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The interface, called Polygon Copilot, will help developers obtain analytics and insights for their applications on the Polygon blockchain.

Legislation to create a comprehensive regulatory framework for stablecoins in the U.S. could be approaching a speed bump, with Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell arguing for a robust federal role in the regulation of the sector.

“We do see payment stablecoins as money,” he said in testimony in front of the House Financial Services Committee on Wednesday, adding that the central bank should play a role in approving stablecoin issuance. “We believe that it would be appropriate to have a quite robust federal role in what happens in stablecoins going forward, and leaving us with a weak role and allowing a lot of private money creation at the state level would be a mistake.”

Powell sounded skeptical of state approval and preemption for stablecoin issuers, currently part a Republican-led proposal set for debate at the committee level.

Top Democrat is also concerned

The top Democrat on the House Financial Services Committee, Rep. Maxine Waters, also sounded critical of the proposal from her Republican counterparts to allow state regulators to approve stablecoin issuance.

“This proposal takes state preemption to a whole new level,” Waters said, referencing how a stablecoin approved in one state could then be sold across the country, whether or not other state regulators signed off.  

Though Republicans can advance the bill out of committee and the House of Representatives on a party line vote, it needs support from Democrats in order to become law. Democrats hold a majority in the Senate and President Joe Biden would be loath to sign legislation that his own party does not support.

Stablecoin framework

U.S. stablecoin giant Circle, among others, supports the creation of a new framework for stablecoin issuers. Fintech companies, especially payments providers, have long complained about their lack of access to a single registration to do business across the U.S., instead needing to register state-by-state as money service providers.

The bill aims to allow a simpler path for stablecoin providers, who would also be subject to disclosures and regulatory oversight. U.S. financial regulators have called on Congress to pass new regulations for stablecoins, with more urgency to the matter since the Terra/Luna collapse last year. 

House Financial Services Committee Chair Patrick McHenry, R-N.C., said he expects a vote on the stablecoin bill, along with a digital assets market structure bill, in the second week of July.

© 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.

Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell argued for the need for strong central-bank oversight in stablecoin regulations being crafted by lawmakers in the House Financial Services Committee.

Casa, a self-custodial solutions provider, has launched ether vaults, adding to its existing bitcoin vault product.

Casa’s multi-key vaults provide enhanced security by enabling an easy way for users to hold ether in their own digital vault with up to five keys. The vaults offer more distributed security compared to single-key hardware wallets, browser extensions or third-party custodians like crypto exchanges. 

By requiring signatures from multiple devices for transactions, known as multisig, Casa helps keep funds protected even if a key is lost or compromised, eliminating concerns over theft, loss or exchange mismanagement. The company also offers additional resources and services to assist members in taking self-custody, including guided key replacement, personalized support and emergency recovery service — where Casa holds a backup key on their behalf.

“The digital asset revolution begins with self-custody,” Casa CEO Nick Neuman said in a press release. “Our team designed Casa to help more people take control of their digital wealth, and we’re thrilled to expand that opportunity for our members and the Ethereum community at large. Everyone deserves to know their assets are safe.”

Casa has also updated its app, offering new membership plans, ranging from a standard plan with a three-key vault to a premium membership with a five-key vault for bitcoin and ether. Investors and families with substantial holdings can access digital inheritance planning services.

Support for other Ethereum-related assets

“The rollout marks Casa’s first step into building a more comprehensive self-custody offering,” Casa said in the release. “In recent years, it has become technically sound to implement Ethereum support via smart contract, which has dovetailed with market demand,” the company added, referencing a recent survey by crypto asset manager Greyscale that found 87% of bitcoin investors also have exposure to at least one altcoin. 

The company said it was “gathering feedback on adding support for other ETH-related assets, such as NFTs, stablecoins and ERC-20 tokens,” in the release.

“We always listen very closely to our community, and support for Ethereum was one of the most frequent requests from our members. Building a customer-first framework is at the core of what we do, so we will continue to take notice of what customers ask for,” Neuman expanded in an emailed statement to The Block.

“While users can initially secure only ETH and/or BTC with Casa, we are taking a thoughtful and strategic approach in regard to what we choose to build next, and we are carefully evaluating what aligns with our technology and our privacy and security standards.”

Launch challenges

Casa announced its ether self-storage plans in November, expecting it would be available in Q1 shortly after launching a new app in January. The new app design was released in February, introducing vaults. Only now is the ether self-custody solution available for the first time.

“We had hoped to release it in Q1,” Neuman told The Block. “Our customers have been excited for ETH support, and we were hoping to deliver it a bit earlier this year.”

“But we are laser-focused on building a highly secure product with a simple user experience. Those two things are not easy to do together, and doing that well takes time. We took the time to do it right and build an experience we’re proud of, and that offers our members the high level of security and usability that they expect and deserve,” Neuman added.

