HONG KONG CRYPTO HUB AMBITIONS

The SEC is claiming staking is a security, into the staking services Coinbase is offering constitute securities much like they did with Kraken early this year. There are also arguments that some of the assets are listing on Coinbase could be securities. I think is ridiculous to say that because Coinbase is a regulated company. The SEC approved to go public two years ago, they reviewed their entire business model including staking. They also reviewed the asset that they list and the SEC approved Coinbase to go public and sell their stocks. With all that in mind, not has changed between that time and now, and the business model at Coinbase is the same.

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Remember that Coinbase has been asking SEC for some kind of clear guidelines. Coinbase is the most regulator-friendly crypto exchange out there. They want to comply but instead of engaging with Coinbase, the SEC instead decided to take Coinbase to court. Coinbase has met with the SEC more than 30 times in the last year and during all of that conservation, the SEC gave no feed on how they can change their business or even how to register. Many regulators around the world have come out and given clear guidelines and approvals to Coinbase but the USA is continuing to make doing crypto business in the USA as difficult as possible.

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The good news is that Coinbase is not taken all this lying down and they are vowing to fight this in court. Coinbase just got regulator approval over in Brazil. This is a country that has been providing actual regulatory clarity for crypto investors and companies that want to do business there. They have been adopting cryptocurrency, passing legislation to allow it to be used as currency within the country. Also, look at the UAE, they are trying to become the crypto capital of the world, or the United Kingdom which is now looking to pass positive reforms to its cryptocurrency.

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The FED has increased the rate by another 25 basis points, this means interest rates now sit within a range of 4.75 which is in line with the general expectation. The FED has signaled that one rate hike is likely to be left in this cycle but they are not promising the bull too much at this point. Jerome Powell came out that they are ready to use wherever tools are necessary to protect the banks and to bring down inflation to the 2% target. Hong Kong announced some interesting things last, they announced that it going to allow retail customers to be able to buy Bitcoin EFT products. They are going to be spending 50 million dollars to make Hong Kong into a crypto Hub. This is a massive departure from its previous stance and it's potentially a monumental change in the approach of China in particular.

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