March 2024. The US CFTC while filing a lawsuit against KuCoin have emphasised the classification of BTC, ETH and LTC as commodities accusing KuCoin of multiple regulatory breaches involving these digital assets.

According to the CFTC, KuCoin illegally engaged in transactions involving futures, swaps and leveraged, margined or financial retail commodity transactions related to cryptoassets like BTC, ETH and LTC without proper registration. The CFTC's lawsuit against KuCoin is part of a broader crackdown to enforce compliance and safeguard US investors from unregulated crypto activities.

November 2023. Wall Street giant JP Morgan has officially launched programmable payment functionality on its institutional blockchain platform, JPM Coin, 

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JPMorgan’s clients can now leverage the cutting-edge programmable payment feature, enabling real-time, dynamic treasury operations with a groundbreaking “If-This-Then-That” interface.

The interface is accessible through an online treasury portal and enables institutional users to establish a broader range of rules than traditional conditional payments, fostering increased efficiency and responsiveness in financial management.

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.August 2023. The Digital Euro Association (DEA), an independent advocacy group for digital money, has spotlighted Ripple’s recent alliance with Mastercard.

Mastercard has highlighted that banking regulators’ efforts regarding CBDCs have not garnered significant public interest, unlike cryptocurrencies, but that this.
 

Specifically, it cited that 93% of central banks are involved in various stages of CBDC development. Among them, four retail CBDCs have become operational.

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.July 2023. Ripple Labs Inc did not violate federal securities law by selling its XRP token on public exchanges, a U.S. judge has ruled. This makes it a landmark legal victory for the cryptocurrency industry that immediately sent the value of XRP soaring.

The ruling by U.S. District Judge Analisa Torres was the first win for a cryptocurrency company in a case brought by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission -- though it did also give the SEC a partial victory.

April 2023. Franklin Templeton says its money-market fund that records share ownership on a blockchain is seeing inflows from crypto-related entities in the aftermath of the shuttering of several industry-friendly banks. Total assets in the Franklin OnChain US Government Money Fund (FOBXX), which was launched in 2021 and became publicly available last year, have increased to around $270 million. The fund uses the Stellar blockchain network to process transactions and record ownership. The fund invests in US government securities, cash and repurchase agreements and doesn’t hold any cryptocurrencies.

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March 2023. This is a proposal to change the tax treatment of cryptocurrency transactions that would eliminate investors' ability to take advantage of losses to lower their tax bills. The new provision would raise $24 billion, according to the White House.

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Currently, crypto sales aren’t subject to the same rules that investors in stocks or bonds have to follow. Investors can sell crypto investments at a loss, take the tax-deductible loss to reduce their tax burden, and buy right back into the same investment.

The budget eliminates this and subjects crypto to the same so-called wash-sale rules that apply to stocks and bonds.

November 2022. Goldman Sachs is set to unveil a data service created with global index provider MSCI and crypto data firm Coin Metrics that seeks to classify hundreds of digital coins and tokens so institutional investors can make sense of the new asset class.

The new service is called Datonomy — a play on the word taxonomy, which is the branch of science concerned with naming and classifying the natural world — and can be accessed as a subscription-based data feed or through Marquee, which is Goldman’s digital storefront for institutional investors. 

 

November 2022. JP Morgan completed its first live cross-border transaction on a public blockchain using decentralized finance (DeFi). The trade was executed on the Ethereum layer-2 network Polygon and using a modified version of the AAVE protocol.

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Through this trade, JP Morgan marks a significant advancement in the company’s integration with the infrastructure that supports the cryptocurrency industry. Also, the trade was made possible by Project Guardian, a pilot program run by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) to research possible DeFi uses in wholesale funding markets.

November 2022. The aim of this joint report by the Oliver Wyman Forum, DBS, Onyx by J.P. Morgan, and SBI Digital Asset Holdings is to help business executives understand the potential benefits of adapting decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols in the finance industry using tokenized real-world assets.

