Fed’s Powell Eyes Oversight of Stablecoin Issuers

THIS WEEK IN CRYPTO

• Powell eyes oversight of stablecoin issuers and regulation of crypto wallets. Speaking at a Bank of France conference about the digitization of finance, Powell said the focus of stablecoin regulation should be on the impact of these crypto tokens, pegged to another asset like the dollar if they are used more widely by the public. He also floated wider crypto regulation that could impact digital asset wallets.

• Celsius CEO Alex Mashinsky steps down. “I regret that my continued role as CEO has become an increasing distraction, and I am very sorry about the difficult financial circumstances members of our community are facing,” Mashinsky wrote in his resignation letter, according to a press release issued by the law firm representing him.

• Kraken CEO Jesse Powell steps down. Kraken’s largest shareholder, Mr. Powell will remain on the board as chairman. He plans to stay active in the company, spending his time on product development and industry advocacy. Dave Ripley, the current chief operating officer, will succeed Mr. Powell. The company says it expects to hire a new chief compliance officer in the next few weeks. Read more here.

• FTX Wins Auction for Voyager Digital's assets. FTX won an auction for the assets of Voyager Digital Ltd. with a purchase price of around $50 million, according to people familiar with the matter. It said FTX’s bid was the highest and best bid for its assets and includes the worth of all of Voyager’s cryptocurrency—which it estimates to be $1.3 billion at current market prices.

• Crypto billionaire Bankman-Fried is eyeing a bid for Celsius assets. FTX is also in the process of raising a $1 billion funding round. That round hasn’t closed yet or been made public. Sam Bankman-Fried, the crypto billionaire who has been bailing out distressed industry players in recent months. Read more here.

• Crypto lender Nexo gets a U.S. bank charter after buying a stake in a regulated bank. Nexo said it has agreed to buy an undisclosed stake in Hulett Bancorp, which owns a little-known bank called Summit National Bank. Through Summit National Bank, Nexo plans to offer a range of products including checking accounts and crypto-backed loans.

• NFT trading volumes collapse 97% from the January peak. They slid to just $466 million in September from $17 billion at the start of 2022, according to data from Dune Analytics. The fading NFT mania is part of a wider, $2 trillion wipeout in the crypto sector as rapidly tightening monetary policy starves speculative assets of investment flows.

• Australia's CBDC pilot is to be completed in 2023. That's according to a white paper published on Monday. The purpose of the pilot is to "explore innovative use cases" that could be supported by the issuance of a CBDC, a media release said. The white paper, which is a document produced by the bank that can later be used to inform future laws, said the project was also looking into regulatory considerations associated with a CBDC.

• ApeCoin plans to introduce a new staking rewards program on Oct. 31. While details are still being finalized, the new staking program will involve rewards for both ApeCoin holders and Bored Ape NFT holders. By adjusting these rewards over time, ApeCoin will have a new way to stimulate demand for both the coin and the NFTs.

• Apple allows in-app NFT purchases. Apple simultaneously just normalized NFTs and increased the market for them dramatically and is also centralizing the sale of NFTs and taking a 30% cut of all those sales. Vinnie Lingham says that this may be a start where Google will follow suit and also allow NFTs but with a 20% cut. Meta started using NFTs via Instagram and that may have been the reason why Apple is exploring this space. Source(3:14)