22 February

CDCROP: The Hong Kong skyline (Bady Abbas/Unsplash)

Crypto in Hong Kong Getting Soft Backing From Beijing: Bloomberg

“According to Bloomberg, officials from China’s Liaison Office have been frequent guests at crypto gatherings in Hong Kong. The tone of their visits and followup calls with certain projects has been friendly.

Some stakeholders think that this can be seen as an endorsement of Hong Kong’s push to become a crypto hub, with the Special Administrative Region of China using its separate legal system and markets to be a testing ground – much in the same way as Hong Kong was China’s first test of open markets in the 20th century.

On Monday, Hong Kong’s Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) made its first push to open the door to retail crypto trading, beginning a consultation process for Virtual Asset Service Providers (VASP) seeking a license to provide trading services.”

Dealmaking helps Deutsche Bank land biggest profit in a decade

Deutsche Bank Completes Trial of Tokenized Investment Platform

“Deutsche Bank Singapore and Memento Blockchain have successfully completed the proof-of-concept phase of Project DAMA (Digital Assets Management Access), designed to facilitate the management of digital funds investing in tokenized securities.

Asset managers can create tokenized funds using one-window on Ethereum testnets involving a variety of strategies, such as DeFi staking. To invest in a fund, the institutional investors holding a non-transferable soulbound token (SBT) would provide collateral in order to mint and receive tokenized shares of the underlying digital investment fund of choice. Tokenized shares can then be swapped via a built-in digital marketplace for digital assets.

For asset security, Deutsche Bank and Memento Blockchain utilized MetaMask. MetaMask is built into the platform as the digital wallet of the partners’ choice for facilitating the transfer of digital assets. Institutional investors would need to hold both an SBT in their MetaMask wallet and KYC in order to access the platform’s decentralized applications.

For the next steps, Deustche Bank said it was exploring the use of Project DAMA in Singapore, where there are currently 1,100 registered fund managers with a combined total of $3.36 trillion in assets under management.”

Bosch Partners in $100-million Web3 Development Foundation

“$100 million is being earmarked for a grant program funding the development of Web3, artificial intelligence (AI) and decentralized technologies in a partnership between Bosch and Fetch.ai.

The two companies are collaborating to create the Fetch.ai Foundation, which will aim to fuel industrial adoption of innovative software, AI and Web3 technologies. The initiative will fund research and develop decentralized technologies for real-world use cases.

Bosch as one of the worldwide leaders in industrial engineering and mobility solutions sees the huge need for smarter technologies and governance to cope with the challenges coming with ever more connected ecosystems regarding safety/security, privacy, and data ownership.”

Bitcoin ‘Fixes Democracy’ and Fights Corruption: Human Rights Foundation

“Bitcoin fixes broken democracies and fights government corruption by limiting its power to control its people, argues Bitcoin advocate and chief strategy officer of the Human Rights Foundation, Alex Gladstein. Gladstein said Bitcoin represents free speech, property rights and open capital markets, all of which are stifling to a tyrannical government, which often needs censorship, confiscation and closed capital markets.

Bitcoin makes it really hard for governments to impose those things on their people. I don’t see these dictatorial powers doing well in a Bitcoin standard; I think it becomes really hard for them.”

Proof of Stake Alliance Publishes White Papers on Legal Aspects of Liquidity Staking

“The Proof of Stake Alliance (POSA), a nonprofit industry alliance, has published two white papers examining on the status of deposit tokens in United States securities and tax law on Feb. 21. The papers were authored by representatives of over 10 industry groups.

Neither the U.S. Treasury nor the Internal Revenue Service have issued guidance on liquid staking, the POSA noted in “U.S. Federal Income Tax Analysis of Liquid Staking,” but it should be subject to capital gains tax rules under general principles. In line with capital gains taxation, the argument continued, ‘a liquid staking arrangement will be a taxable event only if there is a sale or other disposition of cryptoassets in exchange for property that differs materially in kind or extent.’

Receipt Tokens evidence ownership of intangible commodities in the digital world in a substantially identical manner that warehouse receipts, bills of lading, dock warrants and other documents of title evidence title to tangible commodities in the physical world.”

Bitcoin Breaches Rare ‘Golden Cross’ Threshold

“Bitcoin breached a rare “Golden Cross” over the weekend, a bullish signal that typically foreshadows short-term gains. A Golden Cross occurs when the 50-day moving average for an asset crosses above the 200-day moving average.

Bitcoin has seen only six other crosses since 2015. The most recent prior to this latest cross was on Aug. 14, 2021.“

Paxos CEO Charles Cascarilla (Danny Nelson/CoinDesk)

Paxos Is Holding ‘Constructive Discussions’ With SEC

“The note surfaced a week after Paxos acknowledged receiving a Wells Notice from the SEC. A Wells Notice is a tool used by the SEC to allege certain activity may be a violation of federal securities law, and may indicate the SEC intends to sue. Since announcing the halt in issuance, Paxos has facilitated more than $2.8 billion in BUSD redemptions with no significant market disruptions.

We are working with the SEC towards the publication of our Clearing Agency application. We are working with the OCC to move our conditional approval into an operationalized and launched National Trust. We are also working to expand our Singapore products in consultation with the MAS following our Payment Service Provider approval last year. We continue to pursue each of these plus any other opportunities for productive collaboration with regulators.”

The Disrupt

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