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☆ Institutional interest in crypto is 'maturing,' says Cantor Fitzgerald's Han
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-08 | by ( Tanaya Macheel | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

It may look and feel like crypto has lost its shine for institutional investors, but their interest is still there to stay and may even be maturing, according to Cantor Fitzgerald's Elliot Han. Han, who leads the firm's crypto, blockchain and digital assets investment banking, told CNBC's "Crypto World" that those who have remained in crypto are exploring its different use cases. "There was all this crypto, blockchain hype and euphoria. Now, "we're seeing a lot more maturity," Han said, attributing it to regulation "slowly coming into place" and "more institutional players coming into the space." Most of the large banks like JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs that began experimenting seven years ago are still in the market, Han said.

☆ Ether rallies more than 6% as meme mania tries to reenter the crypto market
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-05 | by ( Tanaya Macheel | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Market participants put the move on attempts to bring meme mania back to the crypto market. Pepecoin (PEPE), based on the Pepe the Frog internet meme, is up more than 120% over the past 24 hours, CoinMarketCap said. Ethereum gas fees have been revived by the return of memecoins, just today hitting 1-year highs." "As gas fees increase, more ETH is burned, and at current activity levels ETH is a deflationary asset, which should help boost ETH's price," Ryder added. "In the last 24 hours, trading volumes for PEPE on Uniswap have surpassed the volumes of Tether and Wrapped Bitcoin, some of the highest volume tokens on the exchange."

☆ Robinhood Crypto's general manager explains new web3 wallet feature
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-02 | by ( Talia Kaplan | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: 1 min

Share Share Article via Facebook Share Article via Twitter Share Article via LinkedIn Share Article via EmailRobinhood Crypto's general manager explains new web3 wallet featureCrypto World speaks with Johann Kerbrat, Robinhood Crypto's general manager, from Consensus 2023 about how the platform makes money on digital assets and the new feature available to help fund web3 wallets.

☆ Coinbase, crypto industry hope new Supreme Court doctrine is silver bullet
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-01 | by ( Alison Frankel | Thomson Reuters | Alison Frankel Has Covered High-Stakes Commercial Litigation As A Columnist For Reuters Since A Dartmouth College Graduate | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +7 min

But the agency will have to provide a more detailed response if Ripple, Coinbase or crypto groups that have filed friend-of-the-court briefs pushing major questions doctrine arguments manage to pique a judge’s interest. Former Coinbase manager Ishan Wahi expanded on the major questions theory last February in his motion to dismiss the SEC’s insider trading case. Under the major questions doctrine, they said, the SEC does not have the requisite Congressional authority to regulate digital assets. Coinbase’s contention in that paper, released last Thursday, is all-encompassing: The major questions doctrine, according to Coinbase counsel at Sullivan & Cromwell, “forecloses” regulation of the trillion-dollar crypto industry. But if the SEC moves ahead with a case against Coinbase, the major questions doctrine could turn out to be, well, a major question.

☆ Bitcoin surges 9% toward key level of $30,000 as crypto market rallies amid fresh banking sector fears
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-26 | by ( Morgan Chittum | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

The rally comes as First Republic Bank stokes fresh fears over weakness in the banking sector. Investors are also adding risk as they anticipate a Fed pivot, a crypto exec told Insider. First Republic Bank stock nosedived almost 50% on Tuesday and lost another 20% Wednesday, hitting a record low, after reporting higher-than-expected customer deposit withdrawals. Bitcoin rallied through the turmoil in March as Silicon Valley Bank failed, and industry observers said a similar situation is playing out for the world's largest crypto amid the latest bout of uncertainty. Another crypto exec echoed similar sentiments, adding that the slew of bank failures like Silicon Valley Bank last month made investors question the stability of traditional financial services.

☆ 'Crypto is dead in America,' says longtime bitcoin bull Chamath Palihapitiya
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-24 | by ( Mackenzie Sigalos | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

"Crypto is dead in America," Palihapitiya said in the latest episode of the All-In podcast. Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Gary Gensler has said crypto trading platforms should abide by strict U.S. securities laws. "You had Gensler even blaming the banking crisis on crypto," Palihapitiya said. The SEC has ramped up its enforcement of the crypto industry, bearing down on companies and projects that the regulator alleges were selling unregistered securities. In early 2021, Palihapitiya predicted on CNBC that bitcoin would rise from $39,000 at the time to $100,000 and then up to $200,000.

