The Breakdown First Five - Tuesday, July 18 2023

Welcome back to The Breakdown First Five — the 5 most interesting and/or important stories in bitcoin, crypto, and markets to start your day.

5. Gensler on Ripple

SEC Chair Gensler has spoken on the Ripple decision, saying it’s “too early” to know if the regulator will issue rulemaking in response. He stuck to his rhetoric that there’s plenty of clarity for crypto firms, pointing to “rules on the books” for exchanges, brokers and custodians. As for an appeal, the SEC is “still looking at it and assessing that opinion."

4. Binance Done With Argentina

Binance have ended their sponsorship with the World Cup winning Argentine national football team after only one year. The exchange claims the AFA breached their contract and is terminating the five year deal early. First Messi, then CZ. Binance continues to show signs of distress across the board.

3. Mr Armstrong Goes to Washington

Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong will meet with House Democrats on Wednesday to discuss digital asset legislation. The closed door meeting with the New Democrat Coalition comes as influential Democrat Jim Himes signals a willingness to negotiate on Stablecoin and market structure legislation. Both bills were delayed from a committee vote this week but will be on next week’s agenda.

2. SEC Lockout

Castle Island’s Matt Walsh penned a scathing critique of the SEC’s approach to crypto custody. He essentially accused the SEC of designing impossible to comply with rules that functionally lock institutional banks out of the industry using onerous capital requirements. BNY Mellon’s custodial product has been languishing on the shelf since last year with minimal customer assets, largely due to non-functional regulatory structure.

1. Creditors: Prince Knew

BlockFi Creditors have accused BlockFi CEO of knowingly taking massive risk with Alameda and FTX. The report, which was unsealed on Friday, said that Prince overruled the risk committee, telling them to “get comfortable” with Alameda being a large borrower. Most concerningly, Prince had access to the Alameda balance sheet which notoriously brought down the firm following Coindesk reporting on excessive FTT holdings. Creditors push for liquidation.

Thanks for reading -NLW