Top Headlines
- Coinciding with the rise in Bitcoin price is a spike in the price of Bitcoin mining stocks, as publicly-traded Bitcoin mining companies are also reaping the rewards of the crypto’s success (Coindesk)
- Crypto giant Coinbase is preparing for a public offering, filing a Form S-1 with the SEC earlier this week (CNBC)
- The offering poses unique risks as valuing the company pre-public offering may prove to be difficult, as support for cryptocurrency is polarizing and difficult to measure (The New York Times)
Cryptocurrency Spotlight:
- Robinhood, the stock and crypto trading app attracting newbie investors, has settled with the SEC for $65M for misleading investors. The company was purportedly misrepresenting payments it received from Wall Street firms for sending customer trades their way (The New York Times)
- Robinhood is also facing scrutiny by the MA Secretary of the Commonwealth, who filed a complaint against the company for using “predatory marketing” to attract inexperienced investors to risky bets (CNBC)
- Tether, the largest stablecoin, has passed a market cap of $20B for the first time, making it the fourth-largest cryptocurrency currently traded (Coin Telegraph)
- The United States Treasury’s FinCEN plans to hire cryptocurrency policy officers to provide experienced support in response to crimes involving digital assets (Coin Telegraph)
- The Department of Justice’s Office of the Inspector General warned the FBI that their “dark web” and cryptocurrency strategies are outdated and ineffective, imploring them to beef up resources before being outpaced by criminals (Coindesk)
International Spotlight:
- ?? Germany passed legislation permitting electronic securities records, eliminating the need for recording transactions via paper certificates (BTC Manager)
- ??. Malta’s plan for becoming “Blockchain Island” has been stymied by the unwillingness of banking institutions to work with blockchain firms, as per Malta’s Finance and Employment Minster Clyde Caruana (Coin Telegraph)