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The Morning Risk Report: SEC to Ease Off Crypto Regulation, Atkins Says

By Richard Vanderford | Dow Jones Risk Journal

 

Good morning. Most digital assets don’t fall under U.S. securities laws, Securities and Exchange Commission head Paul Atkins said, announcing a new, much looser framework for regulating cryptocurrencies, Risk Journal reports.

  • Outside agency jurisdiction: The SEC won’t regulate as securities four categories of digital assets: digital commodities, digital collectibles, digital tools and stablecoins, Atkins said. Stablecoins are crypto-assets that are tied to a real-world asset such as government-backed currencies.
     
  • CFTC agrees: The Commodity Futures Trading Commission, which under President Trump has moved to cooperate more closely with the SEC, joined in the announcement, endorsing the SEC approach.
     
  • End of an era: Trump has embraced cryptocurrencies in policy and as patriarch of a business-minded family. Tuesday’s move from Atkins represents a definitive break from the policies of the Biden-era SEC, whose then-head Gary Gensler likened the cryptocurrency industry to a “Wild West.”
 
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Investment Management Regulatory Outlook: Balancing Innovation, Regulation

The balance between regulation and innovation in the U.S. capital markets will likely be a top agenda item for leaders at investment management firms as they look to refresh their playbooks. Read More

More Risk & Compliance articles from Deloitte
 

Compliance

Comptroller of the Currency Jonathan Gould has said the banking industry needs to embrace innovation to stay relevant. Photo: Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty Images

The Trump official ushering crypto into the banking system.

A top banking regulator is on the verge of letting crypto firms become banks. Banks aren’t happy about it.

Jonathan Gould, one of the country’s most powerful banking regulators, has given the green light to crypto firms such as Ripple and Crypto.com to build banks—and is welcoming applications from others, including payment-technology companies. That is rankling the banking industry, which sees the new players as potential rivals that aren’t subject to the same level of regulatory oversight.

 

Arizona files illegal-gambling charges against predictions platform Kalshi.

Arizona filed criminal charges against the parent companies of Kalshi, a startup prediction platform, on Tuesday accusing them of operating an illegal gambling business without a license.

Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes said Kalshi accepted bets from residents on sports, elections and events in violation of state law. Arizona doesn’t allow unlicensed wagering businesses and bans elections betting, Mayes said. The state charged the companies with 20 counts of illegal betting and wagering.

 ‏‏‎ ‎
  • The European Union approved Italian defense and aerospace group Leonardo’s 1.7 billion-euro ($1.96 billion) bid for Iveco Group’s defense business.
     
  • The U.S. Treasury fined brokerage firm TradeStation Securities roughly $1.1 million for violating sanctions on Iran, Syria and the Crimea region of Ukraine, Risk Journal reports.
     
  • A unit of industrial engineering company Thyssenkrupp has resolved a U.S. case alleging it stopped union organizing in Mexico.
     
  • The Italian Competition Authority has launched an antitrust investigation into the quantum computing sector to evaluate possible barriers facing startups looking to enter the market.
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$1.8 Billion

How much Mastercard will pay to acquire a stablecoin-infrastructure company, which will let it link its vast payments-processing network directly with cryptocurrencies.

 

Risk

An Iranian-designed Shahed 136 drone used by the Russian Army flying over Kyiv. Photo: Sergei Supinsky/AFP/Getty

Russia is sharing satellite imagery and drone technology with Iran.

Russia has been expanding its intelligence sharing and military cooperation with Iran, providing satellite imagery and improved drone technology to aid Tehran’s targeting of U.S. forces in the region, people familiar with the matter said.

Russia is trying to keep its closest Middle Eastern partner in the fight against U.S. and Israeli military might and prolong a war that is benefiting Russia militarily and economically.

 
  • Despite significant damage to Iran’s cyber capabilities inflicted just before the current conflict, the regime still poses a threat that U.S. companies must take seriously, lawmakers and experts warned.
     
  • Israel’s decapitation strategy has wiped out another two top Iranians.
 ‏‏‎ ‎

“We’re not the Securities and Everything Commission anymore.”

— SEC head Paul Atkins
 

What Else Matters

  • AI can already see, hear, read and speak. Now researchers are teaching it to smell.
     
  • Cuba’s communist government is struggling to restore electricity across the island after its obsolete power grid collapsed on Monday.
     
  • The World Bank is embracing industrial policy, abandoning three decades of stigma.
     
  • America now has more spas and gyms than stores selling actual stuff.
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About Us

Follow us on X at @WSJRisk. Send tips to our reporters Max Fillion at max.fillion@dowjones.com, Mengqi Sun at mengqi.sun@wsj.com and Richard Vanderford at richard.vanderford@wsj.com.

You can also reach us by replying to any newsletter, or by emailing our editor David Smagalla at david.smagalla@wsj.com.

 
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