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Yahoo
16 hours ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Contributor: In this corrupt age, a new crypto law should leave no loopholes
Congress, its eye on a futuristic form of finance, is debating legislation that would legitimize stablecoins, a specific type of cryptocurrency linked to the U.S. dollar. But lawmakers eager to do the bidding of this new industry are ignoring the transformation of the American regulatory system and allegations of corruption in the second Trump administration. To the delight of Silicon Valley, Big Tech and Wall Street, within the next week or two the Senate appears poised to approve the GENIUS Act, a law that would give legal blessing to stablecoins. Despite the bitter partisan strife that defines American politics, about a dozen Democratic senators appear ready to lock arms with almost all Republicans to pass the legislation. Following the model since the New Deal created our modern independent financial regulators, the legislation would allow the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Treasury Department and others to draft the fine print to implement the bill. Their work will really matter, because stablecoins are, unlike cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin, supposed to have real U.S. dollars behind them. Only regulators can ensure that. Legislation typically provides only a framework for regulatory action. And there was once great logic in Congress giving specialized regulators discretion to use their best judgment. But we're living in 2025. The very idea of properly regulating finance, new or old, is under siege by the current administration, rendering the old delegation to agencies all but useless. For generations financial market regulation relied on independent regulators, insulated from economic and political pressures, to protect the integrity of markets for investors without fear or favor. But President Trump — by undermining agency independence, firing some regulators, browbeating others and appointing sycophants — has ended that era. At the same time, Trump's deregulatory zealots have rescinded existing safeguards, purged agency staff and abandoned enforcement. Trump's men — crypto men — now run the regulators. The SEC head, Paul Atkins, ran a firm with an armada of crypto clients. The president's nominee for the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, a smaller crypto regulator, is Brian Quintenz, a lobbyist for Andreessen Horowitz, the pro-Trump venture capital firm that is neck-deep in cryptocurrency. Trump himself is now a crypto kingpin. Selling access to the president via Trump's memecoin, a collector token, has rightly drawn scathing criticism. But Trump's family vehicle, World Liberty Financial, has launched a stablecoin that may be vulnerable to foreign grift. A firm backed by the Abu Dhabi government is buying $2 billion worth of the token. And late last week, the Securities and Exchange Commission dropped a case against Binance, a cryptocurrency exchange that in 2023 admitted it turned a blind eye to money laundering and sanctions violations, days after Binance listed Trump's stablecoin for trading. These developments — the warping of independent regulators into docile creatures of industry, the cavalier abandonment of market and investor protection and Trump's determination to milk the presidency for money — demand a new legislative approach that specifically prescribes the regulatory guardrails necessary to realize the legislative goals. We have crossed a Rubicon, and now lawmakers must assume that regulators will simply acquiesce to industry and political forces. Today, Congress cannot simply write law as gauzy guidance; it must provide detailed and binding directives that force the regulators to actually do their jobs. Otherwise, the current Trump regulators will never establish the necessary safeguards the Senate envisions because tough measures could threaten not only the crypto industry but also the president's personal businesses. So far, Democrats in the Senate have settled for tweaks at a time when wholesale revision is needed. How will customers be protected? How will we thwart crime and money laundering using stablecoins, already a serious problem? Will Big Tech firms get to become banks by issuing stablecoins? Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) has all but admitted the shortcomings of the legislation, noting that the Republican supporters refuse to allow 'reforms to govern how politicians can use these and other digital assets for their own personal profit.' But Schiff intends to vote for the bill, as do Democratic Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York and Angela Alsobrooks of Maryland. While they're trying to make laws for the future, their heads are stuck in the past, thinking of the time when regulators could be trusted. For our current era, members of Congress need to make sure cryptocurrency legislation contains clear, binding, prescriptive guardrails to defend the public interest and to fight mounting risk of corruption. Right now, the stablecoin legislation contains only window dressing. Without a fresh approach, Congress is simply legislating riches for crypto titans — and for Trump. Patrick Woodall is the managing director for policy at Americans for Financial Reform. If it's in the news right now, the L.A. Times' Opinion section covers it. Sign up for our weekly opinion newsletter. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Los Angeles Times
