tl;dr
• Goldman Sachs, through their futures partner, Galaxy Digital, becomes the first major bank to execute a Bitcoin OTC transaction• Major data leak at Unchained Capital, NYDIG, Swan and BlockFi• The Malaysian Ministry of Communications and Multimedia advises making crypto legal tender to promote it a...
• Goldman Sachs, through their futures partner, Galaxy Digital, becomes the first major bank to execute a Bitcoin OTC transaction
• Major data leak at Unchained Capital, NYDIG, Swan and BlockFi
• The Malaysian Ministry of Communications and Multimedia advises making crypto legal tender to promote it among youth
• Australia see DAOs as an existential threat and also introduces stringent rules around crypto
• Cardano completes a major upgrade that drives value upward
There are some serious moves going on around the world that further position cryptocurrencies to move up very soon. Here is what is on my mind today.
1. Goldman Sachs is the first major Wall Street bank to execute an Over-The-Counter (OTC) trade. It was facilitated by Galaxy Digital, a New York-based crypto investment firm that has partnered with Goldman Sachs on the bank's Bitcoin futures desk. They purchased a non-deliverable option (NDO) from Galaxy Digital. A Bitcoin NDO is a contract betting on the future price of Bitcoin and not the actual asset.
2. Unchained Capital, NYDIG, Swan and BlockFi each had a data leak at the same time. Each of the companies released statements about what transpired and apologized. They also took actions to limit the leak to what amounts to personal marketing information and not financial information. Still, this should serve as a reminder that there are bad actors out there and you need to be mindful of where you do business and what their security model is.
3. The Malaysian Ministry of Communications and Multimedia suggested the country make cryptocurrency assets legal tender in the country. Although they do not oversee the crypto space in the country, it could help the branches of government that do consider the suggestion as a way to promote digital assets among the youth. If this was to happen, it would be a far cry from last July when the Securities Commission of Malaysia accused Binance of illegally operating their exchange in the country. We will have to see how this pans out.
4. Australian Senator Andrew Bragg stated decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) pose an existential threat to the tax base. If there are a bunch of people all over the place simply working toward a common goal, is there no company to pay taxes? No. Sen. Bragg introduced a bill to regulate cryptos, specifically identifying DAOs. For example, how would any government tax ApeCoin DAO? The people would pay the appropriate taxes, but since there is no company, there are no corporate taxes to be collected. If you are in the U. S., you may wonder how is that any different than what goes on now since many large companies pay a lower percentage of tax than most individuals.
5. Australia will also intro stringent regulation coming for the crypto space. The new regulations are set to directly affect exchange platforms and crypto brokers. The documents pertinent to the regulations were expected to be released today. It will be quite interesting to see just how stringent or rigid the regulations are. I do not think Australia means to hamper adoption as much as they want to try and protect investor funds as much as possible.
6. Wondering why Cardano has enjoyed a nice little pop over the past couple of days? Cardano completed a major network upgrade as noted last month. This upgrade is meant to increase speed, efficiency, and security. If it is as good as everything else, they have done in the past, it stands to be a major move by the project. Note, this will include even more growth in TVL for them and will invite even more projects to build on their Layer 1 blockchain. Like I keep saying, keep an eye on Cardano. While everyone thought they were asleep at the helm, they were planning things like this. I am expecting a lot more from them as they continue edging toward that $1 mark!