Foreign To the coin Bureau Weekly News Roundup Here are the top stories in crypto this Week Crypto market crash coins and tokens Tumble after U.S Regulators begin Cracking down on some of the biggest Companies exchanges and projects in the Industry how will this affect crypto Stablecoins under scrutiny busd and paxg Issuer paxos gets probed by U.S Authorities while tether's us-based Reserves come under scrutiny which Stablecoin is the safest to hold right Now Cbdc rollout accelerates the bank for Central banks expands its cbdc research As Russia India and the United Kingdom Move closer to dystopian digital Currencies when will the first cbdcs be Released local Bitcoins shuts down the Once popular peer-to-peer crypto trading Platform closes its doors after 10 years Why did this happen and what does it Mean for peer-to-peer transactions Higher for longer investors start to Price in the Federal Reserve keeping Interest rates higher for longer than Initially expected as publicly traded Companies continue their layoffs Everything you need to know And the thoughts of Benjamin Cowan to Take us into another week all this and More in just a moment
Good morning afternoon or evening thank You for tuning in my name is Guy this is Educational content not Financial advice And here are this week's top stories Last week the crypto Market crashed in Response to a series of headlines about A whole slew of crackdowns the most Significant of these is the sudden Crackdown on cryptocurrency staking by The SEC specifically a Crackdown on Staking services offered by Cryptocurrency exchanges on the 8th of February Bloomberg reported that the SEC Was investigating Kraken over Unregistered sales of Securities now for Context a security is any asset where The expectation of profit is coming from An identifiable third party the SEC Believes most cryptocurrencies are Securities including stable coins the SEC also believes that staking services Offered by cryptocurrency exchanges Count as unregistered Securities Offerings and this is why the regulator Went after Kraken Kraken ended up Settling with the SEC for 30 million Dollars and as part of the settlement Kraken stopped offering staking to Retail users in the U.S all eyes are now On coinbase which subsequently put out a Statement arguing that the staking Services it offers are not an Unregistered Securities offering the SEC Clearly thinks otherwise but the
Difference is that coinbase has a lot More Capital than Kraken and can take The SEC to court now this is a problem Because if the SEC does engage coinbase Over its staking Services it could have A negative impact on proof-of-stake Cryptocurrencies that coinbase offers Staking services for this is because Coinbase would likely be required to Pause its staking Services until the Case is resolved it's also a much bigger Problem than meets the eye because Exchanges like coinbase and Kraken are The largest validators on most Proof-of-stake blockchains including Ethereum not only that but a significant Amount of coinbase and kraken's income Comes from staking services The Silver Lining to this Crackdown on Centralized staking Services is that It's effectively forcing U.S users of These exchanges to use decentralized Staking Services instead liquid staking Protocols like Lido finance and Rocketpool have seen massive inflows and Their tokens have pumped in response More about Lido Finance in the Description Now the problem there is that the SEC Isn't a big believer in D5 SEC chairman Gary Gensler has said these kinds of D5 Protocols are quote highly centralized And should therefore register with the SEC just like centralized exchanges as
Such we could see the SEC go after these Liquid staking protocols too if that Wasn't bad enough Gary also believes That the proof-of-stake cryptocurrencies Themselves are securities and he said This on the same day of ethereum's Transition from proof of work to proof Of stake this means that even staking Directly to the blockchain could also be Forbidden by the SEC now as much as I Want to promise that the SEC won't go as Far as cracking down on proof-of-state Cryptocurrencies the harsh reality is That it can't be ruled out just yet and Before you convert all your Proof-of-state cryptos to stable coins You should know that this is not a safe Option anymore either This is because stablecoin issuers are Starting to face extreme regulatory Scrutiny too and the first on the Chopping block is paxos for those Unfamiliar paxos is the issuer of Binance's busd stablecoin it's also the Issuer of another USD stablecoin called Usdp as well as a gold-backed stablecoin Pax G now following reports that the New York Department of Financial Services Was probing paxos for unspecified Reasons on Sunday evening it was Announced that who else but the SEC is Planning to sue paxos for selling busd As an unregistered security The SEC has issued a Wells notice to
Paxos which is basically a letter Informing the recipient that the agency Is planning to take legal action against Them paxos now has 30 days in which to Write back and explain to the SEC why Legal action is not necessary To be clear a Wells notice isn't a legal Action per se but it's certainly a clear Shot across the bows there'll be some Overtime being pulled at paxos HQ in the Coming days that is for sure the SEC Takes action in around 80 percent of Cases where a Wells notice is issued by The way now whatever the outcome of this Wells notice it's already significant Enough that PayPal has decided to pause Work on its stablecoin project which was Being developed in partnership with Paxos this begs the chilling question of What would happen if U.S Regulators Force paxos to do something drastic like Drop busd Well the good news is that a ban on busd Would have a limited impact on the Crypto ecosystem because busd is used Primarily on binance and the BNB chain The bad news is that a Crackdown on busd Could result in a crypto Bank Run on Binance and do serious damage to the BNB Chain ecosystem to be clear I'm Confident that binance would be fine in Such a scenario this is because it has Sufficient crypto reserves to honor all Customer withdrawals and survived a
