Regulation is good for the crypto industry: Binance CEO

Last week, the cryptocurrency market briefly surpassed $3 trillion as the top digital coins rallied.

Bitcoin and ether both hit all-time highs on Wednesday, but have since cooled off.

Now, on Monday afternoon, bitcoin is trading at around $64,143, according to Coin Metrics, and ether at around $4,611, as of 12:56 p.m. EST.

As President Joe Biden signs the $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill into law — which includes tax reporting provisions that apply to cryptocurrency — here are six important things that happened this past week in the space.

1. Robinhood’s data breach involved about 7 million customers

Online brokerage Robinhood announced on Monday that a Nov. 3 data breach involved exposure of personal information for about 7 million customers, CNBC reported.

For 5 million of them, email address were accessed. Another 2 million had their full names revealed. For about 310 users, name, date of birth and ZIP code were exposed. About 10 customers had more extensive account details revealed.

Robinhood said it is alerting affected individuals, and noted that based on its investigation, no Social Security numbers, bank account or debit card numbers were exposed.

2. Ripple to launch crypto service for financial companies

On Tuesday, Ripple announced that it is set to launch a product called Liquidity Hub, which will allow financial services firms to offer their customers access to cryptocurrencies, CNBC reported.

The San Francisco-based fintech start-up will offer trading in cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin, Ethereum, litecoin, ethereum classic, bitcoin cash and XRP. The Liquidity Hub feature will launch in 2022.

Ripple is in a legal battle with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) over XRP, a cryptocurrency with which it is closely associated. The SEC is suing Ripple and its executives for allegedly raising funds through an unregistered securities offering. Ripple is fighting the suit.

3. Tim Cook says he owns cryptocurrency

Also on Tuesday, Tim Cook said he personally owns cryptocurrency.

After Cook was asked if he owns bitcoin or Ethereum, the Apple CEO replied, “I do.”

“I think it’s reasonable to own it as part of a diversified portfolio,” Cook told Andrew Ross Sorkin at The New York Times DealBook conference. “I’m not giving anyone investment advice by the way.”

Cook added that he had been interested in cryptocurrency “for a while,” but clarified that his views are personal and that Apple isn’t accepting cryptocurrency as payment or buying cryptocurrency itself.

4. Coinbase shares drop after third-quarter revenue miss

Coinbase missed analysts’ revenue estimates on Tuesday after reporting its third-quarter earnings. Following, the stock sank more than 13% in extended trading.

The cryptocurrency exchange also said its monthly transacting users fell to 7.4 million from 8.8 million in the second quarter. In addition, trading volume fell from $462 billion to $327 billion in the previous quarter.

5. A major upgrade to bitcoin activated

Taproot, a highly anticipated upgrade to bitcoin, went into effect on Sunday at block 709,632.

This is bitcoin’s first major upgrade since 2017, and it will impact the blockchain in a number of ways.

Taproot will introduce what’s called Schnorr signatures, which will help bitcoin transactions become more private, efficient and less expensive. Most importantly, the upgrade will better enable bitcoin to execute smart contracts on the blockchain.

Read more about Taproot here.

6. President Biden to sign the bipartisan infrastructure bill⁠ into law

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[elizabethlaura]

MRS HANNAH IS LEGIT AND HER TRADING METHOD WORKS LIKE MAGIC I KEEP EARNING EVERY SINGLE WEEK WITH HER NEW STRATEGY

[jaythewineoisseur]

Imagine the CEO of a centralized exchange wanting regulation in the space. Imagine.

[ckrgksdkrak]

I’d rather not waste tax dollars on regulating crypto in-situ. That only benefits early adopters of this industry, not everyone else. I’d rather just let the government regulate de novo blockchain FIAT at that point.

[jacobkeeler]

"We went from helping people out and charging a fee, to helping everyone out, and charging additional fees" Crypto regulations.

[kellyrose]

Ultimately, what matters is the nature of any new cryptocurrency regulation. Heavy-handed regulation that massively hampers the activities of legitimate projects could be damaging. But sensible regulation that weeds out bad players could create an environment where genuine projects could thrive.

[Max-jhxg]

Cool video - I learned a lot about the crypto regulation

[GrandmaBetty]

What about taxes? Imagine governments demanding our crypto assets to be subjected to income tax upon withdrawal. Nothing about these exchanges is decentralized

[exgold]

I have more faith in CZ & Binance than any of the other crypto exchanges AND of course any of the major Wall St and international banks.

[OlyPhoenix]

Binance is moving toward centralization? Umm, no! Decentralization is what crypto users want why would they go back?

[ff-]

Regulations protects the one that are on top.

[kellyrose]

Lawmakers in Washington have been grappling with the thorny topic of crypto regulation for some time. The sprawling cryptocurrency industry is currently worth over $2 trillion -- and senior figures, from Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen to SEC Chair Gary Gensler, all believe more oversight is necessary.At the same time, long-standing crypto enthusiasts fear regulation will suffocate this burgeoning industry. Here's a summary of both sides of the debate.

Pro regulation
Those in favor of regulation believe it will help the industry to thrive. Here's how.

It will increase investor protection
There's a reason Gensler described crypto as the Wild West. It is rife with scams and there are few rules in place to prevent market manipulation or insider trading.

[yuritokagawa]

It depends on regulation. I believe stablecoin regulation won't do any good. I can't imagine Tether being regulated

[karlaraynor]

if someone adjusts the greed of binance, I will be only too happy. In the meantime, I'm glad that binance is being replaced by web30 exchanges

[JuanCarlosRF]

What’s the point of crypto if it’s also regulated. Then let’s just stay with what we have. Well that’s stupid

[jackd]

friend, I'm your fan! I'm also a fan of EMBR! I'm sure this project, w/ such a brilliant development team, will definitely bring me hundreds of X's after the public sale!

[skyepicus]

First regulation that needs to occur: If someone is receiving government benefits like EBT, Section 8 housing, Medicaid, etc, etc - They should not be allowed to live off free government money while using their available funds to buy crypto. It's one or the other. No more living off socialist benefits while trading crypto while in capitalist mode.

[tarkanozer]

Looks like I’m
Going to have to buy some ACH tokens on coinbase. Because clearly ACH can integrate that fiat and crypto bridge.

[krewline]

Changpeng is being polite. In reality the new world of financial blockchain(Crypto) doesn't need the blessing of regulators, The old banking systems are being left behind because they are too big to pivot due to their size and arrogance.

[pxraver]

"Regulation is good" - For Who?

[haruhisuzumiya]

As long as the amount of rug pulls goes down, and regulate play to earn