It’s not clear who’s winning, but a lot of news this week centered on regulators trying to rein in the crypto space. It mostly was seen as a positive development that Blockstack is filing for a token filing under Reg A+. However, many were still critical of last week’s SEC token sale framework, others were hopeful about the reintroduction of the Token Taxonomy Act, and still others were critical of the bill.
Meanwhile, I went down the rabbit hole on Grin, a crypto reminiscent of Bitcoin — but private and more scalable. Be sure to read the full show notes on my Forbes page. On Unconfirmed, I spoke with Sam McIngvale about Coinbase Custody’s new staking service. One could call this part of an overall shift from HODL to USEL, as I called it in a recent newsletter.
If a weekend of yoga, nature, healthy food and talking crypto sounds fun to you, then join me, Meltem Demirors and Jalak Jobanputra at Omega Institute’s 250-acre campus in Rhinebeck, NY, the weekend of September 20-22! Sign up here.
This Week’s Crypto News…
First the Framework, Now a Regulated Token Sale
After the SEC released a framework for sales of crypto tokens last week, Blockstack announced that it has filed with the agency to conduct a $50 million offering using Reg A+, often called a mini-IPO. If approved, it would be the first SEC-qualified token offering. And Harvard’s endowment invested. Blockstack CEO Muneeb Ali talked about how it seemed faster for tech to change than for regulations to on Anthony Pompliano’s Off the Chain. See the “historic” document here.
Facebook Still Raising for Its Coin
They’re targeting a big sum like $1 billion, according to Nathaniel Popper of the New York Times. And VCs like Tim Draper.
NYDFS to Bittrex: ‘Fuhgeddaboudit’
The New York Bitlicense garnered more crypto ire this week when Bittrex was rejected for the certification that the industry has largely deemed a mistake. The New York Department of Financial Services called Bittrex’s compliance procedures around, for instance, keeping up to date on OFAC lists of entities subject to U.S. sanctions “nonexistent or inadequate,” and said they enabled customers in Iran and North Korea to transact. Bittrex responded that it reported the transactions from Iran and never had customers in North Korea, and said NYDFS’s decision “harms rather than protects New York customers.”
Token Taxonomy Act Reintroduced
The Blockchain Association criticized last week’s SEC framework as confusing and said this bill would eliminate the uncertainty. But lawyer Jake Chervinsky disagrees.
The Chinese Crypto Mining Ban That Isn’t
If you saw headlines noting that China has outlawed Bitcoin mining, the caveat is … well, that that’s not really true.
Flash Boys 2.0
The subtitle of this paper is “Frontrunning, Transaction Reordering, and Consensus Instability in Decentralized Exchanges.” The authors launched this website to monitor Ethereum gas auctions. Who woulda thunk that the DeFi world is shaping up to be a lot like the OldFi?
Polychain Capital AUM Less Than $1 Billion
The top-tier crypto fund’s assets were at $591.5 million by the end of 2018, down 39% from April 2018, while the total crypto market was down 70% in that time period.
My Chuckle of the Week
These crypto wedding vows make my heart flutter.
