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A host of companies including Ecosia, Qwant and Shibsted have signed an open letter accusing Big Tech “gatekeepers” of not doing enough to engage effectively with them and others.
The firms have called on the European Commission and the European Parliament to do everything in their power to ensure the gatekeepers comply with the letter and spirit of the Digital Markets Act.
It comes ahead of a key March 7 deadline, by which Amazon, Alphabet, Apple, Microsoft, Meta and ByteDance are required to be compliant with the new rules.

The logos of Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon and Microsoft displayed on a mobile phone with an EU flag shown in the background.
Justin Tallis | AFP via Getty Images

A raft of major technology and media companies have signed an open letter accusing tech giants of failing to bring their businesses into full compliance with incoming European Union digital competition rules.
The signatories say that companies defined by the EU as “gatekeepers,” including Google, Amazon, Apple, Meta, Microsoft, and TikTok owner ByteDance, haven’t done enough to engage effectively with them and others in their industry.

Under the EU’s Digital Markets Act, companies with more than 45 million monthly active users and a market capitalization over 75 billion euros ($81.2 billion) are considered gatekeepers.
They are required to, for example, make their messaging apps work with those of rivals, and let users decide which apps come pre-installed with their devices.
Another EU requirement is that these platforms do not implement practices that lead to the “self-preferencing” of their services over others.
The open letter, which was signed by international media group Schibsted, eco-friendly search engine Ecosia, privacy-focused search engine Qwant, secure messaging app Element, and VPN service ProtonVPN, said the gatekeepers “have either failed to engage in a dialogue with third parties or have presented solutions falling short of compliance with the DMA.”
They also said that businesses and consumers have been largely “kept in the dark” about what’s going to happen after March 7, 2024 — a pivotal deadline by which all six Big Tech gatekeepers need to get their businesses into compliance with the DMA.

“The signatories of this letter represent thousands of businesses affected by the DMA,” the letter stated. “They urge the gatekeepers to engage as soon as possible with business users and other stakeholders, such as business and consumer associations, in a constructive dialogue and make swift progress on their proposed compliance solutions.”
“They also urge the European Commission and the European Parliament to use all within their power to ensure that the gatekeepers comply with both the letter and spirit of the DMA, starting from 7 March 2024,” the signatories added.
Here are the 24 companies that signed the letter:

Adevinta
Allegro
Billiger.de
Ceneo
CompareGroup
Ecosia
Element
Favi
Heureka Group
Idealo
Kelkoo
Ladenzeile
Le Guide.com
OLX
Open-Xchange
Panther Holding GmbH
Preis.de
Prisjakt
Proton
Qwant
Runnea
Schibsted
Solute
Vipps

The EU Commission and the EU Parliament were not immediately available for comment on the issue when contacted by CNBC. CNBC also reached out to Google-parent Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta, Microsoft, and ByteDance.

Christian Kroll, CEO and co-founder of Ecosia, told CNBC ahead of the open letter that regulators needed to keep large technology companies in check, or else risk businesses like his facing financial consequences.
“There has always been a huge challenge: Google has had the monopoly for over a decade, but I think we are currently more optimistic than that. It is yet to be determined what will happen on March 7 but we know that 2024 must be the year of fair choice in online search for Europe,” Klein told CNBC.
“EU policy makers have the choice to deliver a digital market that delivers fair competition and choice for European consumers and business,” Kroll added.
Of particular issue for Ecosia and other competing search engines was a proposal from Google for a “choice screen” that would display different search engines on the same window.
“Without a choice screen that is designed fairly, in the letter and spirit of the DMA, we will not see a positive shift in market share but rather further entrenchment of the dominance of gatekeepers such as Google – which would be a failure of the DMA,” Kroll added.
“Ahead of the March 2024 deadline, we need support from the EC and all hands on deck to ensure proactive engagement. The focus of digital regulators around the world will be on Europe as global interest in choice screens increases.”
Last week, the EU Commissioner for Competition Margrethe Vestager met with the CEOs of Apple, Alphabet, and Qualcomm to discuss regulation and competition policy compliance, according to a post by Vestager on X.
She said she had discussed Apple’s obligation to allow distribution of its apps outside the company’s proprietary AppStore, as well as ongoing competition cases including one involving the firm’s Apple Music music streaming platform.
With Google CEO Sundar Pichai, Vestager said she discussed the design of choice screens, self-preferencing requirements under the DMA, and an EU antitrust case looking at the company’s role in the advertising technology market.
She didn’t specify what was discussed with Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon. More

