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Alexey Pertsev to Be Released from Prison Today With an Electronic Monitor

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Alexey Pertsev will be released from prison today under electronic monitoring as he continues to appeal his money laundering conviction linked to Tornado Cash.

His release comes after months of unsuccessful bail requests and growing concerns over how the legal system treats privacy-focused crypto developers.

Pertsev Plans on Focusing on His Appeal

Pertsev confirmed the news in a February 6 post on X:

“Dear Friends, on Friday 7 February at 10 am I will be free! It is not real freedom, but it is better than prison,” it said.

He explained that a Dutch court had suspended his pretrial detention under electronic monitoring. The Tornado Cash developer added that this would allow him to focus on his appeal and fight for justice.

In August 2022, the U.S. Treasury imposed sanctions on the crypto mixer, accusing it of enabling the laundering of over $7 billion since 2019.

Pertsev was later arrested in the Netherlands that same month. He was charged with money laundering and facilitating illicit financial transactions through the platform. In May 2024, a Dutch court found him guilty and sentenced him to 64 months in prison.

Following his arrest, the Russian national started actively appealing his conviction and asking for bail. Despite multiple attempts, his requests were denied. His defense maintains that he created open-source software and should not be criminalized for its misuse.

Debate Over Developer Liability

The case has fueled debate over financial privacy and whether software developers should be held liable for how their code is used. Pertsev’s case gained momentum after a U.S. federal appeals court ruled in November 2024 that sanctions against Tornado Cash were unlawful. A January 21 court filing confirmed that the district court judgment had been overturned and sent back for further review.

The decision boosted arguments from privacy advocates who claim that developers should not be punished for actions beyond their control.

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has voiced concern over Pertsev’s prosecution, calling it a troubling precedent for developers. Speaking at a Berlin conference last year, he said, “The situation with Alexey is quite unfortunate.” He added that many believed building software was a legitimate and legal way to protect privacy.

Buterin has also made several ETH donations to the 31-year-old’s legal fund through the decentralized fundraising platform Juicebox.

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Cryptocurrency

Arthur Hayes Is Selling: Here Are the Altcoins He’s Ditching

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The cryptocurrency market reached new heights in July as the total cap exceeded $4 trillion for the first time ever, led by bitcoin’s new peak above $123,000 and several altcoins’ rallies to ATHs, such as XRP and BNB.

The past few days, though, have gone in the opposite direction, with many altcoins charting double-digit price declines, while BTC plunged to a three-week low of under $113,000.

During these turbulent times of uncertainty, perhaps prompted by Trump’s latest tariffs and the movement of US nuclear submarines close to strategic Russian locations, prominent industry names, such as Arthur Hayes, have started to sell off. Here’s which altcoins the BitMEX co-founder sold in the past 24 hours.

ETH, ENA, PEPE Being Sold

As the data shared by the analytics resource Lookonchain points out, Hayes has used one of his known addresses to dispose of over $8 million worth of ETH, $4.6 million in ENA, and $414,700 worth of the third-largest meme coin by market cap – PEPE.

Later, the Maelstrom exec clarified that the reason for his sales is mostly related to Trump’s tariffs, many of which are set to be implemented starting from August 1. He believes BTC and ETH will retrace, as the former would retest the $100,000 resistance, while the latter will head toward $3,000.

Hayes is far from the only larger crypto investor turning to a sell-off strategy amid this market uncertainty. Lookonchain identified an unknown whale that had deposited over $90 million worth of ETH to several exchanges within a span of just two days.

Not SharpLink, Though

While some whales and Hayes are rushing to sell ETH, the second-largest ether holder, SharpLink, has taken the opportunity to increase its impressive stash.

After accumulating another 14,933 ETH, the company now owns over $1.6 billion worth of Ethereum’s underlying asset (464,209 ETH), according to Lookonchain. Data from CoinGecko and strategicethreserve shows that SharpLink’s Ethereum fortune is second only to Bitmine’s 566,766 ETH.

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XRP, TON Defy Market Correction as BTC, Alts Continue to Melt Down: Weekend Watch

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Bitcoin’s adverse price movements that started on Thursday continued in the past 24 hours, with the asset sliding to a new multi-week low of under $113,000.

With multiple altcoins in the red as well, including a new all-time low for Pi, it’s no wonder that the total crypto market cap has dumped by nearly $250 billion in a few days.

BTC Keeps Dropping

The primary cryptocurrency experienced a brief retracement at the end of the previous business week when it dipped from $119,000 to under $115,000 amid substantial sell-offs by Galaxy Digital on behalf of a client. However, once the sale was completed, BTC recovered most losses and even headed toward $120,000 after the weekend.

