Rishi Sunak ‘entirely confident’ Conservatives will win general election despite polls

Published

2 years ago

September 8, 2023

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Rishi Sunak has denied his party is preparing for election defeat and insists his team is “fired up” about winning a full term.

Asked what his message would be to Tory MPs despondent about the party’s lag in the polls, Mr Sunak said he was “entirely confident we can win the next election”.

“I am working to get a first full term. I will show the British people what I am capable of in the time I have now before the election,” he said.

Some Tories fear that Mr Sunak’s five priorities – including halving inflation, cutting debt, and stopping small boats – are out of reach and uninspiring for voters.

But Mr Sunak told reporters on the plane to the G20 in Delhi: “I think we have achieved a lot over the last eight months, and you can start to see the fruit of that work.

“You saw over the summer inflation is coming down, that’s the best thing we can do to help people with the cost of living, energy bills are coming down considerably from where they peaked, that’s going to help people; the number of small boat crossings, of course higher than any of us would like… but for the first time ever they are down on the year before… the plan is working.”

Sky’s poll tracker shows Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour Party with an average lead of 18 points in the polls, with three by-elections looming next month, two of them in safe Conservative seats.

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The prime minister says his party’s narrow victory in the Uxbridge by-election earlier this year, despite losing two other seats on the same night, made him “entirely confident of victory”.

“That’s what a general election looks like, it’s an actual choice between two alternatives on a set of issues of substance. That’s why I feel confident, as we won in Uxbridge we will be able to make great progress,” he said.

Pollster and former Conservative adviser Luke Tryl said in response: “There’s no doubt the Tories outperformed expectations in Uxbridge and you can see why the PM would want to highlight that bright spot after a difficult few months.

“The problem is the factors that helped the Tories hang on in Uxbridge are almost totally unique.

“The harsh electoral reality for the Tories is the other by-election held on the same day where the Tories saw a 24-point swing against them is a far better reflection of where the public mood is today.”

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Last week, reports surfaced that the prime minister’s chief of staff Liam Booth-Smith had told political advisers they should quit their jobs if they didn’t believe the Conservatives could win.

A shake-up of Downing Street staff has been taking place, with the departure of Mr Sunak’s head of communications, and a new strategy director brought in.

The prime minister said: “As you can see we’ve brought some new people in, very high-quality people that are joining the team because they believe that we will win – they are hungry to win, I am hungry to win, and we are fired up to deliver it.”

Mr Sunak refused to commit to offering tax cuts before the next election, saying the “best tax cut I can deliver for the British people is to reduce inflation”.

The Conservatives have had a difficult summer, with their plans to send asylum seekers to live on a floating barge scuppered by the discovery of legionella and crumbling concrete closing schools.

Mr Sunak conceded the timing of the RAAC concrete crisis had been “frustrating” but said ministers were right to act as quickly when it came to light.

Politics

Canada ‘got it wrong’ labeling stablecoins securities — NDAX exec

Published

56 mins ago

May 14, 2025

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<div>Canada 'got it wrong' labeling stablecoins securities — NDAX exec</div>

Tanim Rasul, chief operating officer at Canadian crypto exchange NDAX, said Canada “got it wrong” categorizing stablecoins as securities in 2022, and the country needs to realize that every other regulatory regime is looking at stablecoins as payment instruments.

Rasul made the remarks during a panel on May 13 at the Blockchain Futurist Conference in Toronto, pointing to Europe’s crypto regulatory framework as a model for Canada to consider:

“I’m sure the regulators are wondering if this was the right choice to approach stablecoins as a security. […] I would just say, look at MiCA, look at the way they’re approaching stablecoins. It’s a payment instrument. It should be regulated as such.”

The Canadian Securities Administrators (CSA) classified stablecoins as “securities and/or derivatives” in December 2022, following “recent events in the crypto market,” such as the dramatic collapse of crypto exchange FTX just a month before.

Canada, Cryptocurrency Exchange, Stablecoin — *Canadian Web3 Regulation panel at Blockchain Futurist Conference. Source: Cointelegraph*

The agency elaborated on stablecoin rules in February and October of 2023, placing such tokens under the umbrella of “value-referenced crypto assets.”

Canada’s stance on digital assets led many top crypto companies, including Binance, Bybit, OKX, and Paxos, to scale back operations in the local market. Crypto exchange Gemini also announced exit plans in September 2024.

The regulatory setback, however, hasn’t stopped Canada’s digital asset market from flourishing. According to Grand View Research, the local crypto industry posted revenue of $224 million in 2024, higher than in previous years. It is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 18.6% until 2030, when it is forecast to reach $617.5 million in annual revenue.

Stablecoins have emerged as key crypto use case

Stablecoins, cryptocurrencies pegged to a fiat currency, have emerged as a key use case for digital assets. According to DefiLlama, the current market capitalization for all stablecoins is at $242.8 billion as of May 14, up 51.9% in the past 12 months.

Nation-states and economic blocs are increasingly working on stablecoin regulations to tackle the rising usage across the world. While the most used stablecoins are pegged to the US dollar, there is demand for stablecoins pegged to other fiat currencies.

