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What Canada’s new Liberal PM Mark Carney means for crypto

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Mark Carney, a Canadian economist and now Prime Minister-designate, is already under the microscope for his previous remarks regarding cryptocurrency. 

Carney, who replaced former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, took a measured and critical approach to cryptocurrencies, namely Bitcoin (BTC), in a 2018 speech he made at the Bank of England. He also shared concerns over private stablecoins and supported the idea of a central bank currency (CBDC) — a concept many crypto purists regard as antithetical to cryptocurrencies.

At the same time, Carney has said in his platform for the upcoming 2025 federal elections that he wants to make Canada a leader in emerging technologies, including “AI, tech, and digital industries.”

Carney’s previous statements, along with the US trade war on its former trading partners, have raised questions over the Prime Minister-designate’s economic platform and what part, if any, crypto will play.

Bitcoin a “poor store of value”

While serving as governor of the Bank of England, Carney criticized the seminal cryptocurrency Bitcoin as being insufficient in fulfilling all three of the functions of a currency: a store of value, a medium of exchange and a unit of account. 

Functions of money. Source: Bank of England

Addressing the question “How well do cryptocurrencies fulfill the roles of money?” he said, “The long, charitable answer is that cryptocurrencies act as money, at best, only for some people and to a limited extent, and even then only in parallel with the traditional currencies of the users.”

“The short answer is they are failing.”

He also shared his concern over private stablecoins in the 2021 Andrew Crockett Memorial lecture. Carney stated that private stablecoins need a regulatory model with “equivalent protections to those for commercial bank money,” like liquidity requirements, central bank eligibility and means to compensate depositors. 

He also stated that a system that contains multiple competing stablecoins can “fragment the liquidity of the monetary system and to detract from the role of money as a coordination device.”

Carney contended that a central bank digital currency (CBDC), particularly a retail CBDC with API access to regulated, private firms — could prevent such fragmentation from happening, in addition to more common pro-CBDC arguments like expedited settlement times. 

Carney calls for crypto regulation, not to stifle innovation 

In a Bloomberg interview in 2018, Carney said that he wanted to bring the cryptocurrency space up to standard with the rest of the financial industry. He said at the time that there was “lots of temptation” for market manipulation, fraud and other misconduct on crypto exchanges. 

“The best of the cryptocurrencies, I would suggest, will gravitate to the best of the exchanges if they’re regulated,” he said.

Related: National Bank of Canada hints at bearish take on Bitcoin

Carney further claimed that it’s a good thing if some cryptocurrencies “fall by the wayside” with regulation. “It is a privilege to be part of the financial system, to be connected to the financial system. And responsibilities come with those privileges,” he said.

Despite his more skeptical comments toward cryptocurrencies, Carney said in his 2018 speech that policymakers should be careful not to stifle innovation. 

He said that the “underlying technologies are exciting” and that lawmakers shouldn’t restrain solutions that can “improve financial stability; support more innovative, efficient and reliable payment services as well as have wider applications.”

Carney is also supportive of implementing other emerging technologies in government administration and making Canada more competitive in tech. His platform aims to reduce inefficiencies with AI and machine learning and “build a highly competitive, technology-enabled public service.”

Canada election looms against pro-crypto candidate

The Canadian federal elections are slated to happen no later than Oct. 20, 2025, and could be called even earlier.

Carney will face Conservative frontrunner Pierre Poilievre, who himself has made a number of pro-crypto statements. In 2022, he posted on X that he wanted to make Canada a blockchain hub and “expand choice, lower costs of financial products, [and] create thousands of jobs.”

During the Conservative Party’s leadership election, he said that cryptocurrencies would let Canadians “take control” of their money.

Related: Why Pierre Poilievre may not be Canada’s crypto savior

Still, observers of the Canadian crypto industry and Canadian politics have told Cointelegraph that crypto is unlikely to be a major factor in the upcoming elections, unlike its neighbor to the south.

Morva Rohani, executive director of the Canadian Web3 Council nonprofit trade association, told Cointelegraph, “The reality is that most Canadians are either indifferent or skeptical about crypto, and larger issues like the affordability crisis, housing, inflation and immigration dominate the political conversation.”

Added to those economic concerns is the trade war with the US, which started when President Donald Trump imposed tariffs on Canada, Mexico and China — three of his country’s major trading partners. 

Trudeau’s response to Trump’s tariff threats has seen the Liberals close their gap in the polls, which earlier this year showed the Conservatives as decisively ahead. Carney’s response to the US’ hostile economic policies may be more of a key factor to victory than his stance on cryptocurrencies. 

