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The European Union securities watchdog is asking stakeholders whether it should include crypto assets into investment products a move that could enable crypto to tap a market bigger than spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds.

The European Securities and Markets Authority is asking industry and experts to provide input on expanding the assets eligible for the network called Undertakings for Collective Investment in Transferable Securities, or UCITS.

The move opens the door to broader access to cryptocurrencies via UCITS, a 12 trillion market.

If ESMA is convinced, it would be the final step in mainstreaming crypto assets in Europe, financial regulation expert Sean Tuffy told DL News, calling it a potential game changer.

It comes on the back of the US and Hong Kong regulators approving Bitcoin ETFs this year, highlighting how traditional financial players are muscling into crypto.

In the US alone, funds run by the likes of BlackRock and Grayscale each raked in roughly $18 billion since January becoming a key driver of the Bitcoin rally in the first quarter of 2024.

However, approval is not a forlorn conclusion.

ESMAs call for stakeholder input is open until August 7.

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The impact would be more significant than the US ETFs, Andrea Pantaleo, a lawyer specialised in crypto regulation and litigation at DLA Piper, told DL News.

Because there could be plenty of fund compartments interested in investing small percentages of liquidity in crypto-assets.

There are several reasons why accessing UCITS could prove a boon for the industry.

UCITS investments are made up of many different categories for funds which have different assets allocated to them depending on their risk and profile.

There is another way the EU framework could benefit crypto: Authorisation is not required for each time a fund invest in crypto-assets, and this would also benefit market liquidity, Pantaleo said.

In the US, ETFs are based on single assets which regulators need to authorise.

But in Europe, UCITS investment funds can allocate liquidity to more crypto assets without obtaining authorisation beforehand for each one.

UCITS funds have specific investment limitations depending on the type of assets, Pantaleo said. We wont have a 100% crypto UCITS fund, but hopefully many investment funds could hold 1-2% of their liquidity in crypto.

While investors can trade Bitcoin exchange-traded products in the EU, they havent been as popular as their US counterparts. Asset managers in the EU already offer ETPs which behave like ETFs.

But there is a long way to go before crypto assets are potentially included into the framework.

The only issue could be custody, Pantaleo said, as the regulation on depository banks for funds should be coordinated with crypto-assets custody.

The EU bloc is rolling out its legal framework for crypto over the coming years known as the Markets in Crypto-Assets regulation, or MiCA. For custodians, MiCA lays down rules for segregation of assets and policies for safekeeping.

Crypto assets involved in UCITS would likely need to comply to the same rules.

To this effect, the ESMA has also asked for specific feedback on how adding specific cryptocurrencies to the framework would or wouldnt be affected by MiCA.

The process of updating the UCITS eligible assets rules is not quick and will be subject to a lot of negotiation, Tuffy said.

Weve got a long road to go before well know if crypto will be allowed into UCITS.

Inbar Priess is a Regulation Correspondent at DL News. Got a tip? Email her at inbar@dlnews.com.

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EU mulls adding crypto in 12tn investment market bigger than Bitcoin ETFs - DLNews

Three-fifths of the Democrats in Nevadas congressional delegation agree with the states only Republican in Congress, Rep. Mark Amodei: If theres one thing the federal government should do, that thing is whatever mining wants.

Amodei got a bill passed on the floor of your United States House of Representatives this week.

First, congratulations, Congressman. A representative getting the House to pass a bill was no small thing even back in what might be thought of as saner times. The good ship Saner Times having sailed, the current Republican-controlled House, despite recent life signs, remains on pace to be the least productive in decades.

And it looked like that stunning record of mayhem-enriched underachievement would likewise doom Amodeis bill, which went belly up on the House floor last week when someone evidently forgot to tell a few Republican members of a narrowly divided House that there was work that day.

But there was a mining industry to protect, dadgummit, and Amodei, a former president of the Nevada Mining Association (while he was still in the state Senate ha ha is that the Nevada Way or what?), would not be denied.

If passed by the Senate and signed by the president, the bill would erase a 2022 federal court ruling that tried to impose a small measure of long-overdue sense on another law that was sponsored by a Nevadan on behalf of the mining industry 150 years earlier, the General Mining Law of 1872.

