Vote Transparency: Regulators adopted a new rule that changes how fund managers report their votes on potentially controversial proxy questions ranging from executive pay to corporate environmental policy. The rules are meant to allow investors to better understand how their funds and managers are voting on their shares. The rule will apply to proxy votes occurring on or after July 1, 2023.

Hong Kong Crypto: As Hong Kong’s rivalry with Singapore for the top regional financial hub intensifies, the region’s regulators are taking steps towards legalizing retail trading of crypto assets. Hong Kong’s regulators are also exploring the listing of crypto exchange traded funds.

Ripple vs SEC: Crypto exchange Coinbase has petitioned a federal court for permission to file an amicus brief to support Ripple in their case against the SEC. Coinbase joins the Blockchain Association, crypto payments app SpendTheBits, and lawyer John Deaton in hoping to bolster Ripple’s case against the SEC.

The OCC: The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), the oldest national bank regulator in the US, is set to establish a new unit to regulate financial technology firms. The OCC will create an Office of Financial Technology to provide strategic leadership, vision, and perspective for the organization’s financial technology activities. The new office will absorb an existing Office for Innovation.

Blockchain Trades: JPMorgan Chase & Co executed its first live trade on a public blockchain, marking a large step toward cryptocurrency integration. The trade was part of Singapore’s central bank’s pilot programs exploring the use of DeFi in the banking sector. JP Morgan issued tokenized S$100,000 ($71,000) as then traded it for tokenized yen with Japan’s SBI Digital Asset Holdings.

Crypto Interest: According to a new poll by the crypto asset management firm Grayscale, fears over inflation and the economy has driven a growing interest in crypto for 25% of voters. Economic woes were even more likely to pique an interest in cryptocurrencies for young voters. Around 40% of voters under the age of 45 reported being more interested in crypto in the current economic climate, compared to only 15% of those 45 or older.

Electronic Trading: B2C2, the world’s largest crypto liquidity provider and institutional digital asset pioneer, is now live with electronic options trading for the over-the-counter crypto market. B2C2 has offered ‘voice via chat’ OTC options trading since October 2021.

Short-Selling: The stock-market is changing pace, and retail traders are changing up their trading strategies in response. The common retail long-only strategy may be reversing as more and more retail traders take up short-selling.  According to the report published by Capital.com, shorting strategies have been popular among retail traders in Q2 and Q3 of this year.

Climate Catastrophe: According to a former SEC official, the SEC’s climate disclosure plan would bring “outrageously” complicated, expensive, and hard rules for companies to follow. The SEC’s new plan would require companies to consistently report their greenhouse gas emissions among other climate change related disclosures. The climate reporting rules are expected to be finalized early next year.

Crypto Crackdown: A new poll indicates that voters want lawmakers to crack down on crypto regulation. The poll, conducted by the Crypto Council for Innovation, revealed that 52% of voters want the industry to be more regulated, 7% think the industry should be less regulated, and 41% of respondents had no strong opinion.

Reclaiming Losses: According to data compiled by JPMorgan Chase, personal portfolios in the US fell 44% between early January and October 18. Many retail investors are turning away from individual stocks in favor of funds that track the biggest high-tech companies on the Nasdaq in the hope of reclaiming losses.

The Clawback Rule: On Wednesday, the U.S. SEC voted 3-2 to implement the clawback rule. The rule states that regulators will require public companies to take back executives’ incentive pay if significant errors are found in financial statements. The rule was required by the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act to discourage fraud and accounting mischief, but implementation has been delayed for years.

Female CMOs: According to new research from The Fletcher Group, although women continue to be underrepresented in financial services, technology, and the C-suite in general, women CMOs are building some of the biggest brands in fintech through brand awareness and reputation building.

ESG Skeptics: Many retail investors are skeptical of ESG, and believe that sustainable investing is politically motivated. Around 50% of US financial advisers say those views are now a major impediment in how receptive their clients are to ESG. Asset managers experienced a similar level of pushback from clients, with 23% calling it a major challenge and 52% saying it is a moderate problem.

