Biden-Trump debate: Crypto goes completely unmentioned

June 28, 2024 Coin Telegraph

Coinbase signals EU, Canada, Brazil, Singapore and Australia as priorities

September 8, 2023 Coin Telegraph

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The crypto exchange’s focus on non-U.S. markets is part of a next phase in its expansion plans, said the firm.

Coinbase has flagged several countries outside the United States where it intends to focus its operations in the near term, citing their comparatively clearer crypto laws.

In a Sep. 6 blog post, Coinbase’s international business VP, Nana Murugesan and international policy VP, Tom Duff Gordon, marked the European Union, United Kingdom, Canada, Brazil, Singapore and Australia as “near-term priority markets.”

The pair said the countries are “enacting clear rules” and Coinbase would focus on “acquiring licenses, registering, and establishing and strengthening operations” in them.

Globally, countries are vying to become crypto hubs. Regulatory clarity has emerged in the EU, UAE, China (HK), Singapore, Australia and Canada, to name a few.
— Coinbase ️ (@coinbase) September 7, 2023

“Every part of the world is seeing progress on crypto-forward regulation — except for the U.S., which is opting for a ‘strategy’ of enforcement of existing rules and new regulations through the courts,” the pair wrote.

They added the country is “sidelining itself” on crypto regulations which puts at risk its influence over the space.

“We’re committed to helping to update the global financial system and providing more economic freedom and opportunity, and won’t stand idle just because the U.S. is,” they wrote.

The crypto exchange faces regulatory action in its native U.S. — with a lawsuit from the Securities and Exchange Commission accusing it of selling unregistered securities and operating illegally.

‘Go Broad, Go Deep’ goes phase 2

Coinbase’s new priority markets are part of the second phase of its expansion plans — which it dubbed “Go Broad, Go Deep.”

It outlined its plans to establish partnerships with global and local banks and payment providers to expand its fiat ramps along with assuring its governance systems are compliant.

Its lobbying and visibility efforts will also intensify ahead of the EU elections next June.

It flagged plans to engage with the G20 aiming to create global crypto standards and will keep a “scorecard” on each country's crypto regulatory progress.

Coinbase is seemingly focusing its G20 lobbying efforts on Brazil — set to take the G20 chair in 2024.

In March, Coinbase expanded its offering in Brazil and according to the blog post co-founder and CEO Brian Armstrong will visit the country later this year “to engage with key decision-makers and stakeholders.”

Magazine: Asia Express: Thailand’s national airdrop, Delio users screwed, Vietnam top crypto country

Crypto may see second wind in the US as courts ‘rein in the SEC’ — Lawyer

August 31, 2023 Coin Telegraph

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Crypto-focused lawyer Jeremy McLaughlin said the U.S. digital asset industry may re-ignite as the country's securities regulator racks up court losses.

There are hopes that the United States could see a new crypto resurgence after several rulings this year have seen court judges “rein in the SEC,” according to a digital asset lawyer from K&L Gates.

On Aug. 31, Jeremy McLaughlin, a partner at the global law firm, noted that multiple U.S. court cases have stomped on arguments from Securities and Exchange Commission chair Gary Gensler — who has said that almost all digital assets are securities.

McLaughlin was speaking on a panel at Intersekt23 in Melbourne alongside payment services firm Novatti chief Effie Dimitropoulos and Invest Hong Kong fintech head King Leung.

He said early crypto regulation happened at the state level and was “pretty clear what you needed to do” but after the SEC and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission got involved “a lot of the market started to close up.”

“People delisted tokens, some companies pulled out of the U.S. because they saw how aggressive the SEC was being, and continues to be,” McLaughlin said.

“Now that the courts are starting to rein in the SEC a bit, I think there's some hope that the industry is kind of igniting again in the U.S.”

In recent months the SEC has been handed a loss in a suit it brought against a crypto firm and also lost a suit a crypto firm brought against it.

On Aug. 29 a U.S. District Court judge ruled against the SEC over Grayscale Investments being denied its application to convert its flagship Bitcoin (BTC) fund into an exchange-traded fund.

*Dimitropoulos (center-left), McLaughlin (center-right) and Leung (right) speaking on a panel regarding crypto regulation. Source: Tom Mitchelhill/Cointelegraph*

In July, the SEC also took a partial loss in its case against Ripple Labs over XRP (XRP) sales when a judge ruled it wasn’t a security when sold to retail traders.

