BitGo: Crypto Water Cooler — July 19
BitGo: Crypto Water Cooler — July 19
GM. It’s Wednesday, July 19.
Newsmakers
Ripple Ruling: Partial Win for XRP Could Ultimately Cause More Confusion
The digital asset industry has been hammered by regulators this year and nowhere more so in the U.S. where lawmaker inaction has left the legal standing of digital assets largely in the hands of courts. So, it’s perhaps understandable that some supporters were taking a?victory lap ?following last week’s?ruling ?in favor of Ripple in its three-year battle with the SEC. But, while the ruling did contain positive news, it was a partial ruling that may not be applicable industry wide; as a district court ruling, it does not create binding federal precedent, and it will almost certainly be appealed by the SEC. It also doesn’t clarify the other questions around digital assets.
The most pressing question, of course, is whether digital assets fall under existing securities regulations. The answer in this case is: sometimes. SEC enforcement actions rely on the?Howey Test , which defines a security as an investment contract in which buyers expect to earn a profit based on the efforts of others. District Court Judge Analisa Torres ruled that not all sales of Ripple’s XRP token fit this definition. While the sale of XRP to institutional investors does, since Ripple marketed it to them directly under that premise, she ruled that XRP subsequently traded anonymously on crypto exchanges does not. “Whereas the institutional buyers reasonably expected that Ripple would use the capital it received from its sales to improve the XRP ecosystem and thereby increase the price of XRP,” investors subsequently buying XRP on exchanges “could not reasonably expect the same,” she wrote. The ruling gave a?ray of hope ?to exchanges being sued by the SEC for offering unregistered securities, but the court did not address what it deems to be the proper role of exchanges and custodians in the digital asset ecosystem under existing regulations, and it expressly did not rule on secondary sales of investment contracts.
Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse opined in a?tweet ?that the ruling undercut the SEC’s claims that nearly all tokens are securities, setting a positive precedent for other digital tokens. However, the ruling supported the SEC’s claim that Ripple sold $728MM of unregistered securities to institutional investors. That case will likely still go to trial.
Should the SEC prevail in that suit and this ruling stand, it would create a tiered approach that gives protection to sophisticated institutional investors but not to retail investors. That could be problematic. Former SEC official John Reed Stark said that the ruling is “on shaky ground ” because “Securities laws were specifically designed to protect individual investors.” Former CFTC Commissioner Brian Quintenz, now head of global policy at a16z crypto,?cautioned ?that the ruling “only results in more uncertainty for entrepreneurs and builders.” The only thing that does seem certain is that regulating crypto on a case by case basis could take years and that comprehensive rules of the road are needed.
Read more →Wall Street Journal. ($)
Reintro of Senate Bill Furthers Dialog, But Law Unlikely to Pass Soon
Thursday’s Ripple ruling provided a handy?talking point ?for Sen. Cynthia Lummis (R-WY) who, along with? her colleague Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), last Wednesday?reintroduced ?the?bipartisan Responsible Financial Innovation Act ?(RFIA) as the effort to pass comprehensive crypto regulation in the U.S. continues. What might such legislation look like?
First introduced in June 2022, the RFIA provides definitions of terms; delineates securities and commodities and attempts to clarify the roles of the SEC and CFTC; encourages interagency cooperation; and would create the Consumer Protection and Market Integrity Authority to govern industry standards. It requires proof of reserves for intermediaries; creates advertising standards, and mandates the crypto ecosystem to fund its oversight through taxation.
Most interestingly, it introduces the concept of?ancillary assets ?— intangible, fungible assets that would be treated as commodities. These would not be subject to SEC registration but still require limited disclosures to the SEC and the public. Some assets called securities by the SEC today could end up being reclassified as ancillary assets under the definition in the bill.
With a deadlocked Senate and no other Senators signed on, it’s unlikely to pass. However, it could help?ease passage ?of the?June 2023 Republican McHenry-Thompson Bill ?currently under consideration in the House. The two competing bills ensure that digital asset regulation is being discussed but, with presidential election politics increasingly on legislators’ minds, it’s unclear whether the Ripple ruling changes the political calculus enough to get legislation on the president’s desk in 2023.
Read more →Bloomberg ($)
Google Play’s Game-Changing Move: More NFT Inclusion
Web3 gaming is working through multiple challenges in transitioning from Web2 to Web3, including a lack of a sustainable revenue model, inconsistent game quality, complicated onboarding, and insufficient transparency. New guidelines from Google could encourage developers to focus more efforts in these areas.
Last week on the Android Developers Blog,?Google announced ?it will allow more blockchain-based digital content on Android-based apps and games — including NFT rewards — on Google Play. Given that Google Play has an?estimated 2.5B users , greater latitude to buy, sell, and trade NFTs could (pardon the pun) be a real game-changer.