Multi-billion Dollar Bank Run just a Couple of months ago The point is that the crypto Market Would survive a busd Crackdown assuming It comes at all there would of course be No shortage of volatility but it would Pale in comparison to the kind of Volatility we'll see if U.S Regulators Decide to do the unthinkable and crack Down on Tether although tether itself is Located outside of the United States the Reserves backing its usdt stablecoin are Apparently not according to the Wall Street Journal American Financial Services firm Cantor Fitzgerald is Helping manage 39 billion dollars in U.S Government debt that backs usdt this Headline might sound benign but it's Eerily similar to the one from Bloomberg About busd reserves in early January This year I have a feeling this headline Sent a signal to U.S Regulators to start Investigating paxos if I'm correct we Could see the same thing happen to Cantor Fitzgerald now as much as I want To say that this is purely speculation The fact of the matter is that it's the Beginning of a coordinated operation to Cut crypto companies off from the U.S Financial system the crypto Community is Calling this operation chokeepoint 2.0 And I'll be doing a video about it later This week now regarding which stablecoin Is the safest to hold the answer is none
Of them while circles usdc has been Recently seen as the safest stable coin It may not be immune to choke point 2.0 Then again circles partnership with BlackRock could protect it from any Unwarranted scrutiny more about that Using the link in the description Speaking of circle some of you may know That the world economic forum and others Have been actively discussing the idea Of a so-called synthetic Central Bank Digital currency or cbdc wherein a Stable coin like usdc would be backed by Reserves held at a central bank it Looked like this was the direction Central banks were headed but the Scrutiny of stablecoin issues we've seen Over the last few months seems to have Turned them back to the idea of a Standard cbdc This is evidenced by the bank for International settlements or bis's Sudden expansion in cbdc research if You've watched any of our videos about The bis you'll know that it's the Self-described bank for central banks And it's been helping central banks Around the world roll out their cbdcs You'll also know that cbdcs will make it Possible for governments to control your Money to a dystopian degree The bis has long been skeptical of Stable coins and this is simply because Central banks consider stable coins to
Be their biggest competitors in the Digital currency space lo and behold the Bis's new expansion into cbdc's will be Accompanied by the development of a Stablecoin monitoring platform Meanwhile one of Russia's largest banks Is asking Russia's Central Bank to take It slow with the rollout of its digital Ruble gasprom bank is concerned that the Cbdc will affect its bottom line note That research by the bis and others has Confirmed that commercial banks will Have a hard time with cbdcs it's a Similar story in India whose Central Bank recently launched its first digital Rupee pilot The Reserve Bank of India Has specified that it's in no rush to Fully roll out its cbdc and it's Starting with just 50 000 users and five Thousand Merchants if China's cbdc Pilots are anything to go by India's Won't be successful That's why it still blows my mind that The UK is continuing down the cbdc path Last week the UK Treasury and Bank of England released a consultation paper About a digital pound it specifies that The digital pound will initially have a Limit of 10 000 to 20 000 per individual If you watched our recent video about The eu's upcoming digital Euro you'll Know that these limits on Holdings are Intended to discourage hoarding of Cbdc's during times of Crisis naturally
The goal is to force the adoption of a Cbdc using a crisis but Alternative Forms of currency need to be killed off First logically this means we're Unlikely to see Mass cbdc adoption Anytime soon Besides killing off alternative Currencies governments around the world Need to roll out digital IDs before they Roll out their cbdcs after all they need To know whose bank accounts to empty and Who's to fill up unfortunately for the People in power the average person will Always find a way to transact using an Alternative currency fortunately for the People paying attention there's no Shortage of Alternatives available the Only issue is the secure exchange of These alternative currencies Particularly digital ones when it comes To cryptocurrency local Bitcoins was one Of the first to facilitate the exchange Of coins and tokens between people as The name suggests local Bitcoins was Built to make it easy and safe to buy And sell cryptocurrency with other People in your area and eventually Internationally as is often the case in Cryptocurrency local Bitcoins started to Lose market dominance when centralized Cryptocurrency exchanges like binance Started to become popular soon local Bitcoin's only Advantage was the Privacy It offered this caused its customer base