Here’s what the company reported: Earnings of $5.48 per share; it wasn’t immediately clear if that was comparable to the $3.51 estimate of analysts surveyed by LSEG.
Revenue: $11.32 billion vs. $10.80 billion expected, according to LSEG

David Solomon, Chairman and CEO, Goldman Sachs, participates in a panel discussion during the annual Milken Institute Global Conference at The Beverly Hilton Hotel on April 29, 2019 in Beverly Hills, California.
Michael Kovac | Getty Images Entertainment | Getty Images

Goldman Sachs on Tuesday posted fourth-quarter results that topped analysts’ expectations on better-than-expected asset and wealth management revenue.
Here’s what the company reported versus what Wall Street analysts surveyed by LSEG, formerly known as Refinitiv, expected:

Earnings: $5.48 per share; it wasn’t immediately clear if that was comparable to the $3.51 estimate of analysts surveyed by LSEG.
Revenue: $11.32 billion vs. $10.80 billion expected, according to LSEG

Goldman said earnings for the quarter jumped 51% to $2.01 billion, or $5.48 per share, from a year ago, when the bank was weighed down by loan-loss provisions and surging expenses. Companywide revenues rose 7% to $11.32 billion from a year ago on growth from the bank’s asset and wealth management and platform solutions divisions.
Asset and wealth management revenue jumped 23% from a year earlier to $4.39 billion, topping the StreetAccount estimate by nearly $550 million, on higher revenue from equity and debt investments and rising management fees. Helped by rising markets in the fourth quarter, Goldman said it booked gains on public equities and markups in debt investments.
Other Goldman operations met or slightly missed expectations. For instance, while platform solutions revenue jumped 12% to $577 million, that was below the $612 million estimate.
In the company’s trading division, stronger-than-expected results in equities mostly offset a miss in fixed income revenue.
Equities trading jumped 26% to $2.61 billion in revenue, thanks to derivatives activity and equities financing, topping the $2.22 billion StreetAccount estimate. Fixed income posted $2.03 billion in revenue, a 24% decline from a year earlier on weakness in interest rate and currencies trading, and well below the $2.53 billion estimate.

Goldman CEO David Solomon has endured a tough year, thanks to dormant capital markets and strategic missteps.
But hope is building that Goldman can turn a corner after pivoting away from Solomon’s failed consumer banking efforts.
Goldman’s core activities of investment banking and trading may not recover in the fourth quarter, but analysts will want to hear about the possibility of a rebound in 2024. Early signs are that corporations that have waited on the sidelines to acquire competitors or raise funds may finally be ready to act this year.
Unlike more diversified rivals, Goldman gets most of its revenue from Wall Street. That can lead to outsized returns during boom times and underperformance when markets don’t cooperate.
On Friday, JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Citigroup and Wells Fargo each posted results that were marred by a litany of one-time items.
This story is developing. Please check back for updates. More

The Morgan Stanley headquarters is seen in New York City on Jan. 17, 2023.
Michael M. Santiago | Getty Images

Morgan Stanley on Tuesday reported fourth-quarter revenue that surpassed expectations, boosted by the strength in investment banking.
Here’s how the bank did compared with Wall Street expectations:

Earnings per share: 85 cents, may not compare with $1.01 expected, according to LSEG
Revenue: $12.90 billion vs. $12.75 billion, expected, according to LSEG

Shares of Morgan Stanley climbed more than 1% in premarket trading following the results.
Morgan Stanley said its revenue from investment banking rose 5% from a year ago on the back of a 25% increase in fixed income underwriting revenue amid higher investment grade issuances.
Net income came to $1.52 billion, or 85 cents per share, down more than 30% from $2.24 billion, or $1.26 per share, a year ago.
The bank’s results were hit by two one-time regulatory charges, however. There was a $286 million charge related to a Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation special assessment and a $249 million legal charge to settle a criminal investigation and a related Securities and Exchange Commission probe of the unauthorized disclosure of block trades.
This is the first earnings report under new CEO Ted Pick, who succeeded James Gorman as CEO at the start of 2024. Pick is a Morgan Stanley veteran who rose through the ranks to lead the bank’s Wall Street operations.

