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Thomas Murray Digital Newsletter

In this issue:

• Exploring the implications of the Ethereum blockchain’s upcoming major upgrade, known as ‘The Merge’.
• Billions more dollars are going into cryptoasset, blockchain and metaverse asset trading and venture capital funds, including those run by Steve Cohen, Brevan Howard, Invesco, Andreessen Horowitz, CoinFund, and Temasek.
• In regulatory news, the European Central Bank seeks to head off more country-level differences from emerging in the regulation of crypto-related activities by banks – and corresponding regulatory arbitration opportunities – by looking at introducing an EU-wide licensing regime. In the US, the Federal Reserve opens the door for non-bank financial institutions to access master accounts and payment services.
• The beleaguered Tether stablecoin has seen a small reversal of fortunes as it appoints a more prominent audit firm to attest to its reserves and divests the commercial paper holdings that they currently contain, while its decision not to block addresses related to the sanctioned Tornado Cash crypto mixer is at odds with that of rival Circle.

Major Digital Asset Developments

	Ethereum Blockchain Upgrade Approaches, Reducing Energy Use and Making Ether a Deflationary Asset Ethereum, the second largest public blockchain network by market capitalisation and most popular as a host to thousands of crypto tokens, is due to migrate to a new Proof-of-Stake (PoS) protocol on or around 15 September. Staking entails depositing ether and using it in a voting mechanism to validate transactions, with rewards for correct behaviour and penalties for dishonesty. This system makes it economically unviable for bad actors to attempt a ‘51% attack’ to take control of the blockchain. The upgrade will replace the current Proof-of-Work system that is similar to that used by Bitcoin and a number of other first-generation blockchain projects. The Merge (Ethereum.org), as the upgrade is commonly known (borrowing a term from software engineering), is being heralded as an important step that helps to solve elements of the ‘blockchain trilemma’ of decentralisation vs scalability/speed vs security (CertiK). Until now, the Ethereum blockchain has suffered from low transaction throughput and high gas (transaction) fees despite, or as a result of, its great popularity as the most popular platform for tokens and smart contracts. By moving to PoS, Ethereum expects to be able to introduce a number of measures to improve its speed and usability, adding scaling solutions such as Zero-Knowledge Succinct Non-Interactive Argument of Knowledge, aka zk-SNARKs (Consensys) and sharding (Ethereum.org). Additionally, PoS will also offer greatly improved green credentials, as the new model replaces the need for the mining of new tokens with staking rewards, and is estimated to reduce electricity use by 99.95%. The Merge will see the existing execution layer that is used today (known as Mainnet) adopt a separate consensus layer called the Beacon Chain, which is currently running in parallel in the background. Concluding a successful merge, the Mainnet will act as the consensus engine for all network data, including execution layer transactions and account balances. At the same time, the issuance rate of new ether tokens will drop by 90%. This, coupled with tokens that are ‘burned’ as transaction fees, deducted as penalties from validators’ stakes, or simply lost, should combine to make the available supply of ether deflationary (Pantera Capital) as new token issuance will drop to about 1,600 ETH per day for staking rewards, which is approximately equal to the amount of ETH burned as base transaction fees.
	ECB Supervision Newsletter: Licensing of Crypto-asset Activities Following on from the draft Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) legislation (Finextra) and the latest proposals on capital adequacy from the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision (Bank for International Settlements), the European Central Bank has announced a framework for the licensing of banks on a pan-European Union basis (European Central Bank). The approach will be similar to existing requirements in Germany. The move is an attempt to avoid fragmented national-level approaches that are already emerging within the EU (CoinDesk). The framework is based on the Capital Requirements Directive (CRD) and will examine the risks and capabilities of providers of crypto services, including their business models, internal governance, and risk management practices – which include cybersecurity, AML/CFT and fraud risks – under ‘fit and proper’ assessments. A workstream of the Single Supervisory Mechanism (SSM) will report more broadly on banks’ digital transformations, including their adoption of crypto technologies, by the end of 2022.
