News
Will Cryptocurrencies Become a Centralized “Hellscape”?
Sarah Brennan is a US corporate and securities lawyer and serves as General Counsel for Delphi Ventures, a VC firm focused on Web3 investments. You have dedicated 14 years to corporate securities law and became active in the digital assets sector in 2017.
Brennan is also a co-founder of the LeXpunK project with its focus on legal defense of decentralized communities.
Speaking exclusively with crypto.news, the cryptocurrency law advocate shared her thoughts on crypto super PACs, lack of regulation, and the danger of recreating the traditional financial system with cryptocurrencies again.
Major institutions are a “double-edged sword”
Over the past year, crypto companies like Ripple and Circle have raised over $100 million to finance congressional campaigns. In doing so, they formed a Crypto super PAC as a response to harsh regulation from the SEC and the Biden administration, such as the controversial SAB 121 cryptocurrency bill that Biden recently supported.
“I personally think that SAB 121 reflects the Biden administration’s various attempts to cut us off from the broader financial system,” Brennan tells crypto.news. “Ultimately, it appears that while the Biden campaign wants our votes, he does not want to be accountable to us on policy.”
7pm on Friday is a cowardly move. There is no bona fide reason for the existence of SAB 121. If someone shows you who they are (for the thousandth time), believe them. https://t.co/xE2UfTW1mk
— S. Brennan (@SH_Brennan) May 31, 2024
However, while Brennan supports “younger, digitally native candidates” in politics, he expresses concern about the nature of lobbying efforts by major players.
“I worry about political momentum and where this will take us: cryptocurrencies are not monolithic and decentralized communities are less able to protect themselves politically.“
“We need more creative attempts at regulation that reflect paradigm shifts in the cryptocurrency industry,” he says. “I think large centralized institutions as the predominant ‘voice’ in the cryptocurrency world is a double-edged sword,” adding that centralized institutions carry the risk of “re-creating the traditional market structure.”
Brennan describes this centralization of political power as “antithetical to the ethics of space.”
“Our current regulatory system is based on these types of intermediaries layered on top of each other, all licensed gatekeepers, all rent-seeking. It’s a great drug, right?”
“Monopolists like we’ve never seen”: centralized crypto explained
Brennan explains what consolidating power in the hands of a few major crypto operators would actually look like.
“Without any legislative or regulatory counterbalancing, we can become a virtual hellscape in practice where large, centralized players are positioned to become monopolists like we have never seen,” Brennan says.
“They can vertically integrate and own everything from infrastructure – L1s, nodes, wallet apps/custody solutions, miners, validators, governance token supply monopolies – while having monopolies on more traditional businesses like trading platforms, weapons market making, management of VCs owning companies and development centers.”
“A centralized future in the cryptocurrency industry only doubles all the evils of the existing system without adding any social value.”
Brennan goes on to add that even without centralized regulation, cryptocurrencies “could be destroyed by concentrated ownership” by the major institutions that now dominate the industry.
“I think new entrants forget that cryptocurrency (Bitcoin) was born out of the 8/09 financial crisis. It was an answer, a reaction to the “too big to fail” monopolists and the evils of the traditional financial system.”
A failed legacy: Where SEC regulation didn’t work
According to Brennan, large institutions in the cryptocurrency sector can and should be regulated, but the challenges this brings are similar to those in the world of traditional finance.
“In the cryptocurrency industry, it makes a lot of sense to regulate large, centralized players, particularly those that have inherent conflicts of interest in their many activities that could pose systemic risks,” Brennan says.
“If you are truly a DINO (Decentralized In Name Only) and not decentralized, you should, by law, be treated like any traditional actor.”
A big problem, of course, to date has been the lack of clarity in regulation, which Brennan believes can actually incentivize bad business practices, largely due to SEC Chairman Gary Gensler.
“Gensler’s legacy, if you can call it that, has been to prosecute good actors and discourage good practices in the industry,” Brennan says, adding that “compliance is often at odds with the business case.”
“Gensler was driven solely by politics and therefore completely failed to produce good political results to the detriment of everyone.”
“The damage it created was largely due to the lack of a policy framework that provided a path for compliance.”
Radical Defense: How Crypto Lawyers Are Reacting
Brennan is a co-founder of LeXpunK, a cryptocurrency law advocacy and funding group that brings together lawyers, cryptocurrency industry professionals, developers and investors. One of the group’s aims is to create potential new legal frameworks and proposals for consideration by regulators.
In 2022, Brennan and a group of co-authors drafted a SEC framework aimed at enabling token projects to legally issue crypto tokens.
The framework would potentially support token creation without running afoul of securities law or endangering end users, even for token projects that do not qualify for the “safe harbor” outlined in existing SEC guidance.
The proposal was discussed in a congressional committee on Fintech in 2023. Although native cryptocurrency legal professionals have improved proposals for regulators to consider seems like an ideal solution to today’s problems, the proposal seems to have fallen on deaf ears for now .
