Throughout a press convention in late 2024, President Donald Trump vowed to “slash large numbers of job-killing laws” in his second time period and pledged to remove 10 outdated guidelines for each new one.

Now he’s bringing that deregulation drive to industrial area, ordering federal companies to streamline launch licensing, fast-track spaceport improvement, and filter out the Federal Aviation Administration’s business advisory board.

“Inefficient allowing processes discourage funding and innovation, limiting the power of U.S. firms to guide in international area markets,” he said in an Executive Order signed August 13.

The order directs the Division of Transportation (DOT) to chop “outdated, redundant, or overly restrictive” guidelines that govern launch and reentry licenses. It additionally instructs the Federal Aviation Administration, which is housed beneath the DOT, to remove or speed up environmental evaluations, ease the trail to constructing new spaceports, and to nominate a “senior govt” charged with fostering “innovation and deregulation.”

The Commerce Division additionally has been ordered to face up a brand new course of for authorizing “novel area actions,” like in-space manufacturing or satellite tv for pc refueling, that don’t match neatly into present licensing regimes.

The chief order got here the identical day transportation secretary and appearing NASA administrator Sean Duffy dismissed every member of the Business House Transportation Advisory Committee (COMSTAC), a long-standing business advisory board contained in the DOT that shapes spaceflight guidelines and priorities.

For firms which have spent years mired in environmental evaluations and licensing delays, the order was a welcome signal that future bids would expertise shorter timelines and extra regulatory readability. The Business House Federation, an business commerce group whose members embrace SpaceX, Blue Origin, Rocket Lab, and a dozen others, applauded the manager order for offering “regulatory aid to unleash the U.S. industrial area business.”

Certainly, industrial gamers are poised to realize rather a lot beneath this new regime. Launch firms may gain advantage from sooner allowing and streamlined environmental evaluations. State-backed spaceport operators, like Space Florida, may additionally be aided by provisions that speed up new website improvement.  

Making a mission authorization framework for “novel” area actions is equally consequential: startups like Varda Space Industries or Orbit Fab, that are creating applied sciences to fabricate prescribed drugs in area and in-orbit refueling, respectively, might achieve a bonus by a regulatory method led by Commerce.

Environmental rule sticking level

Not everyone seems to be celebrating the order. The Middle for Organic Variety (CBD), an environmental group that has challenged the FAA’s approval of SpaceX’s Starship program in Texas, known as the order “reckless.”

“Bending the knee to highly effective firms by permitting federal companies to disregard bedrock environmental legal guidelines is extremely harmful and places all of us in hurt’s method. That is clearly not within the public curiosity,” senior lawyer Jared Margolis stated.

For teams like CBD, environmental evaluations are usually not “overly complicated,” because the Order expenses — they’re typically fully inadequate. In 2023, environmental groups, including the CBD, alleged that the FAA’s environmental evaluation of SpaceX’s South Texas plans had been insufficient and in violation of the Nationwide Environmental Coverage Act.

SpaceX has individually waged an increasingly public campaign towards “superfluous” laws and environmental analyses which have hindered a speedier check marketing campaign.

There are nonetheless some unknowns. Authorized challenges to the order may sluggish progress, and the brand new COMSTAC members, who’ve but to be appointed, will inform the way forward for area rule-making.

A Hong Kong Securities and Futures Fee (SFC) official warned that the introduction of the brand new native stablecoin regulatory framework has elevated the danger of fraud.

In response to an Aug. 18 report by Chinese language monetary information outlet Zhitongcaijing, Ye Zhiheng, govt director of the intermediaries division on the SFC, mentioned that fraud dangers have elevated with the recent introduction of stablecoin regulations. He urged buyers to train warning and keep away from making irrational funding selections pushed by market hype or worth momentum.

Ye’s remarks adopted stablecoin corporations working in Hong Kong posting double-digit losses on Aug. 1, simply after the brand new stablecoin regulation got here into pressure. Analysts on the time described the sell-off as a wholesome correction, as the necessities for stablecoin issuers proved to be extra stringent than anticipated.

Nonetheless, Ye mentioned that some corporations noticed their share costs rise just by disclosing plans to use for a stablecoin license.

Associated: China cracks down on stablecoin promotions, research and seminars

Hong Kong authorities warn towards stablecoin hypothesis

Final Thursday, the SFC and the Hong Kong Financial Authority (HKMA) collectively issued a statement on current market actions associated to stablecoins. The regulators pointed to “current abrupt market actions linked to the stablecoin idea” of corporations.

“These actions seem to comply with company bulletins, information experiences, social media posts or speculations relating to plans to use for stablecoin issuer licence, interact in associated actions or discover the feasibility of such initiatives in Hong Kong,” the announcement mentioned.

The SFC additionally mentioned it should intently monitor buying and selling actions in Hong Kong. The regulator plans to “take stringent actions towards any manipulative or misleading practices that might compromise the integrity of the market.”

Associated: Animoca and Standard Chartered form stablecoin venture in Hong Kong

Crypto is a excessive precedence for Hong Kong regulators

The warnings come as Hong Kong begins implementing its Stablecoin Ordinance, which took effect Aug. 1 and introduced a six-month transition period for compliance.

The Stablecoin Ordinance successfully criminalizes the offering or promotion of unlicensed fiat-referenced stablecoins to retail buyers. These measures additionally adopted native authorities finalizing their regulatory framework for stablecoin issuers and launching a dedicated public license registry.

Final week, the SFC additionally issued instantly efficient guidance on cryptocurrency custody standards, introducing sweeping safety necessities and a ban on good contracts in chilly pockets implementations, a rule that might battle with present practices at a number of main companies.

Journal: Hong Kong hoses down stablecoin frenzy, Pokémon on Solana: Asia Express