	More Asset Managers Set Up Crypto-related Funds Hedge fund mogul Steve Cohen – former founder of insider-trading fund SAC Capital Advisors and now running Point72Asset management – is reportedly establishing a cryptocurrency-only investment firm (Blockworks). It is believed the firm will trade spot cryptocurrencies as well as digital asset derivatives. It has also been reported that BH Digital, Brevan Howard’s crypto-focused fund, raised over USD 1 billion on its launch earlier this year (Blockworks). BH Digital claims the figure exceeds the capacity of the current cryptocurrency market for liquid investment, leading it to invest some of its capital in VC deals and to leave some uninvested for the present time. Its VC activity goes up against that of Andreessen Horowitz, which raised USD 4.5 billion earlier this year for its own fund called a16z (Axios). Meanwhile CoinFund, a VC firm that claims already to have invested over USD 1 billion in over 100 crypto companies since 2015, has raised USD 300 million to start a new web3 fund, CoinFund Ventures I (Yahoo! Finance). Invesco – with USD 1.6 trillion AuM – launches its Invesco Metaverse Fund (Finextra), an actively managed approach to the ‘metaverse value chain’ that it says could contribute USD 1.4 trillion to the global economy by 2030. It follows similar funds launched by Axa, Fidelity and HSBC. Singapore’s Temasek has also invested SGD 100 million in convertible bonds issued by Animoca Brands (Blockworks), a metaverse company that owns properties such as The Sandbox and Decentraland.
	Tether Moves Towards Greater Transparency, Reduces Commercial Paper Holdings Tether, the embattled issuer of what remains the most widely adopted stablecoin, has appointed BDO Italia (CoinDesk) to succeed MHA Cayman in producing attestation reports on the reserve assets that back its tokens. It will also move from a quarterly to a monthly publication schedule. The move marks a further step towards a full audit of those reserves, the lack of which – together with alarming reports of the quality of assets that make them up – has become a major reputational risk for the firm in past months, as well as a cause of potential financial stability concerns should the widely-used stablecoin fail. Tether has cited the reluctance of major, reputable accounting firms to take on crypto businesses as clients as the main factor in its lack of progress towards full transparency. It has also promised to assuage concerns by reducing its once-dominant form of backing, commercial paper, to zero (BeInCrypto). It stated that such holdings would be reduced to USD 3.5 billion by the end of July (out of a total issuance at the time of over USD 66 billion) from a March figure of USD 20 billion. It has also denied that it holds any Chinese commercial paper or that it remains exposed to Celsius Network or Three Arrows Capital. Tether has stated that it expected commercial paper holdings to decline to just USD 200 million by the end of August and for them to be eliminated from its balance sheet completely by year end (CoinDesk).
	Federal Reserve Board Announces Final Guidelines for Reviewing Requests to Access Fed Master Accounts and Payment Services The US Fed is considering ways to open up the Central Banking system to ‘novel financial institutions’ including crypto banks, by providing access to its master accounts. The Federal Reserve Board has published final guidelines (Federal Reserve), following the 2021 publication of initial proposals, on how Reserve Banks should transparently and consistently evaluate fintechs’ requests for access to their master accounts and payment services. The result is a three tiered structure (Finextra) comprising 1) banks that are federally insured, 2) banks that are not federally insured but still subject to prudential supervision by a federal banking agency, and 3) firms that are neither insured nor subject to federal supervision, but that may be set up in jurisdictions such as Wyoming that have introduced laws for ‘special purpose depository institutions’ (SPDIs) (Wyoming Banking Division) such as digital asset bank custodians Custodia Bank and Kraken Bank, which may be able to access these accounts in future without an intermediary. Those holding federal deposit insurance will be subject to fewer additional requirements than those regulated by federal banking agencies, and those engaging in ‘novel activities’ or for which regulations are still under development will be subject to the most stringent checks. Some involved in the consultation process have suggested that tier 2 and 3 institutions should be held to the same standards as federally insured businesses. Custodia (formerly Avanti) and Kraken Bank, also established in Wyoming, are reported to have received routing numbers earlier this year, however neither have received regulatory approval within the mandatory one-year deadline and subsequently Custodia is suing the Fed (Pymnts).

