Crypto industry’s $120M US election spend comes with expectations
With the US election due to take place in a fortnight, the crypto industry collectively donated $120M on pro-digital asset candidates as of August, according to filings from the Federal Election Commission. This makes it the largest single contributor by industry to the 2024 US Election.
Both the Democratic presidential candidate, Kamala Harris, and her running mate, Tim Walz, as well as the Republican candidates, Donald Trump and JD Vance, have made crypto policy and regulation central planks of their political platforms, though obviously with different positions.
The trend of crypto supporters favoring pro-crypto candidates is present at every level of the election countdown. At state level this is none more so than in Ohio, where Republican Bernie Moreno’s enthusiasm for crypto adoption has prompted industry supporters to donate “tens of millions” to his improving campaign against the Democrats’ candidate, Senator Sherrod Brown.
Find out more on this story at Business Insider.
Major crypto firm says UK stablecoin rules are coming soon
The global policy head of Circle, a prominent American crypto firm with the second largest stablecoin by value in the world ($34B of USDC),Dante Duarte, believes the UK is very close to adopting a regulatory framework for stablecoins.
He’d said in a recent interview that UK regulators were “within months, not years” of formalizing regulations governing stablecoins, which are digital assets with values pegged to traditional finance currencies.
Duarte expressed optimism at moves by the country’s regulators to implement formal regulations for stablecoins. He believes, however, that the prudent approach to crypto adoption which the UK has taken has helped the industry develop safely, citing as an example the lax AML environment in the US which helped the 2022 FTX collapse.
Duarte also cautioned that not implementing a stablecoin regulatory regime soon could see the UK fall behind jurisdictions like the EU, which is already implementing its Markets in Crypto Assets (MiCA), or Singapore.
He noted that “In the spirit of protecting the U.K. economy from excess risk and crypto, there’s also a point in time in which you end up protecting the economy from job creation and the industries of the future.”
Find out more on this story at Brave New Coin.
Brazil and Thailand join Hong Kong’s tokenization initiative
Hong Kong has built further on the trend of countries bridging tokenization projects with each other by collaborating with Brazil and Thailand. The Hong Kong Monetary (HKMA) has now linked its tokenization project, known as Project Ensemble, with the Central Bank of Brazil’s (CBB) Drex pilot project, and the Bank of Thailand’s (BOT) Project San.
The collaboration on tokenization, a blockchain-based technological development in which traditional assets are converted into digital representations on the blockchain, is intended to improve both technical knowledge of, and different regulatory approaches to, the subject among different jurisdictions.
The HKMA and CBB intend to conduct so-called payment-versus-payment (PvP) and delivery-versus-payment (DvP) test runs related to carbon credits. Meanwhile, the HKMA will run similar PvP and DvP tests test with the BOT concerning how monetary transactions are completed and the funds accessed.
Find out more on this story at Coin Telegraph.
UAE, Argentina, & Ethiopian governments to back bitcoin mining
The governments of Argentina, Ethiopia, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), who are among the six additional members of the expanded BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) economic region, have all started funding bitcoin mining operations.
The Head of Digital Assets Research at the prominent investment company, VanEck, Matthew Siegel, said in a recent interview that this trend is growing among BRICS nations seeking to develop decentralized financial tools less closely tied to the dollar.
Bitcoin mining could offer BRICS nations the potential to grow their economies, advance technologically, and become globally competitive in the burgeoning crypto industry. However, the considerable energy and infrastructure resources which the process consumes has a downside.
A 2023 United Nations University (UNU) study found that bitcoin mining’s high fossil fuel usage adversely impacts land and water and leaves deep carbon footprints.
Find out more on this story at Crypto News.
US Congress set to discuss crypto industry legislation
While the US election is imminent, Congress is set to re-convene for five weeks. It is believed that among several major issues which are set to be debated, stablecoins and crypto regulation are likely to be hot topics.
It is hoped that discussions will cover a range of issues, from regulatory compliance and consumer protection, to tax treatment and anti-money laundering (AML) measures. However, it is likely that the distractions of the election, as well as other important issues such as defense and government funding, will hamper progress on crypto regulation.
Ron Hammond, Director of government relations at Blockchain Association, a cryptocurrency advocacy organization, was cautiously optimistic about what the future holds, despite the challenges congress faces.
He noted that there is bi-partisan support for the legislation of stablecoins and was positive that there will be progress in 2025 regardless of who wins the election.
Find out more on this story at CoinMarketCap.
