Investing Beyond Bitcoin | Crypto Goes To Congress

A WARM(ER) WELCOME

Executives of six cryptocurrency companies, including leading exchanges Coinbase and FTX as well as stablecoin issuers Circle and Paxos, testified before the House Financial Services Committee on Wednesday at a highly anticipated hearing, which explored how the government should approach oversight of the rapidly growing industry. Nearly 40 lawmakers asked questions addressing the lack of regulatory clarity around digital assets, the impact of stablecoins on global banking and the dominance of the U.S. dollar, and the variety of novel use cases arising within the sector.

Forbes crypto regulation expert Hailey Lennon notes, “The general sentiment of the hearing was positive towards the cryptocurrency industry, a dramatic shift from past years. This disposition surprised some, but it reflects an evolving view of the benefits of cryptocurrency technology and the fear that the U.S. is falling behind other countries such as China that have made noticeable progress towards launching a sovereign digital currency.” On December 14, the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs will hold a hearing focused on stablecoins and their risks.

Source: Messari. Prices as of 4:00 p.m. on December 10, 2021.

A SHAKEUP AMONG THE TOP 10 CRYPTOS

Despite last week’s market-wide selloff, which saw major cryptocurrencies, including bitcoin, suffer double-digit losses and erased hundreds of billions in value, the mighty top 10 of the largest digital assets by market capitalization got a new member. Terraform Labs’ luna token surged into the ranks at the start of the week shortly after its community approved a governance proposal to burn, or destroy, about 88 million luna tokens and mint more tokens of Terra’s stablecoin, UST.

However, luna, along with other large-cap assets such as polkadot and solana, was among the biggest losers Friday morning amid another plunge in the broader cryptocurrency market. They followed bitcoin, which fell to a low of $47,467 from Thursday’s high of $50,845, after embattled Chinese real estate developer Evergrande defaulted on its debt, according to Fitch Ratings.

‘VISA’S ADVICE’

The world’s leading payments processor is launching crypto consulting and advisory services, Visa said Wednesday. Housed within its consulting and analytics division, the practice will offer advice to financial institutions, retailers and other firms on everything from introducing cryptocurrency-linked features to CBDC integration. According to the company’s statement, it has already started onboarding clients for the service, including the Kansas City, Missouri-based UMB Financial. Through multiple partnerships with cryptocurrency companies, Visa lets users convert and spend digital currency at 80 million merchants in its network worldwide. Visa’s European crypto lead, Nikola Plecas, told CNBC the company processed $3.5 billion in digital currency transactions through its crypto-linked card programs from October 1, 2020 to September 30, 2021.

ELSEWHERE

WhatsApp launches cryptocurrency payments pilot in the U.S. [The Verge]

Crypto lobbying is going ballistic [The Economist]

Ledger unveils crypto debit card, partners with FTX, Coinbase, Rarible [The Block] 

Steven Ehrlich
Editor 
Forbes CryptoAsset & Blockchain Advisor

Nina Bambysheva
Reporter
Forbes Money & Markets

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