Tuesday, May 7, 2024

SEC overextending, CBDCs, Xi in Europe, bank lending

“Where there is power, there is resistance.” – Michel Foucault ||

Hello all! Where is the time going, seriously…

A programming note and some personal news: I’ll be skipping publication tomorrow, apologies. The reason is I have to spend some time in hospital… to wrap up my cancer treatment!!!!!! I have my last regular visit with my oncologist, my last IV session, and a tearful goodbye to my adored nurses whom I will actually miss. And then I plan to skip around the city for a while, hugging strangers out of sheer gratitude.

If you find this newsletter useful, would you mind sharing it with your friends and colleagues? ❤

IN THIS NEWSLETTER:

• Another Wells notice

• Is a CBDC necessary?

• Xi in Europe

• SLOOS rhymes with “loose”

• Offline CBDC

If you’re not a subscriber to the premium daily, I hope you’ll consider becoming one! You’ll get ~daily insight into the growing overlap between the crypto and macro landscapes, as well as some useful links. And there’s a free trial!

WHAT I’M WATCHING:

Another Wells notice

The SEC sure is extending itself.

Yesterday, Robinhood disclosed that it had received a Wells notice from the financial regulator, informing them that staff had made a “preliminary determination” to recommend an enforcement action for violations of security laws.

This came as a surprise as Robinhood has, by all appearances, tried to stay ahead of compliance, delisting tokens named in the SEC’s Coinbase suit and staying away from offering staking yields.

What’s more, this comes soon after similar Wells notices were sent to other ecosystem giants Consensys and Uniswap Labs. We have to wonder who else has been targeted that we don’t yet know about – the receipt of a Wells notice does not have to be made public.

I don’t know how many other actions the SEC has ongoing against traditional market companies, but I doubt the heft comes close to its barrage against crypto businesses. For an industry that, in the words of an SEC lawyer, is so insignificantly small as to be a “rounding error”, it sure is eating up a disproportionate amount of SEC resources. This feels weird, and it feels even weirder that Gensler’s bosses haven’t questioned what so obviously looks like an unreasonable bias.

Is a CBDC necessary?