“In 2023, the Firm reported a solid ROTCE [return on average tangible common shareholders’ equity] against a mixed market backdrop and a number of headwinds,” Pick said in a statement. “We begin 2024 with a clear and consistent business strategy and a unified leadership team. We are focused on achieving our long-term financial goals and continuing to deliver for shareholders.”
Wealth management delivered fourth-quarter net revenue of $6.65 billion, slightly higher than the $6.63 billion from the same quarter a year ago. Revenue from investment management was $1.46 billion for the quarter, little changed from last year.
Shares of the New York-based bank have fallen nearly 4% in 2024 after a 10% gain last year. More

Chinese Premier Li Qiang said that tech innovations should not be used as a way to restrict or contain other countries.
“To keep the competition healthy and bring out the greatest vitality, the only way is to enhance cooperation in innovation,” Li said via an official English translation of his Mandarin-language remarks made on Tuesday at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
Li did not specifically name any countries in his remarks. Beijing has repeatedly asked Washington to remove restrictions on Chinese companies that prevent them from buying advanced technology from U.S. firms.
U.S. measures in the last two years have explicitly focused on cutting China off from high-end semiconductors used for artificial intelligence, out of concern that the tech is fueling the military capabilities of Beijing.

Li Qiang, China’s premier, delivers a special address on the opening day of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland, on Tuesday, Jan. 16, 2024.
Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Chinese Premier Li Qiang said that tech innovations should not be used as a way to restrict or contain other countries.
“To keep the competition healthy and bring out the greatest vitality, the only way is to enhance cooperation in innovation,” Li said via an official English translation of his Mandarin-language remarks made on Tuesday at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

“Scientific and technological fruits should benefit humanity as a whole, instead of becoming a means to restrict or contain the development of other countries,” Li added, calling for “more open measures.”
Li did not specifically name any countries in his remarks. Beijing has repeatedly asked Washington to remove restrictions on Chinese companies that prevent them from buying advanced technology from U.S. firms.
U.S. measures in the last two years have explicitly focused on cutting China off from high-end semiconductors used for artificial intelligence, out of concern that the tech is fueling the military capabilities of Beijing.

Following his speech, Li spoke about the risks and opportunities of generative AI, such as ChatGPT, in a brief question-and-answer session with World Economic Forum Founder Klaus Schwab.
“To put plainly, we human beings must control the machines instead of having the machines control us,” Li said, calling for a universal “red line in AI development” without specifying details.

He added that AI shouldn’t just benefit a small group of people, and that the interests of developing countries should be prioritized.
U.S.-based OpenAI’s ChatGPT surged in popularity just over a year ago, but isn’t officially available in China. Many similar chatbots from Chinese companies, such as Baidu and Alibaba, launched to the public in mainland China, after getting the green light from authorities in August.
”In AI, we are doing a lot of work to roll out policies and regulations,” Li said. “We introduced many laws and regulations to ensure the data security, AI-related ethics and generative AI services. All these are efforts to explore an AI governance framework suited to China’s national conditions.”

Global cooperation

Li on Tuesday cast China as a supporter of multilateralism and called for further global cooperation.
In his speech to global business leaders, Li emphasized that China would take steps to address concerns about the flow of data across international borders and the ability to participate equally in government procurement.
Foreign businesses operating in China have found it difficult to comply with the country’s tightened restrictions on data collection and export, also complaining that domestic businesses have unfair advantages when competing for local government bids.
“China remains firmly committed to opening up,” Li said. “We will continue to create favorable conditions for the world to share in China’s opportunities.”
Li met with Swiss President Viola Amherd ahead of the Davos conference and is set to visit Ireland later in the week.
China on Monday announced it will give Swiss citizens visa-free entry, while the Swiss side will “provide more visa facilitation” for Chinese citizens and businesses investing in Switzerland. It is not clear when the measures will take effect.