“To be a lawyer in the space, it’s quite difficult to advise clients,” McLaughlin remarked. He added he it was also frustrating that he couldn’t give clients clear answers.

He does see hope, however, that crypto regulations are emerging from the “pit of chaos.”

“Finally, there are cases that are being filed and the decisions have been going strongly in the favor of the digital asset industry,” McLaughlin added.

Aussies ‘lagging’ while others gain

In another part of the discussion, the panelists were asked about their thoughts on the state of Australia’s crypto legislation, compared to others. Novatti’s Dimitropoulos had one word: “Lagging.”

Dimitropoulos pointed to new regulatory frameworks in Hong Kong and the European Union as proof Australia’s crypto regulations were falling behind.

“It's very clear to say that Australia is lagging. What that means [...] Is how that affects on-the-ground businesses that are operating with digital assets.”

She highlighted the overhead needed for local crypto firms to get legal advice “that could be defunct in three minutes' time.”

“We hear the Treasurer is going to come out with regulation, [the Australian Securities and Investments Commisson] is going to do something, Senator Bragg's bill in play,” she said.

“There are so many pieces that are still in play with no clear resolution as to when it's going to happen. So that supports my word: ‘Lagging.’”

Magazine: Crypto regulation — Does SEC Chair Gary Gensler have the final say?

SEC steps back from defining digital assets in new hedge fund rules

May 4, 2023 Coin Telegraph

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The SEC and its staff are “continuing to consider” the term “digital assets” despite proposing a definition of the term around nine months ago.

The United States securities regulator is holding off from ratifying the definition of the term “digital assets” in rules that govern reporting disclosures for hedge and private equity funds, despite proposing to do so some nine months ago.

On May 3 the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) published amendments to Form PF — a form that SEC-registered funds complete to disclose basic information about their fund so the regulator can assess potential “systemic risks.”

The SEC originally included a digital assets definition in an August 2022 proposal for the changes. If it went into effect, it would have been the first time the SEC defined “digital assets.”

Fast forward to today and the regulator says it's not going ahead with adding the definition, at least for now.

“We proposed adding ‘digital assets’ as a new term to the Form PF Glossary of Terms. The Commission and staff are continuing to consider this term and are not adopting ‘digital assets’ as part of this rule at this time.”

The definition the SEC put forward for digital assets was an asset “that is issued and/or transferred using distributed ledger or blockchain technology” and included other commonly used terms such as “virtual currencies,” “coins” and “tokens.”

Today the SEC finalized their new Form PF rules. The proposal included the 1st definition of “digital assets” in a rule. It is interesting that the SEC choose to NOT adopt the definition in their final rule. https://t.co/5y1UXbJqBd
— Anne Kelley (@amk_dc) May 3, 2023

The SEC said in its August proposal that currently, information regarding a fund's digital assets are reported in an “other” category and results in “less robust Form PF data for analysis.”

It proposed the definition in order to obtain separate, and by extension, more accurate reporting on such assets.

“We believe it is important to collect information on funds’ exposures to digital assets in order to understand better their overall market exposures.”

However, the latest updates to the SEC’s Form PF rules now require — among other new requirements — that SEC-registered funds report the occurrence of key events that could indicate systemic risk or harm to investors in a likely response to the U.S. banking crisis.

Firms must also disclose details of their fees and expenses as the SEC tries to cast a light on the multi-trillion dollar sector.

The SEC hasn’t always shied away from crypto-related definitions, announcing in mid-April that it would revisit its definition of an “exchange” to possibly include decentralized finance (DeFi).

SEC chair Gary Gensler has also long been vocal on his claim that cryptocurrencies are securities under his Commissions remit and the U.S. crypto sector is acting afoul of securities laws.

Hall of Flame: Crypto Wendy on trashing the SEC, sexism, and how underdogs can win

Former White House Senior Advisor David Plouffe Joins Alchemy Pay Advisory Board

March 21, 2023 Bitcoin.com

Silicon Valley Bank collapse: How SVB stock price performed in 5 years

March 13, 2023 Coin Telegraph

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Silicon Valley Bank was rated as one of the top banks in America for five years running prior to its closure by U.S. regulators in March 2023.

Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) has suffered a major fall from grace following half a decade of being rated as one of the best banks in America.