☆ Crypto execs have complaints about the SEC and CFTC. Here's how Chainalysis' policy head believes the industry can find common ground with US regulators.
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-12 | by ( April Joyner | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

The US may not embrace crypto, but it needs clear regulation, Chainalysis' policy head told Insider. The CFTC recently sued Binance, whose compliance head critized regulators at an industry event. Chainalysis' policy head says Congress needs to pass crypto-specific legislation. Similar complaints abounded throughout the Links conference, an industry event recently held by Chainalysis in New York. She pointed to other areas, including Dubai and Switzerland, that have created policy frameworks specifically for digital assets, including crypto.

☆ Ether's strong first-quarter performance was upstaged by bitcoin. Here's what comes next
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-03 | by ( Tanaya Macheel | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +6 min

Bitcoin opened investors' eyes to the diversity of its narrative as its price fought a banking crisis, a regulatory crackdown and persistent inflation. Further, some see technological advances on the Ethereum network as laying the groundwork for the new cycle. That breakthrough accelerated its development pathway, allowing major Ethereum blockchain upgrades on the regular, Hougan added. "There are positives and negatives that could come from the Shanghai upgrade," he said. The Shanghai upgrade follows the Ethereum Merge , the September transition of the network from proof-of-work to proof-of-stake.

☆ Bitcoin outlook: Crypto may be in a bull market now, but investors should still tread carefully
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-02 | by ( Tanaya Macheel | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +8 min

The case for a new crypto bull market has been slowly growing since the beginning of the year and gained more strength still in March. For Orsini, the new bull market in crypto began on Jan. 13, when bitcoin broke through its 200-day moving average. "But an enduring secular bull market will have clarity and regulation underpinning it." "When that framework gets introduced you're going to be closer to the beginning of a secular bull market." Less liquidity, bigger swings Bull market or not, investors agree it'll be no straight line up over the next few months.

☆ Here's why recent moves by the SEC and CFTC may be just the start of crypto's regulatory troubles
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-29 | by ( Morgan Chittum | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Both the SEC and the CFTC have taken action against the crypto industry in the last few weeks. He added: "At the end of the day industry participants are searching for regulatory clarity, which has not yet been achieved." "Compliance and regulatory efforts are expensive, but necessary, the personnel will be almost as important as tech people," Yang told Insider. Markets could face more volatility following a crackdown because crypto prices are often sensitive to regulatory news. This, however, would require a widespread effort and coordination between financial regulators, industry participants, and legislators.

LONDON, March 28 (Reuters) - Binance founder Changpeng Zhao could never be accused of thinking small. The 46-year-old CEO didn't waver in his belief as he built up his crypto exchange. Binance and Zhao did not respond to requests for comment for this article. Binance became the world's biggest crypto exchange within six months, and now accounts for about 60% of global crypto trading volumes, according to research firm CryptoCompare. While Binance has hired widely from the traditional financial and regulatory worlds in recent years, Zhao's tight control over his company has continued.

☆ I Visited Miami After the Stock Market Crash, Crypto Bubble Pop
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-26 | by ( Linette Lopez | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +13 min

And if any city is the city where you can see just how remarkably things have shifted, it's also Miami. If the draw in the 1920s was imaginary land, Miami's bubble in the 2020s was driven by imaginary money — crypto. The newcomers — and the crypto kids, especially — believed they could master Miami as easily as they had mastered the markets. The new Miami money party started to run out of libations. "There were a lot of true believers in the Miami crypto scene.

☆ Bank runs have the crypto industry on high alert. 3 experts explain why the latest batch is especially worrisome — and what comes next.
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-26 | by ( Laila Maidan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +10 min

Only a decade ago, bank runs happened at a much slower pace. The era of digital bank runsOne thing the past few weeks has made clear is that bank runs now unfold differently, especially for smaller banks that service specialized sectors. "Bank runs are evolving into a different and much more dangerous beast because they happen faster," Baker said. By comparison, on March 9, SVB lost $42 billion in a day — and it was a smaller bank, Baker added. Long said she warned regulators again after FTX collapsed that banks servicing the crypto sector face the danger of bank runs.

