Scenius Sync (Issue #146)
SEC Drops (more) Cases, Prospective SEC Chair Atkins Pressed on Crypto, Wyoming Plans State-Issued Stablecoin, Interactive Brokers Expands Crypto & S. Carolina Bill Proposes BTC As Reserve Asset
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Essential News 🗞
SEC Officially Drops Cases Against Kraken, ConsenSys, and Cumberland DRW
The U.S. SEC on Thursday dismissed enforcement actions against three major crypto firms, filing joint stipulations to drop the cases with prejudice, making the decisions final and not subject to refile. Kraken, ConsenSys, and Cumberland DRW LLC all saw their respective lawsuits terminated simultaneously, marking the latest reversal in the agency's regulatory approach toward digital assets. The regulator has also officially closed its case against the exchange Crypto.com
Prospective SEC chair pressed on sale of FTX-tied firm
Lawmakers in the US Senate Banking Committee questioned prospective Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) member Paul Atkins on his ties to the crypto industry and how he might regulate digital assets if confirmed.
Questioning Atkins at his nomination hearing on March 27, Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren, the committee’s ranking member, said the former SEC commissioner had had “staggeringly bad judgment” in his role leading up to the 2008 financial crisis — Atkins served at the agency from 2002 to 2008. Sen. Warren also asked Atkins to disclose the buyers of his consulting firm Patomak Global Partners — which advised crypto exchange FTX before its collapse in 2022 — for transparency about potential conflicts of interest with the digital asset industry.
Stablecoin issuer Circle taps JP Morgan Chase, Citi ahead of its planned IPO filing in late April
Circle enlisted the help of two of the largest investment banks ahead of its 2025 IPO plans, reported Fortune. The stablecoin issuer intends to file sometime in late April, but those plans could change. Circle previously attempted to go public via a SPAC merger in 2021 as well as confidential filing with the SEC in 2024.
Senate votes to repeal controversial IRS rule, Trump expected to sign
The U.S. Senate voted to repeal a controversial crypto tax rule finalized weeks before the Trump administration took office. The Senate voted 70-28 late Wednesday to repeal the Internal Revenue Service rule, sending the measure to President Donald Trump, who is expected to sign it into law. White House Crypto A.I. and Crypto Czar David Sacks said Trump's senior advisors plan to recommend that he do so. The rule required certain "decentralized finance industry participants" to operate like traditional securities brokers, mandating that they collect and report user trading data. It also would have obligated them to issue Form 1099 tax returns to customers, reporting non-employment income such as gambling winnings, rents and royalties. According to the U.S. Treasury Department, the finalized rule applied to "front-end service providers" that interact "directly with customers," indicating that it targeted entities running the primary website accessing a decentralized protocol rather than the protocol itself.
SEC plans 4 more crypto roundtables on trading, custody, tokenization, DeFi
The US Securities and Exchange Commission will host four more crypto roundtables — focusing on crypto trading, custody, tokenization and decentralized finance — after hosting its first crypto roundtable on March 21. The series of roundtables, organized by the SEC’s Crypto Task Force, will kick off with a discussion on tailoring regulation for crypto trading on April 11, the SEC said in a March 25 statement. A roundtable on crypto custody will follow on April 25, with another to discuss tokenization and moving assets onchain on May 12. The fourth roundtable in the series will discuss DeFi on June 6.
Innovation & Adoption 💡📈
Wyoming moves to launch the first state-issued 'stable token' in July
The crypto-friendly state of Wyoming is planning to issue its own "stable token" and could be the first state to take such an action, as more jurisdictions show interest in crypto. The Cowboy State has the "right ecosystem for development," said Republican Wyoming Gov. Mark Gordon on Wednesday at The Digital Chamber DC Blockchain Summit. "It's a government that is fully accessible; we can turn on a dime, we can make things happen."
More coverage here: Wyoming Stablecoin Is Just a State-Issued CBDC by Another Name: Rep. Tom Emmer
Global brokerage giant Interactive Brokers has added SOL, XRP, ADA and DOGE to its trading platform more than three years after the company first debuted its crypto services. Eligible clients of Interactive Brokers' U.S. and UK entities can now trade these cryptocurrencies 24/7 using the same platform they use for stocks, options, futures, forex, bonds, mutual funds and other assets across more than 160 global markets, the firm said in a statement, enabling investors to take spot cryptocurrency positions and hedge their exposure using crypto futures, options and ETFs through a unified interface.
Warlock Labs Raises $8M to Shake Up On-Chain Order Flow
Warlock Labs, a company that uses on-chain data for responsible order flow processing, has raised $8 million in venture funding. The firm aims to ensure fair trading by proving that none of the order flow submitted to them has been tampered with. Polychain Capital led the round with participation from Greenfield Capital, Reciprocal ventures, Symbolic Capital, Ambush Capital and TRGC.
South Carolina Bill Proposes Bitcoin as State Reserve Asset
Bitcoin might soon be part of South Carolina’s balance sheet. Introduced by state Rep. Jordan Pace, the “Strategic Digital Assets Reserve Act,” proposes that the state treasurer be allowed to allocate up to 10% of certain public funds into digital assets—starting with Bitcoin. The House Bill 4256, or HB4256, seeks to authorize the state treasurer to purchase and hold Bitcoin as a strategic reserve within key state-managed funds, including the General Fund and Budget Stabilization Reserve Fund.
In a somewhat similar vein, GameStop announced it’s own bitcoin treasury strategy: GameStop shares soar 12% after retailer says it will invest corporate cash in bitcoin like MicroStrategy
Crypto VC Maven 11 raises $107 million for third fund amid cautious LP climate
Maven 11, a European crypto venture capital firm, has closed its third fund at $107 million — slightly exceeding its original $100 million target — the firm's chief investment officer and managing partner Balder Bomans told The Block. The fundraise closed about nine months later than initially expected, with capital providers or limited partners (LPs) showing increased caution amid challenging crypto market conditions. "We've seen and experienced that capital providers have been more sensitive towards VC funding due to the general market conditions, part of which can be ascribed to the large and wide losses after the many 2022 fallouts," Bomans said.