Amid the uncertainties over the Clarity Act’s passing, United States President Donald Trump has asked the Congress to pass the “fair version” of the bill, which would bring clearer definitions to the growing cryptocurrency sector.

The Republican, who often calls himself the “crypto-friendly president,” made the comments in the presence of industry executives who had gathered for an event at the ‌White House with him.

Crypto ventures have been aggressively backing the “Clarity Act,” stating that the legislation would put them on solid legal ground. However, the bill has stalled in the Senate with little time left on the congressional calendar.

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In a policy briefing on the recapitalisation exercise, the commission disclosed that equity market capitalisation rose from 99.38 trillion naira at the close of 2025 to 129.21 trillion naira by March 31, 2026. The Nigerian Exchange All Share Index (NGX ASI) also surged from 155,613 points at the 2025-end to a historic high of 201,287.78 points by the end of Q1 2026, representing a 29.35% gain within three months.

February 2026 alone delivered a market capitalisation gain of 17.6 trillion naira, the highest single-month increase ever recorded in the history of the African country’s stock market.

SEC said the market also demonstrated structural resilience, despite the extraordinary volume of fresh equity supply that was introduced through public offers and rights issues by banks.

“The Nigerian equity market demonstrated reasonable price discovery throughout the recapitalisation period,” it added.

While the NGX Banking Index declined in mid-2024, as investors priced in dilution risks from anticipated large rights issues, the sector later made a strong comeback as capital was successfully raised and market participants reassessed stronger balance sheets, before expanding the lending capacity of recapitalised institutions.

“The market’s ability to manage valuation complexities in real time reflected growing analytical sophistication among institutional investors, stronger broker research, wider analyst coverage, and improved real-time data systems,” the SEC stated.

Beyond the stock market rally, the banking recapitalisation created broader structural benefits across the African country’s capital market ecosystem.

According to the SEC, about 500,000 new investors participated in various bank public offers between 2024 and 2026, with many being first-time equity investors.

“A significant number of these investors were expected to remain active in the secondary market and future public offerings, thereby deepening market liquidity and broadening the investor base. The exercise rebuilt institutional capacity across investment banks, stock broking firms, registrars, custodians and issuing houses, which handled unprecedented transaction volumes during the recapitalisation process,” the commission remarked.

According to the SEC, Nigeria’s capital market mobilised 4.65 trillion naira over the 24-month recapitalisation period, proving the capabilities of Nigeria’s market infrastructure, investor community and regulatory framework, when it comes to supporting large-scale national transformation.

Director-General of SEC, Dr Emomotimi Agama, said the recapitalisation exercise should be seen not as an isolated success, but as the foundation for a stronger financial market capable of financing Nigeria’s long-term development.

“The recapitalisation has demonstrated that the Nigerian capital market is resilient. It is the Commission’s unwavering determination to ensure that resilience becomes transformation. The story of the 4.65 trillion naira raised should be remembered not as a peak achievement, but as the beginning of a more consequential era in which the capital market plays a central role in financing the nation’s future,” he concluded.

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Hudson River Trading, Virtu Financial, Jane Street and Jump Trading have entered into discussions with the American multinational investment company BlackRock on providing liquidity for the latter’s anticipated Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF), which is awaiting regulatory approval.

Another asset management giant VanEck has joined the ETF craze by reportedly updating its Bitcoin spot Exchange Traded Fund (ETF) filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

VanEck, which offers tailored investment products to a wide range of client bases, has now recognised the need for a regulated and secure way to offer Bitcoin exposure to investors.

Bitwise and Fidelity Investments are also making moves in the Bitcoin ETF territory, realising the tool’s game-changing prospect in 21st century investment portfolios.

Digital asset manager Valkyrie Investments has now amended its spot Bitcoin Exchange Traded Fund (ETF) filing with United States securities regulators. The venture is now aiming to offer investors an opportunity to invest in Bitcoin-backed common shares.

Global investment firm Franklin Templeton, which has approximately USD 1.45 trillion worth of assets under management, has also filed for a spot bitcoin Exchange Traded Fund (ETF) with the SEC.

Not Everyone Is Joining The Race

Despite the rising optimism around the Bitcoin ETF, Vanguard CEO Tim Buckley told CNBC that his venture had no plans to follow suit.

