Weekly Roundup

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.

In the Mix: This Week’s Top FinTech Thought Leader

  • Alex Mashinsky, Celsius founder, is resigning from his position of CEO. Chris Ferraro, Celsius’s CFO, will serve as Mashinsky’s interim replacement.

  • Stuart Alderoty, general counsel at Ripple Labs, feels confident that the legal battle between the SEC and Ripple could end soon. “It really is a technical issue and we believe it’s an issue that can be resolved as a matter of law by the judge,” said Alderoty.

  • Rostin Behnam, CFTC Chairman, said that CFTC-led regulation could have significant benefits for the crypto industry. He’s previously expressed support for a bipartisan bill introduced by the Senate Agriculture Committee that would designate the CFTC as primary regulator for the crypto industry, expanding its authority to oversee crypto spot markets and requiring crypto trading firms to register with the CFTC.

  • Jerome Powell, Federal Reserve Chair, called for better regulation of cryptocurrencies and said that even though the industry’s shakeout failed to cause broader financial turmoil, that may not be the case in the future.

  • Study Hall is back with a second season! In season two we’ll explore the ins and outs of financial technology together. We’re kicking off the season with a conversation on fintech and the elections with Tarek Mansour, the Founder of Kalshi. Head on over to buzzsprout.com/1893041/11369459 for a sneak peak