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Jay Clayton, the chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), is stepping down at the end of this year.

Clayton’s departure comes months ahead of his scheduled release in June 2021. Clayton was sworn in as the SEC chairman in May 2017 after being appointed by President Donald J. Trump. Now that Joe Biden has been elected as the new U.S. President, it remains to be seen who replaces Clayton. 

“I would like to thank President Trump for the opportunity, and the support and freedom, to lead the women and men of the SEC,” said Clayton. “In addition, the cooperation and assistance of Secretary Mnuchin and his team at the Department of the Treasury, Chair Powell and Vice Chair Quarles and their colleagues at the Federal Reserve, Chairmen Giancarlo and Tarbert and the CFTC, Chairman McWilliams and the FDIC, and our other fellow federal financial regulatory agencies have been remarkable. … Through their continued service, I know the SEC is well-positioned for prolonged success.”  

This is a breaking story and will be updated…

© 2020 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.

The Ethereum Foundation is set to sponsor projects that are working within the Eth2 staking ecosystem.

To that end, the non-profit has invited teams and individuals, particularly those that are building Eth2 staking tools and guides, to apply for grants. The invitation is open until December 22 for all projects.

“The point of the program is to help contribute to the long term health of the Eth2 staking and validator community,” said the foundation. “Ideas and projects at any stage of development are welcome: Idea phase; Proof of concept; Work in progress, and Fleshed out project.”

The foundation’s grants program comes as Ethereum is preparing to move from a proof-of-work system to a proof-of-stake mechanism. Proof of stake will arrive with the Beacon Chain, which is expected to go live on December 1, when at least 524,288 ETH is staked in the Eth2 staking deposit contract.

So far, however, only 95,200 ETH has been deposited in the contract. ETH holders are probably waiting to deposit until the last day to avoid opportunity costs. In other words, ETH holders have little incentive to lock their ETH now when they can utilize it for other activities, such as lending to earn yield or use it as collateral for trading.

Eth2 stakers can withdraw their stake only when Ethereum fully transitions to a proof-of-stake system, or once the Ethereum mainnet becomes a shard, which is expected to happen sometime in 2021. 

© 2020 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.

Fusang, a Malaysian digital securities exchange, has delayed the listing of what was touted as a $3 billion blockchain bond just days after the initial announcement.

Fusang said in a post on November 13 that the listing of Longbond SR Notes USD Feb 2021 will be delayed until further notice “per the request of the issuer Longbond Ltd.”

The notice came just days after Fusang’s announced on November 11 that it partnered with the Labuan branch of China Construction Bank (CCB) in Malaysia to facilitate the raise of up to $3 billion via blockchain bonds. 

Longbond Ltd, a special purpose vehicle, was set up as an issuer for the bond called Longbond SR Notes USD with a maturity term in Feb 2021. 

As part of the deal, the CCB unit would act as the sponsor and settlement entity for the bond. The bond would be tokenized on the Ethereum network and was initially scheduled for trading on November 13 on Fusang against both bitcoin and US dollars.

Asked what led to the abrupt delay, a representative of Fusang said the firm is not “at liberty to share any information.”

However, the delay came amid Chinese news last week where CCB, one of the big-four state-owned commercial banks in China, clarified it was not the entity that was raising the bonds.

According to China’s Securities Times, the CCB’s Labuan branch said last Friday it has no direct relationship with the issuer of the bond and is only a sponsor. The bank added that while it would be responsible for the blockchain bond’s settlement and deposits, it wouldn’t take in any bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies.

CCB’s Labuan branch has not responded to The Block’s request for comment on the reason that caused the delay.

© 2020 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.

Crypto exchange Binance is sunsetting its GBP stablecoin, BGBP, which is tied 1:1 to the British pound.

The discontinuation takes place tomorrow, more than a year after Binance first listed the stablecoin in July 2019. The exchange is also delisting its last trading pair for BGBP — BGBP/USDC.

A Binance spokesperson told The Block that BGBP was the exchange’s “first experiment” with a fiat-backed stablecoin and was “more of a proof-of-concept.”

“It worked, but the issuance/redemption process was not the most friendly for users,” said the spokesperson. “As such, to offer our users with better services, we have discontinued BGBP and will direct users to our other available fiat on-ramps that offer GBP.”

Indeed, BGBP was issued by Binance, unlike its USD counterpart BUSD, which is a white-label of Paxos’s stablecoin and has a smoother redemption process as compared to BGBP.

There also appears to be a lack of demand for BGBP. The stablecoin has a circulating supply of only about £700,000, according to CoinMarketCap. For context, BUSD has a circulating supply of over $662 million.

Another possible reason for the BGBP discontinuation could be the closing of Binance Jersey later this month. The fiat-to-crypto-exchange was the primary platform to buy the stablecoin. 

Further, it is worth noting that Binance’s announcement comes ahead of draft stablecoin regulations by the U.K.  The country’s Treasury wants to regulate stablecoins to the same standards as rival payment methods. (Jersey is a self-governing dependency of the U.K.).

© 2020 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.