Fintech Daily Digest

This short paper introduces the Libra project and analyses the potential responses open to regulators worldwide.

The Parliament of Liechtenstein approved the Blockchain Act, which aims to improve investor protection, combat money laundering and establish clarity. The new law will enter into force on Jan. 1, 2020.

A study done by the University of Texas published in June of last year was making the claim that Bitcoin's price was majorly affected by the issuance of new USDT tokens. Just recently, research performed by TokenAnalyst.io shows that when Tethers are issued, the Bitcoin price rises as much as 70% of the time.

Over the past 10 years mobile-based lending has grown in Kenya, but there are concerns about the business model. The most prominent is the debt culture that has become a byproduct of mobile-based lending: borrowers fall into the trap of living on loans and accumulating bad debt.

The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC) has pushed back the release of its blockchain-based post-trade system for derivatives by several months, in part because of complications created by Brexit.

In a recent blog post, IMF economists Tobias Adrian and Tommaso Mancini-Griffoli called on policymakers to take "prompt regulatory action" to address the "notable risks" posed by privately issued digital currencies, called stablecoins, that are designed to maintain a consistent value. More to the point: central banks may need to get into the stablecoin business themselves.

"To really determine whether concepts like central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) are a logical evolution, it's thus essential to step back in time as far back as the 80s when the big fintech discussions of the day were centred not around distributed ledgers or cryptocurrencies but RTGS systems."

"It is a hopeful sign of the beginning maturation of the digital asset markets that various players are staking out their positions and arguing their opinions about market structure. The topic often becomes mired in technical details so for this piece, we have taken a step back to discuss a broader set of market structure points, informed by history and experience, aiming to see the forest in addition to the trees."

"Even if antitrust enforcement moves forward, social welfare regulations are also required. This is why there have also been calls for the creation of a new regulatory agency focused on digital platforms. Such an agency would need to be able to address not only concerns about competition but also these broader social welfare concerns. Essentially, then, we need a robust public interest framework for platform regulation."

Russia has set out to divide cryptocurrencies into three legal categories. They are thus legitimizing it within the country's borders.

BigTech firms are entering finance, and their access to massive amounts of information may give them an edge in areas like credit assessment and beyond. This column assesses the economic forces behind the adoption of Big Tech services in finance. It shows that BigTech lenders thrive in countries with less competitive banks and less strict regulation, and that they have an information advantage from the use of big data and machine learning.

Switzerland's principal stock exchange now has seven cryptocurrency exchange-traded products (ETPs) listed. They allow investors to either gain exposure to individual cryptocurrencies or invest in portfolios of top cryptocurrencies. Four ETPs track the prices of single cryptocurrencies.

Swisscom released the new Swiss Fintech Startup Map for October 2019. Four new Startups joined the map since last month. The new Swiss Fintech ecosystem map counts now in total 341 Swiss Fintech Startups.

On Oct. 7 at 22:00 UTC, Coinbase will usher in higher rates for new tiers of accounts transacting under $10,000, and between $10,000 and $50,000.

Coinbase has a new banking partner in Britain that will provide real-time payments for customers, three months after losing the service when it broke with Barclays. Coinbase is now a client of ClearBank, a lender that started operations in 2017.

While waiting for the US SEC to approve its proposed bitcoin ETF, VanEck and SolidX have launched a bitcoin security under Rule 144A. It is the first open-ended DTC-eligible bitcoin security that can be held in a brokerage account and is designed to trade close to the net asset value per share.

The Vanguard Group is testing a blockchain-powered platform that will allow asset managers to trade currencies while avoiding the big investment banks.

The initial coin offering (ICO) is all but dead. In terms of money raised the total for 2019 should be around $338 million - or 95% less than in 2018.

PayPal is on the verge of quitting Facebook's Libra project as three people familiar with the situation said it had pulled out of a key meeting in Washington on Thursday.

Some fintech products are helping to improve dramatically the spendability of decentralized digital money in a fiat-dominated world. There's now a choice of crypto debit cards that will help you pay with BCH anywhere bank cards are accepted.