“We won’t be pursuing a Bitcoin ETF. It’s just like we don’t use gold as an asset class for our clients. It’s not that people can’t invest in there. We just look at asset classes or, you know, what belongs in a long-term portfolio, what has intrinsic value, has cash flows to it? And those are the asset classes we steer people towards. And so we don’t go towards bitcoin or gold or any other of those stable assets,” the official remarked further.

The SEC Contention

While the SEC is allowing bitcoin futures ETFs, it has been critical of the cryptocurrency part around the project.

However, in August 2023, Grayscale Investments won its court case against the SEC, which had earlier rejected an application to turn the American digital currency asset management company’s over-the-counter traded bitcoin trust into an ETF.

The SEC, which has consistently expressed concerns about potential market manipulation and investor protection in the crypto market, was asked by a Federal Court to reconsider the stance as the latter reportedly emphasised the similarities between Grayscale’s proposal and the already approved Bitcoin futures ETFs.

Investment research firm Galaxy Digital sees Bitcoin ETFs attract over USD 14 billion in assets within the first year of approval, with this figure potentially rising to USD 39 billion by the third year.

In October 2023, crypto-bull Mike Novogratz told CNBC that it would make zero sense for an ETF to be blocked, as inflows into digital asset funds reportedly jumped to their highest weekly level since July 2022.

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The agreement, disclosed in the latest court papers, still requires the federal judge’s approval overseeing the litigation. To ensure that US customer assets do not go offshore, the agreement allows only Binance.US employees to have access to these assets.

The SEC on June 5, 2023, sued Binance, along with its CEO and founder, Changpeng Zhao, and Binance.US, alleging that the crypto powerhouse artificially inflated its trading volumes, diverted customer funds, failed to restrict US customers from its platform, and misled investors about its market surveillance controls.

The suit and one filed by the SEC the following day against major US exchange Coinbase represented a dramatic escalation of a crackdown on the industry by the regulators.

Under the agreement, which does not resolve the SEC lawsuit, Binance.US will take steps to make sure that no Binance Holdings officials have access to private keys for its various wallets, hardware wallets, or root access to Binance.US’s Amazon Web Services tools, the court filings showed.

The SEC said in a statement that the emergency relief order secured for Binance.US customers would protect their assets and ensure they can continue to withdraw them.

“Given that, Changpeng Zhao and Binance have control of the platforms’ customers’ assets and have been able to commingle customer assets or divert customer assets as they please, these prohibitions are essential to protecting investor assets,” Gurbir Grewal, director of the SEC’s enforcement division, said in the statement.

A Binance spokesperson remarked, “Although we maintain that the SEC’s request for emergency relief was entirely unwarranted, we are pleased that the disagreement over this request was resolved on mutually acceptable terms. User funds have always been safe and secure on all Binance-affiliated platforms.”

Under other provisions in the proposed agreement, Binance.US will create new crypto wallets to which the global exchange’s employees have no access, provide additional information to the SEC, and agree to an expedited discovery schedule.

The US affiliate of Binance recently halted dollar deposits and gave customers a deadline of June 13 to withdraw their dollar funds after the SEC asked a court to freeze its assets.

Meanwhile, Bitcoin experienced a ‘flash-pump’ to USD 138,000 on Binance.US during the early trading hours of June 21, according to data from the crypto exchange.

The Bitcoin price spike lasted only seconds before returning to its normal level and was specific to the exchange’s BTC/USDT trading pair, while other assets continued trading at their usual levels, as per a report from the CryptoSlate.

However, the crypto industry is witnessing another round of financial bloodbath, amid SEC’s fresh crackdown upon the industry. Blockchain analytical firm Kaiko reported that Binance’s market depth fell by almost 80% as of June 12, with its market depth for 17 tokens dropping to USD 7 million from the USD 34 million recorded on June 4.

Binance has been facing troubles of late. The exchange’s banking partners decided to halt their dollar payment channels. In May 2023, Bitcoin reportedly traded at nearly a 3% discount on Binance.US compared to other rival exchanges.

Its director of Brazilian operations, Guilherme Haddad, is now facing the prospect of being summoned before the Latin American country’s parliament over an investigation into the alleged pyramid schemes being run in the country.

