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London Times

Cryptocurrency

First Mover Asia: Bitcoin Slides; Mixed Crypto Legacy in Hong Kong for the FCA’s Incoming CEO

First Mover Asia: Bitcoin Slides; Mixed Crypto Legacy in Hong Kong for the FCA’s Incoming CEO

By Sam Reynolds, Bradley Keoun, Greg Ahlstrand

Bitcoin slides for third day, heads back down toward $20K.

Prices: Bitcoin (BTC) slides for a third day, once again threatening to fall below the crucial $20K mark.

Insights: Ashley Alder’s mixed crypto legacy in Hong Kong does not bode well for the industry in the U.K.

Prices

Bitcoin (BTC): $20,824, -3.5%

Ether (ETH): $1,165, -4.2%

Biggest Gainers

Asset Ticker Returns DACS Sector
Terra LUNA +0.2% Smart Contract Platform

Biggest Losers

Asset Ticker Returns DACS Sector
Polkadot DOT −6.1% Smart Contract Platform
XRP XRP −5.7% Currency
Chainlink LINK −5.4% Computing

The week ahead: U.S. inflation report due; economists assess impact of Abe assassination

Crypto markets weakened over the weekend, with bitcoin sliding for a third straight day and falling back toward $20,000 as of press time on Sunday.

Some analysts are now pinning $17,000 as a key market support level.

“We continue to expect choppy price action,” said Joe DiPasquale, CEO of BitBull Capital, in an email. “More strong bidding around the $17K level, if bitcoin falls there again, will be a strong signal for the bulls and may indicate the formation of a potential bottom around that price.”

Traders this week will be watching for the latest U.S. consumer price index reading, expected Wednesday. The report could influence market expectations over the Federal Reserve’s next move, at a meeting later this month; as of the last reading, inflation was at its fastest in four decades.

One point of consideration: This past Friday’s report on U.S. jobs growth in June has alleviated some concerns that the country is already in a recession; that should make it easier for the Federal Reserve to proceed with interest-rate increases of 75 basis points (0.75 percentage point), or three times as fast as in past rate-hiking cycles.

As CoinDesk’s George Kaloudis wrote Sunday in his Crypto Long & Short column: “A 75 basis point increase to interest rates in July is basically a foregone conclusion at this point.”

And Oanda Senior Market Analyst Ed Moya wrote last week: “If inflation delivers another upside surprise, the September meeting could see expectations fully priced in a half-point rate increase but that could easily go up to 75 basis-points.”

Bank of Japan watchers are assessing what the assassination of former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe might imply for the nation’s monetary policy, according to Bloomberg. Abe had been a strong advocate for ultra-easy financial conditions in the face of the country’s economic stagnation.

Markets

*Friday July, 8:

S&P 500: 3,899 -0.8%

DJIA: 31,338 -0.1%

Nasdaq: 11,365 -0.1%

Gold: $1,741 -1.3%

Insights

Ashley Alder’s Mixed Crypto Legacy in Hong Kong

By Sam Reynolds

The U.K’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), the nation’s financial watchdog, announced Friday that Ashley Alder, the CEO of Hong Kong’s Securities and Futures Commission, will assume the post of chair in January 2023.

While Adler has a long list of accomplishments regulating Hong Kong’s traditional finance securities market, his curriculum vitae isn’t as stellar when dealing with crypto.

Certainly part of that is out of his control. As CoinDesk previously reported, the “long shadow” of China hangs over Hong Kong. China’s prohibition on crypto trading and Beijing’s fast erosion of Hong Kong’s separate and autonomous legal system has chilled interest in the industry, and forced what interest there is into the narrow licensing regime that does exist.

Hong Kong’s recently passed licensing regime for exchanges, which is overseen by Adler’s SFC, excludes non-accredited investors from trading on these exchanges (called Virtual Asset Service Providers, or VASPs, per local terminology). For as much criticism as the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s Gary Gensler gets, this is never something that the SEC has considered.

Secondly, any exchange that serves Hong Kong, even if located abroad, would need to comply with these same licensing requirements.

Treated as a Security

Perhaps the bigger issue with the SFC’s treatment of crypto is the regulator treats it as a security. This is especially going against the grain when global regulatory trends have backed away from treating all crypto as securities and are only looking for specific instances instead.

The SFC’s bill requires exchanges to hold a “Type 1” license, which is used for dealing in securities.

Hex Trust’s Alessio Quaglini has complained before that requiring this sort of license is akin to forcing a square peg into a round hole because of the uniqueness of the digital assets industry. Hex has been awarded licenses in both Singapore and Dubai with the intent to open more offices abroad.

So while Alder’s TradFi regime saw Hong Kong lauded as one of the world’s freest economies by libertarian-leaning think tanks, that same assessment can’t be made for the future of finance. FTX voted with its feet and left the city, and only one firm, OSL, has bothered to get the license.

It’s not yet known who will replace Alder, but it’s unlikely to be someone who wants to take a balanced and fair approach to crypto.

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