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Harris again takes issue with cryptocurrencies
Hours after pledging to support Black men's right to safely invest in cryptocurrencies, Vice President Kamala Harris' Monday night speech stopped short of providing details.
Harris' Opportunity Agenda for Black Men was released Monday morning. The policy proposal emphasizes how the administration will uplift the community of Black men by giving them the tools to “build wealth, support their families, and lead their communities.”
Is it one of the tools to build wealth? Give black men the opportunity to “benefit from financial innovation” – cryptocurrencies.
Specifically, the agenda item states that Harris is committed to “supporting a regulatory framework for cryptocurrencies and other digital assets that protects Black men who invest in and own virtual currencies and other digital assets.” It says that there are.
The proposal was made public last night ahead of Harris' planned rally in Erie, Pennsylvania. More on that in a moment. First, let's talk about the response.
Many praised the initiative as a welcome effort to uplift marginalized communities. Others criticized the wording of the agenda, saying they were frustrated that the Harris administration only viewed Black men in crypto as investors (rather than leaders or builders).
The agenda itself mentions cryptocurrencies twice. The first time was quoted above.
The second one is: “More than 20% of Black Americans own or have owned cryptocurrency assets. Vice President Harris praises how new technology expands access to banking and financial services. I am.”
This is similar to the limited statements we have heard from Harris regarding cryptocurrencies in the past. It's not obviously negative, but it's probably too vague to be truly positive. Last month, presidential candidates mentioned blockchain/digital assets twice. The first time was at a fundraising event in New York, where he said he would “encourage” new technologies like cryptocurrencies, and the second time, during a speech in Pennsylvania, where he said the U.S. would “continue to dominate” in blockchain technology. .
However, last night's appearance in Pennsylvania disappointed those who were expecting more crypto-focused commentary. She mentioned blockchain a total of 0 times.
Still, can't a beggar be a chooser? Is limited and unclear statements better than nothing? Galaxy Research's Alex Thorne argues that Harris' (relative) clarity is at least better than the current administration's. . In the Galaxy's “Policy Scorecard” released Monday, analysts said Harris was “moderately supportive” and “slightly better than Biden” on several issues.
These issues include the industry's relationship with the SEC, Harris' approach to regulating Bitcoin mining, and her position on banking laws.
Specifically, Thorne said Harris has hinted that she is interested in relaxing the so-called “Operation Chokepoint 2.0” policy, which seeks to isolate crypto players from the banking system. However, these evaluations are based on a very limited sample pool. There's not much that goes off when trying to evaluate Harris.
Mr. Trump has shown the public a clearer position regarding cryptocurrencies than Ms. Harris. He wants to fire Gary Gensler. He wants to make the United States a center for Bitcoin mining. He wants to prevent the US government from selling seized Bitcoin.
But ultimately, neither candidate has a comprehensive policy proposal on digital assets. All we can do is analyze what they said and look to each team member to gather their opinions. But time is running out.
— casey wagner
～2,900
On-chain data shows the number of people who bought a combined 344 million World Liberty Financial tokens after the President Trump-backed project went live this morning.
The project has allocated 20 billion tokens for general sale out of a total of 100 billion tokens. The sale was disclosed to accredited investors in the United States. WIFL's KYC initiative began two weeks ago.
DTCC plunges again into tokenization segment at “inflection point”
It was just nearly a year ago that Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC) revealed its acquisition of blockchain-based financial and regulatory technology developer Securrency.
Now, the financial market infrastructure giant has introduced a so-called sandbox to “clear the path to scalable adoption of digital assets.”
For those who don't know, DTCC (according to its website) processes trillions of dollars in securities transactions every day.
The new service, called DTCC Digital Launchpad, aims to bring together technology providers and other companies to collaborate on “pilots with a clear path to production.”
Japan Securities Clearing Corporation (JSCC) led a proof of concept on its platform to explore how central counterparties can utilize tokenization within the collateral management process of clearing members and their buy-side firms. . We specifically focused on how margin calls can be automated by using digital assets and smart contracts to increase efficiency and transparency.
Ultimately, JSCC used DTCC's blockchain-based infrastructure to issue digital assets such as cash, stocks, and bonds, JSCC CEO Yasuyuki Onuma said in a statement.