Fast-and-Furious Regulation: SEC Chair Gary Gensler’s aggressive regulation strategy has businesses, agency officials, and senators worried about the damage it may cause to the economy. According to The Wall Street Journal, the number of rulemakings on the SEC agenda increased by nearly two-thirds between spring 2017 and 2022.

Crypto Scams: According to a report from software firm Solidus Labs,  a crypto scam occurs approximately every four minutes. Using data going back to 2020, the report found more than 188,000 scams based on “smart contracts,” the pieces of software that serve as the building blocks of DeFi. Solidus Labs estimates that at least $910 million worth of funds stolen in DeFi scams have been laundered through crypto exchanges.

Interdealer Trading: Cboe Global Markets is gearing up to launch its ‘dark pool’ style interdealer trading venue for US Treasuries, Cboe Fixed Income. The cash fixed income offering pairs dealers willing to anonymously transact at high volume with minimal information leakage. Cboe expects the first trades to be completed by the end of 2022.

New Volatility Index: S&P Dow Jones Indices and Cboe Labs have designed a new volatility-related index to provide representation of implied dispersion for the S&P 500 Index. The index aims to help market participants better understand portfolio diversification benefits and implement dispersion trading strategies.

24/7 Stock Trading: A group of retail brokerages and exchange operators, including Robinhood Markets and Cboe, announced that around-the-clock trading, a feature of cryptocurrency markets, is likely coming to U.S. equities within five years.

Tight Deadlines: SEC staff have expressed concerns that the commission’s fast-paced rule-making agenda has stretched staff resources too far, citing concerns about short deadlines to draft proposed rules and for public stakeholders to submit comments on them. Some officials also worry these tight deadlines may increase risk for lawsuits.

Comment Glitch: Following the glitch on the SEC’s website for comment, members of the House Republicans have demand additional details. Members expressed concern that comments for the SEC’s July proxy advice rules and other rulemakings may have been affected.

Crypto Donors: As the US midterms approach, crypto donors are pouring money into the elections. Crypto-affiliated donors have donated about $70 million to political causes over the past 15 months.

FASB Ruling: The FASB has ruled that tokens like Bitcoin and Ethereum should be measured at fair market valueas that reflects the underlying economics of those transactions. “We’ve heard from investors that they want transparency through disclosure and the only way to get to that is through fair value,” said FASB member Gary Buesser.

Potential Lawsuit: Coinbase has hinted that it may sue the 1,000 users in the republic of Georgia that took advantage of a pricing glitch. Last August, local Georgian currency was priced at $290 rather than $2.90 for about six hours on Coinbase. According to Coinbase, the glitch was the fault of a “third party.”

Crypto Source: Mastercard’s new product, Crypto Source, will allow consumers to buy and sell digital assetsthrough their bank accounts, potentially paving the way for thousands of finance firms to offer crypto trading. The pilot program will start early next year in the US, Israel, and Brazil.

Exchange Collaboration: The NYSE and The Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) have signed a memorandum of understanding to collaborate on the dual listing of companies on both exchanges. The exchanges have also agreed to jointly explore the development of new products and share knowledge around ESG, ETFs and, digital assets.

Extended Comment Periods: The SEC reopened the comment periods for 11 proposals and a request for comment because of a glitch on the commission’s website for comment form. There will be a 14-day re-opening that will start when the reopening release is published in the Federal Register, which could take a few days to several weeks.

Electronic Recordkeeping: The SEC voted to adopt amendments to modernize how broker-dealers preserve electronic records and enhance the electronic recordkeeping requirements for security-based swap entities. These amendments are in response to technological changes made in the past 20 years and make the rule adaptable to new technologies.

FSB Recommendations: The Financial Stability Board (FSB), which coordinates financial rulemaking among the Group of 20 Economies (G20), made nine recommendations for crypto companies. The FSB recommends having plans in place for shutting down firms in trouble and setting aside capital like banks when undertaking similar activities. The board plans to submit a framework for oversight “to promote the consistency and comprehensiveness of regulatory, supervisory and oversight approaches to crypto-asset activities and markets.”

