Weekly Market News
Crypto News
Coinbase CEO Happy to Go to Court Over US Stance On Staking, ‘If Needed’
Yesterday, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong responded to the U.S. SEC’s crackdown on crypto staking services by tweeting that Coinbase’s “staking services are not securities” and that he was prepared to “happily defend this in court if needed.”
Coinbase’s chief legal officer Paul Grewal also weighed in on the issue in a blog post, stating,
“Trying to superimpose securities law onto a process like staking doesn’t help consumers at all and instead imposes unnecessarily aggressive mandates that will prevent US consumers from accessing basic crypto services and push users to offshore, unregulated platforms.”
Binance Says Stablecoin Partner Is Set to Stop Minting BUSD
The New York Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) has reportedly ordered Binance’s stablecoin partner Paxos Trust to stop the issuance of the dollar-pegged stablecoin Binance USD (BUSD).
A Binance spokesperson stated,
“Paxos has informed us that they have been directed to cease minting new BUSD by the New York State Department of Financial Services. BUSD is a stablecoin wholly owned and managed by Paxos. As a result, BUSD market cap will only decrease over time. Paxos will continue to service the product, manage redemptions, and will follow-up with additional information as required. Paxos also assured the funds are safe, and fully covered by reserves in their banks.”
Crypto Lender Nexo to Stop EIP for US Clients on April. 1
According to a recent blog post by Nexo Capital, the crypto lending firm is shutting down its Earn Interest Product (EIP) for all U.S. clients, residents and citizens, effective April. 1. The announcement comes a month after the lender paid a $22.5 million fine to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for failing to register the offer and sale of EIP.
OneKey Says It Has Fixed Flaw That Got Its Hardware Wallet Hacked In 1 Second
According to a recent announcement from OneKey, the crypto hardware wallet provider stated that it has addressed the “massive critical vulnerability” in its products highlighted by cybersecurity startup Unciphered in a recent YouTube video.
The video posted by Unciphered showed that it was possible to “crack open” a OneKey Mini in under a second using the exploit. This was done by disassembling the device and inserting coding to return the OneKey Mini to “factory mode” and bypassing the security pin, allowing a potential attacker to extract the mnemonic phrase used to recover a wallet.
Stock Market
Powerful executives running public companies are collectively doing a great job at 1) worrying investors about the path forward for profit and cash flow growth this earnings season; and 2) managing expectations so their business could potentially beat earnings estimates even if the U.S. enters a mild recession in 2023.
And if CEOs sound dreary on earnings calls this reporting season, it’s probably because they have a lot of concerns on their minds.
According to a recent Conference Board survey, “the number one concern for CEOs around the world is the economic downturn and recession.” Inflation – also no friend to the top and bottom lines – comes in second.
What to Watch Today
Earnings
Advance Auto Parts (AAP), Avis Budget (CAR), Denny’s (DENN), IAC (IAC), Palantir Technologies (PLTR), Vornado Realty Trust (VNO)