Other News and Links

	Federal Reserve Board Provides Additional Information for Banking Organizations Engaging or Seeking to Engage in Crypto-asset-related Activities (Federal Reserve) Mindful of the wave of interest from banks in supporting digital assets, the Federal Reserve Board has released additional information to the market designed to define for FRB-supervised banks (including those with USD 10 billion or less in consolidated assets) the steps they should take prior to engaging in crypto-asset-related activities. These include ensuring the bank is legally permitted at the state and federal level to do so, and that is has adequate systems and controls in place to mitigate operational risks associated with loss of assets, consumer protection, AML and CFT (Federal Reserve).
	US Regulator ‘Improperly’ Pushing Banks to Avoid Serving Crypto Companies, Lawmaker Says (CoinDesk) Senator Pat Toomey claims that he has received complaints that the Federal Deposit Insurance Company (FDIC) is deterring banks from working with cryptocurrency-related businesses under an extension of an ostensibly shuttered (Politico) programme called Operation Choke Point (Wall Street Journal) that was initially intended to limit the banking of ‘questionable financial ventures’ such as payday lenders and other legal but controversial businesses such as gun sellers. FDIC regional offices are said to have been sending letters to banks asking them to limit their relationships with crypto businesses, whether by providing them with banking services or by partnering with them to provide bank customers with access to crypto trading. These actions are consistent with the FDIC’s open letter (FDIC) requiring its supervised entities to discuss any crypto-related activities with it prior to their commencement, and a new batch of reminder letters from the Federal Reserve to banks that it oversees to do the same.
	Still Waiting: SEC Delays VanEck’s Third Bitcoin Spot ETF Application (Cointelegraph) The SEC has once again deferred a decision on an application by VanEck to create a Bitcoin spot ETF. The decision is now due by 11 October. VanEck made its first application in 2017, but the SEC continues to cite lack of faith in the cryptocurrency markets and their ability to resist manipulation as reasons for denial. This time around, VanEck claims that American investors are taking advantage of the now well-established range of spot ETFs available over the border in Canada.
	Canadian Securities Regulators Expect Commitments from Crypto Trading Platforms Pursuing Registration (Canadian Securities Administrators) The Canadian Securities Administrators (CSA) expects crypto exchanges to agree, publish and abide by a set of undertakings to be permitted to continue operations in the country pending their full compliance with  Canadian securities laws and registration with (i.e. approval by) the CSA. The first undertakings, from Coinsquare Capital and Crypto.com, were published earlier this month.
	EU Considers New ‘Anti-money Laundering Authority’ (Blockworks) The Council of the European Union looks set to introduce a new Anti-Money Laundering Authority (AMLA) that would, according to the proposal, ‘boost the efficient functioning of the Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CTF) framework of the Union’. The proposal, first issued last year as an amendment to the current AMLD6, looks to help the EU combat money laundering but will also provide new powers to directly supervise types of credit and financial institutions such as digital asset service providers.
	Australian Securities & Investments Commission Report 735 – Retail Investor Research (Australian Securities & Investments Commission) ASIC has published results of a survey of over 1,000 retail investors conducted in November 2021. 44% reported having cryptocurrency investments, making it the second-most common asset type after Australian equities. A quarter of investors indicated that they only held cryptocurrency investments. Despite their unregulated and volatile nature, only 19% of cryptocurrency holders considered that they own risky or speculative products. ASIC raises concerns over limited state ability to protect retail investors from risk and calls for increased regulation.
	Abu Dhabi to Launch Blockchain and Virtual Assets Strategy (Abu Dhabi Government Media Office) The Abu Dhabi Blockchain and Virtual Assets Committee (ADBVAC) has been convened and held its first meeting under the Chairmanship of H.E. Mohamed Ali Al Shorafa, Chairman of the Securities and Commodities Authority (SCA) and the Abu Dhabi Department of Economic Development. The ADBCVAC’s goals are to develop strategy for virtual assets, including AML/CFT regulation, the building of a cryptoasset ecosystem for the UAE, investor protection, and custody risk. The UAE was put onto the Financial Action Task Force’s ‘grey list’ of jurisdictions subject to increased monitoring of AML/CFT risks earlier this year (Reuters).