Crypto Payments: Google has partnered with Coinbase and will start accepting crypto payments for cloud services starting next year. Crypto payments will initially be rolled out to a handful of customers involved in the Web3 industry. Google will also use Coinbase Prime.

BNY Mellon Crypto: Bank of New York Mellon Corp. will begin receiving clients’ cryptocurrencies this week, becoming the first large U.S. bank to safeguard digital assets alongside traditional investments on the same platform. The bank will store the keys required to access and transfer those assets and provide the same bookkeeping services for digital currencies that it offers to fund managers for stocks, bonds, commodities, and other assets.

Crypto Complaints: According to analysis from Dynamic Securities Analytics Inc., the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau received 2,734 confirmed crypto-related consumer complaints against digital-asset-centric companies between Jan. 1, 2020, and Aug. 26, 2022, ranging from fraud and scams to an inability to withdraw funds. Firms involved the complaints include both crypto-native companies and traditional financial institutions. This upward trend could drive additional regulatory scrutiny of crypto.

Futures Commission Merchant: Chicago Exchange CME submitted paperwork to register a futures commission merchant. If approved and CME gets into the brokerage business, investors could bypass existing brokers and connect to the exchange operator directly for futures trade.

Crypto Comfort: According to a Bankrate survey, Americans, and millennials particularly, are less comfortable investing in crypto this year than they were last year. In 2022, only about 30% of millennials feel comfortable investing in cryptocurrency, down from about 50% in 2021.

Crypto Report: The Financial Stability Oversight Council, chaired by Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, released a report highlighting several vulnerabilities in the crypto market. The report is the council’s first major report on cryptocurrencies, and comes at a time when concerns about vulnerabilities in the crypto markers have been particularly pronounced.

Celebrity Promotion: The SEC charged Kim Kardashian for promoting an EthereumMax crypto asset security on social media without disclosing the payment she received for the promotion. Kardashian will pay $1.26 million to settle the charges and is barred from promoting crypto for three years. The case serves as a reminder to public figures that the law requires them to disclose when and how much they are paid to promote investing in securities.

Crypto Secure: On Tuesday, Mastercard will debut “Crypto Secure” – a new piece of software that helps banks identify and cut off transactions from fraud-prone crypto exchanges. It will use AI algorithms to determine the risk of crime associated with crypto exchanges on the Mastercard payment network.

WhatsApp Probe: The SEC charged 15 broker-dealers and one affiliated investment adviser with widespread recordkeeping failures. Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, Bank of America, and Morgan Stanley were among firms that agreed to pay regulators $1.1 billion in penalties for failing to monitor employees using unauthorized messaging apps.

Robinhood Wallet: Robinhood has launched its web3 wallet beta to 10,000 iOS customers who joined the waitlist in May. The app will support Polygon as its first blockchain network, giving customers control of their crypto and access to the decentralized web, and will allow them to trade and swap crypto with no network fees.

Nasdaq Division: Nasdaq is reorganizing its business into three divisions to focus on major growth areas as competition among trading exchanges intensifies. It will operate through a market platforms division, a capital access platforms unit, and an antifinancial crime division. The market platforms unit will be the central division and will include both North American and European market services, as well as market infrastructure technology, carbon markets, and digital assets.

Bitcoin Mining: According to research by Cambridge University, Bitcoin made little improvement in its usage of sustainable energy this year. Fossil fuels made up about 62% of Bitcoin’s energy mix in January 2022, versus 65% a year earlier.

Crypto Auction: Crypto exchange FTX won an auction for the assets of Voyager Digital Ltd. with a purchase price of about $50 million. This deal follows Voyager’s bankruptcy filing in July.

Stock Trade Pricing: According to a recent study, not all brokerages are created equal. The study found that stock trading price varies widely among popular brokers, and that payment for order flow had little impact on execution quality.

Politician Crypto Scorecard: Politicians are getting a crypto scorecard. Coinbase is building a politician scorecard into its phone app as part of the company’s crypto policy advocacy efforts. Politicians will be graded based on their past statements regarding crypto policy.

