Weekly Outlook: Market Dynamics Challenge Regulator

While the entrepreneurial structure of the US is constantly advancing cryptocurrency integration, we have been following for a long time that the SEC has not been able to keep up with this as a regulator. However, when private sector demand and lobby pressure are combined, the SEC has little to do. We saw the best example of this in the Bitcoin ETF issue, and now we are starting to see it in the SAB-121 regulation, which implicitly prevents banks from storing cryptocurrency.

Due to this law, Coinbase almost completely dominated the custody role, especially in Bitcoin and Ether ETF products. Banks being left out naturally caused them to miss out on a serious income potential. For this reason, although a vote was held to repeal SAB-121, this was directly blocked by Biden’s veto. The fact that cryptocurrencies also played a role in the banking crisis recently was the main reason for the veto. Despite this, we saw the SEC start to grant SAB-121 privileges by making exceptions to some companies.

The SEC’s easing in this area has not been without a bit of a scandal. Because such an application has caused discomfort in the sector and Congress that the regulations are not applied equally to every company. The SEC also says that it has set certain criteria in this area and that if the criteria are met, it can grant privileges to everyone. Among the criteria are technical requirements such as providing custody services only to institutions, providing a guarantee that cryptocurrencies will be delivered to customers even if the bank goes bankrupt, brokers not interacting with cryptocurrencies in any way, and cryptocurrency control being completely in the hands of customers.

We have learned that privileges have been applied to 3 banks so far. It turned out that one of them was BNY Melon. BNY Melon is one of the oldest banks in the US and had already made an attempt at cryptocurrency storage long ago. Therefore, it is not surprising that it easily complies with the criteria. Considering that the SEC cannot regulate every company according to its neck, so to speak, it is very likely that the SAB-121 obstacle will be lifted in the near future, just like the Bitcoin ETF. No matter how much the regulator wants to take things slowly and firmly, it is forced to accelerate when it comes to market dynamics.

Again, to give different examples from last week, we learned that UK-based fintech giant Revolut is planning to launch stablecoins. We will probably see something like Paypal’s PYUSD product.

Commerzbank and DZ Bank, two of Germany’s largest banks, will begin offering cryptocurrency trading services.

Last week, Bitcoin transfers from wallets dating back to 2009 sparked discussions about whether Satoshi was alive or dead. This possibility makes sense, as the number of people who knew and used Bitcoin at the time was probably limited to a few people other than Satoshi. However, it is still too early to make such a judgment. The wallet information may have somehow fallen into the hands of someone else, or we may be talking about the wallet of another person whose name we have not heard of.

The reason why Bitcoin has survived every polemic and crisis for years is not only due to its technical features. In order for such a technology to create a global sense of belonging, Satoshi needs to remain anonymous. Otherwise, what Satoshi says, his personal life, his views and his preferences can easily cause the perception of Bitcoin to be distorted, as they will directly affect Bitcoin’s brand. So, although I, like everyone else, wonder who Satoshi is, I hope he remains anonymous.

Solana introduced its new phone, Seeker. Leaving aside features such as advanced cameras and batteries, each phone will contain a soulbound token in the cryptocurrency wallet. In this way, both the rewards to be sent to phone owners will be made directly with the identification created by these tokens, and the possibility of errors when platforms interact with phone owners will be minimized.

It has been a common goal for technology companies for years to do what Apple did with the App Store. We have seen directly from Zuckerberg’s correspondence that he wanted to establish a similar infrastructure in VR glasses. Solana has made significant progress in this regard. The app store made specifically for cryptocurrency applications on the phone is completely free. As everyone agrees, communicating with applications and maintaining this communication uninterruptedly throughout the day is only possible with a mobile infrastructure. Therefore, the crypto-focused app market should be seen as a serious development in terms of using applications on Solana and making them a part of daily life. Such initiatives are quite valuable in taking the integration of cryptocurrencies beyond just paying with crypto when buying coffee.

Solana’s success in creating a crypto-specific App Store will also increase external demand. We may see the phone gain a cross-chain structure in the future. In this way, it will be possible to gain an advantage in competition by eliminating the need for rival phone initiatives. In such an infrastructure, for example, a 30% commission can be taken from applications on other networks, just like Apple, while a 0% commission can be taken from Solana applications. If the income obtained is given as an incentive to Solana applications, it is possible to achieve serious momentum.

Developments that bring new energy and movement to projects, such as restructuring or name changes, have become more common in the run-up to the bull market. The biggest example of this is MakerDAO’s transformation into the Sky brand, which has officially begun. Now, there is talk of Sky expanding into the Solana network.

A proposal was also made that Optimism would transfer complete control of the project to the DAO in 3 stages. Accordingly, in the first stage, control of existing resources will be transferred to the DAO, and in the first quarter of 2025, resources in other networks will also be transferred to the DAO. Finally, in the third quarter of 2025, control of the entire platform will be transferred to the DAO.

In terms of integration, the Telegram-Curve collaboration is noteworthy. It is said that Telegram aims to reduce price volatility and provide a user-friendly experience by utilizing the Curve infrastructure for stablecoin exchange. With this agreement, Curve CEO Egorov also joined Telegram as a consultant.

Finally, MOTHER, one of the most popular memecoins recently released by celebrities, is becoming a casino token. In order to give the token, which Iggy Azalea is behind, a casino infrastructure is aimed to be established and integrated into it.