	New UCC Amendments to Establish Ground Rules for Blockchain Transactions and Crypto-Backed Secured Financings (JD Supra) A joint committee of the Uniform Law Commission and the American Law Institute has published a draft amendment to the Uniform Commercial Code (Uniform Law Commission) that governs sales and other commercial transactions through most of the United States and its Territories. Among other updates, the draft explicitly covers digital asset transactions and in particular the use of crypto as loan collateral, with considerations of ‘how security interests in digital assets can be perfected’, an area of particular relevance to the current legal disputes surrounding the rights of various stakeholders in bankruptcy proceedings such as those of Voyager Digital and Three Arrows Capital. A new Article 12 also defines digital asset sub-classes, referring to the overall asset class as ‘controllable electronic records’ (CERs) which may extend in future beyond today’s DLT concepts.
	Qatari Government Consults on New Regulations for Blockchain Technology (Pinsent Masons) The Government of Qatar has published a National Blockchain Blueprint (State of Qatar), a co-authored consultation by the Communications Regulatory Authority, Hamad Bin Khalifa University and Qatar University. It offers a roadmap for the development of blockchain in the country. Through a combination of regulation and innovation, Quatar plans to increase its domestic and foreign investment through the sector. Key requirements include an ‘efficient regulatory foundation’ that encourages user protection, innovation and adoption, oversight of cryptocurrencies and ICOs by Qatar’s Central Bank, and a new legal framework that would be enforced by the National Cybersecurity Agency. The consultation on the blueprint closes on 15 September, 2022.
	South Korea’s Money Laundering Watchdog Flags 16 Crypto Firms for Operating Without Registration (CoinDesk)
	Crypto.com Secures UK Registration for ‘Cryptoasset Activities’ (Cointelegraph)
	New Brazil Bill Wants to Tokenize Mined Gold on Blockchain (Cryptoslate)
	Revolut Gets Regulatory Approval to Offer Crypto Services to its 17 Million European Customers (Finbold)
	Vitalik Cheers Ethereum Community Push Back Over Harsh Canadian Crypto Rules (Cryptoslate) Vitalik Buterin, co-founder of Ethereum, has been cheering on members of the Canadian crypto community who have been pushing back at Ontario’s increasingly restrictive crypto rules. The Ontario Securities Commission has implemented a CAD 30,000 buy-limit on most tokens in an attempt to protect crypto investors. The limits do not apply to a number of tokens including bitcoin, ether, litecoin and bitcoin cash. One prominent crypto author and commentator, Simon Dixon, has pointed out on Twitter that the rule does not take into account an individual’s net worth, and perhaps more concerningly creates a two-tier token system which goes against the remit of the regulator who is supposed to observe neutrality. The limits do not apply to residents of British Colombia, Alberta, Manitoba, or Quebec.
	Class Action Lawsuit Blames Coinbase for Security Failures and Repeated Thefts (ClassAction.org) A class action lawsuit coordinated by BraunHagey & Borden LLP (BHB) is alleging that breaches have led to plaintiffs’ losses through the ‘repeated theft of ordinary customer accounts’. It also claims that, despite high fees and commissions, Coinbase’s customer service processes subject consumers to a never-ending cycle of automated responses to complaints that have already been the target of regulatory fines. BHB claims that Coinbase must repay stolen funds under the Electronic Funds Transfer Act due to its role as an operator of custodial accounts and its claims of using bank-level security standards, despite any small print disclaimers to the contrary. Its latest 10-Q filing to the SEC states, ‘we are required to safeguard customers’ assets using bank-level security standards applicable to our wallet and storage systems, as well as our financial management systems related to such custodial functions.’ Coinbase is said to hold itself out as more secure than competitors but its claim to be ‘the only crypto exchange to have never been hacked’ is challenged as ‘false and misleading’, with BHB citing a breach targeting SMS-based authentication codes affecting over 6,000 users in 2021 (later compensated in full) that its says Coinbase admitted in a filing to the California Attorney General. Coinbase is also said to have acknowledged vulnerabilities allowing hackers to access and amend customer account details, leading to further hacks despite use of alternative two-factor authentication procedures.
