Blockchain projects are often subject to uncertainty of all types – regulatory, market adoption and technological feasibility among them. But despite that uncertainty and other headwinds – as we forecasted – disruptions and evolutions in blockchain products continue to be rolled out by tradfi and defi actors alike.
In our latest Digital Assets Download, we highlight a number of these stories in our News Node, including several noteworthy product developments and regulatory steps in the United States and around the world. In addition, we examine a first-of-its-kind, triple-token merger, and the challenges and opportunities it creates. We also look at regulatory developments in derivatives and insurance – two sectors where the application of blockchain have only begun to be explored.
For the Uninitiated: Digital Assets Download is a curated mix of insights and headlines that provide a Layer 3 Legal Perspective™ on the digital assets multiverse—created by Mayer Brown’s global Digital Assets, Blockchain & Cryptocurrency group. (Check out our previous editions of the Digital Assets Download.)
The Lead Block
US NAIC Spring 2024 National Meeting Highlights: Major Investment-Related Initiatives
The US National Association of Insurance Commissioners (“NAIC”) held its Spring National Meeting in Phoenix from March 14-18, 2024. This Legal Update reports on a number of important investment-related initiatives that were addressed or proposed during the Spring National Meeting including regulatory updates regarding the treatment of crypto assets for statutory accounting purposes.
News Node
A curated selection of headlines and news from around this multiverse—including deals, developments and other disruptions in DeFi.
US Senators Lummis, Gillibrand Take on Stablecoin Legislation With New Bill
Seven Central Banks in BIS Project Agora to Tokenize Cross-Border Payments
Cryptocurrency Exchange Received a Wells Notice from the SEC; Publishes Response: “Fighting for DeFi”
UK will Issue Legislation for Crypto Staking, Custody, Exchange and Stablecoins by July
Hong Kong Regulators Approve Spot Bitcoin and Ether ETFs
US SEC Calls for Comments on Spot ETH ETFs
UK Govt-Backed Report Urges Firms to Execute Tokenization Strategies
A European FinTech Hub Prepares to Get Tough on Crypto Companies
Financial Institution’s Hedge-Fund Clients Get More Active in Crypto Options
US Treasury Asks Senate for New Powers to Curb Crypto Crime Financing
Crypto Market Maker Receives Singapore Crypto License
Banks Testing Tokenized Deposits in UK
Institutional Heavyweights Throw Full Support Behind Public Blockchains for Tokenized RWAs
Crypto Native’s 'Synthetic Dollar' Crosses $2 Billion Supply; Now Fifth-Largest Stablecoin by Market Cap
Investment Management Company Adds Investment Banking Companies as APs for Bitcoin ETF
Bank Loses Lawsuit Challenging Fed Rejection of Master Account Application
Crypto VC in Talks to Raise Over $750 Million for Fund
Decentralized Finance (DeFI) Exchange Surpasses $2 Trillion in “All-time Protocol Volume”
Web3 Startups Flock to Accelerators as Crypto Enthusiasm Surges
Investment Company's BUIDL Ethereum Fund Draws $245 Million in a Week
Crypto Fund VC Looks to Raise Even More Capital for Seed Stage Digital-Asset Bets
Ethereum Virtual Machine Blockchain Developer Raises $225M Led by Crypto VC
Investment Company's $10 Trillion Tokenization Vision: the Future of Real World Assets
Crypto VC Leads $225 Million Round for Ethereum Virtual Machine, which is Building a Layer-1 Blockchain to Take On Ethereum and Solana
Select Events
Selected events for deeper dives into different parts of the digital assets and DeFi world.
Commissioner Johnson Announces CFTC Market Risk Advisory Committee Meeting on April 9
At this meeting, the MRAC introduced formal recommendations, reports, and presentations that offer insightful guidance consistent with the Commission’s efforts to strengthen the stability of the US financial system by addressing timely and diverse issues. These include an effective approach to manage the resilience, recovery, or wind down of central counterparties, updates on the work of several workstreams on block implementation rules, post-trade risk reduction services, and margin transparency, margin procyclicality and margin calls.
Learn the Lingo
Staking
Staking cryptocurrencies is a process that involves committing crypto assets to support a blockchain network and confirm transactions. Crypto assets are “staked” by depositing them with a protocol in exchange for rewards.
The purpose for the staking varies by protocol, but the most common form of staking is within the proof-of-stake consensus mechanism (an alternative to proof-of-work) used by certain blockchains to verify new blocks of data that are added to the network. In a proof-of-stake protocol, stakers perform the exercise of validating new blocks of transactions to be added to the network. The staked assets are at risk and will be lost if the staker processes fraudulent transactions; as a result, each validator’s stake acts as an incentive to ensure the security of the network. In exchange for the committed tokens, validators receive rewards denominated in the native cryptocurrency.
Writing on the Wall, Translating ‘Crypto’ Terms with Mayer Brown
From Airdrop to Wrapped Token, our illustrated glossary, “Writing on the Wall, Translating Securities with Mayer Brown,” has been updated with additional digital assets and cryptocurrency terms. Check out our “featured” list for the crypto terms and the full list of terms.