In France, the crypto exchange is now facing an anti-money laundering investigation, while it has exited the Netherlands after failing to obtain a trading license from the Dutch central bank.

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The clients include corporations and institutional investors, including wealth management, investors and other financial services. 

The Country Chief Executive of CFS Group Mr. Ikechukwu Peter, told the media, “The launch of the Asset Management business ties in with our plan to become a dominant player in the Financial Services sector. We are enthusiastic at the unique opportunity to bring investment products to the market as our goal is to constantly provide a wide range of solutions to support the evolving needs of our partners and the entire investment community. 

“The issuance of this approval by the Securities and Exchange Commission is a laudable development, one that will most definitely lead to an unprecedented basis for value creation within the Asset Management Space.” 

With the launch, the company will support African businesses and tap into the market’s potential through various investment funds, in addition to financial advisory services for clients. The primary focus is to invest in the wealth of the company’s clients through its range of sophisticated products.

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The seven major banks that the Saudi Electricity Company signed an agreement with include the National Commercial Bank, Bank Albilad, Al-Rajhi Bank, Riyad Bank, Samba Financial Group, Banque Saudi Fransi and the Saudi British Bank.

The financing is a 7-year medium-term facility and is unsecured syndicated borrowing.
Fahad Al Sudairi, president and chief executive of SEC told the media, “SEC is a national utility, delivering electric services to a growing customer base of almost 9.8 million subscribers in Saudi Arabia. Our vigorous focus is to continue demonstrating operational efficiency improvement, achieve a quantum leap in promoting automation and digitization across our business and further enhance the customer service.”

“This successful financing comes as part of SEC’s plans to finance its general corporate purposes as well as finance its capital projects such as smart meters, grid reliability improvement and new interconnection projects. The financing will also lengthen the average maturity of our financing mix and is expected to reflect positively on reducing our weighted average cost of funding.”

Recent media reports revealed that the Saudi Electricity Company is implementing eight projects in Saudi Arabia’s Hail region with contracts worth more than $159 million.
The projects are in line to increase the electricity generating capacity of the kingdom and meet the growing demand.

Last month, the company announced a net loss of SR869 million for the second quarter of 2020, compared to a profit of SR789 million during the same period last year.

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The IPO filing with the US SEC showed that Uber had 91 million monthly average users worldwide across its platforms. This includes the total number of users for ride hailing and food delivery.

The number of monthly average users rose by just a third over 2017 last year compared to a 51% rise in 2017 over 2016. Revenue growth also decelerated with just 41% in 2018 over 2017. This compares with a revenue growth of more than 100% in 2016.

Increasing the pressure on Uber’s management is the fate of competitor Lyft. Lyft saw its share price close 15% below the IPO price set last month on Thursday.

Uber’s IPO presentations or roadshows will begin on April 29. The company will then price its IPO and the shares will debut on the NYSE in the first week of May.

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Colt Melby, CEO of ORHub, said:”We believe that trading on the OTCQB will provide our shareholders and prospective investors a greater degree of transparency and liquidity due to higher reporting standards and more comprehensive compliance requirements. This is a necessary next step for our Company to continue to build shareholder value and expand our investor base.”

To be eligible, companies must be current in their reporting and undergo an annual verification and management certification process.

The OTCQB is recognised by the SEC as an established public market. Their platform enables companies to provide current public information that investors need to analyse, value and trade a security. The OTCQB platform offers better trading since investors get an exchange-comparable experience with convenient trading through their preferred broker or financial advisor who normally require a minimum QB status and transparent pricing with real-time quotes.

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Anne Mulcahy once confessed the description stems from the fact that she was never conditioned to be the boss of Xerox Corp.

So starting in 1976 and two decades later, it was Mulcahy’s first senior job at Xerox as Vice-President of HR and then, she became the Chief of Staff for former CEO Paul Allaire. At the time, many including Mulcahy did not foresee her window of opportunity with Xerox to transcend boundaries for both: the company and her career spanning the male-dominated corporate force.

Her relentless efforts and sharp organisational skills was in the spotlight, but they did not document the profound experience of a CEO. Of course, most CEOs carry inherent leadership traits. Many of them have a vision. But are they all capable of reviving a debt-heavy company, like Xerox?—Anne Mulcahy was.

