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A week before Coinbase made its blockbuster debut on Wall Street on Wednesday, the cryptocurrency exchange was part of a much quieter, but symbolically important, launch in Washington, D.C.
Yep, here come the lobbyists.
Along with the asset manager Fidelity, the payments company Square and the investment firm Paradigm, Coinbase established a new trade group with “a mission to unlock the transformational promise of crypto.” The Crypto Council for Innovation hopes to influence policies that will be critical for expanding the use of cryptocurrencies in conjunction with traditional finance (and, by extension, the businesses of the group’s members).
Over the past decade, though, and particularly in recent months, digital assets have boomed.
Big names like MassMutual, MicroStrategy, and Tesla have bought Bitcoin; PayPal and Square s CashApp have made it easy to buy crypto with the tap of a finger; and major financial players like BNY Mellon and Visa and Mastercard have said they re planning to offer custody and transaction services for certain digital assets.
Some SPACs have even considered getting in on the action, according to people interviewed for this story.
While complex technology and scrutiny from regulators might deter some investors and big firms from adoption, lawyers have been riding the wave, clocking billable hours as they try to help clients reimagine finance while avoiding lawsuits, scandals, and enforcement action.
Updated Jan 19, 2021 at 4:51 p.m. UTC
Money Reimagined: Bitcoin’s Warning for Central Banks
Another week, another lifetime lived:
The U.S. President impeached,
again. Worldwide COVID-19 deaths close in on 2 million. Bitcoin surges to a record high above $42,000, promptly plunges to almost below $30,000 and then begins a late-week rally above $36,000.
Meanwhile, the crypto community has been grappling with some contentious regulatory proposals that would strengthen U.S. monitoring of global digital currency transactions.
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That’s the topic of this week’s “Money Reimagined” podcast episode. We talk to Christopher Giancarlo, the former chairman of the Commodities Futures Trading Commission, and Marvin Ammori, a famed digital civil rights lawyer who’s now chief legal counsel at Uniswap, about how the crypto industry and
Host
On this episode of “Money Reimagined” the discussion comes home for an insider’s look at how new, disruptive technology and government interact. For this discussion, hosts Michael Casey and Sheila Warren of the World Economic Forum are joined by Marvin Ammori, best known for his work on network neutrality and Internet freedom issues. Rounding out the panel is Christopher Giancarlo, former Commodity Futures Trading Commission chairman and founding principal of the Digital Dollar Foundation.
“My background is really 20 years of working on the internet,” said Marvin Ammori. “And I remember in the early days of the internet, you know, one kind of piece of deja vu is what jumped out to everyone. The internet began with all the bad stuff. Congress couldn’t believe there was porn on the internet. We had to protect the children from the number one thing that people noticed on the internet.