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Mooners & Shakers: EU moves ahead with crypto regulations; Ledger under fire; Bitcoin flat

While the market nervously ponders the US debt ceiling issue, the EU has offered a ray of light, pushing ahead with clear crypto regulations legislation.

Rob Badman
4 min read
1:05PMMay 17, 2023
Stockhead
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To put it simply: Yayyy, EU crypto laws. Boooo, US ones. Picture: Getty Images
To put it simply: Yayyy, EU crypto laws. Boooo, US ones. Picture: Getty Images

Bitcoin has been trading flat, with traders and investors biting fingernails as they ponder what the hell the US debt ceiling issue might mean for their portfolios.

Meanwhile, the EU is pushing ahead with its clear crypto regulations legislation.

Known as MiCA (Markets in Crypto-Assets regulation), the proposed set of rules has been widely well received by the global crypto community. And that’s because it is at least a very strong attempt to provide absolute clarity for crypto businesses across the 27 European Union member countries.

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The MiCA regulation was passed unanimously overnight (AEST) by the Economic and Financial Affairs Council of the European Union — comprising finance ministers of all member states.

The legislation includes strict guidelines, but at least companies will know where they stand, unlike in the good ol’ US of Eh?, where the SEC regulator in particular seems to rely on an enforcement-first narrative based on a set of guidelines made in the 1930s that are virtually impossible for crypto companies to meet for compliance.

In emailed notes about the EU news, shared with Stockhead on Wednesday morning, Ilya Volkov, CEO and founder of web3 fintech YouHodler, said: “We can only welcome this step in the development of the European regulatory framework.

“The crypto market operates globally, but is still regulated locally.

“Implementation of this kind of regulation is applicable not just for single countries but for the entire union (and) fills the gap between the tech progress and formal rules at the state levels.

“MiCA can serve as an example for other regions to work harder on their own regulation development. Moving forward, it’s essential to adopt smart regulation at a global level or at least at an inter-regional level.

“I’m also confident that MiCA will help facilitate the incorporation of crypto in financial services.”

MORE FROM STOCKHEAD: SEC gives Coinbase a definitive ‘maybe’ | Ethereum staking narrative picks up| Glassnode founders tip ‘explosive’ BTC move

Top 10 overview

With the overall crypto market cap at US$1.18 trillion at noon Wednesday (AEST), up 0.1 per cent since the same time Tuesday, here’s the state of play among top 10 tokens – according to CoinGecko.

Source: CoinGecko
Source: CoinGecko

XRP is up 8 per cent at the time of writing. And that’s likely because the asset’s founding firm Ripple has had a slight win in its frustratingly ongoing stoush with the SEC that attempts to quash, in court, the regulator’s claim that XRP was illegally sold as an unregistered security at its original sale to investors.

Ripple considers what’s known as “the Hinman speech” to be a key piece of evidence in its legal battle with the SEC.

The agency, meanwhile, has failed in its attempt to suppress documents and internal emails related to a speech made by former SEC director William Hinman four years ago, in which he classified both Bitcoin and (more crucially) Ethereum as not being securities.

Other than this, on an absolute surface level, there’s not much to talk about regarding the crypto majors today, although at least Bitcoin and Ethereum seem to be holding their respective lines for now. 

We’ve been noticing some of the blockchain analytics firms posting potentially bullish metrics for Bitcoin just lately, however, so we might delve into some of those in a separate post.

Uppers and downers

Some of the biggest 24-hour gainers and losers at noon Wednesday (AEST). Stats based on CoinGecko.com data.

PUMPERS (11-100 market cap position)

  • Render (RNDR), (market cap: $US718 million) +10.7 per cent
  • Conflux (CFX), (mc: $US666 billion) +10.6 per cent
  • Decentraland (MANA), (mc: $US930 million) +9.5 per cent
  • XRP (XRP), (mc: $US23 billion) +8 per cent
  • The Sandbox (SAND), (mc: $US996 million) +7.84 per cent

PUMPERS (lower, lower caps)

  • Rollbit Coin (RBT), (market cap: $US135 million) +78.3 per cent
  • XEN Crypto (XEN), (mc: $US34 million) +32.1 per cent
  • Dejitaru Tsuka (TSUKA), (mc: $US44 million) +29.3 per cent
  • Ben (BEN), (mc: $US32 million) +28.8 per cent
  • Vega Protocol (VEGA), (mc: $US66 million) +22.8 per cent

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SLUMPERS (11-100 market cap position)

  • Kava (KAVA), (market cap: $US485 million) -6.6 per cent
  • Pepe (PEPE), (mc: $US704 million) -5.1 per cent
  • XDC Network (XDC), (mc: $US438 million) -4.4 per cent
  • Bitcoin SV (BSV), (mc: $U675 million) -3/9 per cent
  • Flare (FLR), (mc: $US413 million) -3.8 per cent

SLUMPERS (lower, lower caps)

  • Milady Meme Coin (LADYS), (market cap: $US80 million) -33.7 per cent
  • Vibing (VBG), (mc: $US62 million) -18.7 per cent
  • Bob Token (BOB), (mc: $US36 million) -16.3 per cent
  • Phoenix Global [OLD], (mc: $US34 million) -14.9 per cent
  • INSTAR (INSTAR), (mc: $US38 million) -12.9 per cent
  • Globiance Exchange (GBEX), (mc: $US30 million) -12.5 per cent

Around the blocks: Ledger under fire

Some pertinence and randomness that stuck with us on our morning moves through the Crypto Twitterverse.

Ledger, the maker of widely used hardware wallets Ledger Nano S and Ledger Nano X, is under fire across the cryptosphere today.

And that’s because it’s announced a new security feature called “Ledger Recover”, for recovering lost seed phrases.

According to most hardware wallet users, because this requires giving away the information that provides access to the wallet, it goes completely against the grain of self-custody and the privacy that’s required to keep digital assets completely safe from potential third-party access.

It’s created a right kerfuffle, but some misunderstanding, too, however, as this feature is purely optional. Ledger has no ability to gain access to the seed phrases of existing users who don’t opt in to this new “service”.

Nevertheless, the announced feature has upset many within the crypto community …

This content first appeared on stockhead.com.au

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Original URL: https://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/stockhead/mooners-shakers-eu-moves-ahead-with-crypto-regulations-ledger-under-fire-bitcoin-flat/news-story/a544b51c61b40e31ab50c128d76f38f0