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Crypto isn't all that different from politics. According to Rushi Manche, the founder of blockchain company Movement, "Crypto is an attention game." It's fitting, then, that Donald Trump — the master of all things attention — is so at home selling memecoins. But it's not just Trump's inner circle that's managed to capitalize on his crypto ventures, which include the $TRUMP coin and World Liberty Financial. Once a vocal crypto skeptic, the president has become the industry's largest "key opinion leader" — or KOL, in blockchain industry parlance: a trader whose portfolio is closely watched by other investors deciding what to buy and sell. Trump's foray into crypto has created a new go-to-market playbook for ambitious token peddlers like Manche — blockchain founders who realize pumping the price of a token can be as simple as elbowing into a sitting president's crypto portfolio. The president's primary vehicle for blockchain trades is World Liberty Financial (WLFI), a decentralized finance (DeFi) venture he announced with his sons over the summer. After accruing more than $400 million by selling a token, the company, which does not yet have a product, has built up a portfolio containing millions of dollars in the assets of other crypto projects. On Wednesday, it announced it was launching an official "strategic reserve" of crypto investments. The trades have already raised serious concerns about conflicts of interest, insider dealing, and the very nature of how influence is leveraged in the digital asset space. Trump's political opponents are calling for investigations into his growing blockchain empire. But crypto founders like Manche see World Liberty's crypto investments as something different: a once-in-a-generation marketing opportunity. "You need to have a product roadmap that makes sense," said Manche. "But you also need to have a strategy for your token." And what better way to boost the price of your cryptocurrency than by publicly tying it to the leader of the free world? -- Sam Kessler |
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Tether May Have to Give Up BTC to Comply |
USDT issuer Tether could face challenges if proposed U.S. stablecoin regulation is passed, and the company may have to sell some of its reserves to comply with the new rules, Wall Street bank JPMorgan (JPM) said in a research report Wednesday.
The Senate's Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins (GENIUS) Act mandates federal regulation for stablecoins with a market cap of over $10 billion, the report noted, with the potential for state regulation if it aligns with federal rules. The House of Representatives STABLE Act calls for state regulation without any conditions. "Reserve requirements under the STABLE Act are stricter, allowing insured deposits, U.S. T-bills, treasury short-term repo and central banks reserves," analysts led by Nikolaos Panigirtzoglou wrote, adding that the Senate bill also permits money market funds and reverse repos. "Both bills allow only high quality and liquid assets as reserves," the authors wrote. Tether dominates the stablecoin universe with a 60% market share. USDT has a market cap of about $142 billion. JPMorgan said the issuer's reserves are "only 66% compliant under the STABLE Act and 83% under the GENIUS Act," citing the company's reports. Furthermore, "both figures suggest a declining compliance ratio since the middle of last year as stablecoin supply surged," the bank added. Under the proposed regulations, Tether would have to replace non-compliant assets with compliant ones, the report said. This implies "sales of their non-compliant assets (such as precious metals, bitcoin (BTC), corporate paper, secured loans and other investments) and purchases of compliant assets such as T-bills." "Tether is closely monitoring the evolution of the different U.S. stablecoin bills and also actively engaging with local regulators. Consultation from the industry needs to happen and it’s still unclear which bill will move forward," a Tether spokesperson said in emailed comments. -- Will Canny |
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Goldfinch Prime: A New Leader In The Emerging RWA Opportunity The tokenized real-world asset (RWA) market is experiencing a rapid surge, with VanEck projecting it will exceed $50 billion by 2025. In traditional finance, private credit loans provide non-bank financing, mainly to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). This lending process has now evolved in the RWA space, creating on-chain private credit secured by real-world collateral. Continue reading |
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Bitcoin City sounds like a modern El Dorado — a dreamlike enclave in the jungle, a 21st century utopia. Announced by El Salvador President Nayib Bukele in 2021, the metropolis will supposedly be raised at the base of the Conchagua volcano. Renderings of the project from May 2022 show a circular shape, like the Bitcoin logo, and a structure painted in gold.
Visiting El Salvador this month, I was curious to see Bitcoin City for myself, or at least try to spot signs of construction.
It’s a four-and-a-half hour drive from San Salvador to Conchagua. The volcano sits on the easternmost side of the country, on the coast, by the Gulf of Fonseca. You can see Nicaragua and Honduras from the top of it, as well as small islands like Tiger Island, Conchagüita and Meanguera Island. It’s a beautiful place, but terribly humid, and hot. It was 35 degrees Celsius (95°F) when I arrived at noon in late-January. Bitcoin City faces southeast according to plans shared by Bukele, meaning that it should look toward the water. But Google Maps shows no roads on that side of the volcano, only the Conchagua Forest and virgin beaches like Playa El Flor (flower beach). So I drove to the little village of Conchagua, on the northern side.
Read Tom Carreras' full story about "Bitcoin City" here. |
Story Protocol launched its intellectual property-focused blockchain and associated IP token on Thursday.
