Today the doj charges crypto exchange C Coin with violating anti-money Laundering rules the SEC proposes a $2 Billion fine for xrp issuer ripple and Paul Brody of ey breaks down what to Expect from the ethereum network in 2024 welcome to cnbc's crypto world I'm Talia Kaplan Bitcoin keeping its Momentum holding above the $70,000 Market reclaimed Yesterday by noon Eastern the crypto currency inched Higher by 2/3 of 1% meanwhile ether's Also in the green hovering just below $3600 chain links a bright spot today Climbing 3.8% okay let's talk about the top Stories the SEC is Seeking a nearly $2 Billion fine against Ripple last year a Federal judge found the issuer of xrp Violated Securities Law by selling the Token directly to institutions now the Court has to issue a final judgment and Decide how much Ripple has to pay for Breaking the law well the SEC says the Judge should hand down a $1.95 billion Penalty against the company Ripple's Chief legal officer posted on X that it Would file a response to the proposed Judgment next month we should also note That while Ripple was found to have Violated the law when it came to selling Xrp to institutions the judge said the Crypto company didn't break the law when It sold to retail investors next us
Officials just charged kucoin and two of Its Executives with allegedly violating Anti-money laundering rules prosecutors For the southern district of New York Alleged that the exchange in two of its Founders Chan Gan and katang operated an Unlicensed money transmitting business And violated the bank secrecy act by Failing to maintain a proper anti-money Laundering program at the same time the Cftc charged the exchange with failing To register with the agency failing to Implement an effective customer Identification program and more now we Reached out to kucoin and the company Told us it was currently investigating The details of the charges the company Added that it respects the laws and Regulations of various countries and Strictly adheres to compliance standards At the end of last year the company also Agree to shut down in the state of New York and pay a $22 million fine after Failing to register in the state all Right let's jump to our main story Paul Brody the global blockchain leader for Ey is a big believer in the potential of The ethereum network I sat down with him Last week to discuss the recent Resurgence of crypto adoption and what To expect from ethereum in the near Future There have been several developments in Crypto since the beginning of this year
Most notably spot Bitcoin ETF started Trading here in the US we also saw Bitcoin reach new all-time highs so with All these developments how do you think That's impacting crypto sentiment and Adoption so in general I think these Developments are driving adoption and They are driving uh um kind of the Sentiment in the market and it's not Just in the US US is by far the biggest Market but we're see seeing this in Europe and Asia there is a global I'll Call it regulatory convergence going on Where crypto is coming from outside the Regulated mainstream into the regulated Environment and that is that's driving Adoption because most of the world's Capital is it's in regulated markets and It's behind sort of regulatory controls Like Pension funds and large investment Funds and unless it's something like a Regulated structured uh uh product or It's listed on an exchange they really Can't buy it they they'd be violating Their kind of responsibility to their Clients so obviously you're big on Ethereum you wrote a book on ethereum For business after all so I'm curious to Get your take on some current events Applying to ethereum recently the Network went through its latest upgrade Denon which is meant to help with Scalability so how has that upgrade Influenced adoption and sentiment to
Ethereum and ether specifically so Ethereum's been doing this for quite a While now and denan in particular isn't A major upgrade although it's got some Important features there's two things Worth taking away from denan the first Is that like all these other previous Ethereum upgrades they did this Flawlessly no drama no downtime it's Kind of really amazing when you think About it right they moved several Hundred billion dollars of financial Infrastructure from one version to the Next without a hiccup so that's the First thing which is just the maturity Of the organization the people the Engineers behind it the second thing Though is that first the merge that Happened you know about I think it's 12 Months ago and now denin they are both Milestones in terms of driving down the Cost of transactions and denin in Particular built on the merge and now We're seeing some of the transaction Costs on ethereum they are falling well Below a penny some of them were allow Down five cent down to 5 cents Previously but now we're below a penny And this may not seem like a big deal But particularly for industrial Customers you're talking about I've got Clients for example they want to do a Million or more transactions a day for a Single product line to manage their
