Here are some of the major developments from the world of crypto over the past few days.
Fidelity, a financial titan, has revised its application once more for an exchange-traded fund (ETF) that would track Ethereum (ETH). In a June 21 filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, Fidelity most recently revised its Form S-1 Registration Statement, which is required to register investments for public sale.
The SEC has approved a rule modification that would permit the listing and trading of eight spot Ether ETFs from prominent asset managers, including VanEck, BlackRock, Fidelity, Grayscale, Franklin Templeton, ARK 21Shares, Invesco Galaxy, and Bitwise. Before ETFs may begin trading, their S-1 forms must still be approved by the SEC.
Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas predicts that further asset managers will update their registrations on June 21. Bitwise also revised their plan for the SEC. When the ETF went live on June 19, the asset management mentioned that Pantera Capital may invest up to $100 million in it. Hashdex abandoned its intentions for Ether ETFs a few weeks prior to this submission.
Binance has announced the successful integration of Tether’s USDT token on The Open Network (TON). As per the official release from Binance, users may now deposit and withdraw $1.00 worth of Tether USDT on TON as of 21 June.
Binance users now have more alternatives for moving stablecoin liquidity to the TON blockchain owing to this integration. The goal of the change is to manage USDT transactions more affordably, expedite transactions, and reduce costs. Users should check the TON smart contract address and their token deposit addresses.
Binance’s USDT integration on TON comes before an expected regulatory shift in the European Economic Area (EEA). Under the Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA), unlicensed stablecoins, such as USDT, will face new limitations. Binance recommended users to keep informed to maintain compliance and avoid cryptocurrency disruptions.
The Blockchain Association has again objected to the Internal Revenue Service's (IRS) proposed broker-dealer regulations; this time citing the unreasonable burden the rules will place on investors, cryptocurrency firms, and the IRS itself. A DC blockchain group says the IRS broker rule breaches the Paperwork Reduction Act.
According to the estimates in the letter, the high compliance costs and labor difficulties are a far cry from earlier IRS forecasts that anticipated the new standards would take 0.15 hours per customer to execute, with a total compliance cost of $136,350,000. Blockchain Association deemed $245B in annual compliance costs excessive for a market with a $10B tax gap.
The Internal Revenue Service's proposed tax laws and reporting standards have sparked outrage in the cryptocurrency community, with many people and organizations expressing dissatisfaction with the out-of-date requirements. Jerry Brito of Coin Center highlighted the Blockchain Association's opposition about implementing reporting requirements on decentralized networks owing to practical challenges.