Magazine: SEC’s U-turn on crypto leaves key questions unanswered

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Banking groups ask SEC to drop cybersecurity incident disclosure rule

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American banking and financial industry advocacy groups have petitioned the Securities and Exchange Commission to repeal its cybersecurity incident public disclosure requirements. 

Five US banking groups led by the American Bankers Association asked the regulator to remove its rule in a May 22 letter, arguing that disclosing cybersecurity incidents “directly conflicts with confidential reporting requirements intended to protect critical infrastructure and warn potential victims.”

The group, which also included the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association, the Bank Policy Institute, Independent Community Bankers of America and the Institute of International Bankers, claimed that the rule compromises regulatory efforts to enhance national cybersecurity.

The SEC’s Cybersecurity Risk Management rule, published in July 2023, requires companies to rapidly disclose cybersecurity incidents such as data breaches or hacks. However, the banking groups argue this rule was flawed from the start and has proven problematic in practice since taking effect.

The banking bodies said that the “complex and narrow disclosure delay mechanism” interferes with incident response and law enforcement and creates “market confusion” between mandatory and voluntary disclosures. 

Public disclosure has also been “weaponized as an extortion method by ransomware criminals to further malicious objectives,” and premature disclosures worsen insurance and liability issues for companies and “risks chilling candid internal communications and routine information sharing,” the group claimed. 

Some of the banking groups’ claims and fears regarding the ruling. Source: SIFMA

The groups specifically want “Item 1.05” to be rescinded from the SEC’s rules for Form 8-K reporting and parallel reporting requirements applicable to Form 6-K. 

Form 8-K is used to publicly notify investors in US public companies of specified events, including cybersecurity incidents, that may be important to shareholders or the SEC. 

“Critically, without Item 1.05, investor interests will still be protected, and we believe they would be better served through the pre-existing disclosure framework for reporting material information, which may include material cybersecurity incidents,” the groups stated.

Related: Hackers using fake Ledger Live app to steal seed phrases and drain crypto

The full petition included examples of confusion from participants, specific incidents of ransomware attacks and documented regulatory conflicts. 

Public crypto companies impacted 

The requirement also impacts publicly listed crypto companies such as Coinbase, which disclosed earlier this month that hackers had bribed its support staff to leak its user data.

The disclosure saw the company hit with at least seven lawsuits over the disclosure.

Coinbase said that it rejected a $20 million ransom demand after staff leaked user data in a major phishing attack, which the exchange said could cost it up to $400 million in damages.

If the SEC rescinds the requirement, it may give firms such as Coinbase more time to disclose cybersecurity incidents to the public. 

Magazine: Bitcoin bears eye $69K, CZ denies WLF ‘fixer’ rumors: Hodler’s Digest

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Top US politician shrugs off Trump crypto dinner concerns amid calls for probe

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US House Speaker Mike Johnson has brushed off corruption concerns surrounding President Donald Trump’s dinner for the top holders of his memecoin and dodged answering whether the list of attendees should be released in the interest of transparency.

Johnson told CNN’s Jake Tapper on May 25 that he knew nothing about Trump’s May 22 memecoin dinner and opted not to share his opinion on the event, which 35 House Democrats have called for the Justice Department to investigate.

“We do not know who was there. The list has not been released. We do not know how much of the money came from outside the country,” Tapper told Johnson. “I really have a difficult time imagining that if this was a Democratic president doing the exact same thing, you wouldn’t be outraged.”

“Look, I don’t know anything about the dinner,” Johnson answered, claiming he “was a little busy this past week,” focusing on passing a $1.6 trillion federal budget funding bill.

“I’m not going to comment on something I haven’t even heard about. I’m not sure who was there or what the purpose was.”

Johnson then claimed Trump was “the most transparent president” in history and “has nothing to hide.”

CNN’s Jake Tapper (left) speaking with House Speaker Mike Johnson (right). Source: CNN

Democrats have called for the list of attendees of Trump’s crypto dinner event to be released, as they suspect Trump may be accepting foreign investments in violation of federal bribery statutes or the foreign emoluments clause of the Constitution.

Under the emoluments clause, the US president is barred from accepting any gift from a foreign state without the approval of Congress.

Bloomberg reported on May 7 that a majority of the attendees at the memecoin dinner would likely be foreign nationals.

Trump invited those who were among the top 220 largest holders of the Official Trump (TRUMP) memecoin to his event at the Trump National Golf Club in Virginia.

