Miami mayor aiming for 'the most progressive crypto laws'

NEWS

Francis Suarez, who has served as the mayor of Miami since 2017, wants to make the city the most attractive in the United States for those in the crypto and blockchain industry.

In an interview with Forbes published Sunday, Suarez said lawmakers in Miami were looking into the policies of crypto-friendly areas like Wyoming and New York in an effort to promote regulatory incentives for crypto and blockchain in Florida.

“[Miami is] making sure that we have the most progressive crypto laws,” said Suarez. “We want to make sure that we believe that if all things are equal, we win. So, we just want to equalize the playing field. We want to make sure that nobody has an advantage over us based on laws that are easily changeable.”

Mayor Suarez did not describe the race to be the regulatory winner as a fight between lawmakers in other jurisdictions. Rather, he gave Wyoming “kudos for being smart” in attracting crypto firms, but added that “every city in America and in the world should be trying to grow its technology ecosystem.”

“We're working on making sure that our incentives are in place and that our legislation promotes crypto and blockchain and is forward-thinking.”

The mayor has already made several bullish statements on Bitcoin (BTC) and crypto in recent weeks, including having Miami consider letting city employees to get paid in BTC rather than U.S. dollars. He also proposed allowing Miami residents to pay for local fees and taxes using crypto as well as investing some of the city’s treasury into Bitcoin, a task he called “the hardest” of the three ideas.

He has already spoken with a few high-profile figures in the crypto community including a meeting with Gemini co-founders Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss. Earlier this month, Tyler said that the mayor is “leading the way for governments and Bitcoin.”

Mayor Suarez did not provide a timeline as to when these actions may take effect for Miami’s 450,000 residents, but some in the crypto community have seemingly taken notice. Last week, Bitcoin 2021 announced it would be moving from Los Angeles to Miami for its June crypto conference.

High-flying DeFi protocol takes on stablecoins with supply-elastic token

A DeFi protocol is creating a bridge between traditional finance and crypto markets through a supply-elastic token that tracks the VIX.

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A DeFi protocol says it offers a fresh perspective on supply-elastic tokens, which have exploded in popularity across the decentralized finance sector.

Benchmark Protocol’s goal is to create a bridge between traditional finance and the crypto markets — all while adopting and refining a proven rebase algorithm introduced by Ampleforth.

The supply of MARK tokens is adjusted by tracking the movements of the CBOE volatility index (VIX) — also known as the “fear index” — in a smart and fast process.

Whereas other supply-elastic tokens target a price of $1 by adjusting for U.S. inflation, Benchmark Protocol’s target price is a composite international reserve asset known as Special Drawing Rights (SDR.) This is dubbed as the world’s most stable currency thanks to how it consists of the dollar, euro, pound, yuan and yen.

“Integrating such exposure provides a level of consistency and stability lacking from traditional stablecoins,” the Benchmark Protocol team explained. “By utilizing the SDR, holding the MARK token fosters increased adoption rather than exposure to just one currency, which creates a larger user base and delineated exposure to markets around the world.”

Mitigating volatility

Spikes in the VIX ultimately increase the token supply in the Benchmark Protocol — a correlation that aims to reduce the impact of liquidation events and act as a hedging mechanism. Supply is rebalanced within five hours of the New York Stock Exchange closing to reduce arbitrage activity, and to coincide with the capital markets, no supply adjustments are made on the weekend.

Benchmark Protocol says crypto enthusiasts may prefer MARK to stablecoins because of how it has a global inflation risk profile instead of a single currency risk profile, is shielded against inflation, and addresses collateralization risk, where stablecoins can become insolvent because the collateral backing it is now worth less than the asset that was issued.

A comprehensive liquidity pool rewards program known as The Press has already been rolled out, along with single-asset staking. Two trading pairs — MARK-ETH and MARK-USDC — are now available on Uniswap, and this list of supported pairs is going to be expanded over time.

Benchmark Protocol says that a unique feature of The Press means unclaimed rewards are not subject to supply adjustments — helping to promote long-term price stability around the peg.

Over time, it’s hoped that MARK will serve as a compelling alternative for stablecoins.

‘Filling an important gap in DeFi’

A plethora of dynamic collaborations have been unveiled in recent month, with Benchmark Protocol being onboarded onto Fulcrum, bZx’s margin platform. This ecosystem relies heavily on tokenization — and provides a decentralized environment for tokenized lending and margin trading.

When the news was announced back in November, Benchmark Protocol founder Harrison Woytko said: “With a suite of features available on the bZx network, onboarding to Fulcrum has been on the team’s radar since the initiation of our Protocol. One of my favorite features is allowing users to personalize their collateralization exposure.”

Elsewhere, Benchmark Protocol also confirmed it is utilizing RenVM to ensure the protocol “can excel in a cross-chain environment” — allowing MARK tokens to move seamlessly between networks in a blockchain-agnostic fashion. Ren’s alliance includes a consortium of DeFi projects, including the likes of Aave and Matic Network.

“When I think about Ren, the concept of creating and applying mainstream decentralized finance channels for all of crypto and creating a connection with broader capital markets is the real driver for collaboration,” Woytko added at the time.

Benchmark Protocol has also been building on Solana to further enhance its cross-chain capabilities — boosting liquidity in the broader DeFi sector. Integration is set to be completed in the second quarter of 2021, a significant step in ensuring that blockchain networks are able to communicate with each other and no longer exist in silos.

Looking ahead, the project says it is determined to continue refining its algorithms to enhance precision — delivering true utility to the supply-elastic ecosystem and enabling tangible use cases to be deployed in the short term.