PLUS: Sam Altman Extends Visa Wallet

March 24, 2025

The biggest crypto news and ideas of the day 

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Welcome to The Node! This is Ben Schiller to take you through the latest crypto news. 

 

In today's news from CoinDesk reporters:
World Liberty Financial-Labeled Tokens Spark Speculation of Trump-Backed Project's Stablecoin Launch
Sam Altman’s World Network in Talks With Visa for Stablecoin Payments Wallet: Source
Trump Media Wants to Partner with Crypto.Com for ETP Issuance

Crypto ETFs Gaining Massive Popularity Among U.S. Advisors as 'Reputational' Risk Gone

 

Opinion: The SEC Crypto Roundtable was a missed opportunity, focused on long-standing debates rather than solutions for the future, says Renato Mariotti.👇

 

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WLFI Tests USD Stablecoin 

  • World Liberty Financial (WLFI), a DeFi platform backed by U.S. President Donald Trump, is speculated to be testing a dollar stablecoin on the Ethereum and BNB Chain networks.
  • The token labeled as USD1 has seen a flurry of activity, including transfers linked to digital asset trading firm Wintermute and crypto custodian BitGo, and has a supply of around 3.5 million on both networks.
  • WLFI stated that USD1 is not currently available for trading and has warned users to beware of scams.
 

Sam Altman Pushes World Wallet With Visa

  • Tools for Humanity, the company that oversees Worldcoin and World Network, sent out a request for product form to card issuers, which was seen by CoinDesk.
  • Earlier this month, World Network announced a World Chat application and the ability to send money in the form of crypto-based transactions between users on the network.
 

Trump Media Partnering with Crypto.com

  • Trump Media is partnering with Crypto.com to launch ETPs and ETFs.
  • The investment vehicles, backed by backend technology and custody solutions from Crypto.com, are set to launch in 2025.
  • This partnership is the latest in a series of crypto initiatives backed by Trump and his family.
 

Crypto ETFs Gaining With Advisors

  • Germany's financial regulator, BaFin, said that the deficiencies are related to the bank's business organization and violations of MiCA requirements.
  • Ethena said it will seek alternative regulatory frameworks.
  • ENA, the protocol's governance token, is down by 6.5% in the past 24 hours.
 

Opinion: Roundtable Was Missed Opportunity

By Renato Mariotti, partner at Paul Hastings 

While Friday’s SEC Crypto Task Force Roundtable was a refreshing change from the prior administration’s “regulation by enforcement” approach, it focused on yesterday’s problems instead of proposals that could shape the regulatory framework that will govern crypto going forward.

Since 1946, the question of whether a product is a “security” or “commodity” has been governed by the Supreme Court’s decision in SEC v. W.J. Howey Co. Courts have struggled to uniformly apply the “Howey” test to digital assets, which should not be surprising because it’s a decades-old decision about citrus groves.

 

Digital assets do not cleanly fit into either the “security” or “commodity” bucket. They are something entirely new. But the distinction between securities and commodities matters under the law because the SEC regulates securities and the CFTC regulates products that include commodities.

 

Congress is considering new legislation that resembles last year’s FIT21 bill. That legislation will move past the outmoded Howey test and sharply define how particular digital assets are classified.

Friday’s roundtable, which included a dozen or so prominent crypto lawyers alongside members of the SEC’s crypto taskforce, should have served as a jumping off point for ideas and proposals that the SEC could use as input to legislators considering the new legislative framework for crypto. But, instead, much of the discussion focused on years-old debates about the four-party Howey Test, and philosophical discussions about the nature of securities.

To be sure, some participants in the roundtable – like a16z General Counsel Miles Jennings – made important proposals, such as Jennings’ call to focus on the economic reality rather than the legal relationship between the issuer and the investor. But much of the panel’s time was spent debating everything from Bitcoin’s use in ransomware attacks to the SEC’s recent staff guidance regarding meme coins.

Given the SEC and CFTC will likely share regulatory authority over digital assets in any new legislation, the line between the two regulators is very important to the crypto industry. The goal should be the creation of clear rules that issuers can follow to ensure compliance regardless of whether their token is deemed to be a “security” or a “commodity.”


While I applaud Commissioner Hester Peirce’s creation of the roundtable, along with her characteristic openness and transparency, Friday’s roundtable was a missed opportunity. She should have invited CFTC Acting Chairman Caroline Pham and her team to participate, or at least to attend. The CFTC was not mentioned once during the roundtable, and the crypto industry needs the SEC and CFTC to work together seamlessly in the years to come.

 

Congress is moving forward with its own answer to the question of when digital assets are securities, whether or not the SEC decides to provide Congress with any input. For the sake of the crypto industry, I hope that Commissioner Peirce’s next roundtable is focused on fostering ideas that will inform the legislation that will shape the industry for years to come.

 
Read in full here.

 

Links, Links, Links

 

Donald Trump’s crypto business launched a dollar coin called USD1: What we know so far – Fortune

Brad Garlinghouse Discusses Ripple’s Future, Crypto Legislation & Blockchain Technology As Lawsuit Ends – CoinGape

Toulouse City Pioneers Crypto-Powered Public Transport in Europe – Bitcoin.com

 

All Relative

 

 

 
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