United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) chair Gary Gensler has added a new staff member who will offer advice related to crypto policymaking and interagency work. In a Thursday announcement, the SEC said Corey Frayer would be joining Gensler’s executive staff as a senior adviser on the agency’s oversight of cryptocurrencies. Frayer has worked as a professional staff member of the Senate Banking Committee as well as a senior policy adviser for the House Financial Services Committee with Representatives Maxine Waters and Brad Miller. Frayer’s appointment to the SEC chair’s executive staff came alongside those of Philipp Havenstein, Jennifer …

It is that time of the year: Singular events must be abandoned in favor of end-of-year, big-picture narratives and yearly lessons learned. As many governments across the globe finally had to face the rapidly mainstreaming realm of digital finance, the year is packed with developments in crypto policy and regulation that are impossible to fit into a neat little summary. However, it is possible to try and distill several major trends that have come to the fore during the past 12 months, and that will keep shaping the relationship among societies, state power and the crypto space as we roll …

The crypto regulation regime in any jurisdiction is an equilibrium among multiple institutional, group and personal interests of actors who have a sway over financial and monetary policies. These interests never perfectly align, frequently resulting in contradictory signals coming out of various power centers. Speaking about systemic risks facing the world’s largest economy last week, the United States Federal Reserve chair said digital assets were not a financial stability concern. Two days later, the U.S. Financial Stability Oversight Council issued a report that concluded that stablecoins and decentralized finance could pose sizeable financial stability risks. The source of this discrepancy …

Elad Roisman, one of five members of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s board, has announced his intention to resign from the government agency. In a Monday announcement, Roisman said he had sent a letter to President Joe Biden informing him of his decision to leave the SEC by the end of January 2022. The SEC commissioner said he would continue working with his colleagues “to further our mission of protecting investors, maintaining fair, orderly, and efficient markets, and facilitating capital formation” until his departure. Roisman was sworn into office in September 2018 under the previous administration and served as acting …

The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) continues to delay decisions on Bitcoin (BTC) exchange-traded funds (ETF), issuing two fresh deadline extension notices. On Dec. 15, the SEC postponed two major Bitcoin exchange-traded offering proposals, including NYSE Arca's "actual" Bitcoin ETF, named Bitwise Bitcoin ETP Trust, and Grayscale Bitcoin Trust’s Bitcoin ETF. The SEC now expects to decide whether to approve or disapprove, or “institute proceedings to determine whether to disapprove” Bitwise’s BTC ETF and Grayscale’s BTC ETF on Feb. 1 and Feb. 6, respectively. “The Commission finds that it is appropriate to designate a longer period within which …

On late Wednesday night, the popular social platform Reddit announced that it has started the process of making the company public. The company filed a confidential S-1 with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) informing them of their intentions for going public. Per SEC regulations, they cannot provide any details about shares or prices until after a quiet period is over to protect trade secrets from being leaked before an IPO date is set. The SEC filing confirmed long-running rumors about Reddit's plans for a public offering. Back in August, Reddit raised $700 million in fresh funding, making it worth …

Crypto asset manager Valkyrie has launched an exchange-traded fund with exposure to Bitcoin on the Nasdaq Stock Market. In a Wednesday SEC filing, Valkyrie said its Balance Sheet Opportunities ETF will not invest directly in Bitcoin (BTC) but 80% of its net assets would offer exposure to the crypto asset through securities of U.S. companies with BTC on their balance sheets. These companies may include custodians, crypto exchanges, and traders. The filing specifies that Valkyrie’s ETF may invest up to 10% of its net assets in securities of Bitcoin mining firms, as well as up to 5% in the securities …

Former chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, or SEC, Jay Clayton, was appointed by ex-President Donald Trump to serve in 2017. In his tenure as head of the SEC, Clayton often defended Bitcoin (BTC) as a store of value. This past Wednesday, during an interview with CNBC's Squawk Box show, Jay shared his thoughts on cryptocurrency and how it should be regulated going forward. The former SEC chair said that he is a “huge believer in crypto technology” and that its efficiency advantages in the financial system and tokenization are enormous. "I am a huge believer in this …

Hester Peirce, a commissioner for the United States Securities and Exchange Commission known by many in the space as Crypto Mom, is pushing back against the regulatory body’s agenda for not including clarification on digital assets. In a Monday joint statement, Peirce and SEC Commissioner Elad Roisman said they were “disappointed” in the content of chairperson Gary Gensler’s regulatory agenda for not including items aimed at helping companies raise capital, furthering investor protection, undoing recent rules passed by the commission, and providing clarification on crypto. According to the two regulators, Gensler’s uncertain stance on digital assets may create problems for …

New York-based asset manager WisdomTree has amended its filing for a Bitcoin exchange-traded fund with the Securities and Exchange Commission to name U.S. Bank as its custodian. In a Wednesday filing, WisdomTree listed U.S. Bank National Association as the custodian for shares of its Bitcoin (BTC) trust. The filing is an amendment to its March 11 registration for a spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund, or ETF, submitted to the SEC prior to U.S. Bank offering crypto custody services for institutional investors. On Dec. 2, the SEC rejected a proposed rule change from the Cboe BZX Exchange to list and trade shares …

Bitfury CEO and former Acting Comptroller of the Currency Brian Brooks has hinted the regulatory environment in the United States could drive many crypto firms outside the country, and has already stymied companies attempting to offer a variety of financial products. Speaking at a Wednesday hearing on Digital Assets and the Future of Finance with the House Committee on Financial Services, congressperson Ted Budd said he feared the current policy of regulation by enforcement in the U.S. could “force the next generation of financial tech to be created outside of our country.” Speaking of behalf of Bitfury, Brooks said: “There …

Do you remember the time when a fleeting mention of Bitcoin, stablecoins, or even central bank digital currencies by a top-ranking government official was considered major news all over the cryptoverse? Feels like It’s been forever. As we find ourselves in the midst of digital assets’ global mainstreaming, such statements come in droves every day and are expected. Randal Quarles, an outgoing member of the U.S. Fed’s board of governors, warned against overregulating stablecoins and even rebuked some of the conclusions that the President’s Working Group on Financial Markets had articulated in its November report. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen admitted …