The Breakdown

Circle is spinning out Poloniex and the exchange's new honors want to build away from the US. Is this more evidence of the "companies leaving US" narrative or just competitive pressure? Speaking of exchanges, Binance hit $1B in cumulative profit this week and announced 125x leverage because reasons. Finally, the big boss of the financial system Bank of International Settlements released a paper effectively calling bitcoin a failure but identifying private stablecoins like Libra as a threat.  Watch: https://www.youtube.com/nathanielwhittemorecrypto Subscribe via email: https://nlw.substack.com/

Chainalysis recently helped law enforcement take down a child porn ring by tracking btc addresses. This kicked off a huge conversation about how essential is it to the value proposition of bitcoin for it to be able to used for things that are against the rules - whether we like them or not. The firestorm of debate it kicked up really came down to one key question: how will institutionalization impact bitcoin? Can institutionally safe and friendly bitcoin co-exist with anti-establishment, rule breaking bitcoin? 

The fallout continues from the crazy last week in Libra, as the Association moves forward without any of its payment partners, all of whom have withdrawn at this point. Still the Association is now officially live and has a board of 5 members, only one of whom is from Facebook's Calibra subsidy. Over in the other major social network that wants its own crypto, BlockTV today reported that Telegram isn't just beset by the SEC but is dealing with a FinCEN inquiry around money laundering.  Watch: https://www.youtube.com/nathanielwhittemorecrypto

Last week was apparently "government says get rekt" week in crypto. The SEC kicked things off by disapproving a bitcoin ETF proposal from Bitwise and closed things out by taking emergency action against Telegram's $1.7B ICO. In between, the IRS dropped its first crypto guidance in 5 years, indicating that forked tokens could create a tax liability, whether you want them or not. What's more, two Senators sent threatening letters to the CEOs of Visa, Stripe, and Mastercard who, along with eBay, dropped out of the Libra Association by the end of the week. The one bright spot was the CFTC saying that ETH is a commodity.  Watch: https://www.youtube.com/nathanielwhittemorecrypto

The title says it all. Visa, Mastercard, eBay, and Stripe have joined PayPal in leaving the Libra Association. Is this the death knell for the project? Will the rest of the organizations follow suit and leave? Or does this provide a chance to Libra to shift the narrative and arise like a phoenix? Let's dig in.  Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/nathanielwhittemorecrypto

The SEC has denied the most recent bitcoin ETF proposal - this time from Bitwise. Some speculate that there simply will not be an ETF on Chairman Clayton's watch. The CFTC chair meanwhile has said that the CFTC considers ETH a commodity and expects futures and other derivatives products. Finally, Binance's acceptance of Alipay/WeChat pay as a fiat onramp has prompted those companies to reiterate their anti-crypto stance.  Watch: https://www.youtube.com/nathanielwhittemorecrypto

The IRS dropped quite the surprise today: their first new tax guidance since 2014. Unfortunately, it seems to indicate that chains forking and airdropping users coins (whether they want them or not) creates a taxable event. Meanwhile, DevCon5 is cruising along in Osaka, complete with Ethereum scaling debates, the imminent launch of Multi-Collateral DAI, and the announcement of a new, open version of Libra (although it's not exactly clear why people are excited about this). Lastly, the real Libra faced some headwinds as US Senators put pressure on Visa, Mastercard and Stripe to follow suit with PayPal and leave the Libra Association.  Watch: https://www.youtube.com/nathanielwhittemorecrypto

First it was the NBA aggressively distancing itself from comments from Rockets GM Daryl Morey in support of Hong Kong protesters. Then it was Blizzard banning a player from competitive Hearthstone play for making a pro Hong Kong statement live on air. On this Narrative Watch, we dig into the uncomfortable tension between China's role in the globe business world and it's tight control over dissent and critique - and more specifically, why it is a reminder of the need for permissionless, decentralized, censorship resistant alternatives in money and technology.  Watch: https://www.youtube.com/nathanielwhittemorecrypto

Libra is back in the spotlight after the WSJ published reports that Visa, Mastercard and others are getting cold feet after the chilly reception from regulators around the world. David Marcus took to Twitter to defend the project, while simultaneously creating a narrative line to pickup should those companies abandon the Libra Association. A challenger to Nancy Pelosi is discussing how cryptos can be used to break the power monopolies of big tech, while a new advocacy organization is taking on what they call the CA bitlicense. Finally, volume on LocalBitcoins in Hong Kong is up more than any time since the 2017 boom amidst heightened protests. The question is: who's buying?  Watch: https://www.youtube.com/nathanielwhittemorecrypto

The SEC's $24m settlement with EOS has been all anyone has been able to talk about for the last day or so. In this episode, we look at the four camps of reactions: the "they got off easy"; "you're all commies"; "it's about the consistency"; and the pragmatists. We also discuss the "Crypto Rating Council" and the general state of the SEC's securities law determinations. Insider baseball with big implications for the evolution of the industry.  Watch: https://www.youtube.com/nathanielwhittemorecrypto