BitGo: Crypto Water Cooler — Sep 27
GM. It’s Wednesday, September 27.
Newsmakers
Ethereum ETFs: Coming Soon?
Spot Bitcoin ETF applications took center stage for much of the summer, making it easy to miss the activity percolating around Ethereum ETFs. The Wall Street Journal reports ($) that a dozen firms, including well-known TradFi asset managers Van Eck, ProShares, and Roundhill have applied to the SEC for Ethereum futures ETFs under the Investment Company Act of 1940. If approved, they could come to market as early as October.
Grayscale last week filed a similar application. Grayscale already has the Grayscale Ethereum Trust, which has been trading over the counter since 2017 and has $3.4B in assets under management. The proposed ETF would trade on the NYSE Arca and hold Ethereum futures contracts that trade on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, which already facilitates the trading of several Ethereum contracts.
Meanwhile, earlier this month, Brazil’s Hashdex and Cathie Wood’s ARK Invest filed for spot Ethereum ETFs under the Securities Act of 1933. In contrast to a futures ETF, a spot ETF would directly buy and hold ETH. While there are ETFs and ETNs (exchange traded notes) listed in other countries, these would be the first in the U.S. and would enable investors to gain exposure to ETH without having to hold it themselves, broadening the pool of potential buyers. Individuals could also hold them in their retirement accounts.
As with this summer’s raft of spot Bitcoin ETF applications, SEC approval is not certain. But the number of applications indicates that BTC is not the only crypto that asset managers find attractive.
Read more →Techopedia
U.S. Money Transmitter Licenses and Crypto: Not a Good Fit
In the U.S., there is currently just one federal regulatory requirement for digital asset firms: they must register with the Department of the Treasury as a money service business (MSB). However, securing an MSB designation does not on its own allow firms to operate nationwide. For that they must determine their need for licensing in each state they operate in. That often means obtaining a money transmitter license (MTL). In the absence of comprehensive federal crypto rules, this essentially makes states the default regulators.
Recent weeks have seen a flurry of MTL applications and approvals as crypto native and TradFi firms like PayPal gear up to process crypto payments and provide fiat-to-crypto on and off ramps. X now has seven MTLs, evidence of Elon Musk’s plan to turn the social media platform into an “everything app.” X’s collection pales next to that of Canada-based fintech Banxa Holdings Inc., which was recently awarded MTLs in three states plus the territory of Puerto Rico, bringing their total to thirty-two licenses with seven more pending. Last week, global crypto payment gateway Alchemy Pay announced their new MTL in Arkansas, their first foray in the U.S. The firm plans to seek licensure in other states as well.
Collecting all these MTLs isn’t cheap or easy, creating a “regulatory moat” that favors current license holders and firms with deep pockets and expertise. At a basic level, applicants must provide evidence that they can meet financial obligations, including having assets that exceed liabilities and assets that are liquid enough to immediately fulfill payment demands. Licensees would also need a surety bond. Beyond that is a patchwork of regulations that would challenge any MSB to scale U.S. operations.
Some states’ MTL rules treat crypto the same as fiat. In others, crypto exchanges must have a license, but digital currency sales from individual investments can be exempt. In Texas, crypto trading isn’t considered money transmission but stablecoin and third-party crypto transactions are. Montana has flip flopped, requesting digital asset firms submit MTL applications earlier this year only to withdraw the request shortly thereafter.
A Bloomberg Law analyst opines that this approach is a poor fit. Not only are MTL rules uneven across states, but so is enforcement. Regulatory innovation is spotty as well and, for the most part, hasn’t kept up with the new business models spawned by digital assets. Since there’s no legal agreement on whether certain digital assets are securities, commodities, or money, it’s difficult to know how to categorize transactions, making even this regulated function yet another area of regulatory uncertainty for the U.S. digital asset industry.