“We seem incredibly reluctant as a nation to examine where political solutions have failed; we lack the ability to rotate or recover, preferring instead to double down.
According to this legal expert, cryptocurrency regulation should focus primarily on preventative antitrust enforcement to prevent institutions from becoming “too big to fail.”
Brennan believes that by preventing monopolies from forming, supporting decentralization, and targeting criminals rather than the technologies they use, regulators could undo the damage done in recent years and help foster a safe and thriving digital asset economy.
The difficulty, of course, is convincing regulators to listen to the experts on the other side of the fence in the first place.
At the time of writing. Brennan is working on a new advocacy initiative to continue supporting decentralized communities.
News
Cryptocurrency Price August 1: Bitcoin Dips Below $65K; Solana, XRP Down Up To 8%
Major cryptocurrencies fell in Thursday trading following the Federal Reserve’s decision to keep its key interest rate unchanged. Overnight, the U.S. Federal Reserve kept its key interest rate at 5.25-5.5% for the eighth consecutive time, as expected, while also signaling the possibility of a rate cut at its next meeting in September. The unanimous decision by the Federal Open Market Committee reflects a continued wait-and-see approach as it monitors inflation trends.
CoinSwitch Markets Desk said: “Bitcoin has fallen below $65,000 after the US Federal Reserve announced it would keep interest rates unchanged. However, with markets now anticipating rate cuts at the next Federal Reserve meeting in September, the outlook for a Bitcoin rally by the end of the year has strengthened.”
Meanwhile, CoinDCX research team said: “The crypto market has plunged after the Fed decision. Tomorrow’s US unemployment rate announcement is expected to induce more volatility, with the ‘actual’ figure coming in higher than the ‘expected’ one, which is positive for cryptocurrencies.”
At 12:21 pm IST, Bitcoin (BTC) was down 3.2% at $64,285, while Ethereum was down nearly 4.5% at $3,313. Meanwhile, the global market cryptocurrency The market capitalization fell 3.6% to around $2.3 trillion in the last 24 hours.
“Bitcoin needs to clear its 200-day EMA at $64,510 to consolidate further. Otherwise, a retest of $62,000 could be in the cards,” said Vikram Subburaj, CEO of Giottus.
Altcoins and meme coins, such as BNB (3%), Solana (8%), XRP (5.7%), Dogecoin (5%), Cardano (4.6%), Avalanche (4.3%), Shiba Inu (3.8%), Polkadot (3.4%), and Chainlink (4%) also saw declines.
The volume of all stablecoins is now $71.64 billion, which is 92.19% of the total cryptocurrency market volume in 24 hours, according to data available on CoinMarketCap. Bitcoin’s dominance is currently 54.99%. BTC volume in the last 24 hours increased by 23.3% to $35.7 billion.
(Disclaimer: Recommendations, suggestions, opinions and views provided by experts are personal. They do not represent the views of the Economic Times)
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News
Altcoins WIF, BONK, RUNE, JUP Down 10% While Bitcoin Drops 4%
Altcoins dogwifhat, Bonk, THORChain, and Jupiter have suffered losses of more than 10%, while Bitcoin is down 4% in the last 24 hours.
After a period of relative calm yesterday, July 31, Bitcoin (BTC) price action has seen a drastic change as the cryptocurrency dropped by more than $3,500, bringing its value to $63,300. At the same time, altcoins mirrored this trend, with the total value of liquidated positions rising to nearly $225 million over the course of the day.
Initially, the week started on a positive note for Bitcoin, which reached its highest point since early June, hitting $70,000. However, this peak was short-lived, as it was quickly rejected, leading to a substantial decline, with Bitcoin falling below $65,500.
The cryptocurrency managed to regain some stability, trading comfortably at around $66,800. However, following a Press conference According to Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, the value of Bitcoin has fallen again to $64,300, down more than 3% in 24 hours.
BTC Price Chart 24 Hours | Source: crypto.news
The recession coincided with a relationship from the New York Times stating that Iran had called for retaliatory measures against Israel following the assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran, increasing the risk of further conflict in the region.
Meanwhile, on the economic front, the Federal Reserve decided to keep its benchmark interest rates in place, offering little information on a planned September rate cut. Powell also hinted that while no concrete decisions have been made on the September adjustment, there is growing consensus that a rate cut is likely.
Amid Bitcoin’s decline, altcoins have suffered even more significant losses. For example, dogwifhat (Wife) saw a 12.4% drop and (DISGUST) has suffered a 10% drop. Other altcoins such as THORChain (RUNE) also fell by 10%, while Jupiter (JUPITER) and the Ethereum naming service (ENS) decreased by 8% and 9% respectively.
Among the largest-cap cryptocurrencies, the biggest losers are Solana (SOL) with a decrease of 8%, (Exchange rate risk) down 6%, Cardano (ADA) down 4%, and both Ethereum (ETH) and Dogecoin (DOGE) recording a decrease of 4.4%.
