The Trump White House has put forward Brian Quintenz as the next chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), and, if confirmed, he will be working with a commodities and derivative markets regulator that has been experiencing several disruptions since the start of the year. Quintenz, who served as a CFTC commissioner from August… Read More >>
SEC & CFTC Prioritize Crypto Regs Creation
The Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) are following up on their recent announcements to move quickly on cryptocurrency regulation just as industry providers are getting on the crypto train. The SEC is offering more details about the mission of its special Crypto Task Force and the CFTC will be… Read More >>
SIX Service Supports Crypto & Traditional Collateral
Officials at SIX have announced that their new Digital Collateral Service (DCS) will help financial institutions “post selected cryptocurrency assets as collateral alongside traditional collateral.” The DCS targets clients that need to “manage traditional securities and cryptocurrency collateral,” according to the SIX announcement. “Firms managing both bonds and bitcoin, for example, can now post both… Read More >>
CFA Guide Helps Advance Crypto Asset Valuation
An association for investment professionals, the CFA Institute, says that it is doing its part to foster a framework for crypto asset valuation by issuing a guide intended to help financial services firms working with smart contract platforms, decentralized applications, and bitcoin. The guide, “Valuation of Cryptoassets: A Guide for Investment Professionals,” was developed by… Read More >>
Bittrex Resolves SEC’s Charges for $24M
Crypto asset trading platform Bittrex Inc. and its co-founder and former CEO, William Shihara, have settled with the SEC and will pay $24 million in disgorgement, interest, and penalties over allegations that the platform was functioning as an unregistered national exchange, broker, and clearing agency although the defendants neither admit nor deny the SEC’s allegations…. Read More >>
EDX Markets Creates a New Path for Crypto Exchanges
Without a lot of fanfare, digital asset marketplace company EDX Markets, based in Jersey City, N.J., went live with a cryptocurrency platform during a crypto winter that’s beginning to thaw while regulators are rooting out alleged crypto crooks and rogues. Crucially, EDX describes itself as “the first-of-its-kind digital asset marketplace” that sidesteps providing custody support… Read More >>
Should Congress Fire Gary Gensler?
To say the least, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) as led by the controversial Gary Gensler has been busy since the start of the Biden administration. Some people in the securities industry applaud Chair Gensler’s accelerated initiatives while others are up in arms. In particular, Gensler has raised the stakes recently with his dramatic… Read More >>
Securities Tainted via Sanctions Up by 262% & Other News
Sanctioned Securities Creating New Woes for ETFs Data vendor SIX reports that the “number of securities tainted by sanctions has increased by 262 percent since the Ukraine war began in February 2022,” which creates a new set of operational problems for buy and sell-side firms especially those working in exchange-traded funds (ETFs). The discovery stems… Read More >>
N.Y. Attorney General Wants New Crypto Regulations
New York Attorney General Letitia James is no stranger to controversy and to major legal forays such as her recently proposed legislation, described as “the strongest and most comprehensive set of regulations” in the U.S. to govern cryptocurrency markets. The proposed legislation, the Crypto Regulation, Protection, Transparency & Oversight (CRPTO) Act, would give James more… Read More >>
Coinbase Sues SEC for Crypto Clarity
A big cryptography firm is suing a big government regulator. It may be a pivotal moment in the sometimes fraught relationship between crypto and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Paul Grewal, Coinbase’s chief legal officer, says that the crypto exchange is taking “another formal step to seek regulatory clarity from SEC for the crypto… Read More >>
