The Disrupt

“Because its debt is held widely in China (and elsewhere), Evergrande could trigger much broader financial fallout if it defaults as the depth of its obvious insolvency becomes clearer. The situation has implications for the crypto ecosystem, both thanks to worries about Tether’s holdings of Chinese debt, and because crypto is clearly vulnerable to downturns in the broader market.

Evergrande’s troubles are also part of a much bigger set of issues with the Chinese equity market, and particularly with the sale of Chinese equities in international markets. Very broadly, Chinese stocks are often treated the same as American equity by investors, but it is still unclear that Chinese accounting, due diligence and regulatory practices are anywhere close to being on par with those in the United States. That means Chinese investments can look sound on paper while being far riskier in reality.

Tether recently denied that it holds Evergrande paper, but it has not denied that it holds Chinese paper more broadly. Even if Evergrande were the only patient in the intensive care unit, its debt could still trigger a default-driven unwind resembling the 2008 financial crisis, potentially destabilizing even completely above-board Chinese companies. Until Tether decides to actually implement some transparency, smart money might want to find a slightly more convincing safe haven.”

See Also: Bitcoin Holds $40K Support, Initial Resistance at $47K

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“The app offers customers the ability to manage all PayPal-related transactions from a single dashboard. The new app covers both crypto and non-crypto use cases with a wallet tab to manage cryptocurrency payments and high yield savings.

Indeed, the PayPal announcement included a partnership with online bank Synchrony Bank to provide a high yield savings account via the new app. Customers could receive up to 0.40% annual percentage yield on their savings with the new app.

PayPal also said it plans to add more features to the app in the coming months, including offline QR code payment and investment capabilities.”

See Also: Robinhood Testing Crypto-Wallet Feature in App: Report

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“SEC Chairman Gary Gensler doubled down on his position that his agency has “robust” authority to regulate the cryptocurrency industry, stating in a conversation with the Washington Post on Tuesday that “most” cryptocurrencies have attributes of securities.

Gensler told the Washington Post that the SEC is currently putting together a report about stablecoins under the guidance of Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen. He also said the SEC is working with banking regulators in order to get expanded authority from Congress to regulate stablecoins.

We’ve got a lot of casinos here in the Wild West. And the poker chip is these stablecoins.

Gensler also said several times during the interview that he doesn’t see private forms of money as viable in the long term, comparing crypto to the Wildcat banking era of the 19th century when banks in remote areas of the U.S. distributed nearly worthless paper currency backed by bonds and other securities.

History tells us that private forms of money don’t last long. I don’t think there’s a long-term viability for 5,000 or 6,000 private forms of money.”

See Also: Coinbase to Propose Crypto Regulations to US Officials: Sources

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“The U.S. government has sanctioned a cryptocurrency exchange for the first time as part of its ongoing fight against ransomware attacks. The Deputy Treasury Secretary said Suex facilitated transactions from at least eight ransomware variants, and as much as 40% of Suex’s transaction volume was associated with addresses linked to known malicious actors.

Exchanges like Suex are critical to attackers’ ability to extract profits from ransomware attacks. Today’s action is a signal of our intention to expose and disrupt the illicit infrastructure used in these attacks.

We’re going to continue to look at [exchanges] within this ecosystem and also look at mixers and see whether and to look for other actions we can take for payments given the importance to protecting our national security.

Chainalysis said, the exchange has received over $480 million in bitcoin transactions since February 2018. The analytics firm was able to tie at least $160 million worth of that to illicit activities.”

See Also: Leaked Slides Show How Chainalysis Flags Crypto Suspects for Cops

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“Banks including JPMorgan Chase and Deutsche Bank oppose “overly conservative” proposals they say would prevent banks from getting involved in crypto asset markets.

The Basel Committee, which is a group within the Bank for International Settlements made up of global regulators and central bankers, suggested that banks with bitcoin exposure should set aside capital to cover losses in full.

We find the proposals in the consultation to be so overly conservative and simplistic that they, in effect, would preclude bank involvement in crypto asset markets.”

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“The European fantasy soccer and digital collectible platform announced a $680 million Series B raise on Tuesday, the largest ever in the non-fungible token (NFT) space. The funding round values the company at $4.3 billion.

Sorare says it has traded over $150 million worth of digital cards on its platform since January and currently has over 600,000 registered users. The company is eyeing basketball, American football and baseball as the next targets for its current model.”

See Also: Genesis Digital Assets Raises $431M for Expansion

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“Internet Computer will utilize its so-called chain key cryptography to integrate with Bitcoin, paving the way for smart contracts with native BTC addresses that are hosted directly on Internet Computer, Dfinity Foundation announced Tuesday.

Smart contracts on Internet Computer will feature associated BTC addresses, giving them direct access to transactions on the Bitcoin blockchain.

Internet Computer smart contracts will gain access to bitcoin liquidity, and Bitcoin will gain powerful new smart contract functionality, without the need for insecure and cumbersome trusted bridging services.”

See Also: Sommelier partners with Mysten Labs to launch Cosmos smart contracts