Read more →Bloomberg Law ($)
UK Leaders Get Behind Web3, Call for Other Countries to Join Them
The UK last week joined a small but growing list of countries in the forefront of Web3 strategy. At the British Blockchain Association (BBA) summit, several UK lords and politicians addressed global leaders from fifty-one countries about the potential of Web3 technology. According to MP and All Party Parliamentary Group for Blockchain Technologies Chair Natalie Elphicke, the UK is prioritizing the growth of the Web3 industry but is lagging behind competitors when it comes to blockchain jobs. Most blockchain startups are in the financial services industry, with sixty-three percent still in the seed funding phase.
The UK’s national blockchain roadmap, published in 2021, is an ambitious one, aspiring to mitigate climate problems; facilitate digital identity programs, and create industrial symbiosis networks in support of a circular economy that reuses, repairs, refurbishes, and recycles manufactured products. The system would be created following a quadruple helix model for innovation in which a fourth stakeholder — the public — is added to the traditional triple helix of academia, government, and industry.
Research from earlier this year indicates that the public is interested if not overwhelmingly excited; nearly half of UK consumers expect the metaverse to become widely used within the next decade. The majority have positive perceptions (37 percent) but many have negative perceptions (31 percent) or no strong opinion (32 percent). Education about the metaverse and its potential is being recommended. A study of global technology, media, and telecom executives shows more enthusiasm; 84 percent of them plan to maintain or increase their Web3 and metaverse investments over the next five to ten years.
Days before the BBA summit, UK lawmakers passed the Online Safety Bill, which applies to the metaverse and requires companies to mitigate risks from illegal content and to prevent children from accessing content that could harm them. The bill will go into effect once King Charles III approves it.
The UK would like company on the road. According to Elphicke, fewer than twelve countries have published national blockchain roadmaps. At the summit, she called for more countries to create them and to collaborate on execution.
Read more →HM Treasury
News In Brief
Regulation and Security
领英推荐
Business of Crypto
DeFi and Web3
Midweek Market Pulse
Total Market Cap: $1,041,865,026,878–7 day change as of Tuesday 9/26/23 Noon EST: -3.9%
In a relatively lackluster week for digital assets, the global crypto market cap fell 3.9% to $1.04B, seemingly taking cues from traditional financial markets, which have slumped on renewed expectations that the Federal Reserve will raise interest rates again before the end of the year.
Bitcoin (BTC, -3.8%) fell slightly. Data from Glassnode shows that 97.5% of Bitcoin addresses owned by short-term holders (those who have bought within the last 155 days) are in the red, which could be causing an overhang as traders take losses. On the plus side, more of Bitcoin’s supply could be moving into steadier hands; data shows that short-term holders control the least amount of the Bitcoin supply in over a decade.
At least one major long-term holder continues to buy. MicroStrategy reported that it bought another 5,445 BTC between August 1 and September 24 at an average price of $27,053 per BTC for a total of $147.3MM. The enterprise software analytics provider now owns 158,245 BTC. In other Bitcoin news, Santiment finds that discussion of Bitcoin on social media versus alt coins hit a three-month low.
Ethereum (ETH, -3.6%) dipped below $1,600 as on-chain activity fell to its lowest levels of the year. Meanwhile, the network’s average transaction fee Saturday hit a low for the year at $1.15.
Chainlink (LINK, +7.2%) bucked the trend, climbing based on an increase in unique address activity. According to Messari, the oracle chain is up 30.4% year to date at time of writing.
Toncoin (TON, -15.8%) pulled back as some of the excitement over the TON Space wallet integration with Telegram faded. Even with this drop, Toncoin is still comfortably within the top 15 digital assets by market cap.
The Last Word
Oracle Chain
Noun
: Oracle chains allow blockchains to securely bridge to and interact with off-chain data sources.
/ Oracle chains address one of the limitations of smart contracts, which is that they can’t interact with outside data sources
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.
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Global Leadership & Tech Management
1 年Good developments Sven M?hle! keep up the good work!