United States
‘DeFi is the most dangerous part of the crypto world,’ says Senator Elizabeth Warren
Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren did not hold back in her criticism of decentralized finance (DeFi), expressing concern about how a run on stablecoins would affect the average investor. In a Tuesday hearing with the Senate Banking Committee discussing stablecoins, Warren questioned Hilary Allen, a professor at the American University Washington College of Law, as to whether a run on stablecoins could potentially endanger the United States financial system. Though Allen said an “en masse” redemption of stablecoins from people who had lost faith in the tokens would be unlikely to have “systemic consequences” for traditional markets at present, the DeFi system would be more likely to feel the effects. Warren countered that because stablecoins provided “the lifeblood of the DeFi eco...
SEC chair’s regulatory agenda fails to include clarity on crypto, says Hester Peirce
Hester Peirce, a commissioner for the United States Securities and Exchange Commission known by many in the space as Crypto Mom, is pushing back against the regulatory body’s agenda for not including clarification on digital assets. In a Monday joint statement, Peirce and SEC Commissioner Elad Roisman said they were “disappointed” in the failure of chairperson Gary Gensler’s regulatory agenda to include items aimed at helping companies raise capital, furthering investor protection, undoing recent rules passed by the commission and providing clarification on crypto. According to the two regulators, Gensler’s uncertain stance on digital assets may create problems for firms looking to operate in the space. “Rather than taking on the difficult task of formulating rules to allow investors and r...
Point of no return? Crypto investment products could be key to mass adoption
The first Bitcoin (BTC) futures exchange-traded fund (ETF) was launched in the United States back on October 19, 2021. Since then, a number of other cryptocurrency investment products have been launched in various markets. That first ETF, the ProShares Bitcoin Strategy ETF, quicklybecame one of the top ETFs of all time by trading volume on its debut, and soon after, several other Bitcoin futures ETFs were launched in the United States, providing investors with different investment options. To Martha Reyes, head of research at cryptocurrency trading platform Bequant, these options are important. Speaking to Cointelegraph, Reyes pointed out that in traditional finance, ETFs have “proved to be incredibly popular in recent years, with ETF assets expected to reach $14 trillion by 2024.” Reyes s...
Enterprise blockchain to play a pivotal role in creating a sustainable future
Bitcoin (BTC) is often used to criticize all blockchain-based projects. This is understandable since Bitcoin was the first project to use a blockchain, is arguably the most recognizable and is the largest cryptocurrency by market cap. In the first half of this article, I will use Bitcoin as a proxy for all blockchain-based projects because most people associate blockchain with Bitcoin. Anything environmentally positive that can be said about Bitcoin will be doubly true for the vast majority of newer blockchain-based projects since Bitcoin uses the oldest version of blockchain technology. Blockchain energy consumption Bitcoin has been attacked for high energy consumption. Headlines pointing out that Bitcoin’s electricity usage is comparable to a country’s total consumption is a popula...
Reelected Miami mayor to take 401k retirement savings partly in Bitcoin
The long-standing mayor of Miami Francis Suarez has now announced plans to take a part of his 401(k) payout in Bitcoin (BTC) just a month after he started receiving salary in BTC. Soon after becoming the first United States lawmaker to accept a part of his salary in Bitcoin, Suarez wants to dedicate a part of his retirement savings to Bitcoin based on “a personal choice,” he said in an interview with Real Vision: “I just think it is a good asset to be invested in. I think it’s one that’s obviously going to appreciate over time. It’s one that I believe in.” Suarez highlighted that Bitcoin’s success is tightly tied to the confidence in the system, which is inherently an “open-source, un-manipulatable system”. The mayor revealed that he has started receiving salary payments in Bitcoin t...
FATF guidance on virtual assets: NFTs win, DeFi loses, rest remains unchanged
The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) released its long-awaited guidance on virtual assets, laying out standards that have the potential to reshape the crypto industry in the United States and around the world. The guidance addresses one of the most important challenges for the crypto industry: To convince regulators, legislators and the public that it does not facilitate money laundering. The guidance is particularly concerned with the parts of the crypto industry that have recently brought about significant regulatory uncertainty including decentralized finance (DeFi), stablecoins and nonfungible tokens (NFTs). The guidance largely follows the emerging approach of U.S. regulators toward DeFi and stablecoins. In a positive note for the industry, the FATF is seemingly less aggressive towa...