	Galaxy Digital Ends Agreement To Buy BitGo (Blockworks) Galaxy Digital has walked away from its acquisition of BitGo, a leading digital asset custodian. That decision has led to an acrimonious war of words in which both sides are claiming that the other party failed to deliver on undertakings. Galaxy Digital suggested the acquisition process had been frustrating and that BitGo had failed to deliver satisfactory audited 2021 financial statements by a 31 July deadline. In response, BitGo claimed it had done so, and that it intends to hold Galaxy Digital ‘legally responsible’ for its decision to terminate the merger. It is seeking damages in excess of USD 100 million and/or a USD 100 million reverse break fee (TechCrunch) promised by Galaxy in March as an inducement for BitGo to extend the merger agreement. BitGo has pointed to Galaxy’s recent financial struggles (BitGo) as it reported a USD 554.7 million loss for the latest quarter, while its stock has also been struggling, dropping from a high of CAD 46.50 in April 2021 to a low of CAD 7.33 the day after Galaxy’s announcement to terminate the acquisition. Galaxy Digital is still pursuing a Nasdaq listing, pending SEC approval.
	State Street Sees ‘Significant Opportunity’ in Tokenization (Blockworks) State Street’s Nicole Olson, vice president of digital product development and innovation at the bank, indicates that tokenisation of traditional assets remains the custodian bank’s top focus for the coming years, as investors are reportedly demonstrating a growing interest in its potential to improve market efficiencies and increase accessibility to traditional assets, private assets and funds. In particular, Olson makes the point that tokenisation opens the door to more efficient processes for funds, increasing access to investors and distribution for the fund issuer. State Street has a partnership with Lukka to offer fund administration capabilities for digital assets including cryptocurrencies, a service which is currently being offered to State Street’s private fund clients.
	SIX Digital Exchange Launches Ethereum Staking for Institutions (Ledger Insights) Switzerland’s digital asset infrastructure, SDX, has announced plans to launch a non-custodial Ethereum staking service for institutions. The service will enable clients to generate yield from staking their holdings in ether, the token of the Ethereum blockchain, potentially extending to tokens held by their underlying clients. Staking forms part of SDX’s Web3 strategy which was announced in June this year (SDX). The service is expected to launch between 10-20 September, following the greatly anticipated Ethereum Merge, in which the blockchain moves from a Proof-of-Work protocol like Bitcoin to one of Proof-of Stake, which is currently anticipated for 15 September. The largest Ethereum mining pool, Ethermine, has also launched a staking service (Cryptoslate) enabling yield from deposits as low as 0.1 ETH, far lower than the 32 ETH minimum needed to become an independent validator.
	Google Parent Alphabet Invested $1.5B into Blockchain Startups Since September 2021 (Cryptoslate) Alphabet’s concentrated investments in four startups, including DapperLabs, comprised a quarter of a total of USD 6 billion invested by 40 public companies between September 2021 and June 2022. Its large bets have been followed by smaller but sizeable investments from BlackRock, Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, Samsung, Microsoft, United Overseas Bank, and Citi.
	Tether and Circle Stablecoins See Reversal of Fortune on Varying Tornado Cash Stances Tether’s USD stablecoin has seen a 2.6% monthly uptick of nearly USD 2 billion in circulating supply while Circle’s rival USDC has fallen 2.1% over the period (Cryptoslate). The reversal in the prior trend of the past several months is linked to differing stances on the treatment of wallets linked to Tornado Cash, the recently-sanctioned crypto mixer. Circle has frozen over USD 75,000 in USDC tokens associated with 81 sanctioned addresses (Forkast). However, Tether has published a statement (Tether) saying that it will not act unilaterally and will await an order or a positive match to a name in a sanctions list before freezing funds, citing existing rigorous checks on inbound and outbound transactions, close cooperation with law enforcement agencies, and the risk of disruption to investigations to justify its stance.