China’s economic growth

Li separately said in his speech of Tuesday that the Chinese economy grew by around 5.2% in 2023. His comments come a day ahead of the National Bureau of Statistics’ scheduled release of official GDP figures and other data, set for Wednesday in Beijing.
“In promoting economic development, we did not resort to massive stimulus. We did not seek short-term growth while accumulating long-term risks,” Li said. “Rather, we focused on strengthening the internal drivers.”
Chinese President Xi Jinping is skipping Davos this year. His U.S. counterpart Joe Biden has likewise not attended event since he became president.
Xi earlier on Tuesday called for increasing the connections between domestic and overseas financial markets, while ensuring financial security, according to state media outlet Xinhua.
The Chinese leader was giving a speech about the “high-quality development of China’s financial sector” at a school for Chinese Communist Party officials, also known as the National Academy of Governance.
— CNBC’s Jenni Reid contributed to this report. More

Trump won the Iowa caucus by around 30 points over his closest rival and is the clear favorite to secure the Republican nomination for the 2024 presidential election.
During his last term in office, Trump took a combative stance toward Beijing and triggered a trade war with a slew of tariffs on Chinese goods and constant threats of further punitive measures.

Bill Winters, chief executive officer of Standard Chartered, said the U.S. Federal Reserve looks set to pause its interest rate cycle in June get a better read on the latest inflation data.
Bloomberg | Getty Images

Former U.S. President Donald Trump would be a “transactional president” if he returns to power, but is unlikely to blow up the Biden administration’s rebuilding of relations with China, according to Standard Chartered CEO Bill Winters.
Trump won the Iowa caucus by around 30 points over his closest rival and is the clear favorite to secure the Republican nomination for the 2024 presidential election, despite facing 91 felony counts across numerous criminal cases relating to his attempts to overturn his 2020 election defeat, mishandling of classified documents and hush-money payments to a porn star.

During his last term in office, Trump took a combative stance toward Beijing and triggered a trade war with a slew of tariffs on Chinese goods and constant threats of more economically punitive measures.
President Joe Biden’s administration has sought to repair the fragile relationship. U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo visited China last summer, and Biden met Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation leaders’ meeting in San Francisco in November.

Speaking to CNBC at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on Tuesday, Winters said Washington and Beijing are now “pretty interlinked” and that for any president to “aggressively disentangle” would be bad for the U.S., Chinese and global economies.
“Nobody really wants that or needs that right now, so I think the slight re-engagement that we’re seeing through the Biden administration, visits from the Commerce Secretary and Janet Yellen etc., are an indication to me that the U.S. is looking to stabilize,” he said.
“If Trump becomes president, we know that he’s a transactional president, and there’s probably a transaction in there someplace that keeps the economy on an even keel without fundamentally disrupting that relationship, but of course we watch all the time and we’re well aware that there could be either unintended consequences or accidents, but I’m staying pretty optimistic that we could avoid the worst.”
Though it’s headquartered in the U.K., Standard Chartered earns most of its revenue in Asia, and Winters also said he remains “very optimistic about the Chinese economy in the medium-, long-term” despite its well-documented short-term headwinds. More