Background: A couple years ago in what is known as the Rosemont decision, a federal appeals court said when mining companies stake claims on federal land, and they find minerals on that land, mine away, as per usual, under ye olde 1872 law. But! The court also ruled and this was new that companies cant use adjacent federal land on which no valuable minerals have been proven to exist as part of the mining operation. So no filthy slag heaps on the other side of the road, that sort of thing.

Amodeis bill aims to overturn the Rosemont decision, and thus make filthy slag heaps on the other side of the road great again.

The vast majority of House Democrats, including Nevadas Dina Titus and Susie Lee, voted against Amodeis bill. But there were eight Democratic exceptions, one of whom was Nevada Rep. Steven Horsford, who is reliably eager to demonstrate fealty to Nevadas mining industry.

Nevada Democratic Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto was predictably giddy over the House passing Amodeis bill, her being a lead co-sponsor of companion legislation in the Senate.

Nevada Democratic Sen. Jacky Rosen is one of that measures co-sponsors, which wont win her many votes in the rurals this year, but at least should help dissuade the mining industry from spending any money against her in her reelection campaign.

A similar and successful safeguarding of the mining industrys bottom line earned Cortez Masto a small assist from the industry in the rurals during her 2022 reelection campaign.

Arizona independent Sen. Kyrsten Sinema is also a co-sponsor, so between her, both Nevada senators, and all Republicans, its conceivable the bill could pass the narrowly divided Senate. If Democratic Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer lets it come up.

Mining corporations and the politicians who love them have been urgently stressing how vital their industry is to national security. That emphasis, almost always accompanied by saying China a few times, helps put the critical in critical minerals.

After House passage of his bill this week, Amodei didnt disappoint. Securing our domestic mineral supply chain is not only critical to our nations economic success, but to our national security, he said.

When touting the Senate version of the legislation last year, Cortez Masto said we must produce minerals in the United States and not solely rely on foreign sources, some of whom threaten our national securityAll of this means we must address the complications created by the Rosemont decision.

And on multiple occasions, Cortez Masto has warned that the Rosemont decision will upend the mining industry.

Evidence suggests otherwise: The same mineral deposits at the heart of the terrible horrible no good very bad Rosemont decision the example Cortez Masto refers to when she says the decision will upend mining are included in an Arizona mining complex currently being developed by the same Canadian corporation that was developing the Rosemont mine. Except now the project is bigger. And instead of Rosemont, its called Copper World.

If enacted, the Amodei-Cortez Masto legislative effort to reverse the Rosemont decision, like a call from Cortez Masto and Rosen to allow lithium mining corporations to get tax credits against extraction costs, may help Nevadas nascent lithium industry and other newly developing critical mineral mines save a buck or two and pass those savings on to shareholders the world over.

But whether the Rosemont decision is left intact will have no impact whatsoever on the certainty or scale of future mineral production. That will be determined by the price of the mineral. Period.

That doesnt mean the legislation is meaningless.

It could potentially enhance returns for mining corporation shareholders.

It could provide Rosen yet another opportunity to make a campaign ad celebrating how much she loves to stand up to Democrats and vote with Republicans.

It confirms yet again that there is a contingent of Nevada Democratic politicians who believe Nevada should remain a mining colony.

And, most consequentially, it would assure massive hills of mining waste where they dont belong, on public lands that arent even being mined, doing what massive hills of mining waste always do: contaminating soil, water, and air, far into the foreseeable future.

See more here:
3 out of 5 NV congressional Democrats want to let the mining industry party like it's 1872 Nevada Current - Nevada Current

Speaker Mike Johnson on Wednesday easily batted down an attempt by Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia to oust him from his post, after Democrats linked arms with most Republicans to fend off a second attempt by G.O.P. hard-liners to strip the gavel from their party leader.

The vote to kill the effort was an overwhelming 359 to 43, with seven voting present. Democrats flocked to Mr. Johnsons rescue, with all but 39 of them voting with Republicans to block the effort to oust him.

Members of the minority party in the House have never propped up the other partys speaker, and when the last Republican to hold the post, Kevin McCarthy, faced a removal vote last fall, Democrats voted en masse to allow the motion to move forward and then to jettison him, helping lead to his historic ouster.

