"Gary Gensler’s Bad Performance Review"

Gary Gensler’s Bad Performance Review

Businesses have been warning that Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Gary Gensler’s fast-and-furious regulation could cause damage across the economy. Now agency officials and Democratic Senators are raising alarms too.

The SEC Office of Inspector General this month issued a withering review of Mr. Gensler’s leadership that would probably get a CEO of a public company sacked. Agency division managers told the IG that his move-fast-and-break-things agenda is overwhelming staff and taking resources from investor protection.

Debunking the narratives about cryptocurrency and financial inclusion

Before embracing cryptocurrencies or overstating their potential, policymakers should first clarify the problems they are trying to solve, and more importantly, why they are trying to solve them. When it comes to crypto and financial inclusion, there are fluctuating and contested terms and narratives. Thus, it may be difficult to discern what groups, problems, or pain points we are striving to address.

When examined closely, crypto’s current capabilities do not match the needs of the groups it purports to serve, and it carries a host of risks and drawbacks that undermine its benefits. More alarming, we can observe parallels between crypto and other predatory products, which highlights crypto’s potential to exacerbate unequal financial services to historically excluded groups.

Removing Sanctions on Crypto Mixer Tornado Cash Won’t Be Easy

Cryptocurrency firms including Coinbase Global Inc. and advocacy groups likely face a long journey—and long odds—to win their lawsuits aiming to remove crypto mixer Tornado Cash from the U.S. Treasury Department’s sanctions list, where it landed due to money-laundering allegations.

Efforts to be removed from the Treasury’s sanctions list can be costly and time-consuming, and they often fail, sanctions lawyers said. While crypto advocates and companies contend that Tornado Cash’s sanctions infringe on personal rights to privacy—an important issue for the nascent industry—crypto experts said Tornado Cash might not be the best test case for that argument.

Delaware Court Holds D&O Insurance Covers Fraudulent Transfer Claim Settlement

In the latest development a long-running D&O insurance coverage dispute, a Delaware Court has held that Verizon’s D&O insurance program covers the company’s $95 million settlement of a bankruptcy Trustee’s fraudulent transfer claim. In reaching this conclusion, the Court held, among other things, that the fraudulent transfer claim was a “Securities Claim” within the meaning of Verizon’s primary D&O insurance policy. The specifics of the court’s analysis of this issue underscores how complicated the question of what constitutes a “Securities Claim” can be. A copy of Delaware Superior Court Judge Eric Davis’s October 20, 2022 opinion can be found here.

Corporate Boards Are Getting Younger Thanks to Retiring Boomers

The Great Resignation. The Big Quit. The Great Reshuffle. Call it what you want, but a spate of early retirements brought on by the pandemic helped make corporate boards younger.

According to Bloomberg ESG data, the average age of board members at Russell 1000 companies dropped to 61.8 years through Oct. 2022, down from a high of 62.5 years in 2019. The average age of US board members has now decreased for three straight years, reversing a decades-old trend that saw corporate boards consistently growing older.

Coinbase Says Reddit’s Success Highlights the Potential for NFTs

Reddit non-fungible tokens (NFT) have dominated conversation in cryptocurrency markets this week after they generated $2.5 million in daily trade volume and prompted 3 million people to sign up for NFT wallets on the social media platform, Coinbase (COIN) said in a report Wednesday.

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“Facebook, Instagram and Twitter all have NFT integrations, but those initiatives focus on ‘showing off’ NFTs purchased from marketplaces and adding your favorite as a profile picture,” however, Reddit’s NFT marketplace makes it a direct participant, the report said.

Reddit’s strategy also focuses more on its community as it gives extra features to NFT owners and supports creators, the note said. It is airdropping – or giving away – NFTs to the more active users on the platform.

Crypto Dominates the Worst ETF Debuts: FT

Cryptocurrency exchange-traded funds (ETFs) account for five for the worst seven debuts in ETF history, according to Morningstar Direct data, the Financial Times reported on Friday.

The five funds were all linked to the performance of crypto or blockchain. The worst performer was France-based Melanion BTC Equities Universe fund, which invests in companies such as bitcoin miners Marathon Digital Holdings (MARA) and Riot Blockchain (RIOT). The fund, which launched October 2021, has seen its value slide 76.9% in the past 12 months.

Many ETFs started during the heady days of the last crypto bull market, enjoying an initial boom at the end of 2021 before crashing as valuations tanked this year.