U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission

The head of the SEC called the approval of the spot bitcoin-ETF inevitable

Former chairman of the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Mr. Clayton, said that the regulator will inevitably approve ETFs based on the spot price of the first cryptocurrency.

“Approval is inevitable. The dichotomy between futures and cash products cannot go on forever,” he said.

 

Clayton said he was not surprised by the agency’s decision to delay consideration of applications for the launch of spot bitcoin ETFs from BlackRock, Fidelity, Bitwise, VanEck, WisdomTree, Invesco and Valkyrie until mid-autumn.

At the same time, he also declined to answer the question of how he would have acted in the place of the current chairman of the Commission, Gary Gensler.

 

“It is clear that bitcoin is not a security. It is clear to all that retail and institutional investors want access to it. And more importantly, some of our most trusted vendors want to provide bitcoin to the retail public,” he added.

 

On June 15, BlackRock filed an application with the SEC for an investment product based on digital gold. Following the financial giant, similar requests came from Valkyrie, Fidelity Investments, WisdomTree and Invesco. However, the regulator returned all applications.

Goldman Sachs

Goldman Sachs expects US default in June current year

Debt ceiling dispute pushes U.S. credit default swaps to 12-year peak

 

The cost of insuring the sovereign debt of the United States rose on Thursday to its highest level since 2011 due to market fears that the government may reach the national debt ceiling earlier than expected.

US five-year credit default swap spreads widened to 49 basis points, data from S&P Global Market Intelligence showed. This is more than double the level at which they were in January this year.

The White House has accused Republicans in the House of Representatives of “holding the American economy hostage” with its proposal to tie the debt ceiling hike to budget cuts, which has intensified divisions between President Joe Biden and lawmakers as the deadline approaches.

“MAGA House Republicans are holding the American economy hostage to strike at the programs Americans rely on every day to make ends meet,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Thursday, using an acronym for the former president’s slogan. Donald Trump “Make America Great Again”

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy on Wednesday unveiled a plan that would cut $130 billion in discretionary spending and raise the US debt ceiling by $1.5 trillion.

He called for the repeal of last year’s climate and health bill, known as the Inflation Reduction Act, and the repeal of Biden’s legally troubled plan to ease student debt.

“Every Republican in the House of Representatives who votes for this bill is voting to cut education, veterans’ health care, cancer research, food on wheels, food safety, and law enforcement,” Jean-Pierre added. “Taking healthcare away from millions of Americans and jeopardizing food assistance for hundreds of thousands of older people. Raise electricity bills and raise taxes for hard-working families.”

The Republicans refused to increase the US national debt without serious concessions, and Biden called this demand non-negotiable. Even if McCarthy’s proposal were approved by the House of Representatives, the Democratic-controlled Senate would refuse to consider it.

Analysts at Goldman Sachs Group Inc. on Tuesday they warned that due to lower tax revenues, the US default date could be closer to June rather than August, as some economists predicted.

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen set a deadline earlier this year for “extraordinary measures” to temporarily avoid a default.

McCarthy has promised more conservative members of the House’s narrow Republican majority that he will demand massive spending cuts as part of any deal to raise the debt ceiling.

Almost at the same time that McCarthy detailed his proposal on the floor of the House of Representatives, Biden gave a speech at a union plant in Maryland denouncing Republicans’ attempts to make debt cap increases contingent on federal spending negotiations. According to him, these two issues should be separated.

The number of millionaire bankers in Europe has reached a historical record

The number of bank employees in the EU countries with an annual salary of more than €1 million in 2021 amounted to more than 1.9 thousand people.

This is a record figure for the entire time of data collection, since 2010 When calculating, experts no longer take into account the UK, which left the European Union in 2020.

Before that, it was the constant leader of the rating: for example, in 2017, the number of bankers from this country with an earnings of €1 million was 3,567 people.

 

 

Genesis Crypto Broker Filed for Bankruptcy

Crypto exchange Genesis has filed for bankruptcy, which involves the reorganization of the company and the restructuring of its debts. She owes more than $3 billion to creditors. Genesis problems were the result of a crisis in the crypto market, provoked by the collapse of the FTX exchange.

Cryptocurrency exchange Genesis has filed for bankruptcy under Chapter 11 of the US Bankruptcy Code, which allows business reorganization and debt restructuring instead of liquidation. The announcement of the application is made on the company’s website. Two divisions of the crypto exchange, Genesis Global Capital and Genesis Asia Pacific, also filed for bankruptcy.

 

 

Brazil and Argentina may announce work on a single currency

Argentina and Brazil, which are part of the Mercosur trading bloc, plan to invite other Latin American countries to join their plan. However, this may take several years.

Plans for a common currency between Argentina and Brazil have met with skepticism in the past. For example, when former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro first pitched the idea, economists felt that both countries needed to make sweeping reforms first.

 

Most economists expect US Recession in 2023

Economists still expect higher interest rates to push the US economy into recession this year, despite signs of easing inflation. This is evidenced by the results of a quarterly survey by The Wall Street Journal.

Experts estimate the probability of a recession in the next twelve months at 61%, which is not too different from the October figure of 63%.

Initially, the Federal Reserve hoped it could dampen inflation by slowing economic growth, called a “soft landing,” but without turning GDP down. However, three-quarters of respondents said the Fed will not achieve a soft landing in 2023.

Moody’s predicts an average Brent price below $100 per barrel in 2023

Moody’s predicts that the average Brent oil price in 2023 will remain below the 2022 average of $100 per barrel, but will exceed the agency’s medium-term forecast of $50-70 per barrel.

The trajectory of oil prices this year remains uncertain and will depend on the economic situation in the world’s largest economies, according to a Moody’s review. At the same time, the agency expects high volatility in the market.

The fall in oil prices since June reflects weakening market expectations for demand growth amid increased recession risks in the US and Europe and a short-term weakening in demand from China due to anti-COVID restrictions, the agency writes.