This time, the Democratic support made the critical difference, allowing Mr. Johnson, who has a minuscule majority, to avoid a removal vote altogether. While for weeks Ms. Greene had appeared to be on a political island in her drive to get rid of yet another G.O.P. speaker, 11 Republicans ultimately voted to allow her motion to move forward.

That was the same number of Republicans who voted in October to allow the bid to remove Mr. McCarthy to advance but back then, they were joined by every Democrat.

I appreciate the show of confidence from my colleagues to defeat this misguided effort, Mr. Johnson told reporters shortly after Wednesdays vote. As Ive said from the beginning and Ive made clear here every day, I intend to do my job. I intend to do what I believe to be the right thing, which is what I was elected to do, and Ill let the chips fall where they may. In my view, that is leadership.

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Speaker Mike Johnson Survives Marjorie Taylor Greene Move to Oust Him - The New York Times

In roughly 100 days, President Joe Biden is set to stand on a stage in Chicago's United Center and accept his party's presidential nomination. The organizers of this year's Democratic National Convention hope America will focus its attention at that moment on Biden's words and the cheers and enthusiasm of the crowd in the arena.

But many Democrats fear that voters' attention will be at best divided between the heavily stage-managed activities in the arena and the chaos unfolding just outside it.

More than 70 organizations have joined a coalition to March on the DNC when Biden and others in his administration arrive in Chicago. Protest organizers predict it will be the largest protest for Palestinian rights in Chicagos history, with tens of thousands of people showing up from across the country.

Our goal is to send a message to Biden that he and his party have been complicit in the genocide that he has had the power since October to stop by turning off the tap of money and weapons to Israel, says Hatem Abudayyeh, chair of the U.S. Palestinian Community Network and a spokesperson for the Coalition to March on the DNC.

The group was denied a permit to hold protest marches within blocks of the DNC. Organizers say they plan to march near the convention site with or without a permit and have sued the city alleging First Amendment violations. They say the citys proposed alternative locationfour miles away from United Centeris unacceptable as it will mean they wont be seen or heard by those attending the convention.

Protest leaders hope to harness the energy that has powered pro-Palestinian protests on dozens of college campuses in recent weeks, most of which are expected to largely wind down as soon as the spring semester ends. Columbia University and the University of Southern California are among the institutions that canceled commencement ceremonies due to the unrest. For protest leaders the DNC will provide an even bigger national stage.

Read more: What Americas Student Photojournalists Saw at the Campus Protests

We are very sensitive to the environment that were walking in here in Chicago, DNC Chair Minyon Moore, a longtime Democratic strategist, said at a news conference in April. We know that these protesters are coming. Were trying to create an environment where everyone is welcome. We do protect First Amendment rights, but we also want to reassure you that the people are excited about this convention coming.

For Biden, how he handles the escalating protests could shape the political landscape as he works to cast himself as running a more orderly and competent federal government than former President Donald Trump did. To help ensure the event goes smoothly, Biden added a trusted aide, Louisa Terrell, to the conventions leadership team. Terrell started working for Biden two decades ago and most recently served as his director of legislative affairs.

While the campus protests have drawn global attention, Bidens advisers don't believe the Israel-Hamas conflict is the main priority for young voters in this election. Yet they are keenly aware that managing the fallout from these demonstrations remains crucial to maintaining support from young people and Muslim Americans.

What Biden has done to allow that to happen is inexcusable and unforgivable, Abudayyeh says. And none of us in the Palestinian and Arab community in this country will ever forgive him or his partyThere's nothing that comes out of this President's mouth anymore that anyone from my community cares about.

Whether that anger will still burn as strongly in four months is an open question. Biden officials have been working for months to obtain a ceasefire in the Gaza conflict. And Biden just announced he would withhold certain weapons from Israel over concerns that the Israelis might use them in Rafah, where more than one million civilians are sheltering. Yet protest organizers anticipate that frustration with Biden will not ebb over the summer after his months of support for a military campaign in which more than 30,000 people in Gaza have died.

Protesters have been a fixture at party conventions for decades, and are expected to also show up at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee in July. Yet some Republicans predict the DNC protests will be far more intense and more politically damaging. Montana Senator Steve Daines, who heads the National Republican Senatorial Committee, told a group of reporters last week that he thinks the pro-Palestine protests could be a big problem for Democrats in August in Chicago.

For decades, every Democrat and Republican political convention has been declared a national special security event by the Department of Homeland Security. That designation puts the Secret Service in charge of coordinating safety planning with the FBI, FEMA, police in Chicago and other federal and state and local agencies. In March, Congress allocated $75 million for both the DNC and RNC for security.

DNC organizers are focused on securing the area around McCormick Place, the convention center along the shore of Lake Michigan where official party meetings will take place, and around United Center, the home arena for the Bulls and the Blackhawks and the location for most of the evening proceedings that will draw the biggest audiences. The exact borders of the security perimeter for those locations will be announced at the end of July, said a person familiar with the planning who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe internal discussions.

In Chicago, security training started last year to prepare for many different scenarios, including preparations for civil disturbances and how to share information quickly during an emergency, according to a statement provided by the Secret Services Chicago field office. By the time the Democrats' convention starts in August, security agencies will have conducted multiple tabletop exercises for potential emergencies and led security forces through 400 hours of training, according to the Secret Service.

Chicago Police Department Superintendent Larry Snelling said in March that Chicago police will protect all those exercising their first amendment rights in and around the convention. What we will not tolerate is criminal activity, he added. Violence, vandalism will not be tolerated.

Last month, when pro-Palestinian demonstrators blocked the road into Chicagos OHare airport, police removed protestors from the roadway within 90 minutes. Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker later told CNN that the action showed that the Chicago police were ready for protests around the convention in August.

The impending confrontation between pro-Palestinian protesters and authorities at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago has drawn comparisons to 1968 Democratic convention in Chicago, where a violent police crackdown on anti-Vietnam War protesters gained national attention and hurt the partys nominee, Hubert Humphrey.

Read More: Violence Was Inevitable: How 7 Key Players Remember the Chaos of 1968s Democratic National Convention Protests

We wanted to stop the war, and we thought the best way to do that would be to make as much trouble as possible for the Democrats, Michael Kazin, who attended the DNC protest in 1968 as a member of Students for a Democratic Society, recently recalled to TIME. I think we succeeded in turning off a lot of Americans in the middle from voting for Democrats. Later that year, Republican Richard Nixon won the White House, further escalated the U.S. involvement in Vietnam and started the selective service draft.

Kazin, who is now a history professor at Georgetown University and the author of "What It Took to Win: A History of the Democratic Party," recalled most Americans at the time sided with the police over the protesters, even as images of police brutality by the Chicago Police Department during the riot drew outrage.

But the parallels for Democrats between 2024 and 1968 go beyond a robust protest movement and a convention in Chicago. Kazin points to how Humphrey ultimately lost to Nixon amid domestic angst over the Vietnam War.

Joe Biden is a liberal Democrat, as Hubert Humphrey was, and he's tried to do a lot domestically that people on the left generally like, he says, but at the same time, they don't like his foreign policy, which is similar to what was going on in the mid-to-late 60s.

Read more:
How Democrats Hope to Limit Protests at the DNC in Chicago - TIME

Zimmerman is now in custody after being charged with murder in the second degree in the Florida teen's shooting death.

By Rob Markman

Trayvon Martin

Photo: AP

After months of public outcry, there was a major break Wednesday (April 11) in the tragic shooting death of Florida teen Trayvon Martin: Triggerman George Zimmerman was charged with murder in the second degree.

Special prosecutor Angela Corey announced the charges during a press conference in Jacksonville, Florida, just a half-hour after it was reported that Zimmerman turned himself in to authorities. Zimmerman was arrested and now is in an undisclosed location.

Martin's February 26 death sent shockwaves through the nation. Zimmerman, a neighborhood watchman, saw 17-year-old Trayvon walking through his gated community in Sanford, Florida, and immediately grew suspicious of the teen, who was wearing a hooded sweatshirt. When Zimmerman called 911, police dispatchers advised him not to pursue Martin. By the time police arrived on the scene,...

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Trayvon Martin Shooter George Zimmerman Charged With Murder - imdb