Magazine: Legal Panel: Crypto wanted to overthrow banks, now it’s becoming them in stablecoin fight

Politics

CFTC commissioner will step down to become Blockchain Association CEO

Published

3 hours ago

May 14, 2025

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CFTC commissioner will step down to become Blockchain Association CEO

Summer Mersinger, one of four commissioners currently serving at the US financial regulatory body Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), will become the next CEO of the digital asset advocacy group the Blockchain Association (BA).

In a May 14 notice, the Blockchain Association said its current CEO, Kristin Smith, would step down for Mersinger on May 16, allowing an interim head of the group to work until the CFTC commissioner assumes the role on June 2. Though her term at the CFTC was expected to last until April 2028, the BA said Mersinger is set to leave the agency on May 30.

The departure of Mersinger, who has served in one of the CFTC’s Republican seats since 2022, opens the way for US President Donald Trump to nominate another member to the financial regulator. Rules require that no more than three commissioners belong to the same political party.

Like the Securities and Exchange Commission, the CFTC is one of the significant US financial regulators whose policies impact digital assets. Lawmakers in Congress are currently working to pass a market structure bill to clarify the roles each agency could take in overseeing and regulating crypto.

New leadership at the Blockchain Association had been expected since Smith announced her departure on April 1 to become the next president of the Solana Policy Institute. A spokesperson for the Blockchain Association had not responded to Cointelegraph’s request for comment at the time of publication.

Some of the biggest crypto firms in the US, including Coinbase, Ripple Labs and Chainlink Labs, are members of the Association. The organization “support[s] a future-forward, pro-innovation national policy and regulatory framework for the crypto economy,” according to its website.

Changing the leadership at a major US financial regulator

A nominee of former US President Joe Biden, Mersinger has called for standardized crypto-related policies and said the CFTC was the “ideal regulator for the cryptocurrency spot market.” Some expected she would lead the regulator following the election of Trump and the departure of then-CFTC Chair Rostin Behnam, but Commissioner Caroline Pham took on the role in an acting capacity in January.

Trump chose former commissioner Brian Quintenz to chair the CFTC in February, but his nomination has not moved through the Senate for a vote in roughly three months. Commissioner Christy Goldsmith Romero reportedly said she plans to leave the agency once Quintenz is confirmed, potentially giving Trump the chance to nominate three new commissioners to fill the five-seat panel.

Any CFTC commissioner picked by the president needs a majority vote in the Senate to be confirmed for a five-year term or to fill in for a resigning member.

Magazine: Crypto wanted to overthrow banks, now it’s becoming them in stablecoin fight

Politics

Bitcoin more of a ‘diversifier’ than safe-haven asset: Report

Published

7 hours ago

May 14, 2025

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Bitcoin more of a ‘diversifier’ than safe-haven asset: Report

Bitcoin’s fluctuating correlation with US equities is raising questions about its role as a global safe-haven asset during periods of financial stress.

Bitcoin (BTC) exhibited a strong negative correlation with the US stock market when analyzing the short-term, seven-day trailing correlation, according to new research from blockchain data provider RedStone Oracles, shared exclusively with Cointelegraph.

However, RedStone said that the 30-day indicator signals a “variable correlation” between Bitcoin price and the S&P 500 index, with the correlation coefficient ranging from -0.2 to 0.4.

This fluctuating correlation suggests that Bitcoin “doesn’t consistently function as a true hedge for equities” due to its lack of a strong negative correlation below -0.3, which is needed for “reliable counter movement during market stress,” the report said.

The research suggests that while Bitcoin may not be a dependable hedge against stock market declines, it offers value as a portfolio diversifier.

This fluctuating dynamic signals that Bitcoin often moves independently from other assets, potentially offering additional returns while other assets are struggling. Still, Bitcoin has yet to mirror the safe-haven dynamics of gold and government bonds, RedStone suggests.

Bitcoin needs to “mature” before decoupling from stock market

While Bitcoin is poised to grow into a safe-haven asset in the future, the world’s first cryptocurrency still needs to “mature” as a global asset, according to Marcin Kazmierczak, co-founder and chief operating officer at RedStone.

“Bitcoin still needs to mature before decoupling from stock markets,” Kazmierczak told Cointelegraph, adding:

“Increased institutional adoption will absolutely help — we’re already seeing this effect with corporate treasury investments reducing Bitcoin’s 30-day volatility and with BlackRock repetitively praising BTC as an asset in a portfolio.”

Meanwhile, Bitcoin will see growing recognition as a portfolio diversifier, with an annualized return of over 230% for the past five years, which “significantly outperformed” both stocks and traditional safe-haven assets, Kazmierczak said, adding that “even a small 1–5% Bitcoin allocation can meaningfully enhance a portfolio’s risk-adjusted returns.”

Meanwhile, Bitcoin’s declining volatility supports BTC’s growing maturity as a global financial asset. Bitcoin’s weekly volatility hit a 563-day low on April 30, a development that may signal more stable price action.

Bitcoin’s price volatility fell below the realized volatility of the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq 100, signaling that investors are increasingly treating Bitcoin as a long-term investment vehicle, Cointelegraph reported on May 13.