Welcome back,
Just like last week, I split up the news on a regional basis, given no major stories have come up in the last two weeks.
If you’re interested in some extra content this week, I recommend checking out how a couple of the industry leaders are thinking about crypto regulation.
Vitalik Buterin, Co-Founder of Ethereum
Sam Bankman-Fried, Founder & CEO of FTX
I hope you enjoy and see you soon.
-Katja
October 24th - November 6th, 2022
North America
In a recent speech, a CFTC Commissioner, Christy Goldsmith Romero, warned about the parallels between the current crypto market and the financial crisis of 2008. While the US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said that cryptocurrencies do not yet pose a significant risk to financial stability given they’re “not yet big enough or connected enough.”
Democratic members of Congress have sent letters to various financial regulators to find out what they’re doing to “stop the revolving door between [our] financial regulatory agencies and the cryptocurrency industry,” after hundreds of ex-government officials have joined crypto firms.
The United States Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), an independent bureau of the Treasury Department, will create an Office of Financial Technology early next year. According to the Acting Comptroller of the Currency, Michael Hsu, “The establishment of this office will enable us to be more agile and to promote responsible innovation, consistent with our mission.”
Canada's federal government released its Fall Economic Statement (the government’s fiscal road map over the coming months) in which it announced it was launching a consultation on "cryptocurrencies, stablecoins and central bank digital currencies.”
Hydro-Quebec, a Canadian energy supplier, wants to stop providing electricity to the blockchain industry to battle the growing power demand. [In the past two weeks, Moldova banned crypto mining as part of its efforts to save power given the energy crisis and approaching winter.]
Europe
Rishi Sunak, the newly chosen UK Prime Minister, may usher in a new pro-crypto era within the country given his previous announcement about turning the country into a crypto hub.
The UK parliament’s Digital, Culture, Media & Sport Committee started an inquiry into NFTs as well as the technology that underpins them. In addition to this, the government also aims to place metaverse platforms, like Meta, under its upcoming Online Safety Bill. [The European Parliament is also beginning its investigation around regulating NFTs, while the MiCA regulatory package gets delayed until February 2023.]
The UK government moved forward on the Financial Services and Markets Bill that will broaden crypto regulation and give stablecoins a new name (Digital Settlement Assets - DSA), highlighting their “potential to develop into a widespread means of payment.” [This Bill also recently received some amendments, which push it closer to the EU’s MiCA regulations.]
The Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority, or FINMA, will now apply the government’s Anti-Money Laundering Ordinance to crypto transactions. [Although not a government institution, Santender UK decided to place similar limits on their own crypto transactions.]
Asia
Pham Minh Chinh, the prime minister of Vietnam, suggested that the Anti-Money Laundering Bill should recognize an amendment on virtual currencies given that people in Vietnam trade crypto despite the lack of regulation.
The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) seeks to ban crypto traders from using borrowed funds, restrict crypto service providers from offering incentives, and regulate stablecoins (only pegging to the Singapore dollar or Group of Ten currencies and holding reserves in separate accounts). [MAS also conducted a successful live cross-currency transaction, exploring the potential of DeFi in wholesale funding markets.]
Global
Switzerland’s city of Lugano and El Salvador have signed a memorandum of understanding on economic cooperation to boost Bitcoin adoption in their respective regions. El Salvador will also open an office in Lugano to “foster cooperation with educational and research institutions.”