As congressional leaders work for the second time this year to prevent a government shutdown, Representative Tom Emmer, R-Minn., is advancing an amendment targeting how the Securities and Exchange Commission can use funds. 

Emmer’s amendment to the Financial Services and General Government Appropriations Act, which passed the House in a voice vote Wednesday, prohibits the securities regulator from using its budget to pursue enforcement actions against crypto companies until Congress passes legislation that grants the SEC jurisdiction over the asset class. 

In remarks before the Rules Committee hearing this week, Emmer blamed the SEC’s “out of check” spending on Chair Gary…

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Chainlink’s (LINK) token has experienced a remarkable 26% surge between Nov. 2 and Nov. 8, approaching $14, a level not seen since April 2022. This solidified its position as the 10th largest cryptocurrency (excluding stablecoins) by market capitalization.

While the price action is a welcome sight for traders, is Chainlink’s current valuation of $8.1 billion justified? Cointelegraph research shows that the impressive price surge is driven by expectations of real-world asset (RWA) tokenization and initial signs of institutional adoption. However, let’s delve deeper to assess the sustainability of the current rally.

Spot Bitcoin ETF expectations and real world asset tokenization boost… Read more on Cointelegraph

Lido’s wrapped staked ether (wstETH) is now available on Coinbase’s layer-2 network Base following nearly unanimous approval from Lido’s DAO.

The bridge deployment makes Base the latest protocol to access wstETH, joining the likes of Optimism, Arbitrum, Polygon and Cosmos. The news comes two weeks after LayerZero’s bridging solution was widely called non-canonical by the DAO.

wstETH is a wrapped version of Lido’s popular staked ether (stETH) product that gives the token a constant balance — rather than changing daily to reflect staking rewards — for easier use in DeFi. Around $21 million of wstETH changed hands over the past 24 hours, according to CoinMarketCap. 

And…

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As Hong Kong continues its regulation of the crypto space, tokenization has become a focus, according to the chief of the city’s securities regulator. 

Julia Leung, CEO of Hong Kong’s Securities and Futures Commission (SFC), said during an interview shown at DC Fintech Week Wednesday that more traditional financial institutions are experimenting with blockchain-based tokens that represent ownership of financial assets. 

The SFC responded, last week publishing requirements needed to launch such tokenized products. Tokenized funds, for example, are likely to hit the market as the regulator continues discussions with industry players. 

“Without the guidance, traditional finance…

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The Progmat Coin ecosystem is taking shape in Japan. With a market maker, wallet provider and cryptocurrency exchanges on board, Progmat and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG) hope to launch two stablecoins in the summer of 2024.

Stablecoin platform Progmat Coin, MUFG and wallet provider Ginco have begun a study with the goal of issuing a yen-denominated XJPY stablecoin and dollar-denominated XUSD stablecoin, Progmat said in a statement. This is in addition to the platform’s function enabling stablecoin issuance.

#japan #stablecoin #crypto #payments@ginco_inc, Mitsubishi UFJ Trust and Banking, and #Progmat are starting a joint study to introduce an “infrastructure stablecoin” with…

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Lido’s governing body has approved the deployment of Lido’s Wrapped Staked Ether (wstETH) to Coinbase’s Base network, according to a Nov. 8 announcement. The token is now live and can be traded or used in decentralized finance (DeFi) applications on the Base network.

Lido is on @BuildOnBase

You can now bridge your staked ETH to Base. pic.twitter.com/R9vN2XGs2g

— Lido (@LidoFinance) November 8, 2023

Lido is a liquid staking protocol that allows users to stake some cryptocurrencies while simultaneously using them in DeFi applications. It does this by issuing a derivative token that can be redeemed for the underlying staked one. 

In the case of Ethereum’s…

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Notional Finance has made the jump from Ethereum mainnet to layer-2 with the third iteration of its fixed-rate borrowing and lending protocol.

The new v3 launched publicly on Monday after a month of closed beta testing. It expands beyond simple bitcoin, ether and stablecoin borrowing and lending to emphasize strategies that leverage yield.

An initial suite of leveraged vaults on Arbitrum enables users to borrow substantially against their initial capital. This amplifies their potential yield if the returns exceed the borrowing cost, while also minimizing liquidation risk.

Read more: Arbitrum DAO looking to bet $40M on network protocols

These vaults are designed for advanced DeFi users…

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The Bank of International Settlements (BIS), a coalition of the world’s central banks, criticized stablecoins as being “not a safe store of value” in its latest research report dated Nov. 8.

In outlining its reasons, the BIS explained that from January 2019 to September 2023, fiat-backed stablecoins maintained their peg ratio only 94% of the time, less than the 100% often promised in projects’ whitepapers. Meanwhile, the peg ratio for crypto-backed and commodity-backed stablecoins was far less at 77% and 50%, respectively.

“Only seven fiat backed stablecoins have been able to keep their deviations from the peg below 1% for more than 97% of their life span,” BIS wrote. Both Tether (USDT)…

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The European Banking Authority released draft guidelines for stablecoin issuers Wednesday, per a mandate under the recently passed Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA) policy. 

In its proposal, the EBA outlines how issuers of stablecoins — which the regulator refers to as asset-reference tokens (ARTs) — and other cryptocurrencies should structure their risk management and recovery plans. 

“All issuers should include a de-pegging risk indicator, aimed to keep track of the alignment between the market price of the token and the market value of the referenced asset,” the draft reads. 

The regulator stipulated that in response to “adverse scenarios” potentially…

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