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The rise of royalty-optional platforms like Blur and OpenSea have contributed to declining royalty payments for artists across the space.

Coinbase shares ended Wednesday lower by nearly 2%, despite a more bullish start to the week that was kicked off with headlines the exchange is partnering with several asset managers on new spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds awaiting approval from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. 

The stock was trading down 1.98% to $78.35 per share at close, dragged down by a new downgrade from analysts at Piper Sandler. It has appreciated 133% since the beginning of the year. 

The exchange, which has pared losses since the SEC announced a lawsuit against the firm, still faces “too much uncertainty to prudently project revenues in future years,” according to analyst Patrick Moley. Piper Sandler previously had an overweight position for the stock. 

Bloomberg News reported the downgrade earlier in the day. 

Coinbase faces lawsuit from SEC

The SEC alleged in June that Coinbase trades unregistered securities and operates a business that merges functions “that are typically separated in traditional securities markets.”

Still, a wide-range of issuers, including asset management giant Fidelity, have identified Coinbase as a partner in their plans to launch a spot bitcoin ETF. BlackRock, which filed its spot bitcoin ETF on June 15, has picked the exchange as its custodian. 

© 2023 The Block Crypto, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.

U.S. Securities and Exchange Commissioner Hester Peirce thinks that regulatory ambiguity is harming American investors, according to a wide-ranging interview with Coinage Media. 

Speaking to Coinage co-founder and former Yahoo Finance reporter Zack Guzman, the Republican commissioner weighed in on the ongoing race to launch a spot bitcoin exchange-traded fund, noting that standards applied to such a product have been “a moving target” and “not consistent with how we’ve treated other products.”

The SEC, which approved a futures-based exchange-traded fund for bitcoin, has a flurry of new spot bitcoin ETF applications to sift through, with companies ranging from BlackRock to Bitwise recently submitting filings. The agency has yet to approve a spot product, and has in the past cited concerns of manipulation in the underlying spot market. 

Advocates for a spot ETF have argued that futures-based ETFs also relies on pricing from underlying spot exchange venues. The recent round of filings identify partnerships with Coinbase for market surveillance to potentially mollify that concern. 

Regulatory ambiguity

“In other countries there are spot products that have been approved for a long time and there’s a lot of demand for spot products and I think if you look at the rationale for approving a futures product, it would seem that you could apply that same rationale and apply it a spot product,” Peirce commented. 

Furthermore, the Commissioner added that “regulatory ambiguity” stemming from the SEC is not beneficial to Americans. 

“I know there are a lot of people who are very critical of the SEC, and I’m quite critical often of my own agency as well,” she said. “And I think one of the reasons that I’ve been critical and that some others have been critical is that in the absence of a regulatory framework that makes sense.”

That ambiguity might force companies or projects to spend unnecessary timing weighing options to leave the U.S., comply, or shut down entirely. 

“I don’t think that it serves the American public to keep this sort of regulatory ambiguity so that you can come in after the fact with enforcement,” she said. “Why not have some regulatory clarity?”

© 2023 The Block Crypto, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.

BlackRock (BLK) CEO Larry Fink said crypto, specifically bitcoin (BTC), could revolutionize the financial system in an interview with Fox Business on Wednesday.

BlackRock CEO Larry Fink said Wednesday that he wanted to work with regulators and hear any concerns they may have about a recent filing from the asset manager for a spot bitcoin ETF. He also said he viewed the largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization as having the role of “digitizing gold.”

“We have a good track record working with our regulators and trying to make sure we’re thinking about all the issues around any filing,” he said in an interview with Fox Business, adding that he couldn’t get into specifics about the application. “We work really closely with our regulators, and we want to hear from the regulators.” 

“What we’re trying to do with crypto is make it more democratized and make it much cheaper for investors,” he continued. “Right now, the bid ask spread for crypto is very expensive. It does erode a lot of the returns…We hope our regulators look at these filings as a way to democratize crypto,” he said.

Nasdaq last week refiled a 19b-4 form for BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust, just days after The Wall Street Journal reported that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission said recent filings for spot bitcoin ETF funds had not been “clear and comprehensive.”

The updated filing from the exchange included language that it expected to enter into surveillance sharing agreements with Coinbase.

Bitcoin as digital gold

Speaking more broadly on bitcoin, Fink compared the asset to digital gold, although he said he didn’t own any personally.

“Specifically on bitcoin, as I’ve said in the past, we’re a believer in digitization of products,” he added. “Bitcoin is an international asset…It can represent an asset that people can play as an alternative.”

BlackRock made an initial filing for the bitcoin ETF on June 15 in a move that was quickly followed by other asset managers including Fidelity. Bitcoin has surged in the aftermath, rising 19% over the past month, according to CoinGecko.

The SEC has yet to approve a spot bitcoin ETF, and the recent applications could face challenges from the agency as it has in the past cited concerns about fraud and potential market manipulation when assessing potential spot funds.

 

© 2023 The Block Crypto, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.

A frank conversation with Immunefi founder and CEO Mitchell Amador about where he optimized his startup’s locations from the perspective of regulations, taxes and human health.

A bill to exempt foreign residents from capital gains taxes when they sell digital currencies and reduce tax on crypto options for employees, has started to make its way through Israel’s parliament, according to a report from CoinDesk. 

The bill passed a preliminary reading in the country’s parliament on Wednesday, according to the news site. 

“Up until now, workers in the crypto industry had to pay double the tax on their options compared to workers in the traditional high-tech industry. Moreover, foreign investors in the blockchain industry were not entitled to the same benefits as those entitled to investors in the traditional high-tech industry,” said Dan Illouz, a lawmaker in Israel, cited by CoinDesk. 

The bill too has support of the coalition government led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Illouz said. 

Israel’s approach to crypto 

Israel has been active over the past year in regulating crypto. The country’s financial regulator proposed draft amendments in January to push digital assets into existing financial laws and expand the definition of securities. 

The Israel Securities Authority at the time said it saw an opportunity in crypto for investors and its economy. 

“The advanced technology in these assets can lead to economic efficiency in many areas, reduce costs, save the need for intermediaries and optimize the way information is transferred between entities,” the regulator said in January. 

© 2023 The Block Crypto, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.

A project leader called for adding lawyers, jurisdictions and trustees for Abracadabra DAO, the entity overseeing Magic Internet Money (MIM) and SPELL tokens.

Why has Yuga Labs’ Bored Ape universe collapsed in value?

The racing-themed, 1,000-edition art NFT collection will give holders access to token-gated content, events and games celebrating the actor’s love of motorcycle racing.