Data from CoinGlass indicates that approximately 67,000 traders have been negatively impacted by this increased volatility. BTC positions have seen $61.85 million in liquidations, while ETH positions have faced $61 million. In total, the value of liquidated positions stands at $225.4 million at the time of writing.
News
Riot Platforms Sees 52% Drop in Bitcoin Production in Q2
Bitcoin mining firm Riot Platforms has released its second-quarter financial results, highlighting a decline in cryptocurrency mined due to the recent halving.
Colorado-based Bitcoin (BTC) mining company Riot platforms revealed its second quarter financial results, highlighting a significant reduction in mined cryptocurrencies attributed to the recent halving event that took place in early April.
The company reported total revenue of $70 million for the quarter ended July 31, a decline of 8.7% compared to the same period in 2023. Riot Platforms attributed the revenue decline primarily to a $9.7 million decrease in engineering revenue, which was partially mitigated by a $6 million increase in Bitcoin extraction income.
During the quarter, the company mined 844 BTC, representing a decline of over 50% from Q2 2023, citing the halving event and increasing network difficulty as major factors behind the decline. Riot Platforms reported a net loss of $84.4 million, or $0.32 per share, missing Zacks Research forecast a loss of $0.16 per share.
Halving increases competitive pressure
The Colorado-based firm said the average cost of mining one BTC in the second quarter, including energy credits, rose to $25,327, a remarkable 341% increase from $5,734 per BTC in the same quarter of 2023. Despite this significant increase in production costs, the firm remains optimistic about maintaining competitiveness through recent deals.
For example, following the Recent acquisition Cryptocurrency firm Block Mining, Riot has increased its distributed hash rate forecast from 31 EH/s to 36 EH/s by the end of 2024, while also increasing its 2025 forecast from 40 EH/s to 56 EH/s.
Riot Platforms Hashrate Growth Projections by 2027 | Source: Riot Platforms
Commenting on the company’s financials, Riot CEO Jason Les said that despite the halving, the mining company still managed to achieve “significant operational growth and execution of our long-term strategy.”
“Despite this reduction in production available to all Bitcoin miners, Riot reported $70 million in revenue for the quarter and maintained strong gross margins in our core Bitcoin mining business.”
Jason Les
Following its Q2 financial report, Riot Platforms shares fell 1.74% to $10.19, according to Google Finance data. Meanwhile, the American miner continues to chase Canadian rival Bitfarms, recently acquiring an additional 10.2 million BITF shares, increasing its stake in Bitfarms to 15.9%.
As previously reported by crypto.news, Riot was the first announced a $950 million takeover bid for Bitfarms in late May, arguing that Bitfarms’ founders were not acting in the best interests of all shareholders. They said their proposal was rejected by Bitfarms’ board without substantive engagement.
In response, Bitfarms She said that Riot’s offer “significantly understates” its growth prospects. Bitfarms subsequently implemented a shareholder rights plan, also known as a “poison pill,” to protect its strategic review process from hostile takeover attempts.
News
Aave Price Increases Following Whales Accumulation and V3.1 Launch
Decentralized finance protocol Aave is seeing a significant spike in whale activity as the market looks to recover from the recent crash that pushed most altcoins into key support areas earlier this week.
July 31, Lookonchain shared details indicating that the whales had aggressively accumulated Aave (AAVE) over the past two days. According to the data, whales have withdrawn over 58,848 AAVE worth $6.47 million from exchanges during this period.
In one instance, whale address 0x9af4 withdrew 11,185 AAVE worth $1.23 million from Binance. Meanwhile, another address moved 21,619 AAVE worth over $2.38 million from the exchange and deposited the tokens into Aave.
These withdrawals follow a previous transfer of 26,044 AAVE from whale address 0xd7c5, amounting to over $2.83 million withdrawn from Binance.
AAVE price has surged over 7% in the past 24 hours amid buy-side pressure from these whales. The DeFi token is currently trading around $111 after jumping over 18% in the past week.
Recently, the price of AAVE increased by over 8% after Aave founder Marc Zeller announced a proposed fee change aimed at adopting a buyback program for AAVE tokens.
Aave v3.1 is available
The total value locked in the Aave protocol currently stands at around $22 billion. According to DeFiLlamaApproximately $19.9 billion is on Aave V3, while the V2 chain still holds approximately $1.9 billion in TVL and V1 approximately $14.6 million.
Aave Labs announced Previously, Aave V3.1 was made available on all networks with active Aave V3 instances.
V3.1 features improvements that are intended to improve the overall security of the DeFi protocol. The Aave DAO governance has approved the v3.1 improvements, which also include operational efficiency and usability for the network.
Meanwhile, Aave Labs recently outlined a ambitious roadmap for the projectwith a 2030 vision for Aave V4, among other developments.
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