March Newsletter

Featured in the News

Blockworks: Regulatory Complications around ETH Staking. Will Cai spoke to Blockworks on regulations: “I think everyone’s on the same page that we would like to have a more broad, comprehensive legal framework for the entire crypto space.”?The opinions of other industry leaders such as ConsenSys General Counsel and Coinbase CEO are also included.

Reuters: U.S. Yields Rise as Banking Tension Abates with Financial Support. Wade Guenther spoke to Reuters regarding the Fed funds movement in the context of the recent banking sector events, stating,?“the overall health of the economy seems to be very resilient and the employment numbers have been supportive of higher rates.”

Digital Asset News

Bitcoin Magazine: How Will Bitcoin Adapt to Banking Uncertainty. Although the recent failure of regional banks has been a setback for the crypto space as it included banks that were friendly to crypto businesses, bitcoin and digital asset prices have rallied strongly upon the theme that decentralized finance offers an alternative to the traditional fractional reserve banking system and its risks.

Cointelegraph: First Citizens Snaps Up Silicon Valley Bank. First Citizens Bank will acquire all deposits and loans from Silicon Valley Bank. The assets were purchased at $72bn, with the incentive of a $16.5bn discount. Around $90bn in assets were not included in the deal and will remain in the receivership for disposition by the FDIC. Before the turmoil, Silicon Valley Bank had $209bn in assets with $89bn deposits, while First Citizens Bank was close to half that size.

What We're Reading

CNBC:?The $17bn Wipeout of Credit Suisse Bondholders.?As part of the $3.2bn UBS takeover of Credit Suisse, FINMA, the Swiss regulator, has written off $17bn of additional tier-one (AT1) bonds. The move has angered the bondholders as equity shareholders will receive payouts as part of the takeover. Usually, equity investments would be classed as secondary to AT1 bonds.

The Verge:?AI Chatbots Compared: Bard vs. Bing vs. ChatGPT.?Artificial intelligence-powered chatbots have been dominating the news recently, but which application?works best in the context of the average consumer? The Verge evaluates three of the most popular chatbots by asking a range of questions determined to be "common requests."?

Visual Capitalist:?The World's Most Valuable Bank Brands.?The "Big Four" banks of China lead the entire world in terms of brand value. Chinese banks have a massive market to serve, which helps to lift the perceived value of their brands. ICBC, boasting over 500 million individual clients, has been at the top of the list for several years.

MIT Technology Review:?The Inside Story of How ChatGPT Was Built from the People Who Made It.?Will Haven speaks with OpenAI insiders from the legal and science teams, as well as the cofounder John Schulman. Topics include the unexpected popularity of the app, its origins, upcoming competitors, and more.

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