Seeds of Wisdom RV and Economic Updates Monday Evening 9-16-24
Good Evening Dinar Recaps,
SEN. WARREN ADVISES 75BPS FED CUT ON RECESSION FEARS
Despite rhetoric about a strong U.S. economy, three Democratic Senators urged the Federal Reserve to implement an aggressive monetary policy shift.
Crypto-skeptic U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts called on the Federal Reserve and its chair, Jerome Powell, to slash interest rates by 75 basis points to curtail recession risks. Warren’s letter, co-signed by fellow Senators Sheldon Whitehouse and John Hickenlooper, warned of potential economic declines that smaller funding cuts may usher in.
If the Fed is too cautious in cutting rates, it would needlessly risk our economy heading towards a recession. A number of economists have warned of this risk since July… The Committee must consider implementing rate cuts more aggressively upfront to mitigate potential risks to the labor market.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren to Fed on rate cuts
The document, dated Sept. 16, was issued less than 48 hours before the next Federal Open Market Committee meeting on Wednesday, Sept. 18.
Markets expect Fed chair Jerome Powell to announce a dovish pivot at the FOMC meeting, but the exact rate cut preferred by the central bank was unclear at press time.
What are the odds?
The CME FedWatch tool showed a 61% probability of a 50 bps cut and a 39% probability of a 25 basis-point reduction. Last week, the same tool gave a 14% likelihood of a 50 bps interest rate slash.
The 50 bps option also held sway on crypto prediction venues. Polymarket data noted odds of 53% for a 50 basis points announcement, followed by 45% for 25 bps. Previously, users predicted a 78% chance of a 25 bps pivot. Bettors had wagered over $40.5 million via the Polygon-based platform on this month’s FOMC decision.
Fed cut impact on crypto market
If the Fed matched expectations and announced a fund rate cut, experts believe liquidity would flow into risk assets like cryptocurrencies. Market participants still debated how an aggressive or modest pivot might indicate the Fed’s outlook, with the former suggesting recession concerns and the latter pointing to a firmer grip on inflation.
Horizen Labs CEO and co-founder, Rob Viglione, told crypto.news that a Fed rate cut seemed likely to propel a bullish Q4 for digital assets like Bitcoin and Ethereum. The fourth quarter has historically recorded higher crypto prices than in mid-late Q3.
In the short term, we could see a price surge, especially in Ethereum and Bitcoin, though it may also bring heightened market volatility. Over the long run, a prolonged low-rate environment could encourage greater innovation and investment in blockchain technology and crypto-related startups.
@ Newshounds News™
Source: Crypto News
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Bitstamp and Ripple to Launch Derivatives Exchange on XRP Ledger
Bitstamp’s Head of Strategic Partnerships Eva Gartner reveals the company’s plans to launch a derivatives exchange in collaboration with Ripple.
Gartner revealed the initiative in the tenth episode of the “Built on XRPL” series. Speaking at the series, Gartner said Bitstamp will launch the derivatives exchange in the next few months, adding that “we [Bitstamp] really hope to cooperate closely with Ripple there as well.”
XRPL to Power Bitstamp’s Derivatives Exchange
Notably, Bitstamp is expected to launch the derivatives exchange on the XRP Ledger (XRPL) blockchain, as confirmed by multiple sources, including Abdullah Nassif, host of the Good Morning Crypto podcast.
According to Nassif, Bitstamp, in collaboration with Ripple, will build the derivatives exchange on the XRPL. Notably, Bitstamp has leveraged the XRP Ledger to launch several crypto-related products, including stablecoins.
At present, Bitstamp has issued multiple stablecoins tied to the USD, GBP, EUR, AUD, JPY, and CHF on XRPL.
Bitstamp and Ripple Relationship
Furthermore, Bitstamp also has a close relationship with Ripple, which began about seven years ago. Last year, Ripple bolstered this relationship by acquiring a minority stake in the company after acquiring shares previously owned by Pantera Capital.
@ Newshounds News™
Source: The Crypto Basic
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41 institutions join BIS tokenized cross border payment Project Agorá
Today the Institute of International Finance (IIF) released the names of 41 firms selected to participate in the public – private tests of Project Agorá. It’s an ambitious project initiated by the BIS to modernize correspondent banking using a unified ledger, tokenized deposits and wholesale CBDC from seven central banks.
One of the key impediments to smooth cross border payments is compliance. With Project Agorá, the aim is to perform screening at the start of the payment process and to share it across the banks, helping to reduce one of the major delays in cross border payments – every bank doing the same checks independently, sometimes with different results.
