Selected articles of the week:
While the United States introduced groundbreaking crypto regulations over time, a comprehensive regulation of digital assets has been difficult to achieve on the European continent so far. With the introduction of the “Markets in Crypto-Assets” (MiCA) proposal, the European Parliament aims to reverse this trend. For the first time, a comprehensive regulatory framework could bring the legal certainty that industry representatives have been longing for.
The EU Parliament agrees on a MiCA proposal and lays the foundation for the first comprehensive legal framework for cryptocurrencies.
The implosion of the crypto hedge fund Three Arrows Capital led to a serious liquidity crisis in the industry, which forced a number of providers and projects into bankruptcy in a domino effect. Collateral damage such as the insolvency of US broker Voyager Digital and the potential bailout of crypto lending platform Celsius demonstrate the problem. The incidents reveal questionable business practices of the providers involved, whose origins are no different from previous banking crises.
The bankruptcy of crypto broker Voyager Digital reveals highly questionable practices regarding risk management in the industry.
Facebook’s (formerly known as Meta) foray into the world of digital currencies with its Libra project in 2019 was met with early resistance. In addition to privacy concerns raised by consumer advocates, the project also quickly caught the attention of regulators. After all, the tech giant wanted its digital currency, which was based on a basket of currencies, to take on several competencies of central banks and commercial banks. Three years and two rebrandings later, the project is being abandoned completely.
The stablecoin project Diem, which was originally founded by Facebook under the name Libra, is finally being shut down after years of efforts.
Over the past two months, there has been a lot of activity in the Crypto Valley. The major cryptocurrency exchange FTX opened the doors to its European arm in Zug, more companies introduced a blockchain apprenticeships, industry representatives gathered at the Crypto Valley Conference in Lucerne and the leading Swiss crowdfunding platform carried out a blockchain-powered IPO.
The Crypto Valley is known to be one of the most “crypto-friendly” regions in the world. A review of the past two months.
In addition: The month of June was tough on cryptocurrency markets, with the largest cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, experiencing its second-worst month in history with a 40% drop. A looming recession and scary inflation developments led to uncertainty across all markets. The American S&P 500 Index and the European Eurostoxx 600 both experienced their worst first halves of the year since 1970 and 2008, respectively. A look back at an eventful month at the halfway point of the year.
A summarizing monthly review of what’s happening in the crypto markets in cooperation with the Swiss specialist 21Shares AG.
