Brayden Lindrea
Michael Demissie, the head of digital assets at Bank of New York Mellon (BNY Mellon) is adamant that the cryptocurrency market crash in 2022 won’t waver institutional interest in digital assets.
At a conference run by Afore Consulting, Demissie said Feb. 8 that the digital asset industry is “here to stay” as institutional investors have a strong interest in crypto.
"What we see is clients are absolutely interested in digital assets, broadly,” he said, according to a Feb. 8 report from Reuters.
Demissie backed up his thoughts by referencing a survey conducted by BNY Mellon in October, which found that 91% of custodian bank clients are interested in investing in blockchain-based tokenized products.
The survey also found that 86% of institutional players are adopting a “buy and hold” strategy, which may suggest that they see the cryptocurrency market as a long-term play.
Of those surveyed, 88% also said that the severe cryptocurrency market turndown in 2022 hasn’t changed their plans to invest in the digital asset sector over the long term.
Demissie did however state that more work needed to be done in Washington D.C. so that industry players can move forward with more regulatory clarity.
"We absolutely need clear regulation and rules for the road. We need responsible actors who can offer reliable services that live up to investors trust."
"It's important that we navigate this space in a responsible way," he added.
On Feb. 2, BNY Mellon announced the appointment of Caroline Butler as the firm’s CEO of Digital Assets to help drive the next wave of adoption for the bank’s clients.
Butler was previously the CEO of custody services.
As the Digital Assets CEO, Caroline Butler will lead global efforts to accelerate @BNYMellon's commercial digital assets initiatives. — BNY Mellon (@BNYMellon) February 2, 2023
The appointment comes as BNY Mellon launched its own digital custody platform in October, offering selected institutional clients the opportunity to invest in Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH).
Earlier, in February2022, BNY Mellon announced a partnership with on-chain metrics platform Chainalysis to help track and analyze cryptocurrency products.
BNY Mellon isn’t the only big bank making moves in the digital asset industry of late.
Goldman Sach was reportedly expressed interest in buying cryptocurrency firms after several were impacted by FTX’s catastrophic collapse in November.
While JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon isn’t a fan of Bitcoin, his firm has dabbled with blockchain-based services in recent times. In November, the firm successfully executed its first-ever cross-border transaction using decentralized finance on a public blockchain.
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Judith BannermanQuist
Japanese multinational tech company Fujitsu has announced the launch of a new platform designed to support Web3 developers worldwide.
According to a report by the Fintech Times, Fujitsu’s Web3 Acceleration Platform seeks to provide a development environment, blockchain-based service APIs, high-computing technologies, simulations, AI, combinatorial optimization, for start-ups, partner companies, and universities building Web3 applications and services.
The company said on Feb. 8 that its platform aims to support the creation of a diverse ecosystem of Web3 applications across a range of use cases, such as digital content rights management, business transactions, contracts, and processes. It will also offer free access to select participants in its global partner program, the Fujitsu Accelerator Program for containers as a service (CaaS). From March, program partners can access the platform in Japan, with the company planning to expand its availability globally later in the year.
Fujitsu outlined three key themes for its Web3 platform, including “the realization of a co-creation society through decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs), rights management and utilization of digital content, and the realization of digital trust.” To support the development of its new platform, Fujitsu plans to hold a global planning and development contest, aimed at building and implementing DAO communities and creating new Web3 services.
Web3-based accelerator programs have grown over the past year. As previously reported by Cointelegraph, Web3 accelerator Beacon recently completed its first cohort with 13 companies graduating and showcasing their blockchain-based startups. The cohort, named “Cohort 0," began in October with 15 companies across the DeFi, gaming, and infrastructure subsectors of cryptocurrency.
On Jan. 31, Cointelegraph also reported that blockchain startup accelerator Cronos Labs had announced the opening of applications for its second cohort of the $100 million-backed Cronos Accelerator Program.
Cointelegraph reached out to Fujitsu for a comment but had not received a response at time of publication.
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Turner Wright
The judge overseeing crypto exchange FTX’s bankruptcy case has granted a motion allowing the firm’s debtors to request subpoenas for information and documents from former colleagues and family members of Sam Bankman-Fried.
In a Feb. 8 filing, Judge John Dorsey said FTX debtors were authorized under bankruptcy court rules to issue subpoenas to certain individuals “for the production of documents, electronically stored information, or tangible things.”
The original motion filed on Jan. 25 defined the target of the subpoenas as insiders not “currently cooperating with the Debtors to provide important information” — a list that includes Bankman-Fried, former Alameda Research CEO Caroline Ellison, FTX co-founder Gary Wang and members of SBF’s immediate family.
“The Debtors attempted to confer with all of the Insiders to arrange a mutually agreeable date, time, place and scope of production,” the Jan. 25 filing said. “To date, none of the Insiders subject to this Motion have agreed to provide the requested information.”
Judge Dorsey granted a separate motion on Feb. 8 ordering subpoenas of “relevant third parties” related to discovery of a confidential investigation. The initial filing from January did not include the names of the third parties, but added they could “possess specific evidence critical to the Debtors’ asset recovery efforts and investigation” into $300 million in unauthorized transfers.
Proceedings are underway in the bankruptcy court to consider whether to assign an independent examiner to FTX’s case operating alongside the debtors. Judge Dorsey is expected to rule on the matter in a Feb. 9 hearing.
In criminal court, Bankman-Fried faces eight counts related to alleged illicit transactions and movement of funds between FTX and Alameda. On Feb. 7, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Damian Williams petitioned the court to delay civil proceedings from the Securities and Exchange Commission and Commodity Futures Trading Commission against SBF “until the conclusion of the parallel criminal case”.
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This Daily Dose was brought to you by Cointelegraph.