This move comes with a number of caveats. Developers may not “promote or glamorize any potential earning” and must meet?gambling eligibility requirements ?to accept money in exchange for the possibility of earning NFTs. Previously, Google has?removed games ?such as Bitcoin Blast — which provided users with bitcoin-redeemable reward points — for deceptive practices, a?move that upset developers .?Crypto mining apps , banned in 2018, will still not be acceptable.
Read more →CoinTelegraph
News In Brief
Regulation and Security
Business of Crypto
DeFi and Web3
Midweek Market Pulse
Total Market Cap:?$1,197,448,368,046 –7 day change as of Tuesday 7/18/23 Noon EST: +0.8%
Total crypto market cap edged up to just under $1.2T as?Bitcoin’s (-2.4%)?“BlackRock effect” faded but was offset by the “Ripple effect.” Investors and traders took the district court’s ruling as a bullish signal, sending?XRP (XRP, +58.6%)?skyrocketing. It has now surpassed Binance’s?BNB (BNB, -3.4%) as the fourth-largest digital asset by market cap. While BTC and?Ethereum (ETH, +0.9%)?initially climbed on the Ripple news, their rally was short-lived.
Top alt coins enjoyed a more durable Ripple effect — none more than Solana?(SOL, +15.0%).?Polygon (MATIC, +0.6%)?announced that its MATIC token will be replaced by the new POL token, which will accrue staking fees and rewards?from other blockchains .
With these alt coins seemingly back in favor, there seems to be a rotation out of?Litecoin (LTC, -5.8%)?and?Bitcoin Cash (BCH, -11.4%),?tokens that rallied earlier this summer after being listed on new TradFi backed institutional exchange EDX.
Stellar (XLM, +32.3%)?also surged perhaps in sympathy with XRP with which it?shares a co-founder . An additional catalyst may be a?Reddit post ?discussing the fact that Franklin Templeton has issued more than?$300MM in tokenized funds ?on the Stellar blockchain.?Chainlink (LINK, +11.6%)?was another major winner as it announced the?go-live ?of its Cross-Chain Interoperability Protocol (CCIP), which connects blockchains to financial institutions in?partnership with SWIFT .
The Last Word
SWIFT
noun
: Society for World Interbank Financial Telecommunications
/ Founded in Brussels in 1973, SWIFT is a cooperative society providing secure transaction messaging for 11,000 financial institutions globally.
About BitGo
BitGo provides the most secure and scalable solutions for the digital asset economy, offering regulated custody, borrowing and lending, and core infrastructure to investors and builders alike.
Founded in 2013 — the early days of crypto — BitGo pioneered the multi-signature wallet and later built TSS to improve upon other companies’ MPC offerings. Between multi-sig and TSS, BitGo offers the safest technology on the market and safeguards over 600 tokens across a wide variety of blockchains.
Over the years, BitGo has expanded from offering wallets into providing a full-suite solution that lets clients hold assets safely and then put them to work.
BitGo launched BitGo Trust Company in 2018, providing fully regulated, qualified cold storage to complement BitGo Inc’s original hot wallet solution. In 2020, BitGo launched BitGo Prime, which allows its clients to trade, borrow, and lend. Moreover, BitGo also provides access to DeFi, staking, NFT wallets, and beyond, and serves as the world’s sole custodian for WBTC, or wrapped Bitcoin.
Today, BitGo is the leader in digital asset security, custody, and liquidity, providing the operational backbone for more than 1500 institutional clients in over 50 countries — a list that includes many regulated entities and the world’s top cryptocurrency exchanges and platforms. BitGo also processes approximately 20% of all global Bitcoin transactions by value.
For more information, please visit?www.bitgo.com.
?2023 BitGo Inc. (collectively with its affiliates and subsidiaries, “BitGo”). All rights reserved. BitGo Trust Company, Inc., BitGo Inc., and BitGo Prime LLC are separately operated, wholly-owned subsidiaries of BitGo Holdings, Inc., a Delaware corporation headquartered in Palo Alto, CA. No legal, tax, investment, or other advice is provided by any BitGo entity. Please consult your legal/tax/investment professional for questions about your specific circumstances. Digital asset holdings involve a high degree of risk, and can fluctuate greatly on any given day. Accordingly, your digital asset holdings may be subject to large swings in value and may even become worthless. The information provided herein is not intended for distribution to, or use by, any person or entity in any jurisdiction or country where such distribution or use would be contrary to law or regulation. BitGo is not directing this information to any person in any jurisdiction where the publication or availability of the information is prohibited, by reason of that person’s citizenship, residence or otherwise.