• Commentary,  Opinion,  Regulation

    Crypto’s Illness: Regulatory Reluctance

    Pending court decisions challenge SEC’s failed ‘regulation by enforcement’ strategy

    The U.S. crypto industry has been learning a rough lesson in regulatory compliance in the past few months. With fines, cease and desist orders, agency warnings, and traditional finance counterparties withdrawing from the industry, it is becoming increasingly apparent that crypto has a compounding problem. Press play to hear a narrated version of this story, presented by AudioHopper. The origin of this isn’t FTX, Voyager Digital, Terra Luna, or any other of the business failures or frauds of 2022. Those are symptoms of another disease. The sickness that’s causing crypto to fumble in front of U.S. regulators and counterparties goes all the way back to the founding principles of Bitcoin…

  • Bitcoin bull run fuels Chinese crypto
    Cryptocurrencies,  Technology

    Bitcoin bull run fuels crypto investments across China: Report

    China’s investors are so eager to pour capital into projects that a local VC investor said ‘every good-quality funding is oversubscribed within a week’

    Chinese cryptocurrency mining hardware producer Ebang conducted two fundraising rounds in February alone, raking in $170 million, even after a previous offering in November, which followed its Nasdaq listing in June. “Ebang’s growth story is very attractive to institutional investors,” said Guo Yi, COO of Univest Securities. "Fundraising by all industry players is getting busier thanks to the Bitcoin bull.”

  • Powell Kraken Bitcoin $1 million
    Bitcoin,  People

    Bitcoin $1M is ‘very reasonable’ says Kraken’s Jesse Powell

    The U.S. cryptocurrency exchange and bank’s CEO also said $10 billion is too low a price to take Kraken public

    “We can only speculate, but when you measure it in terms of dollars, you have to think [Bitcoin’s] going to infinity,” Powell said in a March 4 interview with Bloomberg. Pushed to be more specific, he said, “I think $1 million as a price target within the next 10 years is very reasonable.”

  • Kraken $10 bilion coinbase S-1
    Cryptocurrencies,  People,  Regulation

    Kraken looks for $10B valuation as Coinbase prepares to go public

    The U.S. based exchange’s funding round set to value it at as much as $20 billion, while larger rival Coinbase’s S-1 filing could see it worth $100 billion

    Kraken is in talks with firms including Fidelity, Tribe Capital and General Atlantic to raise the funds. However, if demand is as high as some suspect it will be, Kraken’s value could exceed $20 billion. That follows yesterday’s news that its larger competitor, Coinbase, filed a Form S-1 with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, confirming reports that it will go public with a direct stock listing, probably on Nasdaq.