16 hours ago
- Business
- Los Angeles Times
In this corrupt age, a new crypto law should leave no loopholes
Congress, its eye on a futuristic form of finance, is debating legislation that would legitimize stablecoins, a specific type of cryptocurrency linked to the U.S. dollar. But lawmakers eager to do the bidding of this new industry are ignoring the transformation of the American regulatory system and allegations of corruption in the second Trump administration. To the delight of Silicon Valley, Big Tech and Wall Street, within the next week or two the Senate appears poised to approve the GENIUS Act, a law that would give legal blessing to stablecoins. Despite the bitter partisan strife that defines American politics, about a dozen Democratic senators appear ready to lock arms with almost all Republicans to pass the legislation. Following the model since the New Deal created our modern independent financial regulators, the legislation would allow the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Treasury Department and others to draft the fine print to implement the bill. Their work will really matter, because stablecoins are, unlike cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin, supposed to have real U.S. dollars behind them. Only regulators can ensure that. Legislation typically provides only a framework for regulatory action. And there was once great logic in Congress giving specialized regulators discretion to use their best judgment. But we're living in 2025. The very idea of properly regulating finance, new or old, is under siege by the current administration, rendering the old delegation to agencies all but useless. For generations financial market regulation relied on independent regulators, insulated from economic and political pressures, to protect the integrity of markets for investors without fear or favor. But President Trump — by undermining agency independence, firing some regulators, browbeating others and appointing sycophants — has ended that era. At the same time, Trump's deregulatory zealots have rescinded existing safeguards, purged agency staff and abandoned enforcement. Trump's men — crypto men — now run the regulators. The SEC head, Paul Atkins, ran a firm with an armada of crypto clients. The president's nominee for the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, a smaller crypto regulator, is Brian Quintenz, a lobbyist for Andreessen Horowitz, the pro-Trump venture capital firm that is neck-deep in cryptocurrency. Trump himself is now a crypto kingpin. Selling access to the president via Trump's memecoin, a collector token, has rightly drawn scathing criticism. But Trump's family vehicle, World Liberty Financial, has launched a stablecoin that may be vulnerable to foreign grift. A firm backed by the Abu Dhabi government is buying $2 billion worth of the token. And late last week, the Securities and Exchange Commission dropped a case against Binance, a cryptocurrency exchange that in 2023 admitted it turned a blind eye to money laundering and sanctions violations, days after Binance listed Trump's stablecoin for trading. These developments — the warping of independent regulators into docile creatures of industry, the cavalier abandonment of market and investor protection and Trump's determination to milk the presidency for money — demand a new legislative approach that specifically prescribes the regulatory guardrails necessary to realize the legislative goals. We have crossed a Rubicon, and now lawmakers must assume that regulators will simply acquiesce to industry and political forces. Today, Congress cannot simply write law as gauzy guidance; it must provide detailed and binding directives that force the regulators to actually do their jobs. Otherwise, the current Trump regulators will never establish the necessary safeguards the Senate envisions because tough measures could threaten not only the crypto industry but also the president's personal businesses. So far, Democrats in the Senate have settled for tweaks at a time when wholesale revision is needed. How will customers be protected? How will we thwart crime and money laundering using stablecoins, already a serious problem? Will Big Tech firms get to become banks by issuing stablecoins? Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) has all but admitted the shortcomings of the legislation, noting that the Republican supporters refuse to allow 'reforms to govern how politicians can use these and other digital assets for their own personal profit.' But Schiff intends to vote for the bill, as do Democratic Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York and Angela Alsobrooks of Maryland. While they're trying to make laws for the future, their heads are stuck in the past, thinking of the time when regulators could be trusted. For our current era, members of Congress need to make sure cryptocurrency legislation contains clear, binding, prescriptive guardrails to defend the public interest and to fight mounting risk of corruption. Right now, the stablecoin legislation contains only window dressing. Without a fresh approach, Congress is simply legislating riches for crypto titans — and for Trump. Patrick Woodall is the managing director for policy at Americans for Financial Reform.