To skew to shall we say people engaged In questionable activity not Surprisingly this resulted in lots of Regulatory scrutiny which is why local Bitcoins started implementing kyc on Larger peer-to-peer trades sometime in 2019 it also announced that it would be Requiring kyc from all users to comply With Europe's anti-money laundering Regulations obviously the kyc implement Station alienated local Bitcoins as Privacy oriented customer base it also Made the platform more regulated than Centralized exchanges except worse the Worst part was that most offshore Cryptocurrency exchanges were still not Requiring kyc at this time To add insult to injury local Bitcoins As compliance didn't seem to increase Its appeal in the eyes of regulators This resulted in local Bitcoins Partnering with blockchain analytics Firm elliptic in 2020 to track every Peer-to-peer trade on its platform Eliminating the little privacy that was Left Now despite these unprecedented Restrictions local Bitcoins didn't die This is probably because of the crypto Bull run which began in late 2020. The bull market must have been very good For local Bitcoins because it managed to Release a new mobile app for its 1.7 Million users in October 2021 but alas
Bull markets do not last forever crypto Prices started to crash in November 2021 And this accelerated in the spring of 2022 the tragic cherry on top was Russia's invasion of Ukraine local Bitcoins was very popular in Russia but In October 2022 sanctions forced it to Exit the country the final nail in the Coffin for local Bitcoins was the Revelation that the platform had sent And received transactions from Criminal Russian crypto exchange bits Lotto prior To exiting Russia local Bitcoins died Last week after 10 and a half years of Life and users now have 12 months to Withdraw their crypto now as sad as this News is I am optimistic about the future Of peer-to-peer platforms like local Bitcoins Many peer-to-peer platforms still exist And some of them still protect your Privacy these platforms will only become More popular as crypto adoption grows Along with the demand for privacy the Real tragedy is that the statistics from Anti-money laundering organizations like The financial action task force or fat F Suggest that privacy killing regulations Like kyc have no measurable impact on Illicit Financial activity I reckon this Is because human corruption can't be Regulated you can learn more about that Using the link in the description now Before I hand bend the mic I want to
Talk about what the FED has been up to Especially because the CPI for January Will be released tomorrow morning in Case you missed the memo the reason why The markets rallied so much in January Was in part because investors thought Inflation was coming down the reason why The market started to crash late last Week was in part because of revisions to The C API that were made by the Bureau Of Labor Statistics the tldr is that the CPI prints for November and December Were higher than initially reported this Means the January CPI may come in hotter Than expected there are fundamental Reasons for this too petrol prices in The United States Rose in January the Price of oil has been rising as well in Part because Russia announced that it Will be cutting its oil production in March in response to sanctions this will Lead to more energy driven inflation if You watched our video about blackrock's 2023 predictions you'll know that the Infamous asset manager planned I mean Predicted that inflation is going to Stay high for a long time BlackRock recently put its money where Its mouth is by betting that the FED Will keep interest rates higher for Longer by now most of you will know that The reason why the FED will keep Interest rates higher for longer is Because it's trying to crush inflation
If BlackRock is right about inflation Not coming down then it means interest Rates will stay up This will cause more money to flow out Of the markets including crypto it also Means that the real economy is likely to Take a real beating so far most of the Layoffs we've seen have been from Companies in the tech and financial Sectors however it's only a matter of Time before the heat of higher interest Rates starts to affect companies in Other economic sectors at the same time The average person is being squeezed by A combination of higher inflation and Higher interest rates it seems that the Only thing keeping mass insolvencies at Bay is all that pandemic stimulus that's Still working its way around the economy And the fact that most debt deals are Long dated the caveat is that these Pandemic cash cushions are held mostly By wealthy individuals and institutions The average person is suffering more With each passing day and it's only a Matter of time before they say enough is Enough It's possible that cbdc-based stimulus Will be used to keep them from rioting Considering how brutal the last three Years have been though it wouldn't Surprise me if the people in power go Straight to Third Base by orchestrating Mass bank balins if you have no idea
What I'm talking about you must watch Yesterday's video on that very subject That will be in the description but Before you head down there it's time for Ben Cowan's amazing crypto analysis so Take it away Ben Hey guy thanks for having me pleasure to Be here as always because there's a lot Of talk recently about Golden crosses And death crosses I thought I would at Least spend a little bit of time talking About that we did have a golden cross on The daily time frame not too long ago Marking really the first golden cross We've had since the bear Market began Back in November of 2021 and one of the Interesting things about it is sort of Look at what it has historically meant And one thing to note is that both in The recovery year following the 2018 Bear Market on the recovery year Following the 2014 bear Market we Actually had multiple of these golden Crosses before we actually had a Sustained bull market to new highs Speculating you can see that in the First cycle the yellow dash line here is What's showing you when we had the Golden cross the cross of the 50-day SMA Above the 200-day SMA we had one Golden Cross before a bull run to new highs and The second cycle during that recovery Year we actually had two golden crosses Right two golden crosses before the bull
