New York regulator: Signature Bank’s collapse was not due to crypto

Headlines

▌New York regulator: Signature Bank’s collapse was not due to cryptocurrencies

Golden Finance reported that New York State regulators denied that they were punishing Signature Bank for its exposure to cryptocurrencies. Former Congressman Barney Frank criticized the New York Department of Financial Services, saying that its actions against the bank's involvement in the digital asset industry were premature. Supervisor Adrienne Harris said that it was a misnomer to associate the failure of Signature Bank with cryptocurrency. Testifying before the House Financial Services Committee's panel on digital assets, financial technology and inclusion, Harris pointed out that about 20% of Signature's deposits left the bank on the night of Silicon Valley Bank's collapse, but "only 20% of that 20%" were deposits related to cryptocurrencies. The rest are normal business customers whose deposits are not insured, so we did not see the collapse caused by crypto deposits and their instability.

Quotes

As of press time, according to coinmarketcap data:

The latest transaction price of BTC is 28,800.00 USD, with a daily change of -5.09% ;

ETH's latest transaction price is $1933.53, with a daily change of -7.94% ;

BNB's latest trading price is $322.40, with a daily change of -5.87% ;

ARB's latest trading price is $1.49, with a daily change of -10.15% ;

DOGE's latest transaction price is $0.088220, with a daily change of -6.06% ;

ADA's latest trading price is $0.417700, with a daily change of -5.56% ;

The latest transaction price of MATIC is $1.08, with a daily change of -7.42% .

policy

▌ Disagreements between Democrats and Republicans on stablecoin regulation may hinder the rapid passage of legislation

On April 20, at a hearing on stablecoins held by the House Financial Services Committee on Wednesday, Democrats and Republicans had differences, which may not be conducive to a quick legislative agreement. Patrick McHenry, chairman of the committee and a Republican, said that a draft stablecoin bill released this month laid the foundation for a federal framework, but he admitted that there is more work to be done. McHenry said the draft was the result of his negotiations with Maxine Waters, the Democratic leader of the committee. However, Waters said on Wednesday that her negotiations with McHenry were never completed and the recent draft should be completely ignored, citing failures such as the bankruptcy of FTX, saying that these failures occurred after their initial negotiations. "Unfortunately, a lot of things happened during this period. I think the negotiations should start from scratch," she said. She also said that Republicans have said that they plan to write their own separate bills. If this is the case, Democrats will do the same, and the two sides will eventually need to get back together to resolve their differences. In addition, French Hill, chairman of the Digital Assets, Financial Technology and Inclusion Subcommittee, which held the hearing, said it was vital for members to work together to pass legislation. Last year, stablecoin regulation became a hot topic of discussion after the collapse of TerraUSD.

Russia plans to set up new agency to mine cryptocurrencies and settle international payments

Golden Finance reported that Elvira Naiullina, head of the Russian regulatory agency, said on Monday that the Russian Central Bank is working on a bill that will introduce an "experimental legal system" that will allow cryptocurrencies to be used exclusively for import and export transactions. Naiullina added that crypto trading and payments within Russia will still be prohibited. As part of the regulation, new tax laws will be introduced for miners. The central bank's plans include setting up a dedicated organization responsible for cryptocurrency mining and processing payments for cross-border trade agreements. According to local laws passed in 2020, digital assets issued within Russia can also be used for such cross-border transactions like globally decentralized cryptocurrencies.

Cryptocurrency

▌Tesla's Bitcoin holdings remain unchanged for three consecutive quarters

On April 20, Tesla's financial report released on Wednesday afternoon showed that the company did not buy or sell any Bitcoin in the first quarter of 2023. As of the end of the first quarter, Tesla's digital assets were worth $184 million, the same as in the fourth quarter of 2022. Although the price of Bitcoin rose to about $28,500 at the end of the first quarter from $16,500 three months ago, the valuation of Bitcoin remained unchanged because current accounting standards do not allow such gains to be included. Tesla has not changed its Bitcoin holdings for the third consecutive quarter. According to FactSet, Tesla's adjusted earnings per share (EPS) in the first quarter were 85 cents and revenue was $23.33 billion.

