Today in Crypto: Nomura’s Laser Digital has applied for a US national trust charter license, Standard Chartered warned that stablecoin growth could drain bank deposits, with regional lenders most at risk and Bitcoin’s network hashrate dipped over the weekend amid a massive winter storm across the United States.
Nomura-backed Laser Digital seeks US bank charter amid crypto banking push: Report
Laser Digital, a full-service digital asset company backed by Japanese financial group Nomura, has reportedly filed for a US national bank trust charter, signaling that crypto-focused companies are seeking deeper integration into the US financial system amid a more permissive regulatory environment.
Citing sources familiar with the matter, the Financial Times reported Tuesday that Laser Digital had submitted its application to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC). The charter would allow the company to operate at the federal level without applying for state-by-state custody licenses.
The company plans to offer spot trading for digital assets but does not intend to take customer deposits, the report said.
Approval of an OCC charter is a two-stage process, beginning with preliminary approval and followed by final authorization once the applicant demonstrates sufficient capital and operational credibility, a process that can take up to a year, the FT said.
Laser Digital was established in 2022 and is headquartered in Switzerland. The company has secured regulatory approvals in multiple jurisdictions, including Switzerland and Dubai.
Stablecoins a threat to bank deposits: Standard Chartered
Stablecoins pose a real risk to bank deposits both globally and in the United States, according to a new report by Standard Chartered analysts.
The delay of the US CLARITY Act — a bill proposing to prohibit interest on stablecoin holdings — is a “reminder that stablecoins pose a risk to banks,” Geoff Kendrick, global head of digital assets research at Standard Chartered, said in a report on Tuesday seen by Cointelegraph.
“We estimate that US bank deposits will decrease by one-third of stablecoin market cap,” the analyst said, referring to a $301.4 billion market of US dollar-pegged stablecoins, as measured by CoinGecko.
Standard Chartered’s findings add to the CLARITY Act debate amid companies like Coinbase withdrawing support, and Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire dismissing fears of stablecoin-driven bank runs as “totally absurd.”
In the report, Kendrick highlighted net interest margin (NIM) income — a key profitability metric that measures the difference between interest earned and interest paid, divided by average interest-earning assets.
“NIM income as a percentage of total bank revenue is the most accurate measure of this risk because deposits drive NIM, and they risk leaving banks as a result of stablecoin adoption,” Kendrick said.
“We find that regional US banks are more exposed on this measure than diversified banks and investment banks, which are least exposed,” he added, citing Huntington Bancshares, M&T Bank, Truist Financial and CFG Bank as the most exposed.
Bitcoin hashrate drops amid US winter storm
Bitcoin network hashrate hit a seven-month low over the weekend as a massive winter storm bombarded the United States with snow and ice, pushing miners to curtail operations to stabilize the energy grid.
American weather forecasting company AccuWeather reported on Monday that the massive winter storm affected three dozen states over the weekend, with widespread snow, ice, and power outages affecting one million energy customers.
Data from mining data tool CoinWarz shows that Bitcoin’s network hashrate began to drop on Friday, and by Sunday, it hit 663 exahashes per second (EH/s) — a more than 40% slump in hashrate across two days.
However, it has since begun to recover and is sitting around 854 EH/s as of Monday.
“Approximately 40% of global Bitcoin mining capacity has gone offline in the past 24 hours due to extreme winter weather,” said Abundant Mines, a Bitcoin miner based in Oregon.
The US contributes the largest amount of the world’s Bitcoin mining power, with Bitcoin mining data platform Hashrate Index estimating the country contributes nearly 38% of the global hashrate.
