🌊Regulatory Tide Turns: DeFi Week of July 23

Happy weekend Defiers!

The regulatory tide appears to be turning for crypto, with the House Financial Services Committee advancing two landmark bills dealing with digital assets.

On Wednesday, six Democrats crossed the floor to support a Republican-introduced bill proposing regulations for crypto exchanges and custodians, including the creation of a joint CFTC-SEC committee on digital assets. The committee’s Republican members then passed a bill offering regulations for stablecoin issuers and stable tokens the next day.

Italy is also making moves to embrace web3, with Bank of Italy tapping Polygon to launch an “institutional DeFi” pilot. Polygon will work with Milano Hub, Bank of Italy’s innovation hub, to develop a regulated platform for security tokens.

Securitize also announced plans to issue and eventually facilitate trade for shares in a real estate investment trust as part of a sandbox pilot overseen by Spanish regulators. The firm predicted it will receive securities licenses in Spain and the EU following the pilot.

The news follows Avalanche launching a $50M fund to foster tokenized assets on its network. Avalanche said it will deploy the funds to purchase on-chain assets including real estate, equity, and credit.

In other news, the launch of Worldcoin was met with caution and intrigue. The controversial project from OpenAI CEO, Sam Altman, is airdropping tokens to users who scan their retinas to prove they are a unique person.

And crypto degens’ quest to find the absurd market has culminated in wagering on pre-recorded animal races involving rodents and snails. Hamsters.gg led the charge, but now faces rugpull accusations from blockchain sleuths.

Plus, we cover all of the action from the EthCC conference in Paris, interviewing founders and builders in attendance to find out what’s next for web3.

Enjoy!