What happened this week in the world of blockchain and cryptocurrencies? The most relevant local and international events as well as appealing background reports in a concise and compact weekly review.
Selected articles of the week:
Three cantonal banks now offer crypto trading. Switzerland’s leading retail bank, PostFinance, has also positioned itself. The reluctance of UBS, which is still sticking to its anti-crypto stance, remains striking. A direct crypto offering is unimaginable. But even the highly successful Bitcoin ETFs are not allowed to be traded by the majority of UBS clients. The patronization knows no bounds. Of course, the bank knows better which assets clients should invest in.
Despite new crypto offerings from various Swiss banks, UBS remains highly critical. Is the major bank missing out a megatrend?
FINMA comments on crypto developments
The Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA) is an independent supervisory authority with a statutory mandate to monitor the financial markets. The authority has been active in the crypto sector since 2013. Over the years, technology-promoting, neutral regulations followed as the cornerstone of a flourishing ecosystem – the “Crypto Valley”. Since then, however, FINMA has come under frequent criticism. Last year in particular, industry representatives sounded the alarm several times.
The Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA) is an independent regulatory authority with a legal…
SEC continues war against industry
Ethereum is the second-largest decentralized blockchain network after Bitcoin. The native cryptocurrency Ether (ETH) has also been traded on various trading venues since 2015. Most authorities regard Ether and Bitcoin as commodities. But not the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Since Chairman Gary Gensler took office, the authority has been highly hostile towards the industry. The latest campaign is intended to secure the SEC’s regulatory authority over Ethereum. A questionable strategy after the devastating court losses against Ripple, Grayscale and other crypto companies.
Ethereum is the second largest decentralized blockchain network after Bitcoin. Since 2015, the native cryptocurrency…
BlackRock bets on blockchain
Undeterred, the world’s largest asset manager is launching its first experiment on the public Ethereum blockchain. Through so-called tokenization – the representation of a conventional asset on the blockchain – BlackRock is transferring an “Institutional Digital Liquidity” fund to the digital world. Judging by the name, it will be a money market fund. The fund will be launched with 100 million US dollars, according to on-chain analyses.
BlackRock is launching a first tokenization project on the Ethereum blockchain. In partnership with the…
Important upgrade for Ethereum scaling
In addition: Ethereum has been struggling with sustainable scaling for years. High demand for decentralized applications often leads to high transaction costs, long waiting times and failed transfers. So-called layer 2 solutions, which outsource part of the activity to a second layer, have similar problems. Last week’s successful Dencun upgrade significantly reduces the fees on these scaling protocols. So far, however, no migration of activity back into the Ethereum ecosystem has been observed.
A summarizing review of what has been happening at the crypto markets of the past week. A weekly report in cooperation with Kaiko.
