Monday June 12, 2023
I have been reading opinions on the SEC’s attacks on Binance and Coinbase and I have a question:
Is Chairman Gensler saying you cannot legally operate a crypto exchange in the United States?
Or is he saying you cannot sell an unregistered security, i.e. an unregistered cryptocurrencies, on any exchange in the United States?
I am leaning towards the latter statement but would welcome everyone’s interpretation.
◾ The US Department of Justice charged two Russian nationals with laundering ≈ 647,000 bitcoin between 2011-2014 from Mt. Gox. (Justice.gov)
◾ A US judge ruled that the Ooki DAO offered unregistered commodities in a case demonstrating DeFi platforms are not exempt from regulation. (Courtlistener)
◾ Bitcoin’s hashrate is at a new all-time-high of 423 EH/s. (Bitinforcharts)
Government & NGO Actions
◾ Nigeria’s Securities regulator issued a circular stating that “Binance Nigeria Limited is neither registered nor regulated by the Commission and its operations in Nigeria are therefore illegal.” (Sec.gov.ng)
◾ Hong Kong’s monetary authority issued a report charting the next steps for its CBDC following two rounds of market consultations. (Hkma.gov.hk)
◾ A US District Court ruled against the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City motion to dismiss Custodia Bank’s claims regarding its failed application for a Master Account. (Twitter)
◾ A member of Hong Kong’s Legislative Council issued an invitation to Coinbase (COIN) and all global virtual asset trading operations to come to Hong Kong. (Twitter)
Public Company Releases
◾ Ault Alliance (AULT) entered into a $10 million at-the-money sales agreement with Ascendiant Capital Markets. (Sec.gov)
Restructuring, Losses and Legal News
◾ The FTX bankruptcy judge agreed to permanently redact the names of individual customers from its bankruptcy filings. (Reuters)
◾ Crypto software company Taxbit has cut 80 employees, nearly 40% of its staff. (Theinformation)
AI Announcements
◾ Microsoft (MSFT) is moving many of its best AI researchers from China to Canada as part of a its “Vancouver Plan” to create a new lab staffed by global AI experts. (FT)
◾ OpenAI CEO Sam Altman says he is quite optimistic" about prospects for global coordination on artificial intelligence. (Reuters)
Protocols, Applications & Business News
◾ Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin issued a new roadmap defining the three transitions the stack needs to undergo simultaneously. (Vitalik.eth)
Note: It will be interesting to see if the SEC references this statement in any interpretations about Ethereum being or not being a security.
◾ Soccer star David Beckham is separating himself from his £5 million-a-year 'global brand ambassador' deal with DigitalBits – it is unknown if Beckham every received any payments from the failed crypto firm. (Dailymail)
◾ Polygon Labs tweeted a response to the SEC saying it has actively developed and deployed its network out of the SEC, did not targeted any Americans, and therefore should not be considered a security. (Twitter)
◾ Venture firm Andreessen Horowitz is opening its first international office in London to back crypto startups and support the UK’s “approach that is uniquely tailored to blockchain and digital asset regulation.“ (A16z)
Exchange, Custody and Product Updates
◾ RobinHood (HOOD) is ending support for Cardano (ADA), Polygon (MATIC), and Solana (SOL) on June 27th. (Robinhood)
◾ Crypto.com plans to close its institutional trading services to individual US clients. (Decrypt)
Thoughts on the Ecosystem
◾ Gemini’s Cameron Winklevoss tweeted that Senator Warren and Chairman Gensler’s “war against crypto is going to alienate an entire generation of would-be Democrats.” (Twitter)