The importance of self-custody

Recent bank failures, the collapse of centralized crypto exchanges like FTX and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s actions against Binance and Coinbase, have highlighted the importance of self-custody. 

“A lot of people learned the hard lesson of why holding your own keys is important,” Neuman told The Block in an interview following FTX’s demise. There had been a “huge” number of new users joining its platform, he claimed at the time.

© 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.

The product will allow for traders to invest with both low and high risk appetites.

MakerDAO, the core development organization behind the DAI stablecoin, completed the purchase of over $700 million in U.S. Treasury bonds. 

Following $500 million bond purchase in October 2022, the organization’s total bond holdings now sits at $1.2 billion. MakerDAO invested in the bonds as a way to increase exposure to low-risk, liquid traditional assets.

The digital asset manager Monetalis Clydesdale Vault, born from the DeFi lender Monetalis Group, completed the purchase on behalf of MakerDAO, according to a statement.

“MakerDAO is a pioneer and leader in the DeFi space and has built up a large volume of funds in its peg-stability-module, which ensures the stability of the DAI stablecoin,” Monetalis Group CEO Allan Pedersen said.

Real-world asset exposure

“Through the diversification of its collateral pool with this U.S. Treasury ladder strategy, Maker is taking advantage of the current yield environment and putting its assets to work,” Pedersen added. “Given the success of the initial deployment and today’s robust bond market, this increase in Maker’s real-world asset exposure is a strong, reliable, and flexible solution that will generate more revenue for the protocol.”

MakerDAO raised its debt ceiling from $500 million to $1.25 million in March. Additionally, MakerDAO proposed to raise the DAI Savings Rate to 3.33% on May 26, which could raise the stablecoin’s market capitalization by increasing the demand for holding DAI if approved. 

© 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.

Other Ethereum-related assets such as NFTs, ERC-20 tokens and stablecoins are also being considered for future rollouts.

A U.S. congressional committee drafting new rules for digital assets plans to debate, and likely advance, two proposed new laws in the second week of July.

House Financial Services Committee Chair Patrick McHenry, R-N.C., told his panel this morning that he plans to hold a session on debating, changing, and likely advancing legislation that would create a more distinct pathway for digital assets to transition from security investments to commodities, which have lower reporting and regulatory requirements, along with other market structure-related provisions.

McHenry and Rep. Glenn ‘GT’ Thompson, R-Pa., the Republican chair of the House Agriculture Committee, drafted the legislation, though it will need support from Democrats in the Senate and President Joe Biden’s signature in order to become law.

Comprehensive regulatory framework for stablecoins

McHenry made the scheduling update at the beginning of a regular oversight hearing on Wednesday with Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell.

The committee will also debate a separate bill to create a comprehensive regulatory framework for stablecoins, written primarily by McHenry and Rep. French Hill, R-Ark.

The July session will allow members of the committee to introduce changes to the text, with the final version subject to an up or down vote to report it out favorably from the panel. Advancing the bills from committee would tee them up for votes in the full House of Representatives.

© 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.

The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), in collaboration with the IMF and other central banks, is proposing common conditions for retail payments with digital money on a distributed ledger.

Neutron, a smart contract blockchain for the Cosmos ecosystem, raised $10 million in a seed funding round led by venture firms Binance Labs and CoinFund. Delphi Ventures, LongHash and Nomad also participated in the round, the company said in a statement.

Neutron serves as a Cosmos-based network designed for writing smart contracts using CosmWasm, a computational environment within the Cosmos ecosystem, while simultaneously allowing developers to write code in the Rust programming language. 

Neutron aims to provide cross-chain, smart contract applications for the Cosmos network of more than 50 interconnected, app-specific blockchains or appchains by closely aligning with the Cosmos Hub and leveraging its high security.

“The market demand for appchains and L2s is growing rapidly and Neutron enables mission-critical tooling while also supporting Rust, the second-most popular smart contracting language in the world,” said Alex Felix, chief investment officer at CoinFund.

The company didn’t disclose the valuation seen in the round. 

Neutron to leverage replicated security

Neutron launched in May after becoming the first Cosmos blockchain to go live using Replicated Security, a feature that allows so-called consumer chains to tap into the validators of the Cosmos Hub, the central and oldest chain in the Cosmos ecosystem, to gain the ability to run secure applications in a cost-effective way.

“The Cosmos ecosystem has significant potential and, as its first consumer chain, Neutron is driving the development of secure, developer-friendly cross-chain infrastructure,” said Yi He, co-founder of Binance and head of Binance Labs.

The funds raised will be directed toward supporting the expansion of the Neutron ecosystem and incentivize development of new dApps, the team said.

© 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.