“The consumer price index rose 7%, but many investors anticipated a steeper increase; bitcoin and ether prices notched solid gains during the U.S. trading day.
There had been fears in the market that prices might have climbed even faster, which would have put additional pressure on the Federal Reserve to move more aggressively to tighten monetary conditions and cool down the economy.
U.S. stocks closed higher, also due to cooling concerns that the Fed might get more aggressive in tackling inflation.”
See Also: US Inflation Rose to Nearly Four-Decade High of 7% in December
“Minnesota Representative Tom Emmer has announced he will be introducing a bill intended to prevent the Federal Reserve from acting as a retail bank in the potential issuance of a digital dollar.
Emmer said the bill would prohibit the Fed from issuing a central bank digital currency, or CBDC, directly to U.S. consumers. According to the Minnesota representative, having the government entity require users to open accounts to access the benefits of a digital dollar would ‘put the Fed on an insidious path akin to China’s digital authoritarianism.’
The Fed does not, and should not, have the authority to offer retail bank accounts. Regardless, any CBDC implemented by the Fed must be open, permissionless and private. This means that any digital dollar must be accessible to all, transact on a blockchain that is transparent to all, and maintain the privacy elements of cash.”
See Also: House of Lords Committee Sees ‘No Convincing Case’ for UK CBDC
“A group of U.S. banks plans to offer its own stablecoin, called USDF, in a move to tackle concerns about the reserves behind nonbank-issued equivalents. Founding members of the USDF Consortium include Synovus (the 48th largest bank in the U.S. by assets), New York Community Bank (No. 45), FirstBank (No. 88) and Sterling National Bank (No, 77).
The coin addresses the consumer protection and regulatory concerns of nonbank issued stablecoins.
USDF will operate on the Provenance blockchain and will be redeemable 1:1 for cash from any of the group’s members.”
See Also: Why Brazilians Are Turning to Stablecoins Like Tether
“The move could open the door for Coinbase to offer crypto derivatives products in the U.S. At present, only a handful of exchanges allow U.S. investors to trade bitcoin and ether futures, with cash-settled products being both the most popular and the longest-available products.
FTX.US acquired LedgerX last August with a similar aim. Crypto.com also acquired retail derivatives platform Nadex late last year. FairX has relationships with major brokerages including TD Ameritrade, E*Trade, ABN AMRO, Wedbush, Virtu Financial and a handful of others.
The development of a transparent derivatives market is a critical inflection point for any asset class and we believe it will unlock further participation in the cryptoeconomy for retail and institutional investors alike.”
See Also: Checkout.com Raises $1B, Eyes Web 3 Push
See Also: Torus Rebrands to Web3Auth, Raises $13M to Simplify Crypto Logins
“Consumer credit reporting company TransUnion will enable consumers to give crypto lenders access to their personal credit data in a move that could greatly expand the possibilities of lending in the digital asset market.
Cryptocurrency investors could now receive better interest rates when borrowing money thanks to lenders being able to judge their risk profile based on credit data. Furthermore, lenders could now issue loans without requiring any collateral at all depending on the customer’s creditworthiness.
Users register with the digital passport to obtain anti-money laundering and know-your-customer verification that can be attached to their digital wallets.
Providing credit and identity data on-chain is a huge step towards improving the financial products available in the space.”
The Disrupt 