U.S. legislators Rep. Trey Hollingsworth and Sen. Bill Hagerty have introduced a bill designed to bring transparency to stablecoins such as Tether. The proposed bill - The Stablecoin Transparency Act - would require stablecoins to be fully backed by dollars or short-term government securities.

European lawmakers voted in favour of a widely criticized measure yesterday that would outlaw anonymous crypto transactions of all sizes (March 31st). Many industry participants, such as Coinbase, objected to the bill and warned it could stifle privacy and innovation.

The American investment firm, VanEck, believes that if Bitcoin were to become the global reserve asset then it could be worth as much as $4.8 million per coin with double the upside of gold. 

Top stories in the Crypto Roundup today:

• U.S. Legislators Propose Stablecoin Transparency Act
• EU Lawmakers Vote To Outlaw Anonymous Crypto Transactions
• Bitcoin Could Hit $4.8M if It Became Global Reserve Asset

U.S. Legislators Propose Stablecoin Transparency Act

U.S. legislators Rep. Trey Hollingsworth and Sen. Bill Hagerty have introduced a bill designed to bring transparency to stablecoins such as Tether. The proposed bill - The Stablecoin Transparency Act - would require stablecoins to be fully backed by dollars or short-term government securities.

Stablecoin issuers, such as Circle and others, have historically received criticism from the U.S. government for the backing of their token. According to an attestation report that dates back to mid-July 2021, only 61% of its stablecoin holdings were backed by cash or cash equivalents. 

Stablecoin tokens claim to be pegged 1:1 with fiat currency. The proposed act would look to enforce this by requiring stablecoin issuers, such as Circle and Tether with their respective USDC and USDT tokens, to regularly publish audited reports that clearly demonstrate that their stablecoin is backed by a combination of the U.S. dollar and "government securities with maturities less than 12 months".

Senator Hagerty maintains that the Stablecoin Transparency Act was designed with “consumer protection” in mind and won’t put the fate of stablecoins down to "unaccountable bureaucrats who threaten to choke off innovation.”

EU Lawmakers Vote To Outlaw Anonymous Crypto Transactions

European lawmakers voted in favour of a widely criticized measure yesterday that would outlaw anonymous crypto transactions of all sizes (March 31st). Many industry participants, such as Coinbase, objected to the bill and warned it could stifle privacy and innovation.

As reported by Coindesk, more than 90 lawmakers voted in favour of the proposed measure that would see anti-money laundering AML requirements extended to transactions in excess of €1000. The presented changes would also require that the payers and recipients of small cryptocurrency transactions to be identified - even if they are via a self-hosted wallet. 

Members of the centre-right European People's Party (EPP) condemned what they called a “de facto ban of self-hosted wallets.” EPP economic spokesperson, Markus Ferber, stated that  “such proposals are neither warranted nor proportionate,” he continued that “with this approach of regulating new technologies, the European Union will fall further behind other, more open-minded jurisdictions”. 

CEO of Coinbase Brian Armstrong warned that as a result of the measures, Coinbase would be required to collect and verify information on the other party before you can send or receive crypto from a self-hosted wallet - even if they are not a customer of Coinbase before the transaction is allowed. 

The plans must also be agreed on by both the parliament and national ministers, who meet as the EU Council, in order to pass into law.

Bitcoin Could Hit $4.8M if It Became Global Reserve Asset

The American investment firm, VanEck, believes that if Bitcoin were to become the global reserve asset then it could be worth as much as $4.8 million per coin with double the upside of gold. 

VanEck reiterated that the above outcome is a big IF - and believes that the Chinese Yuan is a more likely contender. 

The price prediction for Bitcoin was sourced from a March 30 insights piece which was written by VanEck’s Head of Active EM Debt Eric Fine and Chief Economist Natalia Gurushina. The two members of VanEck want to theorize the implied price for both gold and Bitcoin if either were to be adopted as backing for global currency regimes.

According to VanEck’s analysis, the implied price for Bitcoin in this scenario would range from $1.3 million to $4.8 million. The lower prediction was based on BTC as a monetary base (M0), and the higher prediction came from the more common M2 assessment.

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