Crypto News Recap - On Coinbase, ETH Flipped BTC - August 6 - August 13, 2021

Transcript

[Music] thanks for tuning in to this week's news recap first headline the infrastructure bill saga ends at the beginning on tuesday the senate passed its infrastructure bill voting 69 to 30 to invest 1.2 trillion dollars into the country's public works to the crypto industries chagrin however the bill moved out of the senate without changing a certain provision regarding crypto taxation despite multiple amendments being offered as a refresher the original and final language requires reporting for crypto brokers in order to bring in 28 billion dollars in taxes over the next few years the provision mandates crypto brokers report customer gains via a 1099 and any transactions over ten thousand dollars

to the internal revenue service while the community does not object to appropriate entities being taxed the provision received vociferous backlash over its broad definition of a crypto broker kristen smith executive director of the blockchain association interpreted the bill to encompass quote software wallet developers hardware wallet manufacturers multi-sig service providers liquidity providers dow token holders and potentially even miners as brokers under the current iteration of the bill such a requirement would force pseudonymous decentralized protocols to collect and enforce know your customer or kyc information an impossible task senators proposed multiple amendments though none gained the support necessary

notably on monday morning a last-ditch compromise between senators cynthia lemus pat toomey mark warner rob portman and kirsten cinema to amend the contentious language fell just short of approval courtesy of a single objection from senator richard shelby the infrastructure package is now on its way to the house of representatives with the crypto provisions original language intact however the crypto industry nor the house will be taken by surprise this time around coin center's jerry brito is ready to make a brand new amendment tweeting the bad news is that the amendment did not receive consent so it will not make the bill the good news is we're not giving up next stop is the house where we can try to get a whole new amendment from scratch that can address all our

concerns four members of the house's blockchain caucus are also prepared for another round of crypto policy debates with representatives tom emmer darren soto bill foster and david schweikert pending a letter to their colleagues noting quote we must prioritize amending this language to clearly exempt non-custodial blockchain intermediaries and ensure that civil liberties are protected on thursday representative anna eshoo also joined the fray pending a letter to house speaker nancy pelosi encouraging an amendment to the problematic broker definition next headline on coinbase eth flipped btc coinbase announced its second quarter results on tuesday here are three things you need to know at 1.6 billion dollars q2 profit nearly

doubled that of q1 total revenue also outperformed expectations coming in at 2.03 billion dollars compared to the 1.88 billion dollars predicted by the analyst consensus compiled by bloomberg second coinbase users were very active this quarter with monthly transacting users growing 44 from q1 to q2 its total user base also jumped climbing to 68 million verified customers point three coinbase also saw ethereum flip bitcoin this quarter at least in terms of trading volume in q2 ethereum made up 26 of the exchange's volume while bitcoin only held a 24 share additionally in an earnings call ceo brian armstrong said that 10 of the top

100 hedge funds by assets under management are coinbase clients the exchange also mentioned spacex tesla and pnc bank specifically as institutional clients marking the first public acknowledgement of a tesla coinbase relationship next headline brian brooks resigns as ceo of binance us last friday brian brooks dropped a bombshell via twitter announcing his resignation as ceo of binance us after just a few months on the job he wrote quote greetings crypto community letting you all know that i resigned as ceo of binance us despite differences over its strategic direction i wish my former colleagues much success exciting new things to come before his short tenure with binance us

brooks was the acting head of the office of the controller of the currency the regulator for national banks under president trump he also worked as coinbase's top lawyer in 2018. it initially appeared that brooks's impressive regulatory resume was a perfect match for binance which has faced intense scrutiny from jurisdictions like the uk and japan in 2021 his hiring was even considered a steal that ruffled feathers over at circle where brooks had been on the cusp of accepting a position as president before abruptly moving over to binance u.s as described by decrypts jeff roberts in a july report in response to brooks's departure finance ceo chiang pang zhao wished him the best in the future and thanked him for his invaluable work a divergence

from the exchange's handling of brooks's predecessor catherine coley who was not even mentioned after being asked to make room for brooks next headline tether reveals reserve details on monday tether released a new attestation revealing the details of its 62.8 billion in reserves for the world to parse this is tether's second reserves report since launching in 2014 prompted by a settlement with the new york attorney general's office earlier this year cnbc's kate rooney tweeted out a simple description writing tether out with new audit on what's backing the stablecoin mostly commercial paper includes other crypto money 31 billion dollars worth of commercial

