Quintenz’s 5-year term at the agency was originally scheduled to end in April 2020, but he has twice extended his departure.
Crypto language in the infrastructure bill is a political shell game, says Cointelegraph GC
According to Zachary Kelman, Republicans and moderate Democrats may know the tax reporting requirements for crypto firms are impossible, but want to have a provision to fund some of the projects without raising taxes.
Dutch central bank claims Binance is operating illegally
The warning follows authorities in several countries issuing statements warning investors to exercise caution in regards to Binance, or claiming the exchange was operating illegally.
Former US Treasury official joins Binance to lead AML efforts
Former IRS supervisor Greg Monahan replaces Karen Leong as the global money laundering reporting officer of Binance.
US lawmakers urge CFTC and SEC to form joint working group on digital assets
The letter seems to be applying political pressure for the two government agencies to act on their own rather than waiting for a bill requiring the creation of such a group to become law.
Spanish officials issue warning on Huobi and Bybit crypto exchanges
The National Securities Market Commission in Spain issued warnings on 11 entities for not being registered for investment services.
London court orders Binance to trace hackers behind $2.6M Fetch.ai attack
“We need to dispel the myth that crypto assets are anonymous. The reality is that with the right rules and applications they can be tracked, traced and recovered,” said Syedur Rahman.
Are NFTs being used for money laundering? Yes they are, claims Mr. Whale
NFT’s could be a vehicle to legitimize ill-gotten gains for the crypto elite.
Stronger crypto regulations in US won’t necessarily help prevent fraud, says Okcoin CCO
Megan Monroe said an “incubator” approach might be one possible solution to the current “patchwork of financial regulations” in the United States.
Iran’s tax authority wants to legalize crypto exchanges
The Iranian tax agency has called for establishing a legal framework for crypto trading platforms so they can be taxed properly.
Coinbase beats earnings estimates as analysts say regulation will ‘stifle’ innovation
COIN exceeded earnings estimates but analysts caution that blanket crypto-sector regulation will “stifle innovation” and possibly cast a shadow on Coinbase’s growth.
VanEck takes new approach with SEC, files for Bitcoin Strategy ETF
SEC chair Gary Gensler recently hinted he would be more open to accepting ETFs based on crypto futures rather than through direct exposure.
BREAKING: BitMEX announces $100M settlement with FinCEN, CFTC
No mention was made of criminal charges against former CEO Arthur Hayes or any other executives at the firm.
Infrastructure bill passes US Senate — without clarification on crypto
“This legislation imposes a badly flawed, and in some cases unworkable, cryptocurrency tax reporting mandate that threatens future technological innovation,” said Senator Toomey.
Crypto Company Circle Seeks To Become Global Digital Currency Bank
The company behind the increasingly popular USDC stablecoin dreams big. Circle wants to leverage its know-how and good reputation to become “a global digital currency bank.” That means it’s also looking into becoming a digital currency bank in the US. Their plan’s announcement focused on that region of the planet, but the wording makes it clear that they’re ultimately looking for worldwide domination.
Related Reading | Is USDC’s Billion Dollar Growth A Sign Crypto Smart Money Is Ditching Tether?
According to Coindesk, “this would be an industry first, with a scope far beyond the OCC banking charter already conditionally issued to Anchorage, Paxos and other crypto-native financial services firms.” The company’s aim is to provide “frictionless, instant and nearly free payments that combined fiat reserve currencies with open, permissionless blockchains, and eventually building on these open networks to support new forms of capital formation and intermediation.”
It’s the project ready for prime time or in its infancy? Did they file the documents already? Will they be able to pull this off? Keep reading for extra clues and info.
USDC price chart for 08/10/2021 on Bitbay | Source: USDC/USD on TradingView.com
Circle Played Nice With Governments From The Get-Go
The USDC stablecoin is issued by CENTRE, a joint venture between Circle and Coinbase. Their aim is “to conform with stringent U.S. money transmission supervisory and regulatory standards.” In contrast Tether, their main competition, is famous for the probe that the US Department Of Justice launched against them.
The main point of contention against Tether is the reserves they hold to back up their USDT. Attacking their competition’s weak spot, Circle claims, “Establishing national regulatory standards for dollar digital currencies is crucial to enabling the potential of digital currencies in the real economy, including standards for reserve management and composition.”
Since regulatory compliance is their forte, Circle spends half of their announcement praising their own transparency and USDC’s liquidity even “in times of intense demand to redeem USDC”. To prove that, they provide an independent accountant report that highlights the “composition of USDC reserves, including the credit quality of the underlying assets.”
Related Reading | Tether (USDT) To Face Do or Die Situation in 2021: Messari Report
Why does all of that have to do with their plans to become a national digital currency bank? It proves that they’re in tune with the US Government.
Now, with USDC at more than $27.5 billion in circulation, and building on our long-standing commitment to trust, transparency and accountability in the dollar-denominated reserves backing USDC, we are setting out to become a U.S. Federally-chartered national commercial bank.
Circle intends to become a full-reserve national commercial bank, operating under the supervision and risk management requirements of the Federal Reserve, U.S. Treasury, OCC, and the FDIC.
Other Big Plans For The Crypto Company
Recently, Circle announced its intention to go public before the end of the year. According to Coindesk, the company “partnered with a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) to go public later this year. The deal valued Circle at $4.5 billion.” Also, their USDC project will soon go live in multiple blockchains. As NewsBTC informed:
It will soon be available in, “Avalanche, Celo, Flow, Hedera, Kava, Nervos, Polkadot, Stacks, Tezos, and Tron.” That will bring the total to 14; since USDC is already functional in Ethereum, Algorand, Stellar, and Solana.
In related news, NewsBTC recently highlighted a Messari report that shows USDC is the most used stablecoin in DeFi.
From what Ryan Watkins, a credible researcher, predicted, the stablecoin share for Tether on Ethereum could dip below 50%. In addition, Watkins revealed that more than half of USDC’s total supply is now in smart contracts.
The equivalent value for this USD Coin supply is about $12.5 billion. According to Messari, CoinMetrics data estimates show that USDC’s stablecoin supply is over 40% on Ethereum.
However, none of that guarantees that their plans to become a global digital currency bank will come true. Keep the NewsBTC tab open for further information on this developing story.
Featured Image by Chaitanya Tvs on Unsplash – Charts by TradingView
Operating a crypto exchange in Japan is ‘rather tough,’ FSA chief admits
Japan’s newly appointed Financial Services Agency Commissioner Junichi Nakajima believes Bitcoin is a quick way to transfer cash, but people use BTC for speculation and investment.
‘We’ll be back on this’ — Alabama senator derails crypto amendment with two words
“Who knows how much innovation we’re going to stifle, who knows what kind of new apps never emerge,” said Senator Pat Toomey.
Bears lick their paws while Bitcoin price blasts through $46,000
Derivatives data show the market is dominated by longs and that top traders added leverage as BTC price rallied to $46,300.
BREAKING: US lawmakers behind crypto amendments to infrastructure bill introduce compromise
The new compromise amendment could still be added to HR 3684 through a unanimous consent request — provided no senators object.
Against the US Senate’s Heavy-Handed Crypto Provision
The bill as written has the potential to thrust every single transaction by U.S. crypto users into an invasive dragnet.