ShockClock

🚨NEW: Fairshake super PAC has raised over $85 million to support political candidates who endorse #crypto and #blockchain technology in the upcoming November election.

🚨NEW: The @SECGov has won its motion to compel @Ripple to produce its 2022-2023 financial statements, post-complaint contracts governing institutional sales of $XRP, and answer questions regarding the amount of $XRP institutional sales proceeds it received. 👇🏼

In order to have an $XRP spot ETF, there will first need to be a futures ETF. Part of getting the $BTC spot ETFs approved was the @SECGov concluding that the CME bitcoin futures market would suffice to provide surveillance for fraud and manipulation. If $XRP gets a futures ETF than it’s a step in the right direction to one day getting a spot.

“…Americans can buy bitcoin as an insurance policy against a U.S. dollar weakened by the skyrocketing federal debt. The @SECGov has just made sure that this insurance policy will be around for a very long time.” -@Avik forbes.com/sites/theapotheca…

🚨NEW: @SECGov has delayed making a decision on @BlackRock’s $ETH ETF application. Anyone else having déjà vu? 😅

Reporting on the timeline for a potential $ETH ETF approval has turned up a plethora of different takes from ETF issuers, investment management firms and sources close to the @SECGov. ✨One $BTC Spot ETF issuer with an ETH Spot ETF application says they’re confident the approval and smooth launch of the Bitcoin spots will compel the @SECGov to approve ETH spot ETFs. ✨Another source tells me the line at the SEC at this very moment is a “hard no” and there’s currently “some internal resistance” to the idea. ✨Still another says the listing of ETH futures ETFs and @BlackRock’s track record for getting ETFs approved leads them to believe the ETH spot ETFs could launch by the end of the summer. When I asked whether Gensler’s opaque position on the status of Ethereum as a potential security would come into play, they said the fact that the @CFTC believes ETH is a commodity coupled with @Ripple’s partial court victory with $XRP not being a security during secondary market transactions will make it “an uphill battle for Gensler to take the position that most digital assets are securities going forward.” ✨SEC Commissioner @HesterPeirce told @coinage_media this morning that the agency doesn’t want to repeat the same mistake of delays with ETH ETFs. “We need to be applying ‘regular way’ consideration to these products, the same kind of consideration we apply to similar products.” My takeaway: Once again the ball is very much in the @SECGov’s court. We’ll get some clues in the next few months if SEC staff are engaging in depth on the S-1 filings, like they did with the $BTC spots.

I’ve said that I want to make 2024 the year I begin expanding my knowledge beyond just regulation and #crypto case law to other aspects of the space like NFTs and Web3. There are so many passionate communities around these. Looking forward to reading this new one. @NFTbark

A question we’ll be asking Larry Fink today: SEC Chairman Gary Gensler and Senator Elizabeth Warren have both come out in the last 24 hours vilifying Bitcoin for being a vehicle for criminal activity. But Gensler and the courts have just given you a green light to associate your name with that. How do you respond?

I’ve been thinking about the @SECGov hack. If X was correct in its conclusion that not having 2FA switched on was to blame for the breach, then that could mean the agency disregarded its own cybersecurity disclosure rules that it enforces for public companies (rules for thee but not for me). But would it also potentially violate a May 2021 Executive Order from @POTUS mandating federal agencies adopt multi-factor authentication and encryption for sensitive date? Could one argue that the SEC’s official X account, which has the ability to move markets, classifies as sensitive data? whitehouse.gov/briefing-room…

🚨NEW: @Vanguard_Group, the world’s second largest asset manager behind @BlackRock, is reportedly blocking its customers from buying into the new $BTC Spot ETFs, saying the products “don’t fit with Vanguard’s investment philosophy.” Now we’ll start to see how institutional TradFi feels about #Bitcoin . Just because the @SECGov has allowed these ETFs to exist doesn’t mean the private sector has to accept them. #Crypto skepticism is still alive and well on Wall Street.