🏦$7 Trillion Schwab Prepares for Crypto - TWJ #97
How long would these firms wait until they directly touch crypto?
In today’s issue:
The crypto market is slightly down with the global market cap sitting at ~$1.8-1.9 trillion. WAVES led the top 100 assets past 7-d performance. Global markets drop as risk appetite continue to decrease alongside the geopolitical tension.
In other news, the SEC considers new crypto recommendations, the IRS signals more John Doe requests from crypto exchanges, and Charles Schwab prepares its first crypto product.
We’re continually improving our content, please reach out if you have ideas or would like us to recap another segment of the market.
- Curated by Marco Manoppo (@manoppomarco)
📰Market News
⎆SEC Considers New Crypto Recommendations
The Securities and Exchange Commission is considering new crypto recommendations for investment advisors and companies, especially any aspect surrounding the custody rule.
The custody rule, also known as the Advisers Act, requires advisers to hold a client's securities with a designated qualified custodian. Qualified custodians are essentially banks, broker-dealers and trusts licensed on the federal or state levels. Some crypto firms have already nabbed the designation, like Coinbase's custody service and Anchorage Digital Bank.
⎆IRS Signals More John Doe Requests From Crypto Exchanges
The IRS stated that the crypto industry should expect more information requests, specifically crypto exchanges and stablecoin providers such as Coinbase, Kraken, and Circle.
Perhaps most notably, Schenck remarked that the IRS may utilize so-called John Doe letters in order to seek information from crypto exchanges. Such requests have been made to Coinbase as well as Kraken and Circle; in such cases, the exchanges themselves aren't accused of wrongdoing, but rather the IRS is looking for potential tax cheats.
⎆Charles Schwab Prepares Its First Crypto Product
Charles Schwab, one of the largest financial services firms in the world, plans its first-ever in-house crypto product for its 33 million asset management clients. A prospectus was filed with the SEC stating that the firm’s ETF would invest in companies that have exposure to the crypto economy, but not yet directly buying any coins.
👨🏻💻Decentralized Finance (DeFi)
1inch Network Adds a P2P Feature to Facilitate Secure Crypto Swaps
ENS Addition to AAVE V2
JPEG’d Protocol Update
Yield Protocol Live on Arbitrum
Diffusion Finance Launches Airdrop
Vote to Remove Brantly Millegan From ENS Foundation Likely to Fail
Avalanche Users Can Now Buy Polygon or BSC Assets in a Single Transaction
🏛Governance - Active Proposals
Code4rena - C4IP-8: Migration to New Governor Contract
Compound - Add Market: MATIC & Update Price Oracle
Dope Wars - Feb-26 Payments & Governance Updates
Indexed - Early Termination of NDX Liquidity Program
NounsDAO - Nouns 3D-printed fashion collection by DANIT: milestones 3+4
Uniswap - Should Uniswap Provide Voltz with v3 Additional Use Grant?
🦮NFT & Metaverse
OpenSea Blocks Users in Iran Due to U.S. Sanctions
The Sandbox Metaverse Hits 2M Users, Begins K-Pop Partnership
NFT Market Cools as Trading on Ethereum and Solana Dips
Michael Jordan’s Solana Athlete App HEIR Drops First NFTs
Duelist Kings Alpha Version is live
Legends Of Mitra Launches Test Version
Top Sales (Last 24-h); Source: https://dappradar.com/nft
📈Deal Flow & Capital Raise
ArDrive - $17.2M Unknown Round
Zignaly - $50M Unknown Round
Lido - $70M Unknown Round
metaENGINE - $4M Seed Round
Praxis - $15M Series A
⚖️Regulatory Update
MetaMask, Infura Block ‘Certain Areas’ Amid Crypto Sanctions Fury
Foundry Digital Joins Crypto Lobbying Group Blockchain Association
Three Hundred Crypto Firms Investigated Last Year, Says FCA
The SEC is Considering Crypto Recommendations for Its Custody Rule
Three People Sentenced to Prison for Unlicensed Bitcoin Exchange
Venezuelan Users of MetaMask Say They Can No Longer Access it
Swiss City of Lugano to Make Bitcoin and Tether 'De Facto' Legal Tender
📚Noteworthy Reads
Messari’s Thread on The NFT Effect on Music Industry
QCP Capital’s Thread on Crypto Market Update
Deribit’s Thread on Skew
Feel free to reach out to manoppomarco@gmail.com — feedbacks and constructive criticisms are much appreciated.