Run to new highs and in the third cycle So the third recovery year you can Actually see we had three golden crosses Before we actually had a move to New All-time highs so yes it's always nice To see a golden cross and it's certainly At least a progression from from sort of The down only year that we had in 2022 But just to keep our expectations in Check history generally does show us That we will likely see multiple of These golden crosses and death crosses On The Daily time frame you know Probably for the next 12 to 18 months or So before we actually get into a rally That is is is likely to take us new All-time highs so just something to Consider and then of course there's the The elephant in the room is is we've had A weekly death cross for the first time So this is the first time the 50-week SMA has crossed below the 200 week Estimate and frankly we no one really Knows exactly what it means because well It's never really happened before so we Can speculate of course uh if you take a Look at the S P 500 it's usually not the Best sign in the world but forever every You know for every couple of times You'll find that you can find an Instance where it didn't mean to think And and then and the price continued Higher but P I think a lot of people Should be generally aware though
My general thinking on on Golden crosses And death crosses are they very much are Lagging indicators and they sort of Already tell you what you already know Right like you don't need a a golden Cross like we just had to tell you that The price has been going up recently Right we know that it's been rallying Off 15.5 all the way up to almost you Know over twenty four thousand dollars And a lot of times after a golden cross You'll actually see a short-term Pullback right you see that right here Right we had a golden cross and then Just after it we had about an eight Percent pullback this is actually pretty Standard you'll often find pullbacks After a golden cross on the daily time Frame and and it's one of those things That I I think you know you hear the Word Golden Cross and you assume that All right well that means the price has To immediately head higher normally it's The reverse right A lot of times golden Crosses you'll see short-term pullbacks And death crosses you can see short-term Moves to the upside so just something to Consider as you navigate the sort of the Terminology of golden crosses and death Crosses and the other thing I wanted to Mention is is sort of thinking about the The ROI after the peak or say the Drawdown as a function of time as Measured for say a few different assets
And sort of seen a lot of people talk About comparing Bitcoin and ethereum and How Bitcoin put in a new low in November Whereas ethereum did not But if we're if we're keeping ourselves Honest and we're just measuring it from Their respective highs and not cherry Picking you know say one low for one and Another low for another while ethereum Has not yet at least put in a a new low You'll see that the pull down the Drawdown from the all-time high for both Bitcoin and ethereum is actually about The same right now and in fact Bitcoin Is a little bit better than ethereum Despite the fact that ethereum has not Put in a new June low one of the reasons For that is because during the Capitulation back in April May and June Of 2022 ethereum went a lot lower than Bitcoin and so yes it had a nice Recovery but they've more or less just Been Um sort of just in lockstep ever since And then the one you know to to compare It to an altcoin right just to compare It to Ada this is a coin that I've Spoken about before I know you've spoken About it as well and sort of trying to Think is you know are there any Blue Chips besides Bitcoin and ethereum Um it's you know when you look at an Altcoin and a lot of the altcoins and You just sort of see this slow bleed
Where they're where the ROI is measured From the peak when in the bear markets For the drawdown from the all-time high When it's just a slow bleed well below What would be considered to do the blue The two blue chips it really does show You why you know Blue Chips in general Um you know provide at least Historically provide provide some Protection from from the from the uh Potential drawdown then then a lot of The altcoin market there's always a few Altcoins that that will outperform I'm Not trying to take away from that but it Does just show you just how much more Brutal the altcoin market can be for Instance the ROI from Peak for Bitcoin Right now is 0.323 for ethereum it's 0.317 but for Ada it's 0.122 now that Makes a big difference you know actually You know calculate out what that would Mean for for a portfolio so just Something to consider and I I think it's Worthwhile to consider this as well for You know future future bear markets Right we always know that all coins can Give out size gains in Bull markets that Can also drop a lot in Bear markets and That's why you know having you know Protecting yourself in some senses is Often not always a bad way to go thanks Again for having me go I pleasure to be Here as always I'll see you again next Week
Thank you Ben and Ben will be hosting Our weekly live stream this week on his Channel into the crypto burst please do Join him yours truly and Rob from Digital asset news on Thursday at 9 00 A.m eastern time and that is all for Today's coin Bureau weekly crypto review If you enjoyed it you know what to do Hit that like button subscribe button And Bell icon too if you're looking to Maximize your gains during the bear Market the coin Bureau deals page is Where you should go you can find the Link to that resource and many others in The description below thank you all so Much for watching and I will see you in Next week's episode