Last year's security agreement was intended to allow DTCC to speed up the development of a platform aimed at “unleashing the power of institutional DeFi,” the company said at the time.
Elliott Chun, a partner at advisory firm Architect Partners, wrote in a research note last year that tokenization has yet to live up to its promise.
“The fundamental way to move the industry forward is to get very important market participants to invest heavily in technology,” Chun said in an October 2023 post. “Nothing is more important than DTCC.”
The DTCC release presents a prediction that $16 trillion worth of tokenized securities could exist on digital rails by 2030. Standard Chartered predicts that the tokenized real-world asset market will reach $30 trillion by 2034.
We've seen a number of tokenization efforts take place in recent months, from TradFi players testing regulated payment networks to the launch of Visa's tokenized asset platform sandbox.
But still, adoption of the technology appears to have stalled, argues Nadeem Chakar, head of digital assets at DTCC. The executive told Blockworks on Tuesday that the industry is indeed at a “tipping point.”
“Innovation is an evolving process, and if we continue to develop in silos, we risk repeating the mistakes of the past and causing further market fragmentation,” Chakhar said. “We believe DTCC can play a key role in the development of this ecosystem and build a common infrastructure by fostering industry collaboration on standards, data, liquidity and infrastructure.”
It may take some time to see the impact of this new DTCC service (pilots and participants are expected to be announced in Q1 2025), but it's worth watching.
— Ben Struck
Coinbase executives weigh presidential candidates
You've read Casey's breakdown of the Vice President's latest comments, and we're officially three weeks away from Election Day.
The outcome on November 5th will be very important, Coinbase Chief Policy Officer Faryal Shirzad told me on Permissionless last week. But he also urged the industry not to lose sight of the progress it has made.
“I can't help but conclude that this election year has already been an extraordinary success, and whatever happens on Election Day will add to the success we've already had by being on the main political stage,” Shirzad said. Only,” he said. .
Donald Trump “deserves a great deal of credit for what he has said on crypto issues and how comprehensive his vision is,” the executive added.
In particular, Shirzad praised President Trump's pledge to support crypto businesses being built in the United States and to oppose regulators who abuse their power over the industry.
But more than that, what Coinbase executives heard was Trump's defense of the right to self-manage cryptocurrencies.
“My interpretation of what he means is that he is protecting the DeFi ecosystem and individuals’ ability to… control it.” [their wallet] And they have all the Fourth Amendment protections and privileges that they should be entitled to,” Shirzad said. “I think this was a huge policy victory, and I think it's something that I hope Democrats will embrace at some point,” he said.
Shirzad also noted that Harris deserves some credit for the efforts she has made to interact with the crypto community and for her seemingly more constructive intentions on the issue.
Mr. Shirzad said there was a “positive” atmosphere during his outreach efforts with members of Mr. Harris' campaign, adding that advisers were “eager to listen to what we see as the issues and try to better understand them.” ” he added.
“There are reasons for optimism on both sides,” Shirzad explained. “But at the end of the day, more substance and more detail is important, and we look forward to hearing more from the vice president between now and Election Day.”
Some may feel that Harris' comments last night were a bit lacking in detail. It's anyone's guess whether she or Trump will talk more about cryptocurrencies (and how they choose to get into the weeds) over the next 21 days.
— Ben Strzok
bulletin board
- Canary Capital filed an S-1 for its Litecoin ETF with the SEC on Tuesday. The filing comes after the company took a page out of Bitwise's book last week and threw its hat into the XRP ETF ring. These products require SEC approval before they are allowed to go on sale.
- Bitnomial, which is regulated by the CFTC, has announced plans to launch a U.S. perpetual futures trading platform. The product announcement follows Bitnomial's $25 million Series C funding, which closed over the summer.
- Coinbase filed a joint complaint with the SEC (with consulting firm History Associates Incorporated) on Tuesday. The lawsuit, filed by Coinbase in June, deals with alleged violations of the Freedom of Information Act by the SEC. Coinbase is now asking the court to schedule a hearing to discuss the exchange's request for partial summary judgment.
- Following the rally in BTC, the US Spot Bitcoin ETF recorded net inflows of $556 million on Monday. This was the segment's highest daily inflow total since June 4.
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