The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has faced a setback in its request to access Binance.US’s software. In a hearing held on September 18, the judge stated that he was not inclined to allow immediate inspection of the software. Instead, the judge suggested that the SEC should provide more specific requests for discovery and speak with a broader range of witnesses. This comes as the SEC continues to pursue detailed information from Binance and increased availability of its executives for depositions. Binance global and its CEO, Changpeng “CZ” Zhao, have also requested the dismissal of the SEC’s lawsuit against them, claiming that the regulator overstepped its authority in the case.
In other news, the trustee of Mt. Gox, Nobuaki Kobayashi, has changed the deadline for repaying the exchange’s creditors from October 31, 2023, to October 31, 2024. Mt. Gox was one of the earliest cryptocurrency exchanges and once facilitated over 70% of all trades made within the blockchain ecosystem. However, following a major hack in 2011 and alleged insolvency, the exchange collapsed in 2014, resulting in the loss of 850,000 BTC. The trustee now holds around 142,000 Bitcoin, 143,000 Bitcoin Cash, and 69 billion Japanese yen.
Tether’s Treasury has authorized the provision of $1 billion in near-term liquidity for the Tron network. The USDT tokens will be used to replenish the network’s inventory. Tether’s authorization allows them to issue USDT instantly once customer funds are received, ensuring that the company maintains 100% of its reserves. Paolo Ardoino, Tether’s CTO, clarified that this was an authorization and not an actual issuance of USDT.
FTX, a cryptocurrency exchange, is facing legal action as debtors accuse the parents of FTX’s founder, Sam “SBF” Bankman-Fried, of stealing millions of dollars from the exchange. The plaintiffs claim that Joseph Bankman and Barbara Fried used their access and influence within the FTX empire to enrich themselves at the expense of the debtors. They allege that Bankman and Fried were involved in FTX from its inception until its collapse, contrary to what SBF has claimed. The complaint states that they extracted significant unearned rewards, including a $10 million cash gift and a $16.4 million luxury property in the Bahamas.
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Grayscale, a digital currency investment company, has filed for a new Ether futures exchange-traded fund (ETF) with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The Grayscale Ethereum Futures Trust will hold Ether futures contracts and will not carry futures positions to cash settlement. The trust will not require an Ether custodian. This comes after several other firms have also filed for Ether futures ETFs with the SEC.
In the cryptocurrency market, Bitcoin is currently valued at $26,525, Ether at $1,590, and XRP at $0.51. The total market cap is $1.05 trillion. Among the top three altcoin gainers of the week are Immutable, Curve DAO Token, and Aave. The top three altcoin losers are Gala, Axie Infinity, and Optimism.
Sarah Cardell, CEO of the UK Competition and Markets Authority, warns about the potential risks of AI development. Hester Peirce, Commissioner of the US Securities and Exchange Commission, encourages entrepreneurs to continue building in the United States. James Tromans, head of Web3 at Google Cloud, emphasizes the need to abstract away private keys for the average end-user. Jamie Coutts, a crypto market analyst at Bloomberg, highlights the positive environmental impact of Bitcoin’s scalability. Leon Lee, founder and CEO of Only1, sees blockchain technology’s potential to eliminate intermediaries between fans and creators. Tom Emmer, a US Representative, suggests that a central bank digital currency should emulate cash.
As for predictions, Bitcoin’s failed attempt to rebound after the US Federal Reserve’s decision on interest rates has led to renewed speculation about the possibility of a $20,000 BTC price. Some traders believe that a slow grind up to $28,500, followed by hype and FOMO, could lead to another price dump.
In the realm of security, Ethereum-based automated market maker Balancer believes that a social engineering attack on its DNS service provider led to the compromise of its website’s front end. The attacker used Angel Drainer phishing contracts and exploited Border Gateway Protocol hijacking. The hacker has already moved some of the stolen Ether to Bitcoin addresses. Another crypto influencer has been arrested in Hong Kong in connection with the liquidity crisis of the crypto exchange JPEX. Hong Kong regulators are also looking to tighten regulations following the failure of JPEX.
CoinEx, a Hong Kong-based cryptocurrency exchange, has revealed that compromised private keys allowed hackers to steal over $70 million worth of tokens. The exchange has pledged to compensate affected users for their losses.
Overall, the week has seen legal battles, regulatory developments, and security breaches in the cryptocurrency industry. The market continues to experience volatility, with Bitcoin failing to recover and altcoins experiencing mixed performance. The future of AI, the importance of building in the US, the abstraction of private keys, the environmental impact of Bitcoin, and the potential of blockchain technology are all hot topics among industry stakeholders.
