Meme Coin Craze Drives Solana’s Token Issuance to New Heights

June 11, 2024 Bitcoin.com

Republican crypto bill a ‘10x improvement’ on all others: Messari CEO

June 8, 2023 Coin Telegraph

Speaking in a Twitter Space hosted by Coinbase on June 7, Ryan Selkis praised the new crypto bill for providing new firms with a clear path to compliance.

Messari CEO Ryan Selkis has praised a newly proposed Republican crypto bill, commenting it is a “10x improvement” on all other crypto bills introduced to the United States Congress so far.

The “Digital Asset Market Structure” (DAMS) bill, introduced on June 1, proposes to establish a framework to fill the gaps in the regulatory process between the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission and Securities Exchange Commission on activities related to crypto-assets.

Speaking at a Coinbase-hosted event on Twitter Spaces on June 7, Selkis explained that U.S. Representatives Patrick McHenry and Glenn Thompson have drafted a pathway for tokens to reach compliance through decentralization without instantly triggering securities laws.

https://t.co/xB0ebVq2vL
— Coinbase ️ (@coinbase) June 7, 2023

“How could tokens in their earliest stage come into compliance with securities laws on a temporary basis unless and until they were sufficiently decentralized?” Selkis asked rhetorically.

He went on to acknowledge the former work of U.S. Securities Exchange Commission Chair Hester Pierce, who released a “Safe Harbor” proposal in February 2020.

“A lot of the language that she had included in those proposals is now being worked out in legislative text [and] that's kind of made its way into this new bill.” He added:

“I do think that this is probably a 10x improvement versus anything that we've seen so far.”

The last similar crypto bill to hit the floor of Congress was the Digital Commodities Consumer Protection Act, which was introduced on August 3 to provide further supervision over the crypto industry following the collapse of FTX.

The Messari CEO’s comments were backed by TuongVy Le, head of regulatory and policy at Bain Capital Crypto, who added that DAMS finally gives token issuers “a path to compliance.”

“The issue that a lot of crypto issuers or token projects face is when you're launching a token, you don't become decentralized right away, right?” said Le.

Great to be on today with @iampaulgrewal @JBSDC @twobitidiot! @coinbase thanks for having me. There’s a lot going on right now, but we are fighting for progress and innovation and something better than the status quo. And we will get there! - onward! https://t.co/oHGhh6wssP
— TuongVy Le ️ (@TuongvyLe12) June 7, 2023

She explained that token issuers “need time to work towards that,” but while that’s in the works, the SEC can swoop in and “bring enforcement action against you.”

While Le considered this to have always been the “fundamental problem,” she remains hopeful that DAMS can resolve it once and for all:

“I think this bill addresses that. It gives token issuers a path to get there [...] in a really thoughtful way.”

Paul Grewal, the chief legal officer at Coinbase, also acknowledged the problems that many token issuers are tackling:

“Under the current law there really is no reasonable pathway for those assets that start out life as a security to evolve and involve in large part by decentralizing in a way that's recognized under the law.”

While there are many details to be ironed out, the Digital Asset Market Structure Discussion Draft is a strong step towards developing a regulatory regime that embraces innovation, maintains US industry presence and protects consumers.
— paulgrewal.eth (@iampaulgrewal) June 5, 2023

The bill was discussed in light of the SEC’s recent lawsuits filed against the two largest cryptocurrency exchanges — Binance on June 5 and Coinbase on June 6 — for allegedly breaking securities laws by offering tokens as unregistered securities.

The SEC now considers at least 67 cryptocurrencies to be classed as securities.

Among the most notable tokens the financial regulator deems to be securities are Binance Coin (BNB), Solana (SOL), Cardano (ADA), Polygon (MATIC) and Cosmos (ATOM).

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

Circle marks a possible $3B loss from Binance stablecoin conversions

November 16, 2022 Coin Telegraph

Circle marks a possible B loss from Binance stablecoin conversions

Balance Sheet

Circle attributed its miscalculated financial projections to Binance implementing USDC to BUSD auto-conversions and the recent collapse of FTX.

Circle, the company behind the issuance of USDC Coin (USDC) said recent events have caused it to miscalculate its financial projections — referring to the collapse of FTX and a decision by rival exchange Binance.

In September, crypto exchange Binance announced it will auto-convert USDC to its own stablecoin Binance USD (BUSD), last week saw the collapse of FTX.

