Opinions

US SEC Chair: BTC Won’t Be on Major Exchanges Without More Regulation: United States Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Jay Clayton has said Bitcoin needs stronger regulation in order to be traded on a major exchange. CNBC reported on Sept. 19 that Clayton made his remarks at the Delivering Alpha conference. Warning investors to be wary, he added:

“If [investors] think there’s the same rigor around that price discovery as there is on the Nasdaq or New York Stock Exchange… They are sorely mistaken. […] We have to get to a place where we can be confident that trading is better regulated.”

Bakkt CEO: 3 Reasons Why Bitcoin Product Launch Is a Big Deal: Following the launch of Bakkt’s Bitcoin futures, the company listed three reasons why the event is an important milestone for the industry. In a statement on Sept. 23, Bakkt CEO Kelly Loeffler emphasized that the successful launch of Bakkt Bitcoin Futures contracts is the first time when United States-regulated, physically settled Bitcoin futures became available. Loeffler pointed out that the sole fact that such a product now exists may matter more than the precise details of the initiative.

Stressing that the launch of the service is an important step to bringing trusted infrastructure to digital assets, Bakkt CEO outlined the mission of the company as “expanding access to the global economy by building trust in and unlocking the value of digital assets.”

Loeffler further listed three reasons why the product matters. These include:

Reliable and regulated infrastructure;

Adoption of new digital currency-powered technology and financial instruments;

The rapid expansion of innovative methods for managing and transferring digital value.

The CEO explained:

“With operations, cybersecurity and controls, along with end-to-end-regulation demanded by investors and consumers, confidence in using digital currency — not just to invest, but to also use in transacting — will grow.”

Crypto’s Huge Expansion Is ‘Just Going to Get Bigger’, Says US Regulator: Brian Quintenz, a member of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission, says the crypto industry is expanding and is “just going to get bigger.”

In an interview with CNBC, Quintenz says,

“We’ve traditionally been a principles-based regulator. So we’ve tried not to be a prescriptive regulator where those rules are prescribed at one point in time for a snapshot of the marketplace. Then they fail to evolve and they need to be updated. So if we can come up with principles that can apply to products, whether they’re the traditional commodities like corn and wheat and oil, whether they’re financial commodities, or whether they’re new cryptographic commodities — just putting guardrails around that. Then let the market decide if there’s a business case, a use case or an investment case for those products. As long as we have comfort that they’re appropriately margined and that they’re not readily susceptible to manipulation.”

Libra Does Not Threaten Sovereignty of Nations, Says Calibra CEO: CEO of Calibra, Facebook’s digital wallet for its proposed Libra stablecoin, has attempted to debunk the notion of Libra’s threat to the global financial system.

Amid the ongoing meeting between Libra founders and 26 global central banks in Basel, Calibra CEO David Marcus has stepped up to protect the position of the Libra Association on Twitter on Sept. 16.

In a Twitter thread titled “About monetary sovereignty of Nations vs. Libra,” Marcus wrote:

US Treasury: Non-Compliant Fintechs Won’t Survive the War on Terror: United States Treasury undersecretary Sigal Mandelker stated that cryptocurrencies could become “the next frontier” in the war on terrorism. According to a press release published on the U.S. Treasury’s website on Sept. 11, Mandelker made her remarks during the 19th annual international conference on counterterrorism.

Libra Must Comply with Anti-Money Laundering Standards: US Treasury: Facebook’s Libra stablecoin must meet the highest Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and terrorism financing standards, according to United States Treasury Under Secretary of Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Sigal Mandelker. Business news outlet Reuters reported Mandelker’s remarks on Sept. 10.

Former US Congressman Calls for Nuanced Cryptocurrency Regulations: Former United States Representative Harold J. Ford has argued that Congress should have a nuanced approach to regulating cryptocurrencies. In an article published on CNBC, Ford said that lawmakers and regulators should develop clear regulations toward digital currencies. He noted a comment from Chris Larsen, the executive chairman and co-founder of blockchain startup Ripple, who asked Congress, “Please do not paint us with a broad brush,” when referring to the crypto industry.

The IRS Is Blindly Coming After Cryptocurrency Traders — Here’s Why by David Kemmerer, the co-founder and CEO of CryptoTrader.Tax, a tax reporting platform for cryptocurrency investors.

Over the past month, we have seen the IRS, the tax collecting agency of the United States, send out more than 10,000 warning and action letters to suspected cryptocurrency holders and traders who may have misreported digital assets on their tax returns. Letters like the 6174-A, 6173 and CP2000 have appeared in the mailboxes of cryptocurrency traders throughout the country, and the crypto tax software company that I run has seen an influx of frantic customers coming to us for tax help out of fear of penalties.

The problem here is that the IRS doesn’t have all of the necessary information. In fact, not only does it not have all the information, but the information that it does have on the cryptocurrency holders that it is sending letters to is extremely misleading. This information, which was supplied to the IRS by cryptocurrency exchanges like Coinbase, is causing the agency to blindly and oftentimes inaccurately come after cryptocurrency traders.

Related: Internal Revenue Service Sends New Round of Letters to Crypto Holders

3 Global Monetary Policies That Are Bullish for Cryptocurrency: Policymakers around the globe are enacting measures that make cryptocurrencies attractive to everyday investors. Some of these policies were drafted to monitor cryptocurrency transactions. However, there are some rules that limit a person’s financial liberties. Thus, such laws add to the appeal of digital assets. In this article, the authors reveal the three monetary policies that are bullish for cryptocurrencies.

Do Crypto Payment Restrictions Undermine Blockchain’s Core Values? in CoinTelegraph.