[LINK] Axios: White House proposes stablecoin rules

[Stephen Loosley]

White House Proposes Stablecoin Rules

Dan Primack, author of Pro Rata 12 hours ago
https://www.axios.com/white-house-proposes-stablecoin-rules-266c0e88-fea5-451d-9e1c-6ebe09422c2f.html


The White House on Wednesday released its initial assessment of regulatory considerations for stablecoins, a form of cryptocurrencies designed to have less pricing volatility than do more traditional cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin.

Why it matters: The document covers all U.S. stablecoin arrangements, including Facebook's Libra project, which is slated to launch next month.

Stablecoins' lack of pricing volatility is achieved by being pegged to other assets, such as fiat currencies, and means that they are well-positioned to be used for consumer retail, a bet that Facebook is making.

Inside the report: The President's Working Group on Financial Markets, which conducted the assessment, includes the top officials at the U.S. Treasury Department, Federal Reserve, Securities & Exchange Commission and Commodity Futures Trading Commission.

It primarily seems to be warning that there will be broad-based regulatory oversight of stablecoins, although it does include some specific guidance like maintaining a 1:1 reserve ratio and "adequate financial resources to absorb losses and meet liquidity needs."

It also wants there to be a swift and orderly claims process for stablecoin holders against the issuer, including 1:1 redemption in the underlying fiat currency (net of fees).

There is no explicit mention of requiring bank charters, which has been proposed by some in Congress, although it opens the door by suggesting some stablecoins may need "to rely on U.S.-regulated entities as intermediaries."

The bottom line: This is just a first step toward formal regulation, but it tells stablecoin issuers that regulation is coming.

--

Axios

Our mission
Axios gets you smarter, faster on what matters.

Our manifesto
Axios’ three co-founders — Jim VandeHei, Mike Allen and Roy Schwartz — launched the company in January 2017 based on this shared belief: Media is broken, and too often a scam.

Stories are too long or too boring. Websites are a maddening mess.

The audience and the advertisers alike are too often afterthoughts. Readers get duped by headlines that don't deliver and are distracted by pop-up nonsense or unworthy clicks. Advertisers don't get the quality attention they deserve.

Can you imagine Ford being obsessed with whether the engineers love the howl and design of the F-150 engine, instead of simply delivering an awesome truck people want to drive? Never. But that's what digital media companies too often do.

They produce journalism the way journalists want to produce it, often long-winded pieces that take too long to get to the point.

And they design their products to maximize short-term buzz or revenue — not to deliver the best experience possible.

This is why we’ve engineered Axios around a simple proposition — deliver the clearest, smartest, most efficient and trustworthy experience for audience and advertisers alike.

After all, people face a growing challenge to keep pace with changes unfolding before them.

Politics, business, culture, science and technology are in constant collision, creating new conflicts, new industries, new opportunities and new challenges.

The root of these changes is the awesome — and accelerating — speed and power of technology, allowing machines to often move faster than mankind.
‍

Some of the big trends that drive our coverage:

Robotics, machine learning and AI will upend vast swaths of our lives.
China’s influence is real and growing.
Human activity is posing threats to Earth’s climate.
Demographics show we are becoming an even more diverse nation, bringing both challenges and opportunities.
The U.S. government faces mounting debt, an aging population and the need to adapt to new technologies and threats faster.
America’s capitalistic system brims with economic possibilities but is stacked to favor the powerful and rich, exacerbating inequalities that need to be addressed.
We cover this clinically, not ideologically.

We don’t have an editorial page and we don’t pick sides with partisan opinion. Our view: There is enough noise and our job is to sort through this.

Axios employees refrain from taking partisan positions or sides on social media and in public forums. It’s one small but worthy step we can take to gain and keep trust.

We believe truth and facts exist and must be highlighted, repeated, defended and cherished in our journalism.

How it works

Our guiding principles

01
Audience first

02
Elegant efficiency

03
Smart, always

04
No BS for sale

05
Excellence, always

The bottom line: We strive to be worthy of your time and trust, always.