The bears were quick to intercept the move and didn’t allow another price jump. Bitcoin remained calm until Wednesday, when the latest FOMC meeting was scheduled to take place. Despite the positive US GDP data for Q2 and Trump’s continued pleas for rate reduction, Powell and company left them unchanged for a fifth consecutive time.

BTC reacted with an immediate price slip to under $116,000 but bounced off and challenged $119,000 on Thursday morning. However, more Trump-induced volatility followed amid new tariff developments and nuclear sub movements, and bitcoin plunged below $113,000 on Friday evening for the first time since July 10.

It has recovered around a grand since then, but it’s still 1% in the red daily and 3% down weekly. Its market cap is down to $2.260 trillion, while its dominance stands tall at 60%.

BTCUSD. Source: TradingView
BTCUSD. Source: TradingView

XRP Fares Well

Most larger-cap alts have followed BTC on the way south, with even bigger price declines. ETH has slipped below $3,500 after a 4% daily drop, SOL is below $165, while DOGE, HYPE, LINNK, BCH, and HBAR have retraced by around 3-4%.

Pi Network’s native token dumped to another all-time low earlier today, while ENA has plunged by 7%. There are a few exceptions from the larger-cap alts, including XRP and LTC, which are slightly in the green. TON has risen by over 3.5% to almost $3.6.

The total crypto market cap has dumped to $3.750 trillion on CG. This means that the metric has lost roughly $250 billion since Thursday’s peak.

Cryptocurrency Market Overview. Source: QuantifyCrypto
Cryptocurrency Market Overview. Source: QuantifyCrypto
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Disclaimer: Information found on CryptoPotato is those of writers quoted. It does not represent the opinions of CryptoPotato on whether to buy, sell, or hold any investments. You are advised to conduct your own research before making any investment decisions. Use provided information at your own risk. See Disclaimer for more information.

Cryptocurrency charts by TradingView.

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Coinbase Tanks 11% Pre-Market After $1.5B Q2 Revenue Miss

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Coinbase shares fell sharply after the company reported second-quarter earnings that missed expectations. Total revenue for the quarter came in at $1.5 billion, representing a 26% decline from the previous quarter.

The shortfall was largely driven by weaker-than-expected transaction revenue, which fell 39% quarter-over-quarter to $764 million.

Missing Expectations

In the official release, Coinbase revealed that its subscription and services revenue also declined 6% to $656 million. Despite efforts to reduce variable costs, operating expenses climbed 15% to $1.5 billion. Coinbase attributed this largely to the $307 million hit related to the data breach disclosed in May.

The crypto exchange recorded a net income of $1.4 billion, but this figure included $1.5 billion in pre-tax unrealized gains from strategic investments, including in Circle, as well as a $362 million pre-tax gain from its crypto investment portfolio. On an adjusted basis, net income stood at just $33 million, with adjusted EBITDA reaching $512 million.

Coinbase’s trading activity also underperformed the broader crypto spot market, as global and US crypto spot volumes declined 31% and 32% respectively. Meanwhile, its total trading volume fell 40% to $237 billion, and the consumer segment witnessed a 45% drop to $43 billion.

Consumer transaction revenue plunged 41% to $650 million, as volume shifted toward Simple trades amid low volatility. Institutional transaction revenue also saw a similar pattern, down 38% in both volume and revenue.

While Base Chain activity grew, other transaction revenue dropped 21% as average revenue per transaction declined.

As of the close on the previous trading day, Coinbase (COIN) shares were priced at $377.76, up slightly by $0.28. However, pre-market trading shows a sharp decline, with the stock down $42.30 (-11.20%) to $335.46. This steep drop suggests a strong negative reaction from investors, likely in response to recent earnings results.

Despite grappling with declining revenues and rising costs, Coinbase is doubling down on product innovation.

“Everything App”

Earlier this month, Coinbase rebranded its Wallet as the Base app, launching a crypto-focused “everything app” that merges trading, social media, USDC payments, mini-apps, and tokenized posts.

Announced at its “A New Day One” conference, the app runs on Coinbase’s Ethereum Layer 2 network and integrates Farcaster for social feeds, Zora for post tokenization, and encrypted XMTP chat. Users can earn from tips, interact with AI agents, and make one-tap payments.

The platform also introduced Base Pay for Shopify merchants and plans 1% USDC cashback in the US. The app is in beta, while a full public release and developer tools are expected soon.

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