☆ How this 26-year-old went from running bitcoin trading desks in Taco Bells to creating the largest crypto exchange in Africa
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-25 | by ( Mackenzie Sigalos | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +28 min

Yellow Card CEO Chris Maurice just before meeting with the Securities and Exchange Commission in Accra, Ghana. Chris MauriceFrom there, Yellow Card users can send or receive digital cash in eligible markets. Zoom In Icon Arrows pointing outwards Yellow Card CEO Chris Maurice in Accra, Ghana loading cash onto his Mobile Money account, MoMo. Yellow Card has facilitated $1.75 billion in transactions since launching in 2019 and has about 220 employees – mostly in Africa. A resident checks his phone outside a mobile money kiosk in the Kibera district of Nairobi, Kenya, on Monday, Aug. 1, 2022.

☆ Cryptocurrencies fall as investors weigh the Fed's latest rate decision, bitcoin slides toward $25,000
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-22 | by ( Tanaya Macheel | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

Ether's superior gains have come as investors anticipate a major upgrade to the ethereum blockchain called "the merge." Cryptocurrencies fell on Wednesday as investors weighed the latest policy decision from the Federal Reserve. The Fed enacted a quarter percentage point interest rate increase at the conclusion of its latest policy meeting, expressing caution about the recent banking crisis and indicating that hikes are nearing an end. A 25 basis point increase was widely anticipated. The decision makes it the ninth consecutive interest rate hike and the second quarter-point increase in a row after a series of bigger rate hikes were implemented throughout 2022.

☆ The 'mother of all moral hazards': economist Nouriel Roubini cheers the demise of banks with ties to the crypto industry
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-13 | by ( Morgan Chittum | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

In a series of tweets, he described the government's decision to backstop losses for depositors of Signature as "sickening." Silicon Valley Bank, Silvergate, and Signature have all closed in quick succession, with the cryptocurrency industry facing the loss of three of its most important banking partners. In an series of tweets on Monday, Roubini cheered the demise of the crypto-friendly banks. Roubini added that the government's decision to backstop losses for depositors of Signature Bank is just "sickening." "What is the logic of protecting the depositors of Signature Bank, a bank that recklessly decided to jump into the crappy crypto cesspool & bet the house on shitcoins biz?"

☆ What the failures of Signature, SVB and Silvergate mean for the crypto sector
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-12 | by ( Mackenzie Sigalos | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

In this article BTC.CM= Follow your favorite stocks CREATE FREE ACCOUNTA man entering Signature Bank in New York City on March 12, 2023. ReutersA lot of crypto's problems in the last year originated in the stablecoin sector, beginning with TerraUSD's collapse last May. Now that it is clear that SVB depositors will be made whole, Carter tells CNBC that he expects USDC to trade at par. The Silvergate Exchange Network (SEN) and Signature's Signet were real-time payment platforms that crypto customers considered core offerings. Meanwhile, Circle has already publicly said that it is shifting is assets to BNY Mellon now that Signature bank is closing.

☆ Crypto's go-to bank collapsed. What now?
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-09 | by ( Allison Morrow | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

New York CNN —Yesterday, the financial world witnessed a classic run on the bank when Silvergate Capital, the go-to US lender for crypto companies, said it would wind down its operations and voluntarily liquidate. ICYMI: Silvergate was, for most of its existence, a traditional Southern California regional bank. In the same period, the global crypto industry has lost two-thirds of its value, falling from a $3 trillion market cap to $1 trillion. I’ve heard the “don’t blame crypto” argument a thousand times. And it was the same story nearly a year ago, when the Terra/Luna crash last spring wiped out billions overnight — don’t blame crypto; those were toxic algorithmic stablecoins, you can’t trust those.

☆ Keep an eye on banks, economic data, Jim Cramer says
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-09 | by ( Rohan Goswami | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

Frothy markets and banking tumult cast a pallor over the broader markets, but investors should keep an eye on economic data and the Federal Reserve's continued rate hikes, CNBC's Jim Cramer said on Thursday. Sharp declines in Silvergate Bank and SVB Financial shares came as the broader banking sector underwent a major collapse, Cramer said. Cramer pinned the collapse on a victory from the Fed and a general flight from three different spaces: commercial real estate, venture slowdown and crypto. A flurry of downgrades prompted concern about a couple of big commercial real estate names, Cramer said, including SL Green and Vornado Realty Trust . Cooling and weaker numbers for those reports, respectively, could be a boon for financials and for tech stocks, Cramer said.

