The Daily: The CFTC sends its crypto rulemaking to the White House, and more

The following article is adapted from The Block’s newsletter, The Daily, which comes out on weekday afternoons.

Happy Friday! Crypto markets are showing renewed appetite for upside despite hawkish central banks and the Clarity Act setback, with Block Scholes' Andrew Melville pointing to bullish options positioning and Wincent's Paul Howard seeing digital assets becoming less tied to macroeconomic data.

In today's newsletter, the CFTC files crypto asset rulemaking with the White House, Kevin O'Leary is buying crypto again, Bitcoin reclaims $80,000 as Solana and Hyperliquid rally, and more.

Meanwhile, Grayscale's Zcash ETF plans a 3-for-1 split after a $233 million inflow surge.

P.S. Don't forget to check out The Funding, a biweekly rundown of crypto VC trends. It's a great read — and just like The Daily, it's free to subscribe!

CFTC files crypto asset rulemaking with White House, pressing ahead without Congress

The CFTC sent its crypto rulemaking to the White House for review, filing "Regulation Crypto Asset Transactions and Regulation Crypto Asset Markets" with the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs.

• The agency declined to comment on details about the proposals, which now sit with OIRA, the body that reviews federal regulations before publication.
• The filing is the latest sign of federal agencies pressing ahead on their own after the Clarity Act failed its Senate procedural vote Tuesday.
• It caps a busy week for regulators, following the SEC's "innovation exemption" for tokenized stocks and the CFTC's own no-action stance for software developers.
• CFTC Chair Michael Selig had signaled the agency would use its existing authorities to build a crypto market-structure regime if Clarity stalled.
• Selig said in August the approach could let registrants and even non-registrant crypto exchanges be designated as a new type of "crypto asset market" offering leveraged trading under CFTC oversight.

Kevin O'Leary is buying crypto again, says major stock exchange adoption is the 'watershed moment' to watch

Kevin O'Leary said he's buying new crypto positions for the next cycle, telling The Block's Gareth Jenkinson at the Avalanche Summit he's "back in the saddle" placing bets on which blockchain wins wide adoption.

• O'Leary said the first major exchange to adopt a blockchain would be a "watershed moment" for the industry because the broader financial ecosystem would want that chain to comply with the exchange's requirements.
• On the Clarity Act's setback, he said he expects the crypto regulation to return to the agenda, though he doesn't see the bill passing before the midterms.
• O'Leary also sees bitcoin potentially making up 1% to 3% of alternative-asset allocations, likening it to institutional gold holdings.

Bitcoin reclaims $80,000, Solana and Hyperliquid rally as crypto markets shrug off Clarity setback

Bitcoin reclaimed $80,000 on Friday, jumping more than 5% after weeks stuck around $75,000-$78,000, as crypto markets shrugged off the Clarity Act's Senate defeat.

• Solana and Hyperliquid led the top 10 crypto assets by market cap, with roughly 10% gains each, and HYPE hit a record above $90 as it launched manual borrowing against HYPE and BTC collateral.
• The rally followed a wave of regulatory action, with the CFTC filing its crypto rulemaking, the SEC's new innovation exemption, and a House panel recently advancing a bitcoin-reserve bill.
• Pantera's Dan Morehead argued "the industry doesn't need Congress," saying the SEC and CFTC are enacting what Clarity would have done anyway.

Stablecoin payments firm dtcpay closes $25 million Series A with SBI Group investment

Singapore-based stablecoin payments firm dtcpay closed a $25 million extended Series A, with Japan's SBI Group joining as a strategic investor.

• SBI invested through both its SBI Ventures Asset unit and the SBI-NTU-Kyobo Digital Innovation Fund, adding to a round led earlier by Vertex Ventures Southeast Asia & India.
• The firm will use the capital to scale its product suite and merchant network, including a revamped enterprise portal and new consumer features in its app.
• Founded in 2019, dtcpay pitches faster, cheaper cross-border settlement than SWIFT and correspondent banking, and has launched a stablecoin point-of-sale service and a Visa card in Singapore.

Ava Labs president says NYSE spent a year testing Avalanche technology for tokenization plans

Ava Labs President Charley Cooper said the NYSE has spent the past year testing Avalanche technology and working out how it could fit into the exchange's systems.

• Cooper described a "close working relationship" but stopped short of saying the NYSE has chosen Avalanche, while parent company ICE's Michael Blaugrund said, "Avalanche checks a lot of those boxes."
• The NYSE, which unveiled its tokenized-securities platform in January and named tZERO as a design partner in August, has yet to name a blockchain for the system.

Looking ahead to next week

• U.S. mortgage data is out on Wednesday. U.S. jobless claims figures follow on Thursday.
• Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey speaks on Friday.
• Bubblemaps and Wormhole are among the crypto projects set for token unlocks.
• ETHTokyo, Freedom Tech DC, Digital Asset Summit Toronto, Solana Summit Canada, Midwest Bitcoin Summit, and BTCHEL all get underway.

Reader poll

Bitcoin jumped past $80K even after a Fed hike, a BoJ hike, and the Clarity Act failing. Real demand or just a relief rally?

REAL DEMAND

RELIEF RALLY

One click records your pick. We'll share the result in a later edition.

*66% of respondents in last Friday's poll correctly agreed that bitcoin would hold above $75,000 through the Clarity vote and Fed decision.

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