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Better Markets

Nonprofit advocacy organisation in Washington that argues the public-interest case in financial market regulation and rulemaking.

Known aliases

  • BetterMarkets

Current stories

investConfirmed6 publishers

CFTC carves casino gambling out of its swap definition to claim event contracts for itself

Mike Selig's CFTC put one rule into force Friday and proposed another defining event contracts as swaps under its sole oversight, with 30 days for comment. States have won two of three federal appellate rulings so far, and the Supreme Court has been asked to settle the fight.

Perspective Coverage

6 publishers
Builder
Builder 12%
Operator
Operator 51%
Investor
Investor 37%

Reality

Evidence74
Adoption
Not scored
Hype gap+15
Incentives70
Confidence70
investConfirmed15 publishers

SEC prices its crypto self-custody fallback at $433,833 a year per adviser

SEC estimates its proposed crypto self-custody fallback will cost each adviser that uses it $433,833 a year, and assumes about 823 firms will. After the CLARITY Act's Senate failure, that price helps decide which advisers can hold newly launched tokens for clients.

Perspective Coverage

15 publishers
Builder
Builder 21%
Operator
Operator 45%
Investor
Investor 34%

Reality

Evidence76
Adoption8
Hype gap+10
Incentives62
Confidence70
investConfirmed14 publishers

CFTC proposes a narrower crypto exchange license built on its power over leveraged trades

CFTC proposed two crypto rules creating a narrower exchange license for leveraged, margined and financed trades, open to comment for 60 days. Plain spot trading falls outside the CFTC's authority, and officials say they cannot yet size that leftover market.

Perspective Coverage

17 publishers
Builder
Builder 13%
Operator
Operator 48%
Investor
Investor 39%

Reality

Evidence78
Adoption8
Hype gap+25
Incentives62
Confidence72
investConfirmed2 publishers

Better Markets says the CFTC lacks the investor-protection mandate to police retail crypto leverage

Better Markets says the CFTC lacks the mandate to police leveraged retail crypto under the plan it floated on October 5. Its harder objection for the agency to answer is legal: the group says the statute the CFTC relies on was written for leveraged precious-metals fraud.

Reality

Evidence55
Adoption
Not scored
Hype gap+5
Incentives65
Confidence60
scienceOne report1 publisher

Better Markets presses the CFTC to bar exchanges from trading on their own platforms

Better Markets wants the CFTC to bar exchanges from trading on their own platforms, citing an agency count of six that already do. The figure shows the practice exists, though an arms race would need an earlier count and a total to measure.

Publishers:cryptotimes.io

Reality

Evidence35
Adoption
Not scored
Hype gap+25
Incentives65
Confidence40
investOne report1 publisher

Community banks added $482 billion of deposits while stablecoins grew

The American Bankers Association warns that as much as $6.6 trillion of transactional deposits is exposed to stablecoin migration. That pool is about 2.6 times what every US bank under $10 billion holds in total, and small-bank deposits grew anyway.

Publishers:fortune.com

Reality

Evidence55
Adoption25
Hype gap+12
Incentives65
Confidence48
investOne report1 publisher

Hunter Biden's launch post disclaims the exact promise that would make LAPTOP a security

Arkham marked $144bn of fully diluted value two minutes after LAPTOP launched and $5bn at the half hour, and with the SEC's February meme-coin statement in force, the only cops left for the buyers are fraud cops.

Reality

Evidence55
Adoption40
Hype gap+20
Incentives65
Confidence50
investOne report1 publisher

Better Markets sues to have court withdraw Basel III proposal, seeks Bowman's recusal

Better Markets says Michelle Bowman met big-bank executives privately and coached them to file mild comments, and it wants the Basel III proposal withdrawn and Bowman recused. She said she directed no one.

Reality

Evidence55
Adoption
Not scored
Hype gap+15
Incentives70
Confidence60
investOne report1 publisher

Kalshi and Polymarket will trade the midterms before any court rules on their legality

The litigation over whether election wagers are illegal gambling will not conclude before votes are counted, which leaves the platforms booking their largest volume inside about 25 states whose statutes ban it.

Publishers:fortune.com

Reality

Evidence55
Adoption40
Hype gap+18
Incentives75
Confidence58