SVB and its parent company SVB Financial Group have been held in high esteem as a financial institution serving a variety of companies across industries, from technology and venture capital firms to private equity clients.

SVB has been included in Forbes’ annual list of the best banks in the U.S for five consecutive years, a point which its parent company had celebrated on Twitter not more than a few weeks prior to its closure under Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) control on March 10.

SVB deleted their twitter account @SVB_Financial
This is what they posted just a few days ago: pic.twitter.com/Tc6EFZhJnn
— Dr. Eli David (@DrEliDavid) March 12, 2023

SVB Financial has since deleted its Twitter account after it was ordered to shut its doors by the California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation.

The fallout had a direct and tumultuous effect on the wider cryptocurrency ecosystem, as stablecoin issuer Circle had $3.3 billion of USD Coin (USDC) reserves tied up in the bank. USDC depegged from its $1 mark as a result but has since clawed its way back to near-parity with its fiat-based peg.

Data from Forbes highlights SVB Financial’s stock price performance over the past five years. $SIVB hovered between highs of ~$325 and $136 between 2018 and the end of 2020. It then hit highs of ~$759 at the tail end of 2021 before a slow and steady decline alongside the wider cryptocurrency and conventional markets.

$SIVB’s share price has since dropped as low as $100 since the closure of SVB in March 2023.

William Quigley, co-founder of Tether, shared insights with Cointelegraph following SVB’s shuttering over the weekend. Quigley is also a former venture capitalist and has over 10 years experience as an auditor of failed banks.

According to Quigley, the U.S. Treasury department has been aware that SVB could not pay all of its depositors back since December 2022 based on federal call reports.

“The Treasury department continued to let SVB operate and take in more depositors cash even as SVB's fixed asset base continued to drop in value from interest rate hikes.”

Quigley also notes that SVB debt was rated AA by federally regulated statistical rating agency Moody's while the bank received a clean audit opinion three weeks ago from federally supervised and state licensed auditing firm KPMG.

Report: Saudi Government Privately Mocks Joe Biden’s Mental Acuity, Crown Prince Denies US President’s Oil Requests

October 25, 2022 Bitcoin.com

Why the US is one of the most crypto-friendly countries in the world

October 7, 2022 Coin Telegraph

America

The United States is making strides on crypto regulation, and it's home to the largest number of Bitcoin and Ethereum nodes in the world.

In her Expert Take column, Selva Ozelli, an international tax attorney and CPA, covers the intersection between emerging technologies and sustainability, and provides the latest developments around taxes, AML/CFT regulations and legal issues affecting digital assets and blockchain.

It’s fair to say that the United States is one of the most crypto-friendly countries in the world. It ranks No. 1 in the quantity of Bitcoin and Ethereum nodes, and regulators have taken a particular interest in the subject. In September, the administration of President Joe Biden released a series of federal reports addressing how crypto might be regulated in the year ahead.

Blockchain adoption

As part of those reports, the Office of Science and Technology indicated that the government “has a responsibility” to “protect” communities from the negative impacts of pollution and climate change caused by cryptocurrencies.

President Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act is America’s largest-ever investment in greenhouse gas emission reduction, clean energy and climate resilience. It sets aside about $370 billion for incentives such as green energy tax credits intended to spark the large-scale development of clean energy technologies and further electrify the digitization of the United States.

According to one report, applying blockchain technology to electricity microgrids can potentially promote “the techno-socio-economic innovations for the restructuring of the sustainable energy supply chain” by enabling distributed energy resource coordination.

Cryptocurrencies, United States, USA, Law, Environment, Bitcoin Regulation

Ethereum, the most widely used blockchain, recently switched to the more eco-friendly proof-of-state (PoS) consensus algorithm through its Merge event. The upgrade improved the network’s sustainability and security and took steps toward increasing its scalability, and the network now offers an attractive yield on staking.

A September 2022 report from the Crypto Carbon Ratings Institute reveals that Ethereum’s move from proof-of-work to proof-of-stake has reduced the amount of electricity the Ethereum network consumes by over 99.988% and its carbon footprint by over 99.992%. This should help the U.S. achieve its climate goals, as described by the Office of Science and Technology: “a 50% to 52% reduction in GHG emissions by 2030, a carbon pollution-free electricity system by 2035, and a net-zero emissions economy no later than 2050.”

