Scenius Sync (Issue #80)
2023'S TOP CRYPTO STORIES, WHO WON CRYPTO IN 2023?, 2024 LEGISLATIVE OUTLOOK, 2024 POISED FOR INCREASED INSTITUTIONAL ACTIVITY & THE LAST HURDLE FOR BTC ETF APPROVAL
Scenius: The intelligence and the intuition of a whole cultural scene. The communal form of the concept of genius.
Welcome to The Scenius Sync.
Our mission with this concise publication is twofold:
Share the essential stories driving the crypto industry and markets.
Highlight innovative applications and mainstream adoption of crypto and blockchain technology.
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Essential News 🗞
Legislative outlook: What headwinds does crypto legislation face in 2024?
Cryptocurrency legislation faces some major headwinds in 2024 including an upcoming election season, potential opposition from SEC Chair Gary Gensler, and pushback from some lawmakers who are concerned that some of the bills don't go far enough to regulate the sector. The focus has been largely on two Republican-led bills over the past year. One bill wants to regulate stablecoins on the federal level while the other takes a comprehensive approach to crypto's market structure. Both bills passed out of the House Financial Services committee led by Chair Patrick T. McHenry, R-N.C., in July, but would need to be brought to the Senate Banking Committee, which could prove to be a challenge next year.
From SBF to Taylor Swift, BlackRock, CZ and Binance: The top crypto stories of 2023
There’s always something going on in the crypto space — and this year was no exception. From Sam Bankman-Fried and FTX to BlackRock, CZ and Binance, here are 12 top stories from 2023 to enjoy this Christmas.
The Crypto Queen Pulling the Strings at Binance
U.S. authorities toppled the king of crypto. But the queen is still standing.
Changpeng Zhao’s time atop Binance was cut short after he pleaded guilty to violating anti-money-laundering laws. The government’s case showed that the world’s biggest crypto exchange was a den of international money transfers for terrorists, drug dealers and sanctions violators. Untouched in the upheaval was Yi He, who co-founded Binance with Zhao and has been his chief lieutenant in running the exchange. She is also Zhao’s romantic partner and the mother of three of his children.
Nigerian central bank lifts ban on crypto trading
Nigeria's central bank has lifted a ban on transacting in cryptocurrencies, while saying global trends had shown a need to regulate such activities, the bank said in its latest circular. The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) in Feb. 2021 barred banks and financial institutions from dealing in or facilitating transactions in crypto assets, citing money laundering and terrorism financing risks. Subsequently Nigeria's Securities and Exchange Commission in May last year published regulations for digital assets that signalled Africa's most populous country was trying to find a middle ground between an outright ban on crypto assets and their unregulated use.
Japan seeks to exempt companies from tax on unrealized crypto gains: reports
The Japanese government has approved a 2024 tax regime revision that seeks to exclude corporations from paying tax on unrealized crypto gains if they hold the assets longer term, according to local media reports.
Innovation & Adoption 💡📈
Who Won Crypto in 2023? The CoinDesk Market Index Broken Down in 6 Charts
Tokens from Injective, a layer-1 blockchain in the Cosmos ecosystem, and Render, a GPU rendering network that migrated this year to Solana from Ethereum, dominated the year's return rankings among the CoinDesk Market Index (CMI) benchmark index of 184 digital assets.
This Might Be the Last Hurdle for Bitcoin ETF Approval
As the clock ticks down to the January deadline for the SEC to approve, deny, or delay its decision on spot Bitcoin ETFs, there’s one last hurdle for potential issuers: Authorized participants. Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Eric Balchunas predicted that each Bitcoin ETF hopeful will need to have explicit authorized participant parameters in its S-1 before it’s considered for approval.
More coverage here: SEC tells spot bitcoin ETF hopefuls to make final changes by year-end -sources
Institutional investors poised for increased crypto activity in 2024, analysts say
Institutional investors will take a more active interest in the cryptocurrency sector in 2024, according to analysts from three crypto exchanges and a crypto lending platform. This will be driven by the potential approval of a spot bitcoin ETF, expected U.S. Federal Reserve rate cuts, and greater regulatory clarity. This is a trend that has already started. Data from the Deribit derivatives exchange shows an uptick in activity from institutional investors since October 2023. According to Deribit Chief Commercial Officer Luuk Strijers, the data suggests that more experienced participants from traditional markets are positioning themselves for more involvement in the market in 2024.
Paxos has received regulatory approval to expand its products to the Solana blockchain and plans to launch on January 17, 2024. Paxos is touting its relationship with the New York Department of Financial Services and claims to be the most regulated stablecoin issuer in the world. Paxos only issues its stablecoin, USDP, on Ethereum due to restrictions by DFS, but the expansion to Solana will offer faster transaction speeds and lower costs.
Ethereum Developers Target January for First Testnet Deployment of Next Big Upgrade, 'Dencun'
Ethereum developers are heating up their testing process for the upcoming Dencun upgrade, a major milestone expected next year that would add capacity for data storage via a new process known as "proto-danksharding." In a biweekly call Thursday, the developers discussed that they are targeting Jan. 17 for the Goerli test network (testnet) to run through Dencun, the much-anticipated upgrade that will enable “proto-danksharding,” which reduces fees for layer 2 rollups and scale the blockchain by increasing space for “blobs” of data.