Circle’s 2022 miscalculated projection was noted in its amended S-4 registration statement which was filed to the United States Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) on Nov. 14.

The S-4 is a registration statement is a document that companies fill out and submit to the SEC before merging or taking over another company or providing an exchange offer.

Circle noted that while they were not able to assess how significant a role Binance’s auto conversion’s from USDC to BUSD played in USDC’s decline in circulation, they observed an approximate $3 billion increase in BUSD from Aug. 17 to Sept. 30, with the firm adding:

“We estimate that up to $3.0 billion of the $8.3 billion decline in USDC in Circulation from June 30, 2022 to September 30, 2022 was driven by the auto conversion by Binance.”

The stablecoin issuer added that the additional $13.5 billion USDC issued since Jun. 30 was a 36% reduction in comparison to 2021.

The first S-4 filing was submitted to the SEC in Aug. 2021, in which Circle planned to merge with capital markets firm Concord Acquisition. However, Concord decided to delay the merger in Oct. 2022 until “no later than Jan. 31, 2023.”

As for its business partnership with FTX, Circle has historically conducted payment processing services for FTX by issuing the now bankrupt trading platform with USDC and being a customer of Circle’s Payment API over the last 18 months, according to Circle CEO and co-founder Jeremy Allaire.

The stablecoin issuer said the financial impact that FTX has had on its balance sheet wouldn’t be any larger than its $10.6 million equity investment, which it will officially address in the next reporting period.

“The Company has suspended its services and transactions with the FTX Group and is in process of evaluating the impact on the provision of future services to the FTX Group and the potential indirect financial impact of the FTX Group bankruptcy,” the filing stated.

The $10.6 million figure comes as Allaire confirmed in an 11-part Twitter thread on Nov. 9 that Circle only holds a “tiny” equity position in FTX, which represented “no material exposure” on the company’s balance sheet:

5/ Circle is a tiny equity holder of FTX, and FTX is a tiny equity holder of Circle. Circle is also a tiny equity holder of Kraken, Coinbase and BinanceUS.
— Jeremy Allaire (@jerallaire) November 9, 2022

Allaire also added that “Circle has never made loans to FTX or Alameda, and has never received FTT as collateral, and has never held a position in or traded FTT.”

Enterprise crypto custody firm Fireblocks integrates Tokeny for token minting

August 2, 2022 Coin Telegraph

Coin Telegraph

The integration allows institutional-grade users to mint and manage their tokens along with managing their conventional cryptocurrency portfolios.

Enterprise cryptocurrency custody firm Fireblocks is set to offer token minting services through a new integration with Ethereum- and Polygon-friendly platform Tokeny.

The new feature allows businesses and retail customers to mint and manage permissioned tokens, digital securities, stablecoins and loyalty programs across various trading applications, payment networks and digital banks. Fireblocks and Tokeny make use of ERC-3643 security tokens deployed on the Ethereum and Polygon blockchains.

Fireblocks provides an enterprise solution for moving, storing and issuing digital assets to exchanges, lending desks, custodians, banks, trading desks and hedge funds. Fireblocks' technology is used by more than 1,300 financial institutions, and the company claims to have processed more than $3 trillion in digital asset transfers to date. The latest integration offers institutional-grade users the ability to mint and manage their tokens along with managing conventional cryptocurrency portfolios.

The company was founded in 2019 by three cyber security experts that had investigated a series of hacks on South Korean exchanges conducted by the Lazarus Group for Check Point Research. The trio formed Fireblocks as a a secure platform for financial institutions to protect digital assets from online threats using MPC technology to secure private keys and API credentials.

The company is considered a cryptocurrency unicorn, having raised well in excess of $500 million in the three years since its inception. Its list of corporate users includes cryptocurrency exchanges, hedge funds, market makers and over-the-counter trading desks like BlockFi, eToro, Galaxy Digital, Celsius and Crypto.com.

Fireblocks was most recently valued at over $8 billion in January 2022, following a series E fundraising round that takes its overall investments raised to just under $800 million.

Tokeny had an eventful 2021, processing $28 billion worth of assets that were tokenized through its solutions. The firm's technology allows financial institutions to issue, transfer and manage securities and tokens that are cross-functional across the Ethereum and Polygon blockchains.

token issuance