In early 2000, Xerox’s poor growth was seeking a positive turnaround. The company’s stock slashed from US$63.69 to US$4.43, prompting some of the brightest minds to quit. The following year, Xerox struck a US$17bn debt for the sixth year in a row. Its previous sales plan was a hard fail and the Mexico unit was under Securities and Exchange Commission investigation, unzipping an unconventional leadership change in the century-old company history: to name Anne Mulcahy as the first woman CEO.

Everything about Mulcahy was unorthodox. She was not the typical MBA graduate the world would second-guess. Mulcahy studied English from Marymount college and devoted 16 years of her work experience in the company sales—not the sort of resume that Wall Street would confide in to reform a tanked corporate giant.

After investing 24 years in the company, her working relationship with Xerox was deep and familiar. For a long time, Mulcahy contemplated on leaving the company to spend quality time with her children. But a chain of events compelled her to stay.

Her predecessor Paul Allaire, who spent 33 years in the company retired as CEO in 2001. In a few months since Allaire, Mulcahy became the President and the CEO-in-waiting. And she was forced to encounter Wall Street’s hard-hitting questions. The chance to encourage IBM CFO Rick Thomson to succeed Allaire seemed more like a responsible choice for columnists of daily news journals to flash a more powerful morning headline. Afterall, Wall Street loved him.

Anyway, in the same year the fated meeting that determined her leadership role took place in the presence of her family, top chief executives, auditors and a few significant others. Mulcahy’s husband Joseph Mulcahy was there accompanied by their two boys in blue blazers, who eagerly awaited to watch their mother create a rewarding moment for them all. During the day, some retirees asked her questions, but nobody evoked an unpleasant boardroom scenario. And in August she was formally announced the CEO of Xerox and chairman in January 2002.

There was nobody more surprised than Mulcahy herself. To this day, her tenure in Xerox inspires many women leaders on the global business front. At the event series View from the Top, 2004-05, recalling her first instinct “I took on this position feeling equal parts of excitement and dread,” she exclaimed.

Director of Corporate Finance Analysis Joe Mancini Jr. recalls his time with Mulcahy, when he assisted her through the company’s US$30bn balance sheet, and talked about debt structure, taxes and currency moves. All of this was done to help her understand the company mired in great financial shock. Mulcahy says, “It was an unusual situation for him—tutoring the CEO.”

In an interview with Discover Your True North, she narrates how the Xerox crisis stoked confusion and anxiety in her: “…it felt like being on the deck of the Titanic. It was a true crisis. To make it worse, my background was not in finances, or even in R&D. I was a salesperson first, and then worked my way into an executive role, but when it came to a crisis of this nature I really needed help.”

After a string of fiscal crisis, Xerox was blanketed in bankruptcy, and was advised to appeal for legal immunity from creditors, but Mulcahy opposed the idea. There was very little hope to bring back its financial stability, let alone firming up its global presence in the long run. In what would quickly become a disaster, she formulated a sensible direction and executed it perfectly.

Undeterred, Mulcahy led discussions with more than 100 top executives to assess their capabilities. “When there are no logical reasons to stay, it’s good to have some illogical ones” she says. “Reasons like ‘I can’t abandon the ship’ or ‘If I left now, what would my team think?’” Before she could reach the finish line, Xerox stock fell to a historic low of US$4.30.

Years later, no one could believe Mulcahy made it. She became the cure not only to end the financial trouble, but also to ignite a new beginning. Xerox, in three years reached US$91mn earnings from loss of US$273mn in 2000. By 2004, the company sales profit climbed US$859mn, and its stocks rose to 75% recovering from a loss of six percent for the Dow Jones Total Stock Market Index, as put in The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania report.

But in this mission Mulcahy was not alone. Another Xerox loyalist, Ursula Burns, the then senior vice-president of corporate strategic services, who started her career with Xerox in 1980 as an intern got roped into the situation to neutralise its complexities. Together, Mulcahy and Burns found themselves waist-deep in the company’s financial dispute.

Picking up on this kind of a catastrophe, Mulcahy spoke to bankers, re-assured customers and informed employees. As Burns remembers, Mulcahy travelled three cities in a day to level the situation. She said, Mulcahy was perseverent: “‘If this place is going to fail, it’s not going to be because Anne Mulcahy slept.’”