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Such protocols have emerged rapidly, capturing billions of assets in the crypto-asset industry, but financial institutions need to address a number of considerations before they can use DeFi protocols at scale.

June 2022. Carnage in the crypto market won’t let up, as token prices plummet, companies lay off employees in waves, and some of the most popular names in the industry go belly up. The chaos has spooked investors, erasing more than $2 trillion in value in a matter of months — and wiping out the life savings of retail traders who bet big on crypto projects billed as safe investments.

However, according to Joshua Gans an economist at the University of Toronto, people don’t really use crypto as collateral for real-world debts. Without that, this is just a lot of paper losses. So this is low on the list of issues for the economy,

May 2022. Despite the crypto slump, banking giant JPMorgan says bitcoin is massively undervalued.

Maintaining its estimate of bitcoin's fair value at $38,000, the bank today reiterated the assessment it gave the asset in February when the cryptocurrency was trading around $43,400. This price ($38,000) is approximately 28% higher than the current $29,757.

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In a note to clients issued Wednesday, the bank has also stated that it is replacing real estate with digital, or crypto, assets as its preferred alternative asset class along with hedge funds, citing “potential lagged repricing” in private equity, private debt and real estate.

January 2022. The iShares Blockchain and Tech ETF would invest in companies involved in the “development, innovation, and utilization of blockchain and crypto technologies,” according to the filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. If launched, it would be the first crypto-adjacent fund in the largest ETF issuer’s lineup.

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The number of ETFs tracking crypto-linked equities has grown to 15 in recent years, according to Bloomberg Intelligence data, as the SEC continues to demur on spot Bitcoin ETF approval.

December 2021. For years, cybersecurity experts have warned of the potential dangers of allowing a handful of Big Tech firms to monopolize the Internet. Amazon Web Services’ (AWS) latest outage that for hours saw some folks in the United States locked out their homes, crypto exchanges powered down, and many other regrettable incidents is a stark reminder of those risks.

December 2021. For many corporations, high-net-worth investors and progressive family offices, the huge intergenerational wealth transfer currently underway is seeing traditional asset blends move aside in favor of more innovative ideas.

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Assets in funds invested in cryptos were below $5 billion a year ago. Now, they stand at almost $55 billion, supported by rising inflows and price appreciation of the funds’ underlying holdings, with this growth trend fueled further by recent ETF launches focused on the asset class. 

July 2021. A new law in Germany that could theoretically prompt up to $415 billion to flow into crypto takes effect on 1st July. Germany’s Fund Location Act, introduced in April and approved by parliament shortly thereafter, permits “Spezialfonds,” or special funds, to invest as much as 20% of their portfolios in crypto. 

Should every Spezialfond choose to allocate the full 20% in crypto, that would equate to €350 billion ($415 billion), based on the total assets under management of such funds in Germany.

May 2021. With cryptocurrency prices remaining extremely volatile even as interest in cryptos from credible investors has been rising, and legacy financial institutions—including ourselves—have been launching new crypto products and services, crypto is undoubtedly growing in profile.

Goldman Sachs garners the views of experts including including Galaxy’s Michael Novogratz, NYU Stern’s Nouriel Roubini, Grayscale’s Michael Sonnenshein, Goldman Sach's own Mathew McDermott, former SEC advisor Alan Cohen, Trail of Bits’ Dan Guido, and Chainalysis’ Michael Gronager to explore the regulatory, technological, and security obstacles to further institutional adoption.

January 2021. BlackRock Inc. is adding bitcoin futures as an eligible investment to two funds in a move to bring the world of cryptocurrency to its clients. The world’s largest asset manager said it could use bitcoin derivatives for its funds- BlackRock Strategic Income Opportunities and BlackRock Global Allocation Fund Inc. The funds will invest only in cash-settled bitcoin futures traded on commodity exchanges registered with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission the company said in a filing to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). 