New NYSE Member: UP Fintech Holding Limited’s subsidiary TradeUP Securities, Inc. is the latest member of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), making it one of the first fintech brokers to obtain this status. Now, UP Fintech can offer investors direct access to rapid and efficient electronic executions on NYSE.

Algorithmic (Crypto) Trading: Crypto trading meets algo trading with HAL, the algorithmic trading platform for crypto traders. CoinShares, Europe’s largest and longest-standing full-service digital asset investment and trading group, recently launched HAL to simplify crypto trading by offering users access to trading algorithms designed by CoinShares’ quants.

Ripple vs SEC: In a motion filed last weekend, cryptocurrency firm Ripple Labs claimed that the SEC acted outside its legal limits in a 2020 suit accusing Ripple and its top executives of misleading XRP investors. Ripple claims that the SEC’s “position would effectively convert the sale of all types of ordinary assets – diamonds, gold, soybeans, cars, and even works of art – into sales of securities.”

Digital Asset Enforcement: Last Friday, the Biden administration called for U.S. government agencies to double down on digital asset sector enforcement and identify gaps in cryptocurrency regulation. The Treasury Department will also lead a group of government agencies that will consider adopting a central bank digital currency.

The Merge: On Wednesday, following years of delays, cryptocurrency platform Ethereum completed a software upgrade known as the Merge. This update will drastically reduce Ethereum’s energy usage, making it much more environmentally friendly than Bitcoin, setting the stage for a more eco-friendly era of crypto.

Crypto Exchange: Digital Asset Exchange EDX Markets has launched with backing from leading broker-dealers, including Charles Schwab, Citadel, and Fidelity. The new exchange will leverage MEMX’s trading technology to support secure, fast, and efficient cryptocurrency trading for U.S. retail and institutional investors.

Crypto Office: The SEC announced that it is setting up a new office to deal with filings related to crypto assets. The “Office of Crypto Assets” comes as a result of recent growth in the crypto industry and will join seven existing offices under the SEC department that handles corporate disclosure filings.

Crypto’s Environmental Report: The White House’s Office for Science and Technology Policy released an environmental report on bitcoin mining. It detailed the pros and cons of the industry’s impact on the environment and energy grids and called for more research so that federal agencies can come up with standards to minimize harm.

Crypto Gambling: Streaming platform Twitch, known more traditionally for gaming, is stepping into the online gambling arena, with crypto gambling. While video games are still the platform’s biggest category of live streams, Crypto gambling has quickly entered the site’s top 10.

GameStop FTX Partnership: On Wednesday, GameStop announced a partnership with crypto exchange FTX US to increase its presence in the space. The video game retailer will start selling FTX gift cards at some of its stores as part of the partnership. This announcement follows the Gamestop digital wallet launch earlier this year.

Crypto Registration: On Thursday, the SEC announced that companies that help facilitate transactions in the crypto market should now register with the U.S. SEC just like other market intermediaries. Chairman Gensler noted that intermediaries in the crypto market provide a range of functions regulated by the SEC, including operating as an exchange, broker dealer, clearing agent, and custodian – and should be registered accordingly.

SEC Filing Fee: This month, the SEC must decide on a new filing fee under its market data modernization efforts. It’s been about 2.5 years since the SEC proposed ideas for a better system for US market data distribution.

Nexo Pro: On Wednesday, crypto platform Nexo launched Nexo Pro, the first global trading platform to offer retail clients access to institutional-grade aggregated liquidity, with no minimum funding requirements and at near zero cost.

Fee-Free Trading: In the run-up to and aftermath of Ethereum’s merge upgrade, Bitcoin and Binance are expanding fee-free trading to include Ethereum. Binance’s move may represent the beginning of a fee-free trading wave among the large centralized crypto exchanges.

Retail Traders Waning: Apart from meme stocks, retail traders’ impact on the broad market is declining and their ability to move markets is being offset by bearish institutional investors taking cues from the Federal Reserve. Retail trading made up 17.5% of the overall volumes in the second quarter of 2022, down from a peak of 24% in the first quarter of 2021.