In the second week of 2024 business leaders descended on Gujarat, the home state of Narendra Modi, India’s prime minister. The occasion was the Vibrant Gujarat Global Summit, one of many gabfests at which India has courted global investors. “At a time when the world is surrounded by many uncertainties, India has emerged as a new ray of hope,” boasted Mr Modi at the event.He is right. Although global growth is expected to slow from 2.6% last year to 2.4% in 2024, India appears to be booming. Its economy grew by 7.6% in the 12 months to the third quarter of 2023, beating nearly every forecast. Most economists expect an annual growth rate of 6% or more for the rest of this decade. Investors are seized by optimism.The timing is good for Mr Modi. In April some 900m Indians will be eligible to vote in the largest election in world history. A big reason Mr Modi, who has been in office since 2014, is likely to win a third term is that many Indians think him a more competent manager of the world’s fifth-largest economy than they do any other candidate. Are they right?To assess Mr Modi’s record The Economist has analysed India’s economic performance and the success of his biggest reforms. In many respects the picture is muddy—and not helped by sparse and poorly kept official data. Growth has outpaced that of most emerging economies, but India’s labour market remains weak and private-sector investment has disappointed. But that may be changing. Aided by Mr Modi’s reforms, India may be on the cusp of an investment boom that would pay off for years.The headline growth figures reveal surprisingly little. India’s GDP per person, after adjusting for purchasing power, has grown at an average pace of 4.3% per year during Mr Modi’s decade in power. That is lower than the 6.2% achieved under Manmohan Singh, his predecessor, who also served for ten years.image: The EconomistBut this slowdown was not Mr Modi’s doing: much of it is down to the bad hand he inherited. In the 2010s an infrastructure boom started to go sour. India faced what Arvind Subramanian, later a government adviser, has called a twin balance-sheet crisis, one that struck both banks and infrastructure firms. They were left loaded with bad debt, crimping investment for years afterwards. Mr Modi also took office at a time when global growth had slowed, scarred by the financial crisis of 2007-09. Then came the covid-19 pandemic. The difficult conditions meant average growth among 20 other large lower- and middle-income economies fell from 3.2% during Mr Singh’s time in office to 1.6% during Mr Modi’s. Compared with this group, India has continued to outperform (see chart 1).Against such a turbulent backdrop, it is better to assess Mr Modi’s record by considering his stated economic objectives: to formalise the economy, improve the ease of doing business and boost manufacturing. On the first two, he has made progress. On the third, his results have so far been poor.India’s economy has certainly become more formal under Mr Modi, albeit at a high cost. The idea has been to draw activity out of the shadow economy, which is dominated by small and inefficient firms that do not pay tax, and into the formal sphere of large, productive companies.Mr Modi’s most controversial policy on this front has been demonetisation. In 2016 he banned the use of two large-value banknotes, accounting for 86% of rupees in circulation—surprising many even within his government. The stated aim was to render worthless the ill-gotten gains of the corrupt. But almost all the cash made its way into the banking system, suggesting that crooks had already gone cashless or laundered their money. Instead, the informal economy was crushed. Household investment and credit plunged, and growth was probably hurt. In private, even Mr Modi’s supporters in business do not mince words. “It was a disaster,” says one boss.Demonetisation may have accelerated India’s digitisation nonetheless. The country’s digital public infrastructure now includes a universal identity scheme, a national payments system and a personal-data management system for things like tax documents. It was conceived by Mr Singh’s government, but much of it has been built under Mr Modi, who has shown the capacity of the Indian state to get big projects done. Most retail payments in cities are now digital, and most welfare transfers seamless, because Mr Modi gave almost all households bank accounts.Those reforms made it easier for Mr Modi to ameliorate the poverty resulting from India’s disappointing job-creation record. Fearing that stubbornly low employment would stop living standards for the poorest from improving, the government now doles out welfare payments worth some 3% of GDP per year. Hundreds of government programmes send money directly to the bank accounts of the poor.It is a big improvement on the old system, in which most welfare was distributed physically and, owing to corruption, often failed to reach its intended recipients. The poverty rate (the proportion of people living on less than $2.15 a day), has fallen from 19% in 2015 to 12% in 2021, according to the World Bank.Digitisation has probably also drawn more economic activity into the formal sector. So has Mr Modi’s other signature economic policy: a national goods and services tax (GST), passed in 2017, which knitted together a patchwork of state levies across the country. The combination of homogenous payments and tax systems has brought India closer to a national single market than ever.That has made doing business easier—Mr Modi’s second objective. GST has been a “game-changer”, says B. Santhanam, the regional boss of Saint-Gobain, a large French manufacturer with big investments in the southern state of Tamil Nadu. “The prime minister gets it,” adds another seasoned manufacturing executive, referring to the need to cut red tape. The government has also put serious money into physical infrastructure, such as roads and bridges. Public investment surged from around 3.5% of GDP in 2019 to nearly 4.5% in 2022 and 2023.The results are now materialising. Mr Subramanian recently wrote that, as a share of GDP, in 2023 net revenues from the new tax regime exceeded those of the old system. This happened even as tax rates on many items fell. That more money is coming in despite lower rates suggests that the economy really is formalising.Yet Mr Modi is not satisfied with merely formalising the economy. His third objective has been to industrialise it. In 2020 the government launched a subsidy scheme worth $26bn (1% of GDP) for products made in India. In 2021 it pledged $10bn for semiconductor companies to build plants domestically. One boss notes that Mr Modi personally takes the trouble to convince executives to invest, often in industries where they face little competition and so otherwise might not.image: The EconomistSome incentives could help new industries find their feet and show foreign bosses that India is open for business. In September Foxconn, Apple’s main supplier, said it would double its investments in India over the coming year. It currently makes some 10% of its iPhones there. Also in 2023 Micron, a chipmaker, began work on a $2.75bn plant in Gujarat that is expected to create some 5,000 jobs directly and 15,000 indirectly.So far, however, these projects are too small to be economically significant. The value of manufactured exports as a share of GDP has stagnated at 5% over the past decade, and manufacturing’s share of the economy has fallen from about 18% under the previous government to 16%. And industrial policy is expensive. The government will bear 70% of the cost of the Micron plant—meaning it will pay nearly $100,000 per job. Tariffs are ticking up, on average, raising the cost of foreign inputs.image: The EconomistSo what matters more: Mr Modi’s failures or his successes? As well as economic growth, it is worth looking at private-sector investment. It has been sluggish during Mr Modi’s time in office (see chart 2). But a boom may be coming. A recent report by Axis Bank, one of India’s largest lenders, argues that the private-investment cycle is likely to turn, thanks to healthy bank and corporate balance-sheets. Announcements of new investment projects by private corporations soared past $200bn in 2023, according to the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy, a think-tank. That is the highest in a decade, and up 150% in nominal terms since 2019.Although higher interest rates have sapped foreign direct investment in the past year, firms’ reported intentions to invest in India remain strong, as they seek to “de-risk” their exposure to China. There is some chance, then, that Mr Modi’s reforms will kick growth up a gear. If so, he will have earned his reputation as a successful economic manager.The consequences of Mr Modi’s policies will take years to be felt in full. Just as an investment boom could vindicate his approach, his strategy of using welfare payments as a substitute for job creation could prove unsustainable. A failure to build local governments’ capacity to provide basic public services, such as education, may hinder growth. Subhash Chandra Garg, a former finance secretary under Mr Modi, worries that the government is too keen on “subsidies” and “freebies”, and that its “commitment to real reforms is no longer that strong.” And yet for all that, many Indians will go to the polls feeling cautiously optimistic about the economic changes that their prime minister has wrought. ■ More

Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire said that 2024 is likely the year that the U.S. passes concrete laws for the stablecoin industry.
Stablecoins, which allow traders to move in and out of crypto, are a $135.3 billion market but they are for the most part unregulated.
The U.S. is yet to pass federal crypto regulation, even as jurisdictions around the world are approving new crypto-focused laws.
But Allaire hopes that things will change this year, stating that there is a “very good chance” U.S. lawmakers approve a stablecoin bill.

A picture taken in London shows gold-plated souvenir cryptocurrency tether, bitcoin and ethereum coins arranged beside a screen displaying a trading chart, May 8, 2022.
Justin Tallis | Afp | Getty Images

The CEO of Circle, the company behind popular stablecoin USD Coin, sees a strong chance that laws for stablecoin issuers like itself will come through in 2024.
Stablecoins, which allow traders to move in and out of crypto, are a $135.3 billion market — but they are for the most part unregulated. The U.S. is yet to pass federal crypto regulation, even as jurisdictions around the world are approving new crypto-focused laws.

But Jeremy Allaire, Circle’s boss and co-founder, hopes that things will change this year, stating that there is a “very good chance” U.S. lawmakers approve a stablecoin bill.
Speaking with CNBC at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Allaire said regulatory developments around the crypto industry were picking up around the world, and that the U.S. was more than likely to approve laws for stablecoins than before.
“I think what you’re seeing is a desire from the administration, a desire from the Treasury, from the [Federal Reserve], by both chambers of Congress, and certainly on a bipartisan basis,” Allaire told CNBC Monday.

“Digital dollars are happening around the world, other governments are regulating dollar-digital currencies before the United States. And so I think there is a very strong desire to act and assert U.S. leadership and get the right consumer protections involved,” Allaire added.  
Allaire was asked about the Clarity for Payment Stablecoins Act, which seeks to bring stablecoins within the same regulatory frameworks that govern traditional financial services companies.

The act was passed by the House Financial Services Committee in 2023, moving it to the floor of the House of Representatives for consideration. It has yet to be approved lawmakers in the House.
Circle recently filed its confidential S-1 registration with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, showcasing the company’s intention to list publicly. The firm did not give away any information on the timing of its IPO, which came the same week that the SEC approved the first U.S. spot bitcoin ETFs.
Allaire, asked about whether the timing of Circle’s listing was in response to the SEC’s ETF approval, said he couldn’t comment on the development due to regulatory restrictions.
Crypto had a buoyant year in 2023 with markets seeing a major recovery, and industry insiders are hoping for an even more fortunate 2024 for the industry.
“Stablecoins in particular remain the killer app for blockchain technology,” Allaire told CNBC. “We’re starting to see widening usage all around the world.”
“It’s been a really powerful time for that and we think 2024, with things like the spot ETF and world regulatory clarity, is going to open this up even wider.”
Dante Disparte, Circle’s chief strategy officer and global head of public policy, echoed Allaire’s view that 2024 would be the year that the U.S. sees rules for stablecoins coming in.
“I remain optimistic that payments stablecoin policy is a possibility early in the new year. And that is increasingly a bipartisan reality, in no small measure,” Disparte told CNBC’s MacKenzie Sigalos on the sidelines of Davos.

Disparte suggested that concerns around illicit usage of some cryptocurrencies could spur U.S. lawmakers on to bring stablecoin laws into place, as stablecoins provide more of a legitimate use case for everyday purchases and trade compred to their more volatile neighbors in crypto, which have been associated heavily with criminal activity.
“You’ve seen in the conflict in the Middle East, for example, the use of certain digital assets in the space as a vehicle for funding terrorism,” Disparte said.
“Domestically in the United States, you can see the use of certain assets in the space as a vehicle for funding fentanyl trafficking, and worse, all of those types of illicit actions that are bad for the U.S. dollar are bad for the U.S. economy, bad for the sector, bad for banking and payments, and bad for people,” Disparte said.
“Unless that is addressed, that would be against the interest of the country [and] the economy. So I remain optimistic that this will be a year where policymakers actually get around to doing something affirmatively on stablecoins, as opposed to through enforcement,” Circle’s policy chief added.
—CNBC’s MacKenzie Sigalos contributed to this article. More

The Securities and Exchange Commission’s approval of 11 spot bitcoin ETFs this week could be a turning point for cryptocurrency investing.
Ark Invest CEO and Chief Investment Officer Cathie Wood is behind one of the new ETFs. Her firm partnered with 21Shares to launch the ARK 21Shares Bitcoin ETF.

“We really believe this is an important moment for us to help with the democratization of bitcoin access, giving more people access,” Wood told “ETF Edge” on Monday.
The first-ever batch of spot ETFs began trading Thursday. Investor interest in bitcoin leading up to the historic ETF approvals has been on the upswing. As of Friday, the cryptocurrency is up more than 125% in the past 12 months.
As financial firms begin to get more exposure through the new instruments, Wood said, the impact on bitcoin prices will be noticeable. 
“If institutions with trillions of dollars under management just put 0.2[%] or 0.5% in, that could really move the needle,” Wood said.
Ophelia Snyder’s firm 21.co is heavily involved in the cryptocurrency space. According to its website, the firm “bridges traditional finance and decentralized finance for easy crypto access.”

“It’s also very much part of a new wave of disruptive technology,” the firm’s president and co-founder told “ETF Edge.”
Snyder contended that bitcoin goes beyond being just a new asset class.

“It’s also very much part of a new wave of disruptive technology.”

Ophelia Snyder
21.CO President and Co-Founder

“There’s still quite a ways to go in terms of how this actually will interact both with the world at large and sort of our economic systems, as well as, quite frankly, how it will end up interacting with your portfolio,” she said. 
Snyder also said the impact that wider bitcoin access could have on the broader market “can’t be underestimated.”
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