Betwixt fever-pitch anticipation over the impending approval of a Bitcoin exchange-traded fund, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission's $42-meg-plus settlement with Tether and Bitfinex, and Vladimir Putin brooding over cryptocurrency'due south chapters to transfer value, this past calendar week has been saturated with major policy news. While all the above are instances of state figures' and institutions' summit-down actions and statements on digital assets, an arguably fifty-fifty more interesting tide has emerged on the side of the crypto industry itself.

Two major players of the digital space, Coinbase and a16z (Andreessen Horowitz), came forward with proposed visions for regulating internet-native economic activity

Below is the curtailed version of the latest "Law Decoded" newsletter. For the full breakdown of policy developments over the final week, register for the total newsletter beneath.

Regulatory push from the bottom up

The wide proposal put along by a16z presents a vision of Web 3.0 as an array of technologies to organize man activities that are fundamentally decentralized. Its policy agenda emphasizes the need for regulators to ensure an environment where the digital infrastructure supporting Spider web 3.0 could flourish and where risks are addressed in a targeted fashion.

Coinbase's framework is more than narrowly focused on the realm of digital finance. Consistent with a16z'southward vision, information technology argues in favor of designating a separate agency (presumably not the Securities and Substitution Commission) to oversee the activities of what the framers call "marketplaces for digital assets," or MDAs.

ETF excitement

A huge part of the crypto crowd seemed on the verge of breaking into tears of joy over multiple signals suggesting that the SEC would not get in the manner of a Bitcoin (BTC) ETF. SEC Chair Gary Gensler has previously spoken favorably of the level of investor protection granted by Bitcoin ETFs that are based on BTC futures rather than the "physical" asset.

Gensler'southward sentiment provided a groundwork confronting which subtle cues like Nasdaq's certification of Valkyrie'due south Bitcoin Strategy ETF and a suspiciously well-timed "SEC Investor Ed" tweet made the approving wait all but washed

CBDCs never sleep

Some other calendar week, some other ingather of reports of central bank digital currency advancement from well-nigh every time zone. In the Great britain, an independent nonprofit called the Digital Pound Foundation will support the nation'south CBDC effort with expert insight. Over in Nihon, a central bank official emphasized the need for the simplicity of the prospective digital yen'southward pattern that would ensure interoperability with commercial payment systems. Finally, the financial brass of the G7 discussed foundational policies around digital national currencies, suggesting that at that place is enough cross-edge coordination to make the major sovereign CBDCs of the time to come fully interoperable.