Her long-term vision for growth plan squeezed the essence of a true strategist. She prioritised 30% cost cutting, stressed on productivity increase every year, swiftly settled the company’s SEC litigation and emphasized on heavy R&D funding, according to the book Strategic Management.

Mulcahy’s loyal leadership was hard to ignore, especially in a company known for its traditional management. Once, a company CEO’s over-enthusiastic suggestion to rework the culture, angered Mulcahy: “I am the culture. If I can’t figure out how to bring the culture with me, I’m the wrong person for the job,” she replied.

Always straightforward and logical, Mulcahy had the courage to debate on Wall Street’s narrow views. Many CEOs will agree to disagree on her comments. The tension from Wall Street is ‘a huge problem’ that may disable companies in the future, she said in reference to its next quarter’s report: “I talk with a lot of CEOs, and quietly to each other. ‘I’d love to say that I just don’t care and I’m just focused on the long term, but the pressure is extraordinary,’ I hope the next generation of leaders can reshape the way we interact with the financial community.”

As Burns recalls, Mulcahy’s realistic thinking and kind gestures appealed to all employees. For example: she taught them to “save each dollar as if it were your own,”—and finally, there she stood as one of America’s top business leaders, disproving The Wall Street Journal.

“You have to live the mission…love what you do”

Strap: Reflecting how the years in Xerox made Anne Mulcahy an unforgettable CEO

• 1976: Sales Representative

• 1992-1995: Vice-President for Human Resources

• 1997: Chief Staff Officer

• 1998: Corporate Senior Vice-President

• 2001: Chief Executive Officer

• 2002: Chairwoman

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If successful, the regulatory oversight of cryptocurrencies by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) can be used as the basis for governing cryptocurrency Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs). Government laws on cryptocurrency ETFs will be able to provide a safety net on assets.

While the financial industry predicts that it’s only a matter of time until the government cracks down on cryptocurrency exchanges, proponents argue that over regulation would be similar to hampering the popularity of Internet use.

At the hearing, the CFTC and SEC were both represented by their chairmen, Christopher Giancarlo and Jay Clayton respectively. Both officials have the responsibility to protect U.S. investors, as well as ensure that new markets are viable for trading. Both are qualified to present data on the dangers of cryptocurrencies, which include fraud and vulnerability to theft.

Nadex reported that the overall investor sentiment for the hearing was positive. Bitcoin prices rose post-hearing since no discussions of banning cryptocurrencies were raised. Regulation was the main topic at the hearing and not the closure of several exchanges. Giancarlo discussed Bitcoin’s value, as well as the process of mining it. He also praised the addition of Bitcoin as a new derivative for some exchanges.

“The CFTC can now obtain trading data and analyse it for fraud and manipulation…with Bitcoin futures we’re now having visibility into underlying markets and spot markets that we would not otherwise have,” said Giancarlo.

The U.S. government had long aspired to bring the cryptocurrency trade out of the shadows. Back in 2016, IRS issued summons for data on millions of Bitcoin exchanges in an effort to put a spotlight on cryptocurrency activities.

In the summons, the IRS asserted that all of Coinbase — one of the biggest Bitcoin exchanges — users have not complied with the U.S. internal revenue laws.

Cryptocurrencies are digital funds that can be exchanged for goods and services. Their popularity have grown over the years due to Bitcoin’s success, which almost reached $20,000 at the end of 2017. Unlike other assets, cryptocurrencies are unregulated, making it vulnerable to illegal activities and fraud.

Apart from its unregulated clause, Bitcoin is also known for giving users a level of confidentiality, which caused massive headaches for the U.S. government. Digital currencies are currently classified as an asset like oil, with capital gains tax due when their value appreciates. However, Bitcoin’s unregulated nature makes it extremely difficult to know which Bitcoin users with tax liabilities have been declaring their assets.

In the documentation that the IRS wrote to support its petition, the agency referred to three anonymous taxpayers who used virtual currencies to evade tax. Two of the anonymous users were corporations with declared annual revenues of several million dollars. By using a Bitcoin exchange wallet, the companies were able to hide Bitcoin transactions as technology expenses on their tax returns.

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