☆ More pain for the crypto industry means a chance for startups to pivot
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-07 | by ( Dan Defrancesco | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

After an awful 2022 that saw one of the industry's high-profile figures implode, the crypto market is looking for a bounceback. McDermott laid out to Insider's Bianca Chan and Dakin Campbell how tough times for crypto startups mean more realistic valuations and, in some cases, a reevaluation of the business model. Once of the most common critiques I hear about crypto is "It's a solution looking for a problem." The most recent crypto winter could force startups to be a bit more pragmatic about the specific problem they are looking to address. "If you can solve fraud in crypto, you can solve fraud in basically any part of finance," Meier told Insider.

☆ FTX's lawyers and advisers cost $38 million for a month of work - and the bankrupt crypto exchange's new CEO charged $305,000 for February
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-07 | by ( Phil Rosen | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

The army of professionals working with FTX billed $38 million in expenses for January. FTX CEO John Ray III submitted a bill for $305,565 for the month of February. Those three firms have over 180 lawyers and over 50 other staffers working on the FTX case, per the CoinDesk report. Sullivan & Cromwell billed 14,569 hours of work in January for a total of $16.8 million. Meanwhile, FTX's trading arm sued Grayscale this week in a bid to claw back $250 million to repay customers.

☆ Why Silvergate’s post-FTX financial woes could spell trouble ahead for crypto
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-06 | by ( Tanaya Macheel | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +8 min

Further, the spillover into a traditional bank and its stock price could fuel regulators' arguments that crypto poses a systemic risk. The big problem in crypto is that to buy bitcoin, you eventually have to interact with the traditional banking system. Silvergate's crypto bet worked for the bank, particularly in bull markets. A big part of Silvergate's crypto banking efforts was the Silvergate Exchange Network, better known as SEN, a platform that institutions used to move money to crypto exchanges. Custodia is a Wyoming-chartered special purpose depository institution designed to bridge the crypto and traditional banking systems.

☆ Bitcoin falls to its lowest price in weeks as crypto markets tumble amid Silvergate troubles
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-03 | by ( Morgan Chittum | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

The price of bitcoin hit a two-week low as the industry's crucial banking partner faces financial troubles. Silvergate has experienced a steep downtrend in deposits, along with a 95% plunge in share price over the past year. The price of bitcoin hit a two-week low early Friday and experienced its largest one-hour price drop since the blowup of bankrupt exchange FTX in November. Many large digital asset exchanges work with Silvergate for transactions between entities, and a dent in those relationships could impact industry liquidity. Silvergate was entangled in a number of ailing firms such as FTX, resulting in a massive decline in deposits at the bank amid broader crypto market contagion.

☆ Inflation's direction will drive crypto's action in March now that the 2023 rally has faded
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-01 | by ( Tanaya Macheel | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

Bitcoin and ether are starting the new trading month on a positive note – following a relatively flat month – each rising less than 1% Wednesday. In the near term, our bet is on the dollar pulling back," he said Wednesday. If we're right and more upside lies ahead in the near term, it's tough to think crypto isn't a major beneficiary." Long-term investors see regulation as a positive development ultimately, but it can put pressure on prices in the near term, Kruger said. Breaking past $25,000 Although bitcoin held up in February, investors are unsure when to expect a rocket ship rally .

☆ IMF lays out crypto action plan, recommends against legal tender status
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-24 | by ( Marc Jones | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

LONDON, Feb 23 (Reuters) - The International Monetary Fund has laid out a nine-point action plan for how countries should treat crypto assets, with point number one a plea not to give cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin legal tender status. The global lender of last resort said its Executive Board had discussed a paper, "Elements of Effective Policies for Crypto Assets," that provided "guidance to IMF member countries on key elements of an appropriate policy response to crypto assets." The top recommendation was to "safeguard monetary sovereignty and stability by strengthening monetary policy frameworks and do not grant crypto assets official currency or legal tender status." Other advice on Thursday's list, which comes as G20 decision makers meet in India, included guarding against excessive capital flows, adopting unambiguous tax rules and laws around crypto assets, and developing and enforcing oversight requirements for all crypto market actors. They "generally agreed," too, that crypto assets should not be granted official currency or legal tender status, and though strict bans of assets are "not the first-best option," a few directors thought they should not be ruled out.

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