Cryptocurrency
SBF ordered to jail, Bitcoin ETF delayed and SEC to appeal Ripple case: Hodler’s Digest, Aug. 6-12
Top Stories This Week
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.
Read also
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.
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This week, we take a closer look at Ethereum, Ripple, Cardano, Binance Coin, and Solana.
Ethereum (ETH)
The market has had a great week so far, and Ethereum closed with a 9% price increase. On Wednesday, the Fed cut the interest rate by 0.50%, which turned out to be extremely bullish for crypto. Since then, ETH has also managed to break above $2,400.
With buyers back, the momentum is shifting bullish again. The current target for this cryptocurrency is $2,800, which will also act as resistance. The former resistance at $2,400 is now a key support, and as long as it is not lost, buyers have the advantage.
Looking ahead, Ethereum is finally showing signs of recovery after months of difficult price action in which bears dominated.
Ripple (XRP)
XRP increased by 4% this week but appears to lag behind other market leaders such as Ethereum or Solana. This could be because it already broke its resistance at 54 cents last week, and buyers may be distracted by other opportunities at this time.
Nevertheless, momentum remains bullish on this price action, and XRP needs to make a higher high to maintain it. A clean break above 60 cents can restore confidence and see the price attempt a test of the next key target at 68 cents.
Looking ahead, XRP may be preparing for its next major move, especially if the overall market remains bullish.
Cardano (ADA)
So far in September, ADA has been bouncing between the key levels, but this could be its most important opportunity to break the resistance at 37 cents. While the price closes the week with only a 1% increase, optimism is high that Cardano can finally have a breakout.
The past two weeks saw the price find good support around 33 cents, and sellers were unable to push ADA below that. This improved confidence in the price action, and buyers returned.
Looking ahead, the biggest challenge for this cryptocurrency is to break above 37 cents. That would put ADA back on the offensive to recover the losses incurred since March 2024.
Binance Coin (BNB)
Binance Coin remains a great performer and closed the week with a 6% price increase. This allowed buyers to keep the price well above the $500 support and even aim towards $600, which is the current target for this uptrend.
Buyers are dominating right now, which shows promise for a sustained uptrend in the coming weeks. Moreover, on the 3-day timeframe, the MACD made a bullish cross, which is picking up momentum. This favors a continuation of this uptrend.
Looking ahead, BNB is found in a strong position based on its price action, which shows that it is ready to challenge the highs from earlier this year.
Solana (SOL)
Solana is our strongest performer this week, with a 12% price increase. As soon as the resistance at $134 was broken, buyers rushed to this cryptocurrency, and the price shot up.
The current rally is coming on strong buy volume, which could see SOL test the resistance at $164 in the next few days. That would only encourage buyers further.
Looking ahead, Solana is back in the spotlight, and market participants seem to prefer it over other major altcoins. If this market rally continues, Solana may be among the first to benefit.
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Cryptocurrency charts by TradingView.
Bitcoin’s price rally that started after the US Fed reduced the interest rates on Wednesday took the asset to a multi-week peak of over $64,000 hours ago.
The altcoins also followed suit, with ETH breaking above $2,500 and BNB soaring past $570.
BTC Kept Pumping
This highly anticipated business week actually started with a retracement on Monday that drove the primary cryptocurrency from over $60,000 to under $58,000 in hours. However, the bulls quickly resumed control of the market and pushed the asset to over $61,000 ahead of the Wednesday FOMC meeting.
Once it concluded that the US central bank announced a 0.5% cut in the key interest rates, BTC went on a rollercoaster with several movements up and down. Still, the bulls came out stronger, at least for now, and initiated an impressive rally for bitcoin.
As reported yesterday, the asset tapped $63,000 for the first in three weeks. However, it kept adding value and briefly exceeded $64,000 earlier today for the first time since late August.
Nevertheless, its ascend has been halted for now, and BTC now sits about a grand lower. It’s still 2% up on the day, which has pushed its market cap to $1.250 trillion. Its dominance over the alts, though, has been slashed to 54.3% after soaring past 55% yesterday for the first time in almost four years.
SOL, AVAX on the Run
Most altcoins were trailing behind BTC in the past few days, but have charted more impressive gains today. The pack is led by Solana and Avalanche. Both of them have surged by around 9% to $151 and $28, respectively.
Chainlink has added 5% of value, and so has Ethereum. In fact, ETH has skyrocketed to a multi-week peak of its own at $2,550.
The most impressive daily increases come from the likes of TAO (15%), APT (12%), CORE (12%), JUP (11%), SUI (11%), and LDO (11%).
The total crypto market cap has gained another $70 billion overnight and is above $2.3 trillion on CG now.
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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.
The cryptocurrency market saw some long-time coming revival after the United States Federal Reserve cut the interest rates on Wednesday for the first time in about four years.
The two largest digital assets went on a run, jumping by roughly 10% in the past few days.
BTC Price Rises Amid ETF Inflows
The 11 spot Bitcoin ETFs have enjoyed investors’ demand and attention ever since they went live for trading in January this year. Their negative and positive streaks in terms of net flows have influenced the underlying asset’s price to the extent that BTC tapped a new all-time high just two months after they saw the light of day.
As with most markets, investors’ perspective changes with current macro and micro-economic conditions and news. As such, it was interesting to follow how they would act in this particular week because of the Fed’s FOMC meeting that took place on Wednesday.
After all, this was the first interest rate cut in the States since 2020, which also means that it was the first since the inception of the BTC ETFs. In the days leading to the meeting, US investors poured over $500 million in net inflows to the financial vehicles but withdrew $52.7 million on Wednesday.
However, their attitude changed once again yesterday – the first full trading day after the rate reduction. Data from FarSide shows total net inflows of $158.3 million. Ark Invest’s ARKB led the pack with $81.1 million, followed by Fidelity’s FBTC with nearly $50 million. There were no reportable outflows, but BlackRock’s IBIT saw no action.
In the same timeframe, BTC’s price skyrocketed from $59,000 (on the rate-cut day) to just over $64,000 earlier today before retracing slightly to $63,400 (as of now).
Even ETH ETFs See Inflows
Unlike the Bitcoin ETFs, the Ethereum counterparts have failed to attract real interest, recording very few days in net inflows since their start in late July. In the days ahead of the FOMC meeting, investors took out $9.4 million on Monday and $15.1 million on Tuesday. Another $9.8 million was withdrawn on Wednesday.
However, the tides turned for the Ethereum ETFs as well yesterday, with total net inflows of $5.2 million. Interestingly, the entire amount went into BlackRock’s ETHA, and the rest of the ETFs saw zero reportable flows.
ETH’s price also soared alongside BTC. It had dumped to $2,300 during the FOMC meeting on Wednesday but earlier today neared $2,575 (a 12% surge) for the first time since late August.
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