Daily Digest - 15 March 2023

Headlines

▌ U.S. Congressman: The U.S. may pass stablecoin legislation within a few days

The market turmoil caused by the collapse of the Silicon Valley bank briefly caused Circle’s USDC stablecoin to break its peg to the U.S. dollar. In response, the management teams of stablecoin issuers have called on the U.S. Congress to urgently pass stablecoin legislation. In an interview with Yahoo Finance's Jennifer Schonberger, House Financial Services Committee Chairwoman Maxine Waters said the legislation could pass in just a few days, suggesting the delay was due to concerns about which party would control the House.

Policies

▌U.S. regulators start soliciting interest from potential buyers of Signature Bank

According to people familiar with the matter, U.S. regulators have begun soliciting acquisition intentions from potential buyers of Signature Bank. The U.S. Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) has opened a ‘data room’ where potential bidders can begin due diligence on the bank, according to people familiar with the matter. Federal regulators previously placed Signature Bank into receivership days after another crypto-friendly bank, Silvergate Bank, and Silicon Valley Bank collapsed.

Blockchain Application

▌Ethereum developers prepare to release Shapella upgrade on Goerlitestnet

Ethereum developers are preparing for the launch of the highly anticipated Shanghai-Capella or Shapella upgrade on the Goerli test network later today, the final rehearsal before the mainnet launch scheduled for April. The upgrade will be triggered at Goerli’s epoch 162304, estimated to occur around 6:25 p.m. ET, the developers said in a blog post by the Ethereum Foundation. After testing the upgrade on Goerli, if it goes well, they plan to deploy it to mainnet next month. The main feature of the upgrade is Ethereum Improvement Proposal (EIP) 4895, which aims to enable validators to make staking withdrawals on the main network. This feature was turned off during Ethereum's move to proof-of-stake consensus in September 2022 to ensure a safe transition.

Cryptocurrency

▌Changpeng Zhao: "Cryptocurrency is not safe" is a misunderstanding, and the security of trusted encryption services is better than that of traditional finance

On March 15th, Binance CEO Zhao Changpeng tweeted that the statement "cryptocurrency is not safe" is incorrect. He argued that blockchain transparency is a feature, not a bug, and that trusted cryptographic services and platforms already have comparable or even better security/KYC/AML than traditional finance.

▌Binance has announced that it will stop processing GBP withdrawals and deposits starting May 22

Binance has said that this will impact less than 1% of all users, and that these customers will still be able to deposit and withdraw other fiat currencies, or buy and sell crypto on Binance.com.The exchange has previously been processing these transactions via Paysafe, an online payment companies that banks Binance’s transactions. Paysafe explained that the “UK regulatory environment in relation to crypto is too challenging to offer this service at this time”.