Russia plans to set up new agency to mine cryptocurrencies and settle international payments

Golden Finance reported that Elvira Naiullina, head of the Russian regulatory agency, said on Monday that the Russian Central Bank is working on a bill that will introduce an "experimental legal system" that will allow cryptocurrencies to be used exclusively for import and export transactions. Naiullina added that crypto trading and payments within Russia will still be prohibited. As part of the regulation, new tax laws will be introduced for miners. The central bank's plans include setting up a dedicated organization responsible for cryptocurrency mining and processing payments for cross-border trade agreements. According to local laws passed in 2020, digital assets issued within Russia can also be used for such cross-border transactions like globally decentralized cryptocurrencies.

▌Bitcoin Core Developer Dhruvkaran Mehta to Resign

Golden Finance reported that Bitcoin Core developer Dhruvkaran Mehta said he would leave the project to focus on a new Bitcoin-related entrepreneurial idea. Mehta began contributing to Bitcoin Core in August 2020, mainly focusing on improving Bitcoin's peer-to-peer (P2P) protocol through Bitcoin Improvement Proposal 324 (BIP324). Bitcoin's P2P protocol controls the communication between nodes in the network. BIP324 attempts to reduce the possibility of such attacks by introducing a P2P protocol that encrypts information between Bitcoin nodes.

▌The number of unconfirmed transactions in the entire Bitcoin network is 5171

Golden Finance reported that BTC.com data showed that the current number of unconfirmed transactions in the entire Bitcoin network is 5,171, the total network computing power is 349.69 EH/s, the 24-hour transaction rate is 3.59 transactions/s, and the current network difficulty is 47.89 T. It is predicted that the next difficulty will increase by 2.18% to 48.93 T, and there are 17 hours and 22 minutes left before the adjustment.

▌Helium has successfully migrated to Solana to mint nearly 1 million NFTs

Golden Finance reported that the decentralized wireless network Helium has successfully completed the migration from the Layer 1 blockchain platform to Solana. As part of the migration process, NFTs will be minted to represent each physical hotspot node running on the Helium network, and more than 991,000 Solana NFTs will be minted. According to the Solana Foundation, the process reduces the estimated minting cost of 1 million NFTs to about $113 worth of SOL (as of April 5). In comparison, the estimated minting cost of Solana without compression technology is $253,000 worth of SOL, which is estimated to be about $32,800 worth of MATIC on Polygon.

▌The proportion of BTC supply that was last active for more than 3 years hit a record high

Golden Finance reported that Glassnode data showed that the percentage of BTC supply that was last active for more than 3 years just reached 39.755%, a record high.

▌Nigeria's Central Bank fined Union Bank 200 million naira for violating the country's cryptocurrency regulations

Golden Finance reported that the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) fined the Union Bank of Nigeria (UBN) 200 million naira (about 433,000 U.S. dollars) for violating the country's regulations on cryptocurrency transactions. UBN disclosed the fine in its consolidated and separate financial statements for the year ending December 31, 2022, released on Wednesday. The central bank had previously warned commercial banks not to conduct cryptocurrency transactions by allowing accounts to receive and send funds related to digital currencies. It is reported that the CBN, led by Godwin Emefiele, took an opposing stance on cryptocurrencies, and Nigeria eventually banned cryptocurrency transactions on February 5, 2021.

Important economic developments

▌Belarus will make a decision on issuing CBDC by the end of the year

Golden Finance reported that the National Bank of the Republic of Belarus has prepared a pilot program for the central bank digital currency (CBDC). Pavel Kallaur, governor of the National Bank, said that the country will make a decision on the issuance of the digital Belarusian ruble by the end of the year, and this decision will be made by the head of state.

▌Fed Beige Book: Economic growth has stagnated in recent weeks

Golden Finance reported that the Federal Reserve said in its Beige Book that U.S. economic growth has stagnated in recent weeks, hiring and inflation have slowed, and credit access has narrowed. The Beige Book said, "Overall economic activity has changed little in recent weeks, and several jurisdictions have noted that banks have tightened lending standards amid increased uncertainty and concerns about liquidity." "Overall price levels rose modestly during the reporting period, but the pace of price increases appears to have slowed." This is the first Beige Book released by the Federal Reserve since the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank in early March triggered financial market turmoil.