Supply chains so when you start to talk About those volumes really really low Transaction costs are extremely Important another development we're Following obviously a lot of asset Managers have applications pending Before the SEC for spot ether ETF some Of those asset managers include Black Rock vanc and grayscale and last time You were on the show on crypto world Back in September you were optimistic it Seemed that these applications will in Fact get approved and you noted that if They do in fact get approved there will Be a tital wave of institutional money That flows into the space so are you Still feeling optimistic that these Ether ETFs will get approved and what Will change if they do get approved so I'm very optimistic the experience with The Bitcoin ETFs has been very positive There's the same kind of thing pending With the ethereum ones that are are Going to be just as positive what is Going to happen eventually and I'm a Little surprised that hasn't happened Yet is that people don't treat Bitcoin And ethereum differently they both see Them as cryptocurrencies but really Bitcoin has become the kind of digital Gold it is a crypto asset whereas Ethereum is really shaping up as a Crypto Computing platform and so if you Want to hold an asset just for
Appreciation people are going to buy Bitcoin if you want to invest in a Computing platform for financial Services and business operations then Ethereum and eth in particular is is Going to be your choice now we recently Learned that the SEC is reportedly Investigating the ethereum foundation Forbes is reporting that the SEC is Seeking to classify eth as a security so What's your reaction to that and what Will happen if it is in fact deemed a Security so two things I mean first of All there's been all these reports but There haven't been a lot of facts and And I could be wrong because I haven't Seen the latest data but I don't think The SEC themselves have actually said Anything on this topic officially you Know I feel like in the Bitcoin Discussion first of all they delayed the Bitcoin conversation a couple of times They they allowed the maximum timeline And secondly there were always rumors Flying around I think it would be Premature to like worry too much about That but Obviously even if ethereum is Categorized as a security it doesn't Change the fact that is an extremely Valuable uh platform and we've already Worked with a lot of clients to be able To use ethereum block chain without ever Holding eth you can just transact
Entirely in US dollars so I don't think It will be an obstacle to the adoption Of ethereum as a Computing platform and It certainly won't be an issue in Europe Or Asia where a lot of other countries Have regulatory Frameworks that support Securities and allow them we also Recently learned that black rock the World's largest asset manager got into The asset tokenization race creating a Fund on the ethereum network and black Rock is creating the fund with Securitize which is a big name in real World asset tokenization so what does That signal to you it signals I think Something that we've expected for a long Time which is that as money comes into These crypto and blockchain ecosystem if You want a crypto asset you will buy Bitcoin but if you want a tokenized Digital asset you will buy those on the Ethereum platform and what we're seeing Now is ethereum's just become the Default choice for any kind of token any Kind of tokenized asset even if it's not A cryptocurrency if it's a real world Asset gold oil you name it it's going to Be on the etherian ecosystem now last Time you were on the show you also Mentioned that there is going to be one Blockchain ecosystem that rules them all And you believe that is ethereum why do You think that is so ethereum is Dominant in the same way that things
Like Microsoft Windows are it's not that And I always hate getting into Discussion of which platform is better Better because there are always better Platforms technology keeps moving along However what happens is we tend to pick A platform that's widely adopted and it Gets a lot of momentum and we see that In Computing platforms all the time Right Windows is the world's desktop Operating system IBM has the dominant Share is the 100% share of the Mainframe Business ethereum is if you think of Ethereum as a Computing platform this Idea that we would have a single Dominant platform makes a lot of sense And if you look at the ecosystem right Now for example there's quite a few Challengers to ethereum but ethereum Itself now contains more than 40 layer 2 Networks so the real competitive action The real Innovation is now happening Inside the ethereum ecosystem not in Competition with it so that the momentum Has really changed in terms of where the Market focus is and I think that is Actually really good for the development Of applications because people are no Longer saying which network should I be On they're going to be on ethereum and Then the question is what should I Deploy what layer 2 Network should I Use now bro also explains some of Ethereum's Enterprise use cases outlined
In his book ethereum for business plus He addresses how blockchain technology Could help address election security Concerns you can check out the full Interview over at cnbc.com Cryptoworld okay that's all for Cryptoworld today but we'll be back Again tomorrow and we'll see you [Music] Then
