Even though crypto has long attained relevance as an independent political issue, at times it gets entangled with the broader dynamics of the political process. The notorious infrastructure bill — a major pillar of the Biden administration’s economic agenda — suddenly passed in the U.S. House last Friday despite congressional Democrats’ original agreement to vote on the party’s other legislative priorities first. Having passed 228 to 206, the bill is moving to President Biden’s desk. Along with authorization of massive spending on roads, bridges and broadband internet access, it carries a handful of consequential crypto-related provisions that remained unchanged since …

The stablecoin market has been growing exponentially — from only $21.5 billion in mid-October of last year to $130 billion at the start of November; a six-fold increase — so it was only reasonable to expect that the United States government would have to come to grips with these digital assets that are designed to maintain a stable value relative to a fiat currency like the U.S. dollar (USD) or a commodity like gold. The Treasury Department revealed its latest thinking on the subject this week with the much-anticipated President’s Working Group on Financial Markets’ (PWG’s) report on Stablecoins. That …

Congressmen Todd Emmer and Darren Soto sent a bipartisan letter to Securities & Exchange Commission Chair Gary Gensler on Wednesday, strongly questioning why the agency has denied approval for the creation of a Bitcoin spot ETF while allowing Bitcoin Futures ETFs to begin trading. In a spot ETF, the fund holds the actual commodity (in this case bitcoin) whereas in a futures ETF fund holds contracts to buy and sell the commodity at a future date at a specified price. In a press release announcing the letter, Minnesota Republican Emmer said: “The SEC’s approach to cryptocurrency regulation has been unacceptable. …

If all goes to plan, Wrapped XRP (wXRP) will be coming to the Ethereum (ETH) blockchain next month, courtesy of Wrapped.com. The move is meant to enable XRP holders to interact with aspects of decentralized finance, or DeFi, such as executing smart contracts for use in borrowing and lending, swapping for altcoins, via their native tokens. Currently, the network can only handle sending, receiving, and holding XRP. Wrapped tokens are digital currencies stored in a digital vault and run on a separate blockchain. Notable wrapped tokens include Wrapped Bitcoin, which operates on the Ethereum blockchain, and Wrapped Ethereum, which converts …

NYSE Arca, a subsidiary of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) Group, wants to list and operate a trust based on Bitcoin (BTC) exchange-traded products (ETP). In a rule change proposal with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), NYSE Arca proposed to list shares of the Bitwise Bitcoin ETP Trust. The proposal clarifies that each share of the trust will be represented by fixed “units of undivided beneficial ownership,” allowing the shares on the stock exchange to reciprocate their value in accordance with Bitcoin's market price. Moreover, the trust will be operated by two third-party associates serving as …

The Securities and Exchange Commission could be emerging victorious in the race to secure the leading role in regulating stablecoins. Additional clarity on the demarcation of regulatory mandates between the SEC, Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the Treasury Department could come from the President’s Working Group for Financial Markets’ (PWG) report that was expected by the end of October but failed to arrive before the end of last week. The mandate to regulate cryptocurrency in the United States remains dispersed across a host of actors, and a single PWG report will not remedy this once and for all. Still, having …

We have some great news coming out of the United States on the cryptocurrency industry this month with potentially more good news coming later this fall. On Oct. 6, Gary Gensler, head of the U. S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), confirmed during a House Committee on Financial Services hearing that the regulator will not ban cryptocurrency, potentially blazing the path for the world’s largest economy to become the global leader in the development of decentralized finance (DeFi) and blockchain technologies. Gensler, who taught a class on cryptocurrency at MIT, also said that prohibiting cryptocurrency doesn’t fall under the SEC’s …

Fund managers appear to be scrambling to match demand from investors as major cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin (BTC), and Ethereum (ETH) teeter around record price levels. According to a Bloomberg Terminal screenshot taken by Bloomberg Intelligence analyst James Seyffart, over 40 cryptocurrency exchange-traded funds, or ETFs, are now awaiting listing in the U.S. The source indicated that four have already been approved by the Securities Exchange Commission, or SEC. The most notable of which is the Ark 21Shares Bitcoin ETF, created in a joint effort by 21 Shares and ARK Invest. The latest fund applications came from AXS Investments on …

The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) continues listing Bitcoin (BTC)-linked exchange-traded funds (ETF), with Volt Equity becoming the latest company to debut such a product on the exchange. Volt Equity’s Crypto Industry Revolution and Tech ETF will debut trading on the electronic securities exchange NYSE Arca on Oct. 28, the company’s CEO Tad Park told Cointelegraph. The ETF will be available for trading at market opening under the ticker symbol BTCR. BTCR will open at $21, giving a nod to Bitcoin’s capped supply of 21 million Bitcoin. According to the company, the ETF is implementing a management approach informed by …

A group of high-level U.S. government attorneys has oulined their priorities for the enforcement and prosecution of individuals and companies that have committed crypto-related crimes. Enforcement officials from the U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ), Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), and Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) spoke about the direction their agencies will take at a panel discussion at the American Bar Association's annual institute on white-collar crime in Miami on Oct. 27. In addition to corporate players, lawmakers are taking a closer look at individuals according to a report of the event by Law360. Principal deputy assistant attorney general of …

U.S. regulatory bodies have reportedly agreed that the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) will lead the United States’ efforts to regulate the stablecoin sector. According to an Oct. 26 Bloomberg report citing anonymous sources “familiar with the matter,” the SEC has reached an agreement with other U.S. agencies to take the reins on proposing legislation and overseeing the stablecoin industry. The sources add that the SEC’s newfound “significant authority” over the sector will be formally announced in the Treasury Department’s forthcoming stablecoin report that is scheduled to be published this week. The report will also clarify the regulatory jurisdiction of …

The biggest regulatory story of the week, if not the year, has been the United States Security and Exchange Commission’s lack of opposition to the launch of the first-ever Bitcoin (BTC) exchange-traded funds, which took eight long years to materialize. While the first ETFs are tracking CME-traded Bitcoin futures rather than the asset’s spot price, the crypto space is already anticipating a pure-Bitcoin ETF as a logical next step. This bar might prove to be immensely difficult to clear, however, as SEC Chair Gary Gensler seems far less convinced of the stringency of investor protections that such products offer. Below …