The blockchain is positioned as the "world's intellectual property network," providing users with a way to register their IP and track how others use it. The aptly named "$IP" token, which Story announced last week, is used for transaction fees and offers users a vote in the platform's governance system. "Story is creating a new standard for IP, making the $61 trillion asset class programmable so IP is tracked, protected, and monetized, allowing everyone to see the upside," the project said in a statement shared with CoinDesk.
So far, the idea seems to have had legs — at least with investors. PIP Labs, the chain's primary developer, raised $80 million in a Series B venture funding round led by Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), bringing the project's total funding to $140 million. PIP has sought to position Story at the intersection of blockchain and artificial intelligence, a way for people to track and get paid for data used to train AI models. "Without great original IP, the AI models don’t develop," PIP Labs co-founder and CEO SY Lee told CoinDesk. Today, AI is "taking, stealing all your data without your consent," he said. The Story mainnet launch accompanies the first unlock event for the just-announced IP token. "Story is unlocking 25% of the initial 1 billion $IP, with 58.4% devoted to the ecosystem and community, foundation, and initial incentives," according to the project. -- Sam Kessler |
The Takeaway: GOP in House Vows to Act |
By Reps. French Hill and Bryan Steil Last November, the American people clearly spoke. They support President Trump and the agenda he campaigned on: A “Golden Age” in America. A key component of President Trump’s agenda is leveraging the U.S.’s leadership in advanced technology and economic strength for the benefit of all Americans. Nowhere is this renewed focus on using our strengths for the future more necessary than in the development of digital assets and blockchain operations, where Washington has been asleep at the wheel for far too long. According to surveys, 55% of American investors own Bitcoin, and more than 40 million own some type of cryptocurrency. Even our largest financial institutions are now embracing digital assets and the transformative power of blockchain technology. There is little doubt that these innovations will make financial products more affordable and accessible. From stablecoins to tokenization of assets, to decentralized finance applications, these advancements have the potential to lower costs and expand opportunities for both investors and consumers. Despite its transformative potential and widespread adoption, the Biden-Harris Administration refused to recognize the promise of this technology. Officials weren’t just indifferent – they were openly hostile. No matter how safe or innovative, products associated with "crypto" or "digital assets" were stonewalled and litigated into purgatory. Regulators refused to provide meaningful guidance on how this technology could be implemented in a compliant manner. Worse, they implemented new policies to make adoption even more difficult. Today is a new day. There is broad agreement that we need fit-for-purpose regulation that unlocks opportunities while providing the consumer and national security protections Americans deserve. The world counts on us to ensure that global payment systems are not used for nefarious purposes, including financing terrorism and drug trafficking. Because of the Biden-Harris Administration’s abdication of responsibility over the past four years, the United States has fallen behind and others, including our adversaries, are developing products and systems that threaten the primacy of the dollar. Despite the Biden-Harris Administration’s reluctance, during the last Congress House Republicans led the charge and passed landmark legislation creating a forward-looking regulatory framework for digital assets. This bipartisan bill provides appropriate protections for consumers and proactively addresses national security and money laundering issues while securing the United States as a leader in digital assets and blockchain innovation. Congressional Republicans will now pick up where we left off and work in a bicameral manner with the Trump Administration and financial regulators to ensure that the open hostility from the Executive Branch of the past four years is eliminated. Congress has a unique opportunity to enact legislation that plays to American strengths. We will provide a foundation that will unleash innovation in the digital assets and blockchain space, while at the same time solidifying the status of the U.S. dollar as the reserve currency and the preferred method of payment for lawful transactions around the globe. As leaders of digital assets on the House Financial Services Committee, our immediate priorities include establishing a federal framework with clear rules around stablecoins, providing clarity for the initial sale and distribution of tokens, creating pathways for the registration of centralized platforms for the trading of tokens, implementing strong protections against money laundering and terrorist financing, and ensuring fair competition. We have already begun this work by recently releasing our discussion draft to establish a framework for the issuance and operation of dollar-denominated payment stablecoins in the United States. There are those who share the Biden-Harris administration’s view that the digital assets ecosystem is, in the words of former SEC Chair Gary Gensler, “full of hucksters, fraudsters, and scam artists.” But that sentiment only underscores the urgent need for these efforts. Effective legislation and proactive regulatory engagement will ensure good actors with innovative products can thrive in the U.S. and consumers are appropriately protected from rug pulls, market manipulation, and other fraudulent activity. We are the world leaders in finance and technology because, over our history, we have looked forward and embraced innovation as a means of lowering costs, increasing opportunity, and enhancing protections. We need to be true to our history and do it again. With our newly formed Bicameral Working Group for Digital Assets, we will work in lockstep with Senate Banking Committee Chairman Tim Scott, Senate Agriculture Chairman John Boozman, House Agriculture Chairman G.T. Thompson, and White House Crypto Czar David Sacks to advance legislation that delivers on the promises we made to the American people. The “Golden Age” of digital assets in the United States begins now. |
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