What a win-win for #crypto & Wyoming! As of **NOW** Kraken has a US bank charterβa 100% reserves-required, audit required (w/ #ProofOfReserves), custody via legal bailment, no #rehypothecation type of bank!π€
2/ The vote of #Wyoming's Banking Board just concluded & it was UNANIMOUS! It took 27 months for the first #Wyoming SPDI to obtain a charterβcongrats to the dozens of people who made it happen, esp @GovGordon, @TylerLindholm & Wyoming legislators & the Wyoming Division of Banking
3/ Iβll be back w/ more analysis later. Next applicant in line for #Wyoming SPDI is @AvantiBT later this Fall (more are on the way). But today is @krakenfx's day. As a shareholder, I'm so happy for @jespow & Kraken team! Applications for this charter opened a yr ago--took longer
4/ ...than expected but the outcome is just as sweet! Congrats again @krakenfx & #Wyoming!!!
1/ MILESTONE ACHIEVED--a tokenized dollar (AvitTM) issued on a permissionless blockchain was used Friday *within the banking system* to make cross-border US dollar payments. @custodiabank & @Vantage_Bank teamed up to do it for Mexico-based trucking & logistics company, DX Xpress.
2/ It was a pleasure to watch DX Xpress transact--it's a tech-focused trucking co. whose CEO's goal is to be able to pay truck drivers programmatically *within an hour* of delivering goods to their destination. Stablecoin tech is the only way to do that so fast & cheaply today.
3/ Avits use #stablecoin tech but they're *actual dollars* (not merely claims to dollars), since banks (not non-banks) issue Avits. @Vantage_Bank & @custodiabank did the heavy lifting to integrate them safely into the banking system, working closely with our bank regulators.
1/ I'VE BEEN THINKING about why the Fed left in place one of its anti-#crypto statements while rescinding all 4 others. The one it left in place was issued in coordination w/ the Biden White House's anti-crypto statement on January 27, 2023. Link here: federalregister.gov/documents/2023β¦x.com/CaitlinLong_/sβ¦
2/ The Jan 27, 2023 guidance left in place by the Fed does many things, but here are the keys:
a. blocks banks from touching cryptoassets as principal, even in a tiny amount to pay gas/transaction fees,
b. blocks banks from issuing #stablecoins on permissionless blockchains +π
3/ c. maintains a Fed policy preferring permissioned blockchains over permissionless ones--even tho the other federal banking agencies (OCC/FDIC) rescinded that.
What means?
**THE FED HAS MAINTAINED A REGULATORY PREFERENCE FOR PERMISSIONED STABLECOINS (ie, big-bank versions)**
@nic__carter @PirateWires THIS BOMBSHELL HAS BEEN AN OPEN SECRET in Washington for quite a while--so much so that it wasn't really a secret anymore. *FINALLY* someone put it in writing:
π¨**Elizabeth Warren had de facto control over Biden's economic & financial regulatory team.**
Historians, have fun...
@nic__carter @PirateWires AND LOOKY HERE...a name that insiders also surfaced when the White House & Fed went after @custodiabank, using the press to try to intimidate us into withdrawing our Fed applications by telling us the Fed Board would vote down our application--2 days before the vote happened:
1/ WE TOOK TERRITORY by issuing the first bank-issued #stablecoin on a permissionless blockchain & it's not what you think. π§΅ below. The real impact is on #tradfi--yes, #crypto took regulatory territory, but #tradfi is the real story in what @custodiabank did w/ @Vantage_Bank.
2/ Background: Fed Governor Waller's #stablecoin speech a few wks ago distinguished btwn "real" dollars & "synthetic" dollars, noting stablecoins are synthetic. Only the Fed + special types of entities legally authorized to take demand deposits can issue *real* dollars. federalreserve.gov/newsevents/speβ¦
3/ Crypto doesn't care abt that distinction, but to #tradfi that distinction is EVERYTHING. Why? bc tradfi must care about legal, accounting & tax rules. I can't give legal, accounting or tax advice, but when a bank authorized to issue a dollar issues a dollar, it's a dollar.π‘
1/ Prime Trust's bankruptcy Plan Admin recommended that its #crypto custody customers--who thought they owned the custodied assets--take a haircut. Amount not clear yet (Celsius custody customers took a 27.5% haircut). These situations were sadly avoidable. courtlistener.com/docket/6769170β¦
2/ Context: bankruptcy is a process designed to maximize the recovery of assets for a bankrupt company's estate, while a bank's receivership is a process designed to protect a bank customers. When a non-bank fails, it goes to bankruptcy. When a bank fails, it goes to receivership
3/ So, the Prime Trust discussion is only a bankruptcy discussion because Prime Trust wasn't a bank.
Prime Trust went bust and has an asset shortfall, so a bankruptcy judge must decide whether its custody customers will get all their assets back or will take a haircut.
1/ NEW BLOG: "How To Keep The #Bitcoin Strategic Reserve From Morphing Into A Bailout Fund." Did you know SBF publicly advocated for a crypto bailout fund just 1 month before FTX failed? Story πLesson: donβt let future Sams hijack the SBR for a bailout!!! caitlin-long.com/how-to-keep-biβ¦
2/ In the blog I analyze #bitcoin as a reserve asset (key is its favorable inflation rate differential)--but condition my support for a BSR on drafting legislation w/ 4 specific prohibitions to prevent insolvent-but-politically-connected people from ever using it for a bailout:
3/ The favorable inflation rate differential between #bitcoin & US dollar + strategic benefits make bitcoin worth considering as a reserve asset, but the consensus mechanisms of other #crypto can be too easily changed to permit higher inflation so I don't support including them: