Cryptocurrency

SBF ordered to jail, Bitcoin ETF delayed and SEC to appeal Ripple case: Hodler’s Digest, Aug. 6-12

Published

2 years ago

August 13, 2023

Judge revokes Sam Bankman-Fried’s bail, remands him to custody

FTX’s former CEO, Sam “SBF” Bankman-Fried, had his bail revoked by a federal judge in response to the release of information to The New York Times allegedly intended to intimidate witnesses. During a hearing on Aug. 11, Judge Lewis Kaplan revoked Bankman-Fried’s bail and remanded him to custody, likely at the Putnam County Correctional Facility. Once his October trial begins, he could be moved to the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn. Bankman-Fried was reportedly led out of the courtroom in handcuffs. In Kaplan’s view, Bankman-Fried’s interviews with NYT reporters resulted in sharing information with the likely intention “to hurt and frighten” former Alameda Research CEO Caroline Ellison, his former colleague and girlfriend.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has delayed a decision on whether to approve or disapprove the spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) proposed by ARK Investment Management and 21Shares. ARK originally filed to list the ETF in May, giving the SEC a maximum of 240 days — until January 2024 — to reach a final decision. The SEC’s latest move is fueling expectations that a final verdict will come as part of a batch that includes applications from key players on Wall Street, including BlackRock and Fidelity Investments.

SEC to seek appeal and stay in Ripple Labs court case

The U.S. SEC is moving to appeal a court decision from its lawsuit against Ripple Labs. In a letter to Judge Analisa Torres — the presiding judge in the case — the SEC said it believed her decision warrants a fresh look by an appellate court. The commission asked Judge Torres to put the case on hold during the appeal, saying there are multiple other pending court cases that could be affected, depending on the appeal’s outcome. The SEC is currently in a legal battle with a number of crypto firms, including Binance and Coinbase, over alleged securities violations. Judge Torres ruled, in July, that Ripple’s native token, XRP, is not a security when sold to retail investors. Torres plans to schedule the jury trial for the second quarter of 2024.

PayPal launches PYUSD stablecoin for payment

PayPal launched a new U.S. dollar-pegged stablecoin called PayPal USD (PYUSD). Built on the Ethereum network, the stablecoin is backed by U.S. dollar deposits, short-term treasuries and similar cash equivalents. According to PayPal, the stablecoin will soon be available as a mode of payment for various purchases. The fintech company is home to over 350 million active users, putting it in a strong position to become a crypto payment giant with the introduction of the new stablecoin. PYUSD will be redeemable for U.S. dollars and can be exchanged for other cryptocurrencies on PayPal, as well as being transferable between PayPal and Venmo accounts.

Temasek, Sequoia Capital, Softbank, leading VCs face lawsuit for “abetting” FTX fraud

Eighteen leading venture capital investment firms, including Temasek, Sequoia Capital, Sino Global Capital and SoftBank, have been named as defendants in a class-action lawsuit filed in the United States for their links to the now-bankrupt crypto exchange, FTX. According to the lawsuit, the investment firms were responsible for “aiding and abetting” the FTX fraud. The suit further claims that the defendants used their “power, influence and deep pockets to launch FTX’s house of cards to its multibillion-dollar scale.”

Winners and Losers

At the end of the week, Bitcoin (BTC) is at $29,379, Ether (ETH) at $1,842 and XRP at $0.63. The total market cap is at $1.17 trillion, according to CoinMarketCap.

Among the biggest 100 cryptocurrencies, the top three altcoin gainers of the week are THORChain (RUNE) at 20.74%, Shiba Inu (SHIB) at 20.16% and dYdX (DYDX) at 9.63%.

The top three altcoin losers of the week are GMX (GMX) -12.47%, Mantle (MNT) at -10.10% and XDC Network (XDC) at -8.09%.

For more info on crypto prices, make sure to read Cointelegraph’s market analysis.

Most Memorable Quotations

“Stablecoins represent the issuance of a new form of money, making it integral that there are Federal guardrails.”

Maxine Waters, United States representative

“This is the Ethereum contract address for PayPal’s stablecoin. I can’t believe i get to tweet that. We’ve come so far.”

Ryan Sean Adams, crypto investor

“By offering users a relatively seamless way to execute transactions, bots have the potential to carve out their own niche in the crypto ecosystem.”

Jie Xuan Chua, analyst at Binance Research

“PayPal USD is the most significant leap forward for digital assets and the financial industry.”

Charles Cascarilla, CEO of Paxos Trust Company

“It is clear that the world needs and will need something like Worldcoin in the coming years. We just hope that happens in a privacy-preserving decentralized, open-source, permissionless way.”

Tiago Sada, head of product at Tools for Humanity

“By accepting digital currencies, we open our doors to a new segment of donors who are tech-savvy and wish to make a difference through their digital assets.”

