Blockchain
ICE’s Chris Edmonds Expands on Crypto Commentary in JLN Video Interview
Last Friday John Lothian News interviewed ICE Chief Development Officer Chris Edmonds about the commentary he wrote that JLN published and why he wrote it and what he was trying to accomplish.
We asked him what lessons were learned from the BAKKT experience and what was ICE trying to accomplish with the exchange and clearing offering and what didn’t work?
Edmonds said the lesson learned was that the market did not want a physically delivered bitcoin contract.
TSX Venture Exchange Head Tim Babcock Expounds on TSX’s Venture Forward initiative to JLN
Tim Babcock, the vice president and head of the TSX Venture Exchange, was recently interviewed by John Lothian News about TSX's Venture Forward initiative, which is designed to strengthen Canada’s public venture market, the foundation of the country’s capital...
Bob Pickel at the ISDA AGM in Chicago – Podcast
John Lothian News caught up to former ISDA CEO Bob Pickel at ISDA’s recent 37th Annual General Meeting in Chicago. Pickel is now consulting and sitting on boards during his post ISDA career, something that the Dodd-Frank Act was seemingly made for him for. JLN spoke to him about his career before ISDA and how he found his way to the organization and what he had done since he retired.
Tacans’s James Davies Explains How Transparency Wins Until DeFi Regulations Catch Up
John Lothian News spoke with James Davies of Tacans last week about his company, a Web3-focused venture builder firm founded in 2021 by Matthias Nielsen and Lars Seier Christensen. Tacans is working on building trading applications for decentralized exchanges, where there is no centralized location but the exchange is made via smart contracts.
Josh Sterling of Jones Day talks with John Lothian News about NFTs, DeFi, and the role banks play related to climate change
Josh Sterling, a partner with Jones Day specializing in commodities and derivatives law, spoke with John Lothian News about his work helping trading platforms address strategic enforcement, regulatory, and transactional matters.
Nick Baker’s Big, Interesting and Weird Stories at CoinDesk Turn Consequential With FTX Scoops and CoinDesk’s Comprehensive Coverage
NIck Baker is the deputy editor-in-chief of CoinDesk, which has about 100 people in its content operation, of which about 50 are journalists. Most work remotely from home, though CoinDesk does have a New York office. Like cryptocurrency, CoinDesk is decentralized, Baker said.
Mark Smith’s Path To Electronic Trading: From Banking to Blockchain
Mark Smith started his career at broker-dealer Edward Jones, became an entrepreneur and then after his second firm was purchased by Citi, he found himself working for the bank, which he found an eye-opening experience.
Jerome Kemp is Bullish on DLT to Transform Cleared Derivatives, Enhance FCM Model
Jerome Kemp, the president of Baton Systems, was interviewed by JLN at FIA Boca 2022 about how he moved into his Baton role after retiring from Citi.
Copper.co’s Betty Sharples Weighs in on Digital Asset Protection & Navigating the Regulatory Landscape
Copper.co’s Betty Sharples sat down with John Lothian News on the second day of FIA Boca 2022 to discuss industry growth, protecting digital assets, and her hope for regulatory solutions.
Betty Sharples is the business development director for the digital asset custodian Copper.co, which launched in 2018. Since its inception, Copper has provided custody, trading, and digital asset services across 450 crypto assets and over 40 different exchanges. Sharples said that Copper’s products and services all serve a purpose: to bring prime brokerage to the crypto space.
Eventus CEO Travis Schwab on Regulation, Transformation and Crypto at Boca 2022
Eventus Systems’ CEO Travis Schwab has been coming to the FIA conference in Boca Raton for 20 years and said it was great to be back to seeing clients in person again this year. Schwab spoke with John Lothian News at the conference about Eventus’ marketing, regulatory and volatility challenges, and the burgeoning crypto field.
John Fildes’ Down Under View From FIA Boca 2022
John Lothian News interviewed John Fildes of Bain & Company, Inc. of Australia at FIA Boca 2022 about the crypto space, exchange consolidation, payment for order flow and his perspective from down under. Fildes, who was formerly the CEO of Chi-X Australia, is now the capital markets practice lead and expert partner with Bain & Company.
Fildes weighed in on Jump Trading and the wormhole hack, Citadel’s getting into crypto and the 24/7 nature of the crypto business and its impact.
Book “Regtech, Suptech and Beyond” Looks at Technological Solutions for Regulatory Oversight
There is a new book out from Risk Books titled “Regtech, Suptech and Beyond.”
The book is a compendium of chapters addressing technology and innovation in regulatory and supervisory oversight in financial services. Different authors explore the emerging best practices in regulatory oversight and financial services that leverage technological solutions.
SEC Special Counsel Laura Harper Powell collaborated with the former President of ICE Trade Vault and current President and Founder of CoinReg Tech Bruce Tupper on a chapter in the book focusing on CFTC regtech implications for virtual currency trading.
FIA EXPO 2021: Sam Bankman-Fried Says FTX Won’t Follow the Crypto Crowd
Sam Bankman-Fried, the “richest person in crypto” according to Forbes Magazine, is the founder of FTX, a leading exchange for buying and selling crypto derivatives. John Lothian News spoke with him at FIA Expo 2021, where he talked about how the crypto space has grown and changed, crypto versus “traditional finance,” and the latest trends, including NFTs.
FIA Expo 2021: FTX’s Brett Harrison Looks to Hit a Home Run
The story of FTX is, so far, a short but impressive one. As Brett Harrison tells it, the spot cryptocurrency exchange started only about a year ago. Now FTX does about $400 million in spot volume per day “and growing.” That’s after increasing the company’s user base by 50% in the last quarter.
But in an interview with John Lothian News at FIA Expo 2021, Harrison, the president of FTX, focused on the company’s larger ambitions. He noted that FTX recently acquired CFTC-regulated LedgerX, a clearinghouse and derivatives clearing organization (DCO), that it rebranded as FTX US Derivatives.The platform opens the door for FTX to offer crypto derivatives — futures and options — to its U.S. customers, he said.
FIA Expo 2021: Crypto – An Evolving Regulatory Landscape
Cryptocurrencies are often viewed as the Wild West with very little in the way of law or regulations. If there was one thing the Thursday FIA panel on crypto wanted everyone to know, that is far from the current reality. Significant regulatory obligations exist for those trading cryptocurrencies.


Investors blocked from betting on US congressional elections by regulator
First Read Hits & Takes John Lothian & JLN Staff Cheryl and I are safely home from Bermuda and The World Federation of Exchanges Annual Meeting. We also celebrated our 34th wedding anniversary, so as the saying goes, happy wife, happy life. Now, back to work....
We visit more than 100 financial news websites daily (Would YOU do that?)
The Spread
Options Discovery Episode 20: Intro to Options and Earnings; Etoro Equity and Derivatives Investment Analyst, Callie Cox, Breaks Down Options and Earnings With Jln’s Alex Teng
In this episode of Options Discovery, Asma Awass introduces equity option price behavior around earnings announcements. Alex Teng dives deeper into this topic with Callie Cox, a seasoned investment analyst and content creator from the “social-based” brThinkorswimm eToro.
OCC liquidity risk doubles to all-time high in Q2
Lead Stories OCC liquidity risk doubles to all-time high in Q2; Concentration of activity around June expiration responsible for record rise Joshua Walker - Risk.net The estimated largest payment obligation Options Clearing Corporation (OCC) could have faced had a...