Last week, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chair Gary Gensler said that Bitcoin (BTC) competes with the U.S. banking system.
Gensler on Wednesday told former SEC chairman Jay Clayton at the DACOM compliance and market integrity summit: "In 2008, Satoshi Nakamoto wrote this paper in part as a reaction, an off-the-grid type of approach. It's not surprising that there's some competition that you and I don't support but that's trying to undermine that worldwide consensus."
Gensler repeatedly drew a dividing line between Bitcoin and digital assets, also noting the securities-like nature of many crypto projects. He gave his opinion that developments in digital assets already exist and do not need decentralization to function. Asked about stablecoins, Gensler compared them to "poker chips," arguing they allow people globally to avoid compliance with money laundering and tax laws.
Here is the rest of the week in review:
1inch, a decentralized protocols aggregation startup, announced Wednesday it has raised a $175 million Series B funding round, without disclosing its new valuation. Unlike a traditional venture round, the firm did not sell an equity stake in exchange for funds. Instead 1inch sold $175 million worth of its 1INCH tokens to institutional investors in a private sale, led by Amber Group with about 50 investors participating. 1inch is currently one of the most popular decentralized finance protocols in existence, helping make decentralized transactions more efficient. The 1inch Network aggregates many decentralized protocols so that traders can easily find the best exchange rate across multiple decentralized exchanges. Its competitors include Matcha (0x) and ParaSwap. The startup is now reaching 1 million users on Ethereum, and 195,000 users have interacted with 1inch over the last 30 days. Users have traded over $100 billion in crypto assets using 1inch over the past 2 years. 1inch aims to use the fresh capital for further development and regulatory compliance.
MercadoLibre (NASDAQ: MELI), Latin America's largest ecommerce company, said Thursday it is integrating Paxos' blockchain infrastructure to allow users in Brazil to buy, sell, and hold cryptocurrencies, as well as learn about the asset class. Tulio Oliveira, vice president of Mercado Pago in Brazil, said: "The complete management of crypto can be carried out from a free account, thus facilitating access to new opportunities for financial growth, especially for those currently outside the financial system." Starting later in December, users of MercadoLibre's digital wallet Mercado Pago will be able to trade Bitcoin, Ether (ETH), and the stablecoin Pax dollar (USDP). Paxos will handle crypto trading and custody for Mercado Pago users in an arrangement similar to its integration with PayPal (NASDAQ: PYPL) in late 2020. Paxos said the partnership will provide crypto and stablecoin access to over 200 million Brazilians and accelerate mainstream adoption.
Crypto prices fell to $2.27 trillion this week amid a broad selloff with an unclear cause. For the majors, Polkadot (DOT), Bitcoin, and Cardano (ADA) plunged, while Terra (LUNA) surged into the top 10. In the top 100, the biggest decliners were Ankr (ANKR), down 32%, The Graph (GRT), down 32%, and Elrond (EGLD), down 32%. The biggest gainers were Terra, up 37%, Polygon (MATIC), up 22%, and Stacks (STX), up 10%. Next week traders will see if the sector bounces back.
The author owns a small amount of BTC.