Crypto adoption

The crypto market meltdown has attracted some of the largest asset managers to the digital asset space, including MassMutual and BlackRock — the latter of which launched an investment trust tracking the price of Bitcoin (BTC), five years after its CEO, Larry Fink, described Bitcoin as an “index of money laundering.”

Digital asset company Securitize Capital intends to tokenize the $491 billion Health Care Strategic Growth Fund II of asset management firm KKR. And Charles Schwab, Citadel, Fidelity Digital Assets and others are launching a new crypto exchange called EDX Markets, which is set to debut in November.

Crypto exchange Coinbase, meanwhile, announced in September that it would financially back a lawsuit against the Treasury Department that claims it went too far when it sanctioned the Tornado Cash crypto mixing service.

The feds are open to developing a central bank digital currency

The Treasury Department’s Office for Financial Research released a working paper in July 2022 examining the implications of how a central bank digital currency (CBDC) might affect the stability of the broader banking system. It identified two ways a CBDC may enhance financial stability: “First, banks do less maturity transformation when depositors have access to CBDC, reducing their exposure to depositor runs. Second, monitoring the flow of funds into CBDC allows policymakers to react more quickly to periods of stress, which lessens the incentive for depositors and other short-term creditors to withdraw assets.”

Meanwhile, the Treasury Department’s September 2022 report “The Future of Money and Payments” looked into stablecoins and a CBDC, noting there is a “natural use case” for a CBDC. The report considers the implications when it comes to “building the future of money and payments,” “supporting U.S. global financial leadership,” “advancing financial inclusion and equity” and “minimizing risks.”

Green NFTs

John Crain, co-founder and CEO of nonfungible token (NFT) platform SuperRare, expanded on the implications of PoS, telling me in an interview: “Artists have always been at the forefront of progressive causes, so proof-of-stake Ethereum is really a game changer in terms of solving for one of the biggest issues in NFT technology. [...] We think that this will be a boon to crypto art and expect it to only help the market thrive.”

ConsenSys, founded by Ethereum co-founder Joe Lubin, announced it would drop one of the first sustainable NFT collections on the updated PoS Ethereum mainnet.

Illicit use of crypto

In June 2022, the Department of Justice announced it had arrested three people in connection with the “first ever cryptocurrency insider trading tipping scheme.” The alleged crimes involved a former product manager at Coinbase.

In September 2022, the department released its “The Role of Law Enforcement in Detecting, Investigating, and Prosecuting Criminal Activity Related to Digital Assets” report and established a nationwide Digital Asset Coordinator Network to further its “efforts to combat the growing threat posed by the illicit use of digital assets to the American public.”

“As digital assets play a growing role in our global financial system, we must work in tandem with departments and agencies across government to prevent and disrupt the exploitation of these technologies to facilitate crime and undermine our national security,” said Attorney General Merrick Garland.

Assistant Attorney General Kenneth Polite Jr. of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division said: “Developments in digital assets have created a new landscape for criminals to exploit innovation to further significant criminal and national security threats domestically and abroad.” He added: “Through the creation of the DAC Network, the Criminal Division and the National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Team will continue to ensure that the Department and its prosecutors are best positioned to combat the ever-evolving criminal uses of digital asset technology.”

Regulation

Developed in accordance with Biden’s Executive Order on Ensuring Responsible Development of Digital Assets, the White House recently issued a fact sheet outlining a regulatory framework for digital assets to protect consumers by “issuing guidance, increasing enforcement resources, and aggressively pursuing fraudulent actors.”

The Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Asset Control (OFAC) also updated its guidance for the crypto industry regarding how people and companies can remain compliant with its sanctions against Tornado Cash, the Ethereum privacy mixer blacklisted due to allegations that North Korean hackers used it to launder funds. The department said people could request an OFAC license to withdraw their Tornado Cash-connected funds.

Selva Ozelli, Esq., CPA, is an international tax attorney and certified public accountant.

This article is for general information purposes and is not intended to be and should not be taken as legal or investment advice. The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed here are the author’s alone and do not necessarily reflect or represent the views and opinions of Cointelegraph.

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America

‘Go Broad, Go Deep’ goes phase 2

Aussies ‘lagging’ while others gain

Blockchain adoption

Crypto adoption

The feds are open to developing a central bank digital currency

Green NFTs

Illicit use of crypto

Regulation

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