven by HFS Committee Republicans.

Ranking Members Waters would not be sending the letters if they weren’t welcome. Democratic leadership is making a strategic play here.

In her letter to U.S. Treasury and Secretary Janet Yellen, she echoes previous HFS Democratic positioning (like this) -on whether the legislation was even necessary: “Finally, please advise whether this draft legislation or its specific provisions are needed, and, whether there are alterations to existing law outside the bill’s scope that would promote financial stability or strengthen oversight and investor and consumer protection in the digital assets ecosystem.”

See the press release from HFS Ranking Member Waters.

Read the letter to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen.

And, read the letter SEC Chair Gary Gensler. Continue reading “Democratic Leadership Asks Treasury And SEC For Comment On Crypto Legislation”

speaking of digital assets – Fed

The “Salzburg Global Seminar on Global Turbulence and Financial Resilience: Implications for Financial Services and Society” is taking place in Salzburg, Austria through tomorrow and its agenda apparently isn’t shying away from digital assets with topics that include the “Digital economy, AI, De-Fi and Fintech.”

Among the presenters, Federal Reserve Governor Michelle Bowman provided a keynote address released yesterday which included a brief comment on digital assets.

Bowman, a Republican, stressed the need for a regulatory framework: “One area in particular that requires attention is the current approach to the supervision of novel banking activities, which leaves financial institutions in a supervisory void. While there have been some efforts to provide guidance, there remains substantial uncertainty about the permissibility of and supervisory expectations for these activities, including banking as a service, digital assets, and other novel activities. This leaves banks in the perilous position of relying on general but non-binding statements by policymakers only to be criticized at some point in the future. The absence of a clear regulatory and supervisory approach creates the risk that regulators may determine novel activities are impermissible or impose new requirements and expectations on these activities after the fact and, for some first movers, after significant investment. If our role is effective supervision and regulation, we must be willing to engage on both the novel and traditional activities.” Read her keynote speech. Continue reading “Fed Governor Bowman On Digital Assets; Prometheum Drama Continues”

Coinbase – super app

At yesterday’s State of Crypto Summit (see agenda) in New York City organized by Coinbase and The Financial Times, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong laid out a global “super app” vision for his company.

CoinDesk reports, “Armstrong envisions that Coinbase, currently a centralized crypto exchange with various crypto products, will eventually become a ‘super-app,’ helping the Web3 economy. The term ‘super-app’ is used for Web2 applications like Tencent’s WeChat, which provide a vast array of services to users including financial services to booking doctors’ appointments.” Ultimately, Armstrong sees his company developing a super app of decentralized protocols. Read it.

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Are Super-Apps Coming to the U.S. Market? (from April) – Harvard Business Review

Coinbase – research

As part of its participation in their New York event yesterday, Coinbase released new research discussing adoption and interest in blockchain technologies across the Fortune 500 and a subset – the Fortune 100.

Continue reading “Coinbase Pursuing Super App Strategy; Bank Of International Settlements On Tokenization”

bitcoin mining air

Environmentalists are continuing to fight to the crypto mining industry and Canadian company Digihost in New York State. “The opponents claim Digihost wants to increase the Fortistar natural gas burning plant’s output to full power. It would be a dramatic shift for a facility that previously served as a ‘peaker’ plant, operating only in times of high energy demand, and at very low output,” says Buffalo News. The end game is a potential denial of Digihost’s air permit for its Fortistar plant. Read more.

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And, see the Fortistar plant courtesy of Google Maps.

Democrat on stablecoins

Continue reading “Bitcoin Miners Meet Environmentalists In NY State; Rep. Nickel Supports Stablecoin Legislation”

TradFi backing crypto

Calling itself a “first-of-its-kind digital asset marketplace designed to enable safe and compliant trading of digital assets through trusted intermediaries,” EDX Markets launched yesterday with backing from a number of traditional finance (TradFi) players such as Charles Schwab, Citadel Securities and Fidelity Digital Assets. Read the release.

Is this another Bakkt, which is backed by the New York Stock Exchange’s parent, ICE?

The Wall Street Journal breaks down the new entrant: “One major difference: EDX is a ‘noncustodial’ exchange, meaning it doesn’t directly handle its customers’ digital assets. Instead, EDX runs a marketplace where firms agree to execute trades of coins and dollars, using its platform to agree on prices. Then the firms move crypto and cash between each other to settle the trades. Later this year, EDX plans to launch a clearinghouse to facilitate the process of settling trades, but even then…” Read more.

