Helen Partz
Amid the United States Securities and Exchange Commission’s expanding the scope of oversight of the cryptocurrency industry, a commissioner with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission argued that crypto regulation doesn’t fall under the SEC’s jurisdiction.
CFTC commissioner Brian Quintenz took to Twitter on Wednesday to declare that cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin (BTC) should be regulated by the CFTC rather than the SEC. Quintenz stressed that cryptocurrencies are commodities and thus fall under the CFTC’s jurisdiction, as opposed to securities that are regulated by the SEC, stating:
“Just so we’re all clear here, the SEC has no authority over pure commodities or their trading venues, whether those commodities are wheat, gold, oil….or crypto assets.”
Quintenz’s remarks came just about half an hour after former CFTC Chair Christopher Giancarlo made a similar statement on Twitter, arguing that the CFTC is the only U.S. regulatory agency that has experience regulating markets for Bitcoin and crypto.
“If the Biden Administration is serious about sensible cryptocurrency regulation, it needs to nominate a CFTC chairman,” Giancarlo noted.
Tom Farren
Credit card giant Visa has made a substantial splash on its emergence into the nonfungible token (NFT) space with a $150,000 acquisition of a CryptoPunk, the collective of digital artworks that pioneered the mainstream culture of the space back in 2017.
In a blog post announcement released on Monday, Cuy Sheffield, head of crypto at Visa and self-proclaimed NFT enthusiast, shared his views on the value of purchasing NFT assets in the digital economy, the vast growth of the market in the past few years, as well as Visa’s commercial incentives in this investment.
Sheffield claimed, “To help our clients and partners participate, we need a first-hand understanding of the infrastructure requirements for a global brand to purchase, store, and leverage an NFT.”
“The ability to track and leverage a digital asset in multiple environments could mean exciting new opportunities in ticketing, gaming music, art, and beyond,” he continued.
Visa purchased CryptoPunk 7610 — a female figure with a mohawk, clown green eyes and lipstick — which was first claimed back on June 23, 2017, and first sold a month later for a measly 0.6 Ether (ETH) ($114 at the time). Utilizing blockchain’s native feature of an open ledger, one can see that Visa’s newly acquired asset was purchased on Wednesday for 49.50 ETH, equivalent to $149,939.
Helen Partz
Major South Korean cryptocurrency company Upbit has reportedly submitted a business report with the Korean Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU).
Upbit reported its digital asset business to the FIU, which operates under South Korea’s top financial regulator, the Financial Services Commission (FSC). Upbit’s operator, Dunamu, announced the news on Friday, The Korea Economic Daily reported.
Upbit is one of South Korea’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges alongside Bithumb, Coinone and Korbit, and reportedly makes up more than 80% of the local cryptocurrency market. FSC vice chairman Doh Gyu-sang said that the authority will be ready to accept more reports from the most popular South Korean exchanges in the near future. The official said that the FSC expects one or two more crypto exchanges to have filed reports by the end of August.
The FSC did not immediately respond to Cointelegraph’s request for comment.
South Korean authorities have required all local crypto trading platforms to register their businesses as digital asset service providers before Sept. 24 or face an outright ban on operations in the country. In order to register with the FIU, exchanges need to establish a banking partner and report real-name bank accounts for all their clients. As previously reported, Upbit has set up real-name account verification with local internet bank K Bank.
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