December 2020. The SEC has filed a lawsuit against Ripple Labs Inc., alleging that it raised over $1.3 billion through the sale and distribution of the digital assets of XRP without registering. Ripple operates the RippleNet and the XRP payment protocol, considered superior to bitcoin with its improved ledger, faster settlement speed, and digital wallet for international transactions across 55 countries. Ripple’s blockchain-like exchange network is claimed to be an efficient, inclusive, and low-cost supplement (some say alternative) to traditional payment networks like SWIFT and others.

October 2020. The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California ruled to dismiss two fraud allegations against Ripple stating that the cases filed against the company lacked merit, but gave the green light to proceed with the cause of action involving the violation of the California Corporations Code 25401 against Brad Garlinghouse's, Ripple's CEO, alleged misrepresentation regarding the “scope and character of his XRP holdings.” .

October 2020. In a webinar on 3rd October, Jay Clayton, Chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), observed that all stock trading is now electronic, compared to twenty years ago. In the past, there were stock certificates, now there are digital entries. “It may very well be the case that those all become ''tokenized,” said Clayton. This he said alongside Brian Brooks, Acting Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), as they took part in a Digital Chamber of Commerce event.

September 2020. New research amongst institutional investors who collectively help manage USD78.4 billion of assets, reveals that over the next five years 26 per cent believe pension funds, insurers, family offices and sovereign wealth funds will ‘dramatically’ increase their level of investment in cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin  and crypto assets in general.  

August 2020. DeFi stands for “Decentralised Finance”, which aims to recreate the traditional financial system with less, well, middlemen. Many of the traditional actions in the markets such as lending, borrowing, structuring derivative products, and the buying and selling of securities, can now be done through a decentralized open-source network. The vast majority of these applications are currently created on Ethereum, but in principle, other platforms with smart contract capabilities could work too. 

July 2020. Grayscale Investments- a New York firm that makes cryptocurrencies available in the form of stocks has received the go-ahead for the sale of two new cryptocurrencies to the public from regulators. 
One of the newly-listed stocks will represent shares of Litecoin, one of the oldest cryptocurrencies after Bitcoin, and the other is Bitcoin Cash, a controversial spin-off to Bitcoin launched in 2017. While cryptocurrency enthusiasts typically purchase Litecoin and other digital currencies directly on dedicated crypto exchanges like Coinbase or Binance, Grayscale has found a niche selling them in the forms of shares.

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June 2020. Unlike Bitcoin, IOTA does not rely on the blockchain technology but on the tangle, whose data structure is based on the mathematical concept of the Directed Acyclic Graph (DAG). IOTA also has the vision of becoming the new standard for the Internet of Things (IoT) and machine-to-machine transactions (M2M). Probably the best known investor and also patent applicant is the German tech giant Bosch. The company bought an unknown amount of MIOTA in 2018 and filed a patent for an IOTA-based payment system.

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June 2020. An eventual decision by the SEC to classify—or not classify—XRP as a security could impact the untold individual owners of the cryptocurrency, but also other clients using Ripple services that don’t rely on the cryptocurrency. Financial services institutions like American Express, Santander, and SBI Holdings could stand to be impacted positively or negatively depending on the decision. After all if XRP were to be rescinded it would be a huge cost to their software provider. If Giancarlo is right though, Ripple could end up being one of the most valuable startups in fintech. 

May 2020. Ghana’s Waya Money has seemingly teamed up with Ripple to bring instant cross-border settlements to millions of Africans in three countries. Based in Ghana’s hip Accra region, Waya is a digital “challenger” bank working to bring financial inclusion to Africa where massive populations are under-banked. As of now, Waya operates in three African countries; Kenya, Ghana, and Nigeria. Others are in the pipeline, including South Africa, Sierra Leone, and Ivory Coast. Interestingly, the project also lists Stellar (XLM) as a partner.