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
3 Recent Political Wins for the Crypto Sector and What They Mean for This Leading Cryptocurrency
XRP is already up more than 300% since the 2024 election, and new political catalysts could send it higher still. A more crypto-friendly SEC makes it much more likely that a spot XRP ETF will be approved in 2025. New crypto legislation set to be signed this summer could pave the way for new XRP growth opportunities related to stablecoins. 10 stocks we like better than XRP › Arguably, the biggest beneficiary of the Trump administration's pro-crypto policies has been the cryptocurrency XRP (CRYPTO: XRP). On Election Day, XRP was trading for just $0.50. Today, it trades for about $2.20, for an eye-popping 345% return on investment in just six months. While much of the early pro-crypto euphoria surrounding the Trump administration has already been priced into XRP, new catalysts continue to emerge. In fact, there are three big ones with the potential to send XRP higher over the next 12 months. President Donald Trump campaigned on a pro-business, pro-crypto platform. And that's exactly what he has delivered. One of the first moves was the replacement of Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) head Gary Gensler, who was known for his heavy-handed approach to crypto regulation, with Paul Atkins, who is known for his support of the crypto industry. This shakeup at the SEC is important for several reasons. For example, it led to the SEC dropping a long-running lawsuit against Ripple, the company behind the XRP crypto token. For more than four years, the SEC claimed that XRP was a security and not a commodity. That long, bruising legal battle now appears to be over. That should free up Ripple (and XRP) to go back to expanding its business of facilitating financial transactions. Moreover, it should make it easier for Ripple to gain institutional adoption for its blockchain-based payment network, which is primarily used to send cross-border payments. As long as there was a dark legal cloud hovering over Ripple, financial institutions had to think twice about getting fully onboard with Ripple's payment technology. In March, the White House announced the creation of both the Strategic Bitcoin Reserve and the U.S. Digital Asset Stockpile. The Strategic Bitcoin Reserve only holds Bitcoin, so it doesn't affect XRP. But the Digital Asset Stockpile would to hold all the other cryptocurrencies owned by the U.S. government, including XRP. In the days before the announcement of the U.S. Digital Asset Stockpile, Trump specifically noted that XRP was one of the four cryptocurrencies that were going to be prioritized. The high-profile inclusion of XRP came after Ripple Chief Executive Officer Brad Garlinghouse directly reached out to the White House, encouraging a broader crypto diversification away from Bitcoin. What remains to be seen, of course, is whether the U.S. government will ever decide to buy more XRP for the stockpile. Right now, the only XRP in that would be held in the stockpile is crypto that was seized or confiscated by the government. So, from the perspective of crypto investors, it's important for the government to buy XRP. If that happens, the price of XRP could skyrocket. New stablecoin legislation should be signed by the end of the summer. At first glance, this political win shouldn't have a big impact on XRP. After all, XRP is an altcoin, and not a stablecoin, right? However, there is an indirect impact. That's because Ripple recently introduced a new dollar-pegged stablecoin, known as Ripple USD (CRYPTO: RLUSD), to encourage more activity on the XRP blockchain. Even though Ripple USD only launched in December, it already has a market cap of $300 million, which suggests that institutional investors are eyeing new uses for XRP. Admittedly, there's quite a bit of debate in the crypto world about how much this new stablecoin will actually help XRP. On one hand, it should drive new transaction activity, create new use cases for XRP, and lead to greater demand for the XRP token. On the other hand, the new stablecoin might cannibalize XRP transaction activity, and lead to lower demand for the XRP token. As noted above, much of the pro-crypto euphoria that existed immediately after the 2024 election has already been priced into XRP. There's no other rational way to explain how a cryptocurrency that had seemingly flatlined at the $0.50 level suddenly skyrocketed to a 52-week high of $3.39 in mere weeks. But there's still a lot of promising upside potential from these three new political catalysts. For example, a crypto-friendly SEC makes it much more likely that a new spot XRP exchange-traded fund will be approved by the end of 2025. And, any initiative by the Trump White House to free up non-taxpayer funds for the Digital Asset Stockpile could send XRP parabolic. Although there's a lot to be excited about, just remember: In its entire history, XRP has never once traded higher than $4. So, while it's nice to fantasize about XRP skyrocketing in value, the most likely outcome is for XRP to double in price, to regain an all-time high of $3.84 from seven years ago. Before you buy stock in XRP, consider this: The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the for investors to buy now… and XRP wasn't one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years. Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $651,049!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $828,224!* Now, it's worth noting Stock Advisor's total average return is 979% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 171% for the S&P 500. Don't miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join . See the 10 stocks » *Stock Advisor returns as of May 19, 2025 Dominic Basulto has positions in XRP. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends XRP. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. 3 Recent Political Wins for the Crypto Sector and What They Mean for This Leading Cryptocurrency was originally published by The Motley Fool
Reuters
3 days ago
- Business
- Reuters
US SEC lays out plan to keep budget flat, lower staff levels
NEW YORK/WASHINGTON, May 30 (Reuters) - The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Friday said it was asking Congress to keep its budget unchanged next year and its workforce significantly leaner following recent deep staff cuts. The agency asked for $2.15 billion in funding for the 2026 fiscal year, keeping levels flat from the current amount approved by lawmakers. The budget request, published on the agency's website on Friday, also said the SEC is seeking a total of 4,101 full-time positions versus the current year's congressionally approved level of 4,548, a drop of 9.8%. Paul Atkins, the agency's chairman, is due to deliver Senate testimony about the budget request on Tuesday. An agency spokesperson declined to comment beyond the contents of the budget request. The SEC's current fiscal year runs through the end of September. The annual request shows the agency expects to remain significantly leaner after hundreds of employees left the agency through early-resignation programs. Wall Street's top regulator saw key divisions lose 15% to 19% of their full-time headcount over the course of several weeks earlier this year. Some 600 staff have taken resignation offers amid President Donald Trump and Elon Musk's efforts to remake the federal workforce. Keeping its budget flat will give the agency an excess of $100 million in its coffers, the report said. The SEC said the excess funding may be needed because of a "number of uncertainties", including the potential for Congress to give the regulator responsibilities from a U.S. audit watchdog that may be effectively eliminated.
