Happy Tuesday, Blockfolians
The Lede
Earlier this year, the crypto industry took notice when former Coinbase lawyer Brian Brooks was named acting comptroller in the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) - the top bank regulation position in the country.
This week, we again saw the benefit of someone with a crypto background in that role as the OCC and SEC have provided new guidance supporting banks to work with stablecoin issuers.
Stablecoin issuers have been using U.S. banks for years, but in an unclear regulatory environment. Now, the OCC wants federally regulated banks to feel comfortable providing services to stablecoin issuers, it said in a press release. An accompanying interpretative letter, signed by Senior Deputy Comptroller Jonathan Gould, explained that while banks should conduct due diligence and ensure they assess the risks of banking any stablecoin issuers, stablecoins are becoming increasingly popular.
This is great news for the industry. Stablecoins are one of the breakout crypto uses of 2020, nearly quadrupling in total circulating supply since the beginning of the year. The new guidance effectively legitimates this sector and creates new opportunities to expand.
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Highly Relevant Reading
Libra co-creator Morgan Beller leaves the project to become general partner at venture firm NFX
Beleagured Bithumb is apparently looking for a buyer
Craig Wright loses summary judgement in billion-dollar bitcoin case
The supply of tokenized bitcoin on ethereum now exceeds $1.1B
Community Commentary
Boy howdy he’s not wrong. There is a LOT of chatter around NFTs right now.
Case in point:
A Really Big Number We Should Be Paying Attention To
$137,000,000
That’s the amount BNY Mellon processed in relation to the crypto Ponzi scheme OneCoin, according to the just released FinCEN Files.
Final Thought
Chamath’s investing framework is pretty interesting to read