Collins Belton of Brookwood P.C. commented on Twitter about the announcement, “Not surprising but a few takeaways: 1. Recreates exchange / broker split of TradFi. Good for mitigating risk of customer funds abuse; but arguably some needless intermediation + higher fees…” Read the others. Continue reading “EDX Markets Collects TradFi Interest In Crypto; Feds Target Darknet’s Digital Currency”

BlackRock and bitcoin

Some rare, seemingly, good news in a ravaged crypto economy emerged on Thursday and Friday as BlackRock’s S-1 filing became public for its iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF (Exchange Traded Fund).

According to The Wall Street Journal, BlackRock aims to make its product “the first ETF with the cryptocurrency itself as the underlying asset, rather than futures contracts.” Will this time be different as a dozen companies have tried to register a similar ETF in the past? CoinDesk thinks BlackRock’s surveillance sharing agreement with NASDAQ is the difference maker. Read that one.

BlackRock and bitcoin – reaction

Genesis Head of Market Insights Noelle Acheson tweets her provocative take on the BlackRock ETF filing saying: “BIG news – BlackRock is the world’s largest asset manager; It’s not going to happen; BlackRock knows this; Rather, it is sending a political message; Larry Fink is a prominent Democrat.”

Policy expert Justin Slaughter at investment firm Paradigm reviews Acheson’s take and doesn’t see political intrigue.  He begins, “So, I respectfully disagree with Noelle on this one. I think BlackRock is doing this on the merits (seeking to get a bitcoin ETF approved) rather than trying to send a political message. Bear with me, because this is complicated in terms of Democratic politics.” Read Slaugther’s tweet thread. Continue reading “BlackRock Bitcoin ETF Reaction; CoinDesk Launches DC Event”

Prometheum – post-hearing buzz

Ever since Tuesday‘s House Financial Services (HFS) Committee meeting on the market structure and stablecoin bills, the participation of Aaron Kaplan, Founder and Co-CEO of alternative trading system Prometheum, has been the talk of Twitter. His support of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) approach to digital asset regulation, i.e. enforcement, and his company’s business model are getting the “side eye.”

The top line is: what is really behind the strategy for the Prometheum trading platformm which doesn’t even trade Ethereum or Bitcoin? Did Democratic HFS members not realize what they were stepping into with Prometheum? Some of Kaplan’s answers felt scripted… by someone not Kaplan.

Beyond Rep. Mike Flood (R, NE) admonishment of Kaplan at Tuesday’s hearing, Matt Walsh of crypto venture firm Castle Island breaks down the mystery in a Twitter thread that has seen nearly 3.5 million views as of publication.

Walsh begins: “In the midst of the SEC bringing cases on Coinbase + Gemini, and giving the stiff arm to Robinhood and others, Prometheum gets approval for a first-of-its-kind Special Purpose Broker-Dealer (SPBD) for digital asset securities… Then Prometheum’s CEO somehow gets a seat in front of Congress yesterday and starts reading off pre-written notes clearly coordinating narratives with Democratic members of Congress (or the SEC).”

Prometheum – scripting

The Prometheum mystery is reminiscent of the SEC’s Investor Advisory Committee and it’s April 6 letter which neatly (or clumsily) recommended to SEC Chair Gary Gensler that his agency continue to do exactly what it’s doing with its digital assets strategy of regulation by enforcement. This was in spite of a healthy list of committee members who must have some differing opinions including IAC’s Chair, Christopher Mirabile, who said he supported a regulatory framework for digital assets in December. Read more about it. Continue reading “Prometheum’s Hearing Appearance Getting Scrutiny; Polygon’s New Use Case Database”

FSOC, stand down please

House Financial Services (HFS) Chair Patrick McHenry (R, NC) wasted no time after his HFS committee hosted U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on Tuesday.

Yesterday, he sent Secretary Yellen a letter that began, “I am writing to express my strong concerns with actions taken by the Financial Stability Oversight Council (FSOC) this past April seeking to make it easier to subject nonbank financial companies to prudential supervision by the Federal Reserve. The actions are contrary to the due process protections afforded by the Constitution and mark a sea change in the longstanding principles the Council uses to review these entities.” See the letter.

McHenry wants Secretary Yellen to “revisit [FSOC’s] April decision to evaluate risks posed by non-bank financial entities based on size, rather than the activities they undertake.” Read the release.

And, read the U.S. Treasury press release for “Financial Stability Oversight Council Meeting on April 21, 2023.”

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Meanwhile, Politico reports that McHenry wants to put the market structure bill up for a vote after July 4 in spite of Democratic push back. Read a bit more. Continue reading “McHenry Requests Secretary Yellen Rein In FSOC; Flyover Fintech In August”