A key benefit of tokenization is there is no separation of the message and money movement, so the money either moves or it does not. This should avoid one of the great frustrations of end users – money in limbo.
In late May the BIS wrote a brief paper outlining its vision for modernizing correspondent banking. It highlighted how compliance expenses have resulted in bank withdrawals from some of the cross border payment corridors where they are most needed. Today the BIS added an FAQ about Project Agorá.
On the one hand, the FAQ says Project Agorá is more than a proof of concept and it hopes to deliver a prototype where the lessons learned could create the foundations for a future financial market infrastructure. On the other hand, today’s announcement emphasized that BIS Innovation Hub projects are experimental in nature.
Project Agorá participants
Thirty five of the selected institutions are banks representing the seven jurisdictions. The others are Visa, Mastercard and financial market infrastructures Swift, Eurex Clearing, Euroclear and the SIX Digital Exchange (SDX). The full list is at the bottom.
The IFF is the coordinator for the private sector, with EY providing project management office help, and White & Case responsible for contracts.
With the participants selected, the design phase will now commence. The initiative is expected to run through to the end of 2025 when a report will be released.
The seven central banks are from France (for Europe), Mexico, New York (NYIC), Switzerland, England, Japan, South Korea.
The participants are:
Amina Bank, Banco Santander, Banorte, Banque Cantonale Vaudoise, Basler Kantonalbank, BBVA, BNP Paribas, BNY, CaixaBank, Citi, Crédit Agricole CIB, Deutsche Bank AG, Eurex Clearing AG, Euroclear S.A./N.V., FNBO, Groupe BPCE, Hana Bank, HSBC, IBK, Intercam Banco, JPMorgan Chase Bank N.A., KB Kookmin Bank, Lloyds Banking Group, Mastercard, Mizuho Bank, Monex, MUFG Bank Ltd., NatWest Group, NongHyup Bank, PostFinance, SBI Shinsei Bank, Shinhan Bank, SIX Digital Exchange (SDX), Standard Chartered, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation, Swift, Sygnum Bank, TD Bank N.A., UBS, Visa, Woori Bank.
@ Newshounds News™
Source: Ledger Insights
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BARCLAYS EXPLORES DIGITAL POUND DESIGN OPTIONS
Last year Barclays published a report on the “functional equivalence” of central bank digital currency (CBDC). In other words, the need for a CBDC and commercial bank money to have similar functionality. While that may seem obvious, there’s a fair bit of work to be done for a CBDC to deliver that, including issues such as using ATMs to top up CBDC wallets.
Programmability was an important topic in that paper. Now Barclays has published a much more detailed paper stepping through typical uses cases such as a parent topping up a digital pound wallet for a child. It concludes that ideally a financial market infrastructure should be responsible for the features.
For each function, there are multiple potential ways to implement it. For example, it starts with payee confirmation, to verify the target of the payment is really your child’s CBDC wallet. With faster payments in the UK, there have been a lot of cases where people sent money to the wrong person. Hence, nowadays when people initiate a faster payment, the bank checks to ensure the recipient account is the person you intend to send to. This sort of functionality will also apply to a digital pound wallet.
It’s not just about the options of how each feature might work, but who will be responsible for the functionality, and where it sits. For example, it could be implemented by a technical service provider, the wallet operators (payment interface providers or PIPs), a financial market infrastructure, or some other organization. It could potentially be part of the CBDC system or elsewhere.
Key findings
The Bank of England’s digital pound consultation says that access to digital pound holdings may be restricted for financial firms. Several of the functional options explored would need wallet providers, commercial banks and FMIs to hold digital pounds, in some cases temporarily on behalf of clients.
This is particularly for interoperability between commercial bank money and the CBDC. Because of this restriction, none of the interoperability options were deemed entirely suitable.
In terms of who should be responsible for various features, the paper concludes that a financial market infrastructure is the answer. The Barclays team came to a similar conclusion regarding programmability in the previous paper.
Lee Braine from the chief technology office at Barclays, said that they “evaluated various design options and concluded a financial market infrastructure could help simplify the experience of ecosystem participants and facilitate the creation of innovative services.” Dr Braine is also a member of the Bank of England’s CBDC Technology Forum.
@ Newshounds News™
Source: Ledger Insights
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🌍THE GLOBAL CURRENCY RESET: REVOLUTIONIZING THE FINANCIAL WORLD | Youtube
@ Newshounds News™
Source: Seeds of Wisdom Team Currency Facts
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