Jan 2020. The number of applications built on the Ethereum network is soaring as more people tap into the decentralised finance – or DeFi – trend. A report by Dapp.com reveals Ethereum had more than 1.4 million active decentralised application (dApp) users last year, up from just over 800,000 in 2018. Of these, 1.28 million were new users and 137,000 were returning users. The research also shows that of the 1,445 new dApps that were launched on the six largest smart contract platforms in 2019, a substantial 690 were Ethereum based. 

December 2019. Blockchain technology as a potential solution has been applied to all of the large ecosystems that have issues with real-time data access, partners privacy, traceability and auditability. The supply chain ecosystem is no exception to that, as typical product recalls cost $8 million per year and this number can be reduced with the improved track-and-trace features of blockchain. The key drivers for supply chain blockchain adoption are increased cost savings, enhanced traceability and greater transparency.

October 2019. UNICEF will now be able to receive, hold and disburse donations of cryptocurrencies ether and bitcoin, through its newly-established UNICEF Cryptocurrency Fund. In a first for United Nations organizations, UNICEF will use cryptocurrencies to fund open source technology benefiting children and young people around the world. Under the structure of the UNICEF Cryptocurrency Fund, contributions will be held in their cryptocurrency of contribution, and granted out in the same cryptocurrency.     

September 2019.  Amazon has created Amazon Quantum Ledger Database (QLDB) and Amazon Managed Blockchain. The former is aimed at cases where a full blockchain isn’t needed. One example presented is a state’s licensing system, for cars, businesses and other entities that needs to be registered with the state. Amazon QLDB runs on Amazon Web Services (AWS) and so is easily scalable and accessible to people in the cloud environment. Amazon Managed Blockchain will involve initial support for Hyperledger Fabric and support for Ethereum to follow. 

May 2019. Several of the world’s largest banks are in the process of investing around $50 million to create a digital cash system using blockchain technology to settle financial transactions, 

The previously disclosed project, known as the "utility settlement coin," aims to develop a system to make clearing and settlement in financial markets more efficient. Around a dozen banks (UBS, Banco Santander, Bank of New York Mellon Corp, State Street Corp, Credit Suisse Group AG, Barclays PLC, HSBC Holdings Plc and Deutsche Bank AG are investing in a new entity called Fnality which would run the project.

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February 2019. The first cryptocurrency created by a major U.S. bank is here — and it’s from J.P. Morgan Chase...J.P. Morgan is preparing for a future in which parts of the essential underpinning of global capitalism, from cross-border payments to corporate debt issuance, move to the blockchain. That’s the database technology made famous by its first application, bitcoin. But in order for that future to happen, the bank needed a way to transfer money at the dizzying speed that those smart contracts closed, rather than relying on old technology like wire transfers.

August 2018 Banks that integrate blockchain will achieve cost reductions not just in payment processing and reconciliation but also in treasury operations and compliance. Indeed, in compliance, automation of identity/money-laundering checks, allied to capability of the blockchain to verify the digital identity of an individual, should enable savings of up to 50% of the existing costs base within a few years.However, the need to parallel-run blockchain-based services with legacy systems would mean that savings would not be realised for several years after initial deployment, with annual cost reductions not reaching $1 billion per annum until 2024.

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July 2018. There’s more than one way to gain exposure to blockchain innovation. Beyond buying over-the-counter products or investing directly in blockchain startups some of the largest public companies in the world are already dabbling in the tech. In fact, a closer look at this year’s Forbes Global 2000 list of the largest public companies in the world reveals that not only are all ten of the largest public companies in the world exploring blockchain, but at least 50 of the biggest names on the list have all made their own mark on technology first inspired by bitcoin.

August 2018 Banks that integrate blockchain will achieve cost reductions not just in payment processing and reconciliation but also in treasury operations and compliance. Indeed, in compliance, automation of identity/money-laundering checks, allied to capability of the blockchain to verify the digital identity of an individual, should enable savings of up to 50% of the existing costs base within a few years.However, the need to parallel-run blockchain-based services with legacy systems would mean that savings would not be realised for several years after initial deployment, with annual cost reductions not reaching $1 billion per annum until 2024.

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