Benjamin William, CEO of the Singapore Red Cross

Prediction of the Week

Bitcoin trader reveals ‘important’ BTC price zone as bulls hold $29.3K

Bitcoin faces a new battleground as bulls and bears fight for control of a sideways market. Popular pseudonymous trader Daan Crypto Trades flagged, in his latest analysis, a key level to reclaim as BTC price support.

According to the trader, both Bitcoin bulls and bears are caught in a “strongly contested” range, resulting from various trips above and below the current spot price, making the midpoint the level to watch next.

“Pretty clear that the $29.5–29.7K region is an area that’s strongly contested by the bulls and bears,” Daan Crypto Trades wrote.

Bitcoin price has essentially remained the same since mid-June — $28,500 as fundamental support, $31,800 as resistance. Gaining control of the area around $29,700 is, thus, an essential move if bulls are to build the necessary momentum to change the landscape for good, the trader added.

FUD of the Week

Only 6 out of 45 crypto wallet brands have undergone penetration testing: Report

Cybersecurity platform CER found that only six of 45 cryptocurrency wallet brands, or 13.3%, have undergone penetration testing to find security vulnerabilities. Of these, only three brands have performed tests on the latest versions of their products: MetaMask, Zengo and Trust Wallet. An overall ranking of the security of each wallet lists MetaMask, Zengo, Rabby, Trust Wallet and Coinbase Wallet as being the most secure wallets on the market.

US Fed steps up oversight of banks’ involvement with crypto firms

The U.S. Federal Reserve is expanding the scope of its supervision for banks engaged with the cryptocurrency and blockchain industry. Under the Novel Activities Supervision Program, companies providing banking infrastructure to digital asset firms or working with companies that use distributed ledger technologies will be regulated. The policies apply to both insured and uninsured U.S. banks supervised by the Fed. Activities regulated under the program include the custody, lending, trading, issuance or distribution of crypto including stablecoins.

SEC announces $24M settlement for case against Bittrex and its former CEO

The U.S. SEC announced an agreement with crypto trading platform Bittrex and its co-founder and former CEO, William Shihara, for operating an unregistered exchange.Bittrex and Bittrex Global agreed to pay $14.4 million in disgorgement (the repayment of ill-gotten gains), $4 million in prejudgment interest, and $5.6 million in civil penalties to settle the legal dispute with the federal regulator. The agreement is still subject to court approval. The SEC’s complaint, filed in April, claimed Bittrex and Shihara operated an unregistered national securities exchange, broker and clearing agency.

Best Cointelegraph Features

Blockchain games aren’t really decentralized… but that’s about to change

Putting video games fully on chain is a terrible idea and can’t work … or can it?

AI Eye: Apple developing pocket AI, deep fake music deal, hypnotizing GPT-4

Apple is developing AI to run locally on your phone, researchers ‘hypnotize’ GPT-4 to turn it evil, and Google negotiates a deep fake music deal.

Grails’ lucky dip of famous NFT artists, new hope for PFP holders: NFT Collector

Pudgy Penguins CEO reveals why PFT holders aren’t doomed, Grails offers a blind tasting to buy famous NFT artists, and free Amazon Prime NFTs.

Editorial Staff

Cointelegraph Magazine writers and reporters contributed to this article.

Cryptocurrency

25% of Bitcoin at Risk: Developers Push for Quantum-Resistant Upgrade

Published

5 hours ago

July 17, 2025

Developers are warning that a growing quantum computing threat could compromise 25% of Bitcoin’s supply due to exposed public keys.

To combat this, Jameson Lopp, CTO and co-founder of self-custody service Casa, has proposed a quantum-resistant upgrade to the cryptocurrency’s software.

A Three-Phase Solution

According to a July 15 Bitcoin Improvement Proposal (BIPs), approximately 4 million BTC, including the 1 million believed to belong to Satoshi Nakamoto, are vulnerable to future quantum computer attacks.

“Bitcoin’s current signatures (ECDSA/Schnorr) will be a tantalizing target: any UTXO that has ever exposed its public key on-chain (roughly 25% of all bitcoin) could be stolen by a cryptographically relevant quantum computer,” the post said.

The plan outlines three steps to reduce this threat. The first phase would block users from sending BTC to quantum-vulnerable addresses and instead require the use of a new post-quantum address type called P2QRH.

The second step, planned to begin two years later, would freeze any funds that have not been moved to a secure address. The final phase is still being studied and could allow people to recover frozen assets using a BIP-39 seed phrase.

Lopp presented the initiative at the Quantum Bitcoin Summit in San Francisco, an invite-only gathering of experts focused on protecting BTC against such vulnerabilities. The plan, crafted in collaboration with five other developers, is built around an incentive mechanism that warns users they will lose access to their funds if they do not upgrade. The goal is to push holders toward safer storage methods that quantum computers cannot compromise.

The Quantum Threat

In the proposal, the authors stressed the enormity of the threat posed to the Bitcoin ecosystem by a potential quantum attack:

“Never before has Bitcoin faced an existential threat to its cryptographic primitives,” they wrote. “A successful quantum attack on Bitcoin would result in significant economic disruption and damage across the entire ecosystem.”

