The European Union’s securities regulator has put out a report warning of risks of Big Tech’s entrance into finance. “The high level of market concentration typically observed in BigTech may get carried into financial services, with potentially adverse impacts on consumer prices and financial stability,” the European Securities and Markets Authority, or ESMA, said of Big Tech companies entering finance, as part of its 2020 Trends, Risks and Vulnerabilities report released on Feb. 19. The report did, however, also mention a few positives of Big Tech in finance. “Prospective benefits include greater household participation in capital markets, greater transparency and …

David Marcus was born in France, grew up in Paris and Geneva, and had shown interest in tech from his early years. At 23, he founded his first company — internet provider GTN — and later sold it. Related: Who Is David Marcus: Bitcoin Believer Turned Facebook Libra Co-Creator Marcus is currently the head of Calibra, a subsidiary of Facebook and the official wallet provider for the Libra cryptocurrency. He is a former head of messaging products at Facebook and was a board member of Coinbase in 2018. Prior to that, Marcus served as the president at PayPal after the …

Today is Saint Valentine’s Day, and in honor of this most romantic of holidays, Cointelegraph presents five of the crypto community’s most notable unions and breakups of the past 12 months. Kelly Lynn Loeffler and Bakkt Kelly Lynn Loeffler split from the crypto world in 2019, but can you blame her? Loeffler left Bitcoin futures exchange Bakkt, where she was CEO, for a place with a slightly bigger cloakroom: the United States Senate. Loeffler was named to replace Georgia’s Republican senator Johnny Isakson, who retired for health reasons. She will reportedly help oversee the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), a …

Coming every Sunday, Hodler’s Digest will help you track every single important news story that happened this week. The best (and worst) quotes, adoption and regulation highlights, leading coins, predictions and much more — a week on Cointelegraph in one link. Top Stories This Week Bitcoin price hits $10,000 for the first time in 2020 We’re back in business! Bitcoin has reached five figures for the first time since last October. According to Coin360, BTC is up by more than 40% year to date — 8.3% over the past week. Champagne corks will also be flying in the Ether community, …

Following a year that has seen unprecedented interactions between United States legislators and the crypto industry, Cointelegraph has compiled a roster of congresspeople who have established stances and policies for blockchain and cryptocurrency that will shape the future of the industry within the country. Some of the congresspeople listed are bullish on blockchain, while some have established clear opposition to topics like Facebook’s Libra or other cryptocurrencies, but Cointelegraph believes that all of them are worth watching in 2020. Rep. Tom Emmer (R-MN) As ranking member of the Fintech Task Force as well as holding positions within the Blockchain Caucus …

Slowly but surely, institutional players are moving into the crypto/blockchain neighborhood. According to a 2019 Fidelity Investments survey, about 22% of institutional investors already have some exposure to digital assets, with most investments having been made within the past three years. Moreover, 4 in 10 respondents say they are open to future investments in digital assets over the next five years. “Institutional investor involvement in cryptocurrency in 2019 has been primarily about getting the infrastructure in place, such as the opening of Fidelity Digital Assets and Bakkt,” Jonathan Levin, co-founder and chief strategy officer of Chainalysis, told Cointelegraph, adding: “Now …

In a Jan. 30 congressional hearing on mobile payments, U.S. Representative Tom Emmer fears criticism of digital payment innovation may stifle progress. Emmer laid out his concerns over regulation smothering innovation: “There’s a whole environment out there of brilliant, genius, young people who are coming up with new ways to transfer value every single day,” he said. “I worry that we’re going to crush that entrepreneurial spirit and that advancement.” Digital payments hearing In a meeting of the minds, the Fintech Task Force gathered for a hearing on Jan. 30, called “Is Cash Still King? Reviewing the Rise of Mobile …

Major global economists credit Facebook’s Libra with pushing the world to start reconsidering the United States dollar as anchor currency. At a Jan. 23 panel at the annual World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, officials and financial experts discussed one of the most important mechanisms in the global financing system — the U.S. dollar, which has become the world’s reserve currency. Libra evoked a future digital currency Called “Challenging the Dominance of the Dollar,” the panel focused on factors that make the U.S. dollar the world’s dominant payment system and reserve currency, as well as the fact that countries over …

The former head of payments and settlements at the Bank of Japan (BOJ) says Facebook’s Libra galvanized central banks globally to look seriously into digital currency issuance. A Jan. 22 Reuters report cited remarks by Hiromi Yamaoka, who reportedly oversaw the BOJ’s research into digital currencies as part of his erstwhile role and continues to communicate closely with international central bank policymakers. He is presently a board member at IT consultancy firm Future Corp. The private-public debate As reported yesterday, the central banks of Canada, the United Kingdom, Japan, European Union, Sweden and Switzerland have just announced their creation of …

Adding to a lengthy list of departures last fall, telecom giant Vodafone has departed the Libra association, a spokesperson from Vodafone confirmed to Cointelegraph in an email on Jan. 21, 2020. The representative said: “Vodafone Group has decided to withdraw from the Libra Association. We have said from the outset that Vodafone’s desire is to make a genuine contribution to extending financial inclusion. We remain fully committed to that goal and feel that we can make the most contribution by focusing our efforts on M-Pesa. We will continue to monitor the development of the Libra Association and do not rule …

The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) is seeking to oversee stablecoin projects like Facebook's controversial stablecoin Libra. In an official proposal to the Senate published on Jan. 20, APRA submitted a possible regulatory framework dedicated to fintech and regulatory technology (regtech) covering topics ranging from digital wallets to data protection. The proposed framework, “is intended not only to be fit for purpose for the current financial system but also be able to accommodate future developments and technological advances, such as proposals for global stablecoin eco-systems that have been the subject of significant attention in recent months.” Overall, APRA admits that …

The Libra Association — the government body of the eponymous stablecoin introduced by Facebook in late 2019 — has formed a new committee to guide the network’s technical development. According to an announcement on Jan. 16, the Libra Association has voted to establish the five-member Technical Steering Committee which comprises leading experts from various firms in the fintech and blockchain industries. The members are: Calibra core product lead George Cabrera III, Anchorage co-founder Diogo Monica, Union Square Ventures partner Nick Grossman, Bison Trails CEO and founder Joe Lallouz, and Mercy Corps director of emerging technology Ric Shreves. In overseeing the …