The weekly pen is Penning’s Pen Team (can you say it 4x in a row?) new series of the week that went by in the DeFi & crypto industry. While many things are happening, we’ll be bringing you the topmost read and trending headlines, mixed with some opinions and take on what it means. None of the writing should be taken as investment advice or legal opinions, but do read between the lines and appreciate some of the after-dinner remarks.
CREDIT SUISSE CRAZE AND CHAOS
During the 08’ global meltdown, The Lehmann Brothers became a household name overnight. It was a corporate saga of how too big to fail sometimes equals got too big and that’s why they had to fail was the beginning of a new narrative and normal. Somewhere in the dark, the blockchain and bitcoin were making its way into the global financial markets, a digital occupy wall street if you like. Fast forward to 2022 the chaos at Credit Suisse is triggering similar financial traumas. In anyone’s defense, the markets are seeing a massive correction with a looming recession on the horizon, but apart from a falling share price, credit Suisse presented shaky financials and repeated management revamp. In the last year alone, the bank’s valuation has fallen nearly 60 percent. While, at the time of writing, their market cap is approx. $10.8B it was well over $25B just a year ago. Why is that worrying? Because its peer banks including Goldman Sachs have reported profits. The Pen will leave you to be the judge of it all, but we strongly believe that much of it could’ve been avoided through direct transparency and an open platform. While Penning is solving that problem and building the solution you can read the full article here and be the judge yourself.
THE MiCa FRAMEWORK IS FINALLY MOVING FORWARD
As any new financial instrument introduced into the market it foregoes investor skepticism combined with curios capitalism, but most importantly it gets held in hands and feet by the regulators. Kind of like with derivatives (what Warren Buffet referred to as weapons of mass financial destruction and one of the key financial instruments in causing the 08’ global meltdown), there was little to no regulation, it was basically a free wild west market. So! As cryptocurrency and the entire Decentralized financial market were introduced as a new and much more innovative financial class in the global markets, there was for obvious reasons zero regulation. Over time, regulation did occur, but it was in many cases not in favor of enabling the growth of the industry, rather it was working against it. As over a decade has passed since the birth of crypto and blockchain technology, progressive regulation has been set in place, and now finally something is in stone. The MiCa (Markets in Crypto Assets) regulatory framework full text is finally released. You can read the full text right here. This framework sets forth guidelines to protect investors and their interests, and we at Penning couldn’t be happier. We believe in a free and open financial market, where profits are shared and capital protected and while the adaptation will take 12-18 months, Penning with our various financial authority registrations and future license acquisitions are well ahead of the curve.
SWIFT AND THE BLUEPRINT FOR CBDC
If you didn’t stop reading the news, when the world re-opened after the pandemic, you might’ve stumbled upon something called CBDC or Central Bank Digital Currencies. During 2021 the finance ministers of the G7 countries introduced policies and the possibility of digital currencies centrally designed and distributed by banks. While some DeFi community members bear levels of skepticism around the intentions, most members welcome the new financial innovation, due to its nature, technological adaptation, and advancement, but most importantly, its correlation and understanding of the already existing decentralized financial markets and the future opportunities it brings. While the CBDC as with the MiCa, will also take its time to adapt fully to the world’s financial system, SWIFT recently set its blueprint for the CBDC network. The blueprint is a framework of an 8-month-long experiment of the CBDC using different technologies and currencies. Read the full article here and be the “judge” of what it means for the decentralized financial system, cryptocurrencies, and the future of blockchain technology in general.
CELEBS GONE ROGUE
From the article’s headline, you might be thinking whether we are referring to Elon Musk’s next hype coin scheme (ref: dogecoin) but we’re not. We are also not going to talk about his almost arm-twisted acquisition of Twitter. What we are referring to is twitter’s founder Jack Dorsey’s boss Evan Henshaw. Okay, that might be a bit of a stretch but hang tight, there’s a correlation. Evan Henshaw, who was a long critic of Twitter is building a social media platform completely decentralized and free from centralized power and censoring. Will Elon Musk deploy Twitter there (there’s the correlation) and tweet all he wants without being able to delete it? Will Donald Trump fund the venture for his case to fight fake news and controlled censorship? Read it here and think for yourself.
And finally, Kim Kardashian. The most trending news in the space and around the world. What did she do wrong that Elon Musk didn’t already do himself? She promoted a crypto company, which was already not regulated by the SEC, but they still managed to fine her $250,000 (probably didn’t make a dent) for something they believe violated marketing tactics and consumer confidence. Elon Musk, censorship, hype, decentralized SoMe platforms, Kim K…you see? Have a great weekend and see you next week!