Their fear is backed by a past Deloitte study explaining how severe the damage could be. The research demonstrated that if the vulnerable BTC were unlocked and sold following a quantum attack, it would trigger heavy selling pressure on the market. Lopp described this situation as a “liquidation event.”

Elsewhere, Project Eleven, a research group focused on quantum computing, recently announced a competition to measure the real-world risk such technology poses to the leading cryptocurrency’s security.

The group reported that more than 10 million BTC addresses have exposed public keys. This puts about 6.2 million BTC, worth around $500 billion, at risk if quantum computing continues to improve. A separate analysis by CryptoQuant pointed out that these attacks could also affect mining operations.

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Cryptocurrency

XRP Set to Moon? $4.80 Target Hinges on This Game-Changing Catalyst (Analyst)

Published

5 hours ago

July 17, 2025

TL;DR

Multiple analysts, including Ali Martinez, believe XRP’s price could soon enter undiscovered territory.
The approval of a futures-based XRP ETF, growing network activity, and rising whale accumulation back the asset’s bullish momentum.

Waiting for a New ATH

Ripple’s XRP has been one of crypto’s rock stars in the past several weeks, with its price pumping to a five-month high of over $3. Currently, it trades just south of that milestone, representing a 32% increase on a 30-day scale.

Meanwhile, XRP’s market capitalization surged past $175 billion, thus surpassing Tether’s USDT and becoming the third-biggest cryptocurrency.

Somewhat expected, crypto X is rammed with users who believe the asset’s rally is nowhere near its end. The popular analyst Ali Martinez, for instance, predicted that XRP could skyrocket to a new historic peak of $4.80 as long as it secures a weekly close above $3.

A weekly close above $3 could send $XRP to a new all-time high of $4.80! pic.twitter.com/fvvq0EpW6j
— Ali (@ali_charts) July 16, 2025

Other market observers who have laid their thoughts on the matter include the X users CRYPTOWZRD and Johnny. The former argued that XRP has flipped the old $2.8 resistance target and has turned it into support.

“One more bullish daily close here would confirm that flip and set the stage for a move to a new all-time high. The next resistance target is $3.65,” they added.

Johnny provided fewer details, simply noticing the token’s impressive performance and forecasting that this could be the move that triggers a new ATH.

The Potential Catalysts

One factor that may have positively influenced the asset’s price is the recent SEC approval of the ProShares Ultra XRP ETF. The product is futures-based, will trade under the ticker UXPR, and is designed to provide twice the daily performance of the token’s price.

A spot XRP ETF in the USA has yet to receive the green light from the securities regulator, but the chances for approval remain solid at around 86% (before the end of 2025).

The recent growth of XRP’s network and the whales’ activity are also elements that could have contributed to the bull run. For those willing to explore the possible catalysts in detail, please refer to our article here.

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Cryptocurrency

Bitcoin’s Pause Is Ethereum’s Green Light: Here’s What’s Next

Published

5 hours ago

July 17, 2025

Bitcoin’s surge has paused as traders engaged in profit-taking.

This triggered a pullback, which dragged the cryptocurrency near $116,000. It has since staged a recovery of nearly 2%, pushing Bitcoin above $119,000 at the time of writing.

New data has emerged, signaling that BTC is not at a local top but in a transition phase, with timing, behavior, and structure all pointing to further upside.

BTC Makes Room for Alts

According to the analytics firm, SwissBlock’s latest market report, ‘Altcoin Vector,’ beneath the surface, capital rotation has started, and Ethereum is emerging as the next leg of the cycle. The firm said that Bitcoin is consolidating, and not breaking down.

BTC dominance has likely peaked in the short term as capital rotation accelerates across the crypto market. The ETH/BTC ratio is also rising steadily, which is indicative of Ethereum’s relative strength and its ability to attract liquidity from Bitcoin while also lifting the broader altcoin complex.

This is is also driving renewed momentum in other altcoins as liquidity moves within the market rather than exiting it. This trend indicates an expansion phase where capital is redeploying into Ethereum and select altcoins, while simultaneously reducing BTC’s market share.

The rotation means that confidence remains intact as investors seek higher returns beyond BTC.

BTC Hasn’t Topped Yet

While Bitcoin’s pause has triggered rotation into Ethereum and altcoins, SwissBlock argued that the broader cycle for the world’s largest crypto itself remains unfinished.

According to BTC Vector’s Optimal Signal, each major expansion in this cycle has lasted 15-30 days, while the current rally is only on day 12. With capital beginning to rotate into Ethereum, it indicates that the cycle remains incomplete.

To top that, Glassnode’s Short-Term Holder Relative Unrealized Profit also remains well below levels seen during previous cycle tops in January and April 2024, which means that market participants are not exhibiting excessive profit-taking or euphoria yet.

Additionally, both Willy Woo’s Speculation Index and VWAP Liquidity confirm that the market is not overheated, as neither indicator has reached prior cycle extremes. These factors together suggest there is ongoing structural support for Bitcoin to move higher.

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