	Seven S. Korean Brokerages Plan to Start Crypto Exchanges Next Year: Report (CoinDesk) Seven brokerage firms including Mirae Asset Securities and Samsung Securities have made preliminary applications to establish exchanges in the context of new President Yoon Suk-Yeol’s crypto-friendly stance, despite a crack-down by regulators following the collapse of the Terra algorithmic stablecoin.
	Ripple Launches Crypto-enabled Enterprise Payments in Brazil with Travelex Bank (Finextra) Brazil’s Travelex Bank has partnered with Ripple to use its On-Demand Liquidity (ODL) service – based on Ripple’s XRP payment token – to facilitate cross-border payments. The new service will ensure high speed and low cost, and remove the need to pre-fund capital in the market of remittance, and will begin with a corridor between Brazil and Mexico before expanding to further markets and use cases such as treasury and business payments.
	Itaú to Trial DeFi for FX as Part of Brazil’s Central Bank Lab (Ledger Insights)
	Blockchain Industry Workforce Grows 80% This Year, Study Shows (Bitcoinist)
	Australian Securities Exchange Takes Step Towards Tokenized Asset Trading (Cointelegraph) Zerocap, a digital investment platform, has successfully tested integration with ASX’s Synfini DLT settlement platform – distinct from the delayed CHESS replacement initiative – opening the door to the tokenisation and trading of traditional assets such as bonds, equities, funds and carbon credits. It aims to launch these services in the near future having received legal approval. The use of ASX’s platform is expected to increase confidence through reduced counterparty risk.
	Mid-year Crypto Crime Update: Illicit Activity Falls With Rest of Market, With Some Notable Exceptions (Chainalysis) Blockchain analysis firm Chainalysis has published an assessment of blockchain-based financial crime for the first half of 2021, highlighting a 65% year-on-year decline in the proceeds of scams to USD 1.6 billion, albeit largely correlated to the decline in cryptocurrency values. However, the firm also says that the number of fraudulent transactions has fallen to a four-year low, and none have netted anywhere near as much as large outlier scams in previous years. Darknet revenue is also down 43% year-on-year, driven by a sudden drop after the shutdown of Hydra Marketplace, a darknet site that had become the dominant player since the closure of the infamous Silk Road platform. These declines are offset by small increases in funds lost to hacks, largely of DeFi protocols.
	DTCC’S Project Ion Platform Now Live in Parallel Production Environment, Processing Over 100,000 Transactions Per Day on DLT (DTCC) DTCC’s R3 Corda-based settlement platform is now parallel processing bilateral equity transactions, with peaks of up to 160,000 transactions per day. DTC’s existing settlement system remains the ‘authoritative record’ for the present time. DTCC’s aim is to provide a voluntary transition option to the DLT system once its resilience and safety have been firmly established. The platform will support netted T+0, T+1, T+2 and extended settlement cycles. Future plans include expansion to other DTC activities and to central counterparty National Securities Clearing Corporation (NSCC).
	‘Post-Quantum’ Cryptography Scheme Is Cracked on a Laptop (Quanta) One of four supposedly ‘quantum-resistant’ cryptographic algorithms selected by the National Institute of Standards and Technology in a competition (National Institute of Standards and Technology) in early July has been cracked by two researchers on a laptop. The protocols were supposed to form the agency’s post-quantum cryptographic standard (National Institute of Standards and Technology). The algorithm, known as the supersingular isogeny Diffie-Hellman protocol (SIDH), uses the same elliptical curve theory that forms the basis for existing cryptographic protocols but in a novel way. Metadata necessary for the algorithm was exploited using an even more complex mathematical theorem to ascertain the way in which the data were encrypted. Subsequent research has reduced the possible speed of breaking encryption to just a few minutes.

Key:	Legal/Regulatory             Technology            Ecosystem              Markets

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