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SENATE SCRUTINY: Following last week's examination of Facebook's Libra project, the Senate Banking Committee will hold a hearing on regulatory frameworks for cryptocurrencies and blockchain next week. The committee announced it would hold an open session titled “Examining Regulatory Frameworks for Digital Currencies and Blockchain” on July 30, though it is unclear if this would be a fact-finding mission or if any specific pieces of legislation would be discussed. Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire, representing the Blockchain Association; Rebecca Nelson, a member of the Congressional Research Service; and Mehrsa Baradaran, a professor at the University of California Irvine School of Law, will testify as expert witnesses. Full story
FIGHTING FAKE NEWS: The New York Times Company has revealed new details relating to its ongoing blockchain publishing experiments first revealed by CoinDesk in March. Published Tuesday, a new website for the publisher’s News Provenance Project explains how the storied newspaper’s Research and Development team plans to use Hyperledger Fabric’s permissioned blockchain to authenticate news photographs in partnership with IBM Garage, the tech giant’s accelerator program. The project aims to combat misinformation and adulterated media, which it argues harms small and large publishers alike. Full story
EMPIRE STATE: The New York State Department of Financial Services (NYDFS), the financial regulator for the state of New York, is moving its in-house team supervising cryptocurrency businesses to a new division. In a statement Tuesday, Linda Lacewell, the newly appointed superintendent, announced the Research and Innovation Division at the Department of Financial Services will track emerging financial technologies and be “responsible for licensing and supervising virtual currencies.” This will include licensing approvals made under the state’s BitLicense. The New York State legislature has also selected six representatives from the blockchain and cryptocurrency industry to join its Digital Currency Taskforce, first formed in January. Full stories here and here
GAMING REWARDS: Crypto game marketing startup Refereum says it has secured a summer partnership with major Fortnite competitor, PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds (PUBG) that will see it reward players’ achievements with crypto tokens. The firm says the tokens can be used for purchases of games, or in-game items such as weapons or skins, as well as to tip their favorite streamers. Full story here UNCOMMITTED: Facebook's 27 launch partners for its upcoming crypto's governing council have not yet made any firm commitments to the project, Visa CEO Alfred F. Kelly Jr. said Tuesday. Speaking during a quarterly earnings call, Kelly said his firm, which is one of the entities signed up to join the Libra Association, has only signed a non-binding letter of intent, intended to express interest in Libra. What's more, he said, "no one has yet officially joined." Facebook and the Libra Association have a number of questions to answer before Visa will move forward, including how to handle regulatory compliance issues. Facebook has previously targeted a mid-2020 launch. Full story |
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BEARISH SIGNALS: Bitcoin is on the defensive for the fourth straight day, having breached long-term support on Tuesday. With the drop over the last few days, BTC has left another bearish lower high at $11,120. It also violated the four-month bullish rising trendline by printing a UTC close well below $10,000 on Tuesday. As a result, a short-term move lower to the July 17 low of $9,049 cannot be ruled out. A UTC close above $11,100 is needed to confirm a bullish reversal. Full story |
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| | MUCH-NEEDED TALK: Facebook may be facing a tough task getting regulators behind its Libra cryptocurrency project, but blockchain CEOs see the high-level conversation it’s started as a good thing, according to a Forbes piece. Francis Silva, CEO of Intergalaxy, argued that, with recent Senate hearings over Libra, “we may have finally seen the recognition that the cryptocurrency industry deserves. In either way, the impact on the industry will be huge.” Shigeki Kakutani, CEO and founder of Quras, said the concern shown by regulators globally is “justifiable and not surprising,” and that the pressure will force Facebook to up its privacy game if Libra is to succeed. |
WHO WON #CRYPTOTWITTER |
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