US SPL fans can watch Rangers, Celtic and co on CBS Sports from next month
CBS Sports have acquired the US broadcasting rights to the Scottish Premiership for the next four seasons, according to World Soccer Talk. The CBS Sports Network have been working hard to secure the rights to as many football competitions as possible from around the world. Their current selection of leagues is somewhat limited, but they have the US rights to the Champions League, Europa League, and Serie A. CBS are expanding their network of football leagues The company also currently holds the rights to several CONCACAF World Cup qualifying matches, the National Women’s Soccer League, numerous top games in Asia, and the Brazilian and Argentinian top flights. And now they look set to add another league to their selection, with World Soccer Talk reporting that they have purchased the broadc...
Cuba blames unrest on U.S. interference as Joe Biden backs protests
Cuba blamed historic protests that took place over the weekend on U.S. “economic asphyxiation” and social media campaigns by a minority of U.S.-financed counter-revolutionaries, while U.S. President Joe Biden said he stood with the Cuban people. The streets of Havana were quiet on Monday, although there was a heavy police presence. Outages in mobile internet – the only way many Cubans have of accessing the web – were frequent. Chanting “freedom” and calling for President Miguel Diaz-Canel to step down, thousands of Cubans joined street protests here from Havana to Santiago on Sunday in the biggest anti-government demonstrations on the Communist-run island in decades. At least 80 protesters, activists, and independent journalists had been detained nationwide since Sunday, according to exile...
White House does not rule out Haiti request for U.S. troops
The United States is still reviewing a request for troops made by Haiti’s interim Prime Minister Claude Joseph to help secure key infrastructure after the assassination of President Jovenel Moise, White House spokesperson Jen Psaki said on Monday. Psaki said Haiti’s political leadership remains unclear and that it was vital for the country’s leaders to come together to chart a united path forward. Moise was shot dead early on Wednesday at his Port-au-Prince home by what Haitian authorities describe as a unit of assassins formed of 26 Colombians and two Haitian Americans. Haitian police said on Sunday they had arrested another key suspect. The death of the president has plunged the troubled country into deeper turmoil, and U.S. officials traveled there on Sunday to assess the situation and ...
Pentagon: US team going to Haiti to assess needs
A team of U.S. security and law enforcement experts is traveling to Haiti to determine what assistance Washington can provide following the assassination of the Haitian president last week, the Pentagon said on Sunday. “Today, an inter-agency team largely from the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI are heading down to Haiti right now to see what we can to do help in the investigative process,” Pentagon spokesman John Kirby told “Fox News Sunday.” “That’s really where our energies are best applied right now – in helping them get their arms around investigating this incident and figuring out who’s culpable … and how best to hold them accountable,” Kirby said in the interview. President Joe Biden will be briefed by the team when it returns and “then make decisions about the way forwa...
Haiti asks US, UN to send troops after president’s assassination
Haiti has asked Washington and the UN for troops to secure its ports, airport and other strategic sites after the assassination of President Jovenel Moise opened a power vacuum in the crisis-hit Caribbean nation, an official said Friday. The United States has already said it will send FBI and other agents to Port-au-Prince, two days after Moise was shot dead in his home. In the wake of the slaying “we thought that mercenaries could destroy some infrastructure to create chaos … During a conversation with the US secretary of state and the UN we made this request,” elections minister Mathias Pierre told AFP. The US State Department and Pentagon both confirmed receiving a request for “security and investigative assistance” and said officials remain in contact with Port-au-Prince, but did not s...
Moderna starts human trials of an mRNA-based flu shot
Moderna gave its mRNA-based seasonal flu vaccine to the first set of volunteers in a clinical trial, the pharmaceutical company announced today. The start of the trial marks the next stage of the company’s work on this type of vaccine technology after the overwhelming success of its COVID-19 vaccine, which was built using the same strategy. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, mRNA vaccines were still largely experimental, even as they were heralded as the future of vaccine development. People who get an mRNA vaccine are injected with tiny snippets of genetic material from the target virus. Their cells use that genetic information to build bits of the virus, which the body’s immune system learns to fight against. The high efficacy of the mRNA COVID-19 vaccines made by Moderna and Pfizer / BioNTec...
