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CLAYTON RECAP: SEC chairman Jay Clayton was undoubtedly the marquee speaker during Tuesday’s Consensus: Invest conference in New York.
The head of the U.S. securities regulator notably declared that a crypto-focused ETF wouldn’t get the green light until the exchange ecosystem shores up issues around manipulation concerns and custody, while also commenting on the state of play around ICO regulation.
Following Clayton’s appearance, CoinDesk Live featured a panel of experts – the Wyoming Blockchain Coalition’s Caitlin Long, Anderson Kill attorney Stephen Palley and DLXLaw’s Lewis Cohen – to talk about the major implications.
On the ETF topic, Long noted: “Reading the tea leaves I know there are a lot of folks who would love to have the ETF approved but I don’t think that’s very likely.”
Palley also questioned whether more regulation – the kind that Clayton effectively called for – would hamper retail investor interest.
“My question is: There’s a lot of institutional money here. If you regulate it and you have market surveillance, will retail interest remain the same?” he asked.
Don't miss their full panel recap on CoinDesk Live.
CRYPTO SANCTIONS: For the first time in its history, the U.S. Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has added a pair of crypto addresses to its Specially Designated Nationals list. In other words, OFAC is forbidding any individual or exchange in the U.S. from sending bitcoin to the addresses.
The two bitcoin addresses are tied to Ali Khorashadizadeh and Mohammad Ghorbaniyan, two Iranian residents accused of facilitating financial transactions on behalf of the developers of the SamSam ransomware.
This software held hostage data for more than 200 different victims, ranging from government agencies to hospitals to corporations and more.
The ransomware asked for bitcoin as payment, which the two accused then converted into Iranian rial and deposited into local banks. All told, OFAC believes that more than 6,000 bitcoin were processed through more than 7,000 different transactions.
Any exchanges or individuals in the U.S. or subject to the U.S.'s jurisdiction risk receiving secondary sanctions if they send funds to the two bitcoin addresses, which may cut them off from the U.S. financial system. Full Story
CRYPTO FUTURES 2.0: Nasdaq is partnering with investment management firm VanEck to bring a host of new cryptocurrency financial products to market.
Unveiled at CoinDesk’s Consensus: Invest event, Gabor Gurbacs, VanEck’s director of digital asset strategy, announced that the two would move to “bring a regulated crypto 2.0 futures-type contract” to the market.
According to Gurbacs, an initial release early next year is to be the first of several such products.
He told CoinDesk that these futures products could be thought of as an “upgrade” to current regulatory standards that surround bitcoin futures products. “We ran a few extra miles working with the [Commodity Futures Trading Commission] to bring about new standards for custody and surveillance,” he commented during a panel.
By leveraging Nasdaq’s stock markets surveillance system, called SMARTS, as well as pricing benchmarks provided by MVIS, the aim is to “inspire confidence with regulators and institutions trying to get involved [in the crypto markets],” according to Gurbacs. Full Story
CIVIL BEHAVIOR? Civil was supposed to create a more transparent and democratic model for journalism. But so far, journalists working on its platform have yet to receive all of the compensation they say they were promised when hired.
According to several current and former employees of news organizations sponsored by the blockchain startup, Civil told journalists in its 18 newsrooms around the U.S. that the CVL cryptocurrency – which, when issued, was supposed to comprise part of their pay – would probably end up being worth several times more than the estimated valuations mentioned in meetings and reported in tax forms.
Yet lackluster demand caused Civil to cancel a public sale of the tokens last month. Now, the reporters have no idea if or when they’ll be paid the tokens that were supposed to be part of their compensation.
“I had to borrow money to pay my rent and student loans,” one of them told CoinDesk.
Civil CEO Matt Iles disputes the current and former employees’ claims.
“We didn’t promise anyone tokens would be worth any specific amount,” he told CoinDesk. “Anytime we discussed potential token value with newsrooms, we made it clear we were making estimates and that there was risk involved.” Full Story |
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 CoinDesk Research tracks many different metrics in the crypto economy. Exchange interest is important in determining the trading activity for each individual cryptocurrency's buyers and sellers in the market. We observed fiat-crypto exchange volume for each cryptocurrency, for Tuesday, Nov. 27. This is the volume of exchange trading occurring from all fiat to target cryptocurrency. The top 5 cryptocurrencies by fiat-crypto exchange volume are: - BTC $747 mn - BTG $320 mn - XMR $289 mn - ETH $263 mn - DASH $228 mn This volume was extracted from CoinDesk’s basket of 16 exchanges determined to be representatives proxies of the total market. Use our new tool to learn more. |
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| SHORT REPRIEVE? The bitcoin market is still predominantly bearish as long as it stays below the former long-term support of the 21-month EMA and could soon drop to psychological support at $3,000. However, BTC has picked up a strong bid today, validating the bullish divergence of the 4-hour chart and daily chart RSI. As a result, BTC may see a stronger recovery rally above $4,000 in the short-term. Full Story |
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BEST OF THE BEST REUTERS: Some crypto startups are paying for positive reviews, an in-depth investigation by Reuters’ has found. Some projects pay social media influencers directly, while others may pay for positive ratings on platforms such as ICOBench, according to the report. While the concept of social media personalities reviewing products is not new, there may be somewhat stricter disclosure rules for the crypto space. In particular, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission warned celebrities against promoting projects without disclosing if they were being paid. Failing to disclose a payment may constitute fraud or a violation of federal law, according to the agency. Celebrities aside, some research groups and websites that present themselves as impartial seem to be publishing ratings or reviews for cash, which brings a conflict of interest, particularly if investors choose to buy into a project based on a rating or review.
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THE NEXT WEB: Twitter is so packed with crypto scams that bad actors are now starting to target Facebook, says a piece from TNW. One Facebook scam aims to hoodwink users into giving up private data, such as credit card information, using a fake CNBC news page and a sponsored ad. The ad touts an investment opportunity a token called CashlessPay that apparently doesn't actually exist. The fake news page offers a made-up story about Singapore adopting the made-up token, along with a made-up celebrity endorsement by Richard Branson. Ultimately it leads to other fake pages that ask users to provide personal details they really don't want to be giving up to scammers. Take care out there... THE CONVERSATION: Do you legally own your crypto assets? The answer may be more complex than you think, in some jurisdictions at least. In a piece from The Conversation, Dave Michels, research associate at Queen Mary University of London says he and colleagues have carried out research they say shows that courts in England and Wales "are unlikely to identify digital tokens as property, since the law does not recognise possession of intangible items." The legal issue may also be likely in other common law jurisdictions, too, such as the the US, Hong Kong, Singapore and much of India. Since cryptos may not qualify as property, how much legal protection holders might have over their tokens is unclear, says Michels. |
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