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
SEC drops Binance lawsuit
This story was originally published on Banking Dive. To receive daily news and insights, subscribe to our free daily Banking Dive newsletter. The Securities and Exchange Commission dropped its 2023 lawsuit against Binance, its U.S. affiliate and its founder Changpeng Zhao Thursday, continuing its trend of vacating lawsuits against cryptocurrency firms filed by the SEC of yesteryear. This brings to an end a nearly two-year legal battle, in which the SEC accused the crypto exchange of illegally serving high-value U.S. customers and commingling and diverting customer funds. Under the leadership of then-Chair Gary Gensler, the SEC filed numerous lawsuits against crypto firms such as Binance, accusing them of, among other things, offering unregistered securities. But the SEC of today, led by Chair Paul Atkins, has done an about-face, dropping cases against Coinbase, Kraken, Ripple and Robinhood, and hosting industry roundtables with its new crypto task force. 'The dismissal of the SEC's case against Binance is a landmark moment. We're deeply grateful to Chairman Paul Atkins and the Trump administration for recognizing that innovation can't thrive under regulation by enforcement. The U.S. is back - leading from the front in the future of blockchain,' a Binance spokesperson told Banking Dive via email. A spokesperson for the exchange's U.S. affiliate, said the dismissal 'confirm[s] what we have always known—that the company did not violate U.S. securities laws.' The dismissal, a major milestone, allows to 'work on restoring our relationships that were impacted by the SEC,' the spokesperson said. The SEC had no further comment beyond its litigation release. Prior to the SEC lawsuit, Binance and Zhao were sued by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission over compliance 'evasion,' and in late 2023 the Justice Department charged Zhao with violating the Bank Secrecy Act. He pleaded guilty to the charge, paid a $50 million fine and was sentenced to four months in federal prison in 2024. The abandonment of the SEC's lawsuit against Binance comes one week after the international crypto exchange, the world's largest by trading volume, announced it would list World Liberty Financial USD on May 22. WLF is owned by the family of President Donald Trump, and was created two months before Trump won the presidential election. Trump, a former crypto skeptic, is involved in the crypto sector through WLF and the more recent launch of his meme coin. He has laid out his intentions to make the U.S. 'the crypto capital of the planet' through executive orders and the nomination of several crypto-friendly regulators, including Atkins. Amanda Fischer, policy director and chief operations officer of financial policy group Better Markets, said that the SEC ending its legal pursuit of Binance 'marks a new low in the SEC's already disgraceful recent history of surrendering in crypto cases, regardless of the merits and even when the agency is winning in court.' 'By dropping all charges notwithstanding prevailing in the early stages of the litigation, the SEC is dangerously sullying its own reputation,' Fischer said. 'In an almost comical admission, Binance's own Chief Compliance Officer confessed in private chats that the firm was 'operating as a fking unlicensed securities exchange in the USA bro.' And while the Department of Justice's previous case against Binance and CZ resulted in a minimalist charge not nearly commensurate with the harm caused, it is even more shocking that the SEC has surrendered even though the Binance founder has already admitted to myriad violations and spent time in jail for those crimes.' Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