The most notable attendee was the Chinese-born Tron CEO Justin Sun, the largest holder of the TRUMP token and the biggest backer of the Trumps’ crypto platform World Liberty Financial.

Sheldon Xia, the CEO of Cayman Islands-based crypto exchange BitMart, posted pictures to X of himself at the event, while Australian crypto entrepreneur Kain Warwick told The New York Times on May 12 that he would attend the event after stocking up on enough TRUMP to break into the top 25 investors on the leaderboard.

In a separate May 22 press conference, several Democrats called for the release of Trump’s memecoin dinner list.

One of those speaking was Senator Elizabeth Warren, a fierce crypto critic who called Trump’s memecoin dinner an “orgy of corruption.”

Democrats call for Trump to cut crypto ties entirely

Several House Democrats, led by Maxine Waters, introduced the “Stop TRUMP in Crypto Act” on May 22 to prevent Trump and his family from profiting off crypto while in office. 

Trump has used the “power of the presidency to shamelessly promote and profit” from a series of crypto ventures, Waters said in a statement.

Related: Senators plan to amend GENIUS Act to address Trump family’s stablecoin

Waters pointed to the TRUMP memecoin, which she claims has increased Trump’s net worth by over $350 million, as well as his involvement in World Liberty Financial and the platform’s stablecoin, USD1.

An additional 14 US lawmakers supported the bill, including Nydia Velázquez, Brad Sherman and Gregory Meeks.

Magazine: AI cures blindness, ‘good’ propaganda bots, OpenAI doomsday bunker: AI Eye

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Coinbase faces another data breach lawsuit claiming stock drop damages

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Coinbase and two executives have been hit with another proposed class-action lawsuit over the crypto exchange’s stock price drop after disclosing a user data breach earlier this month and for allegedly failing to disclose a violation of an agreement with a UK regulator.

Coinbase investor Brady Nessler said in a May 22 lawsuit filed in a Pennsylvania federal court that the data breach and the alleged broken agreement with the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority resulted in a “precipitous decline in the market value of the Company’s common shares,” causing stockholders to suffer “significant losses and damages.”

Coinbase said on May 15 that its damages bill could run up to $400 million after it was hit with a $20 million extortion attempt four days earlier, with several of its customer support agents bribed to access internal systems and steal a limited amount of user account data.

Nessler claimed Coinbase (COIN) shares dropped by 7.2% to close at $244 on May 15 as a result of the disclosure. However, the stock did stage a comeback, spiking 9% and hitting $266 by the closing bell on May 16, according to Google Finance. 

Coinbase stock closed down over 3% on May 23 at $263, falling another $1.62 after the bell. COIN is up nearly 6% so far this year.

Coinbase is down from the May 23 trading session. Source: Google Finance

Nessler’s complaint is seemingly the first to argue damages caused by Coinbase’s stock drop following its breach disclosure in a series of recent class-action lawsuits over the incident.

The crypto exchange was hit with at least six lawsuits in the days after disclosing the data breach, all accusing it of mishandling the incident and failing to protect their data. 

UK agreement breach hurt stock, suit says

The FCA fined Coinbase’s UK arm $4.5 million in July 2024 for breaching a 2020 voluntary agreement preventing the exchange from onboarding customers considered high risk by the regulator.

The FCA said Coinbase onboarded 13,416 customers that the regulator considered high-risk and offered them crypto services.

Related: Coinbase presses to axe rule banning SEC staff from holding crypto

Nessler said in the suit that the fine saw Coinbase’s stock fall by over 5%, closing at $231.52 on July 25, 2024.

Nessler also claimed that Coinbase didn’t disclose it had breached this agreement when the exchange first listed its shares on the Nasdaq in April 2021, and as a result, “the market price of the Company’s securities had been artificially,” inflated. 

Nessler claims had she known about the agreement violation, she would not have purchased the stock at the “artificially inflated prices.”

Coinbase did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The class suit was filed on behalf of anyone who bought Coinbase stock between April 14, 2021, and May 14, 2025, and is asking for damages and a jury trial. Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong and chief financial officer Alesia Haas are also named as defendants.

Another lawsuit filed in Illinois on May 13, alleges Coinbase failed to notify users in writing of the collection, storage, or sharing of their biometric data and the purpose and retention schedule for their data.

Magazine: Bitcoin bears eye $69K, CZ denies WLF ‘fixer’ rumors: Hodler’s Digest, May 18 – 24

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