Alpaca Finance Institutional Newsletter #18
In the aftermath of the FTX collapse, regulators all over the globe have dived into action, calling for further licensing, guidance, and even outright bans. Canada’s ban on all forms of leverage and margin trading has come as a surprise, with some residents claiming these restrictions are unnecessary to protect users from fraudulent activities by centralized entities. Additionally, traditional firms have begun to distance themselves from crypto, with Mazars, a leading European auditing firm, halting all working engagements with crypto companies. It’s hard to say what effect this will have or what caused it, but Mazars was instrumental in providing proof-of-reserves services for some major centralized exchanges in response to liquidity concerns.
2023 is shaping up to be a defining year for crypto and especially for DeFi. Proponents of decentralized finance assert that most of the issues experienced in 2022 can be addressed by open, decentralized, and transparent applications for users. Although security problems persist, with record hacks over the year, an inflection point could occur with established protocols overtaking centralized entities due to avoiding counterparty risk and burdensome regulation.
News
- SEC looks to intercept Grayscale Bitcoin ETF review bid
- Binance Proof-of-Reserves Auditor Mazars Pauses All Work for Crypto Clients
- Microsoft bans cryptocurrency mining on cloud services
- Brazil could cement its status as an economic leader thanks to 2024 CBDC move
Regulation
- New York State issues guidance for banks seeking to engage in activities with crypto
- France may oblige crypto platforms to obtain licenses
- FCA’s incoming chair calls for further crypto regulation
- Canada bans crypto leverage and margin trading after FTX collapse
Products
- MetaMask to allow users to purchase and transfer Ethereum via PayPal
- Ledger hardware wallet adds DeFi tracking feature
- Opera launches security tools to protect users against malicious Web3 actors
- Apple to allow third-party app stores in windfall for NFTs and crypto
Funding
- Aztec Network secures $100 million in Series B funding led by a16z
- Hong Kong crypto futures ETFs raise over $70M ahead of debut
- Web3 game DOGAMÍ secures $14M total funding