paper six billion dollars worth of cash one billion dollars worth of reverse repo or reverse per repurchases 15 billion dollars in t bills or treasury bills 2.5 billion dollars in secured loans 4.8 billion in corporate bonds funds and precious metals and 2 billion dollars in other investments including digital tokens in the new attestation dated june 30th tether released both the composition of its reserves along with the ratings and maturity of its commercial paper and commercial deposits interestingly 30.8 billion or 48 percent of tethers reserves were held in commercial paper and certificates of deposit of which 93 were rated a2 and above

only 1.3 percent was rated a3 or below audit firm moore cayman was responsible for assuring the attestation quote our most recent assurance opinion from maura cayman again confirms tether is fully backed said tether ceo paulo arduino a healthy and conservative portfolio with an emphasis on liquidity continues to fuel our growth and confidence in our innovative offerings in related stablecoin news usdc issuer circle has ambitions to become a u.s national bank according to an s4 filing on monday the company which plans to go public via us back told the block that it quote intends to become a full reserve national commercial bank operating under the supervision and risk management

requirements of the federal reserve u.s treasury and occ and the fdic in its filing circle cited risk reduction regarding its current reliance on third-party payment services as a motive for transitioning to a banking structure next headline bitmex settles with the cftc and fincen crypto derivatives platform bitmex is settling with the united states commodities future trading commission or cftc and financial crimes enforcement network or fincen the company has agreed to pay 100 million to resolve charges with 50 million dollars going to each of the regulators for violating the bank secrecy act commodities regulations and cftc rules according to a consent order filed tuesday the cftc found that bitmex had

offered u.s customers leveraged and unlicensed crypto products between 2014 and 2020. furthermore the platform's know your customer and anti-money laundering safeguards were described as inadequate fincen's deputy director anna lou tyrol said quote bitmex's rapid growth into one of the largest futures commissioned merchants offering convertible virtual currency derivatives without a commensurate anti-money laundering program put the u.s financial system at meaningful risk it is critical that platforms build in financial integrity from the start so that financial innovation and opportunity are protected from vulnerabilities and exploitation for now the 100 million dollars will

only settle civil charges against bitmex the cftc's criminal case against bitmex founders arthur hayes benjamin dello and samuel reed will continue in a blog post alexandra hofner chief executive officer of bit max expressed relief saying quote today marks an important day in our company's history and we are very glad to put this behind us as crypto matures and enters a new era we too have evolved into the largest crypto derivatives platform with a fully verified user base comprehensive user verification robust compliance and anti-money laundering capabilities are not only hallmarks of our business they are drivers of our long-term success next headline sec versus ripple recap the securities and exchange commission

or sec is requesting slack messages from ripple concerning its ongoing legal battle with the company according to documents reviewed by decrypt the sec contends that ripple's original supply of slack messages sent over july 1st was incomplete leading to a negative impact on the trial with the sec deposing over 11 ripple witnesses based on incomplete message data the sec believes that over 1 million messages are missing which the regulator says will help in its case against ripple relatedly jeff roberts executive editor at decrypt published an article delving into sec versus ripple describing how both sides have a lot to lose in the case with ripple's xrp status as a security hanging in the air and the

sec's crypto agenda needing a big win it goes into how the sec likely waited as long as it did to bring the lawsuit because it was setting precedent with its kick and telegram cases and because clear regulation for crypto is unlikely to come anytime soon from congress robert says that regulatory clarity for the industry is likely to come in the form of a decision in sec versus ripple and that could come as soon as this fall speaking of the sec its chairman gary gensler wrote a letter to senator elizabeth warren advocating for quote additional plenary authority to expand consumer protection via new roles and guardrails for the crypto industry gensler believes that crypto investors

quote are not adequately protected time for fun bits ethereum pet rock nfts call it a fad call it a bubble nfts are still here and the headlines are not getting any less head scratching one caught my attention this week as especially shall i say interesting ether rock an early nft project consisting of 100 nft images of identical rocks of various shades saw two rocks from the collection sell for over one hundred thousand dollars worth of ether this week the website of course specifically explains that the pet rock inspired

project quote serve and this isn't all capital letters no purpose outside of being well colored rocks what a time to be alive all right thanks for tuning in to learn more about mood it and the poly network exploit be sure to check the links in the show notes unconfirmed is produced by me laura shin with help from anthony yoon mark murdock and daniel ness thanks for listening [Music] [Music] you