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

Prime Tales This Week

Choose 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 discharge of data to The New York Occasions allegedly meant to intimidate witnesses. Throughout a listening to on Aug. 11, Choose Lewis Kaplan revoked Bankman-Fried’s bail and remanded him to custody, probably on the Putnam County Correctional Facility. As soon as his October trial begins, he might be moved to the Metropolitan Detention Heart 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 info with the probably intention “to harm and frighten” former Alameda Analysis CEO Caroline Ellison, his former colleague and girlfriend.

The U.S. Securities and Alternate Fee (SEC) has delayed a decision on whether or not to approve or disapprove the spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) proposed by ARK Funding Administration and 21Shares. ARK initially filed to checklist the ETF in Could, giving the SEC a most of 240 days — till January 2024 — to achieve a closing determination. The SEC’s newest transfer is fueling expectations {that a} closing verdict will come as a part of a batch that features purposes from key gamers on Wall Avenue, together with BlackRock and Constancy Investments.

SEC to hunt attraction and keep in Ripple Labs courtroom case

The U.S. SEC is moving to appeal a court decision from its lawsuit in opposition to Ripple Labs. In a letter to Choose Analisa Torres — the presiding decide within the case — the SEC mentioned it believed her determination warrants a recent look by an appellate courtroom. The fee requested Choose Torres to place the case on maintain throughout the attraction, saying there are a number of different pending courtroom instances that might be affected, relying on the attraction’s end result. The SEC is at the moment in a authorized battle with quite a few crypto companies, together with Binance and Coinbase, over alleged securities violations. Choose Torres dominated, in July, that Ripple’s native token, XRP, just isn’t a safety when offered to retail buyers. Torres plans to schedule the jury trial for the second quarter of 2024.

PayPal launches PYUSD stablecoin for fee

PayPal launched a new U.S. dollar-pegged stablecoin referred to as PayPal USD (PYUSD). Constructed on the Ethereum community, the stablecoin is backed by U.S. greenback deposits, short-term treasuries and comparable money equivalents. In response to PayPal, the stablecoin will quickly be obtainable as a mode of fee for varied purchases. The fintech firm is residence to over 350 million energetic customers, placing it in a robust place to change into a crypto fee big with the introduction of the brand new stablecoin. PYUSD shall be redeemable for U.S. {dollars} and might be exchanged for different cryptocurrencies on PayPal, in addition to being transferable between PayPal and Venmo accounts.

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

Eighteen main enterprise capital funding companies, together with Temasek, Sequoia Capital, Sino International Capital and SoftBank, have been named as defendants in a class-action lawsuit filed in the USA for his or her hyperlinks to the now-bankrupt crypto change, FTX. In response to the lawsuit, the funding companies have been accountable for “aiding and abetting” the FTX fraud. The go well with additional claims that the defendants used their “energy, affect and deep pockets to launch FTX’s home of playing cards to its multibillion-dollar scale.”

Winners and Losers

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

Among the many greatest 100 cryptocurrencies, the highest 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 highest three altcoin losers of the week are GMX (GMX) -12.47%, Mantle (MNT) at -10.10% and XDC Community (XDC) at -8.09%.

For more information on crypto costs, make sure that to learn Cointelegraph’s market analysis.

Most Memorable Quotations

“Stablecoins symbolize the issuance of a brand new type of cash, making it integral that there are Federal guardrails.”

Maxine Waters, United States consultant

“That is the Ethereum contract tackle for PayPal’s stablecoin. I can’t imagine i get to tweet that. We’ve come to this point.”

Ryan Sean Adams, crypto investor

“By providing customers a comparatively seamless solution to execute transactions, bots have the potential to carve out their very own area of interest within the crypto ecosystem.”

Jie Xuan Chua, analyst at Binance Analysis

“PayPal USD is essentially the most important leap ahead for digital belongings and the monetary business.”

Charles Cascarilla, CEO of Paxos Belief Firm

“It’s clear that the world wants and can want one thing like Worldcoin within the coming years. We simply hope that occurs in a privacy-preserving decentralized, open-source, permissionless manner.”

Tiago Sada, head of product at Instruments for Humanity

“By accepting digital currencies, we open our doorways to a brand new phase of donors who’re tech-savvy and want to make a distinction via their digital belongings.”

Benjamin William, CEO of the Singapore Crimson Cross

Prediction of the Week 

Bitcoin dealer reveals ‘necessary’ BTC value zone as bulls maintain $29.3K

Bitcoin faces a new battleground as bulls and bears struggle for management of a sideways market. Common pseudonymous dealer Daan Crypto Trades flagged, in his newest evaluation, a key stage to reclaim as BTC value assist.

In response to the dealer, each Bitcoin bulls and bears are caught in a “strongly contested” vary, ensuing from varied journeys above and under the present spot value, making the midpoint the extent to look at subsequent.

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

Bitcoin value has basically remained the identical since mid-June — $28,500 as elementary assist, $31,800 as resistance. Gaining management of the world round $29,700 is, thus, a vital transfer if bulls are to construct the required momentum to alter the panorama for good, the dealer 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 seek out safety vulnerabilities. Of those, solely three manufacturers have carried out assessments on the most recent variations of their merchandise: MetaMask, Zengo and Belief Pockets. An general rating of the safety of every pockets lists MetaMask, Zengo, Rabby, Belief Pockets and Coinbase Pockets as being essentially the most safe wallets available on the market.

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

The U.S. Federal Reserve is expanding the scope of its supervision for banks engaged with the cryptocurrency and blockchain business. Below the Novel Actions Supervision Program, firms offering banking infrastructure to digital asset companies or working with firms that use distributed ledger applied sciences shall be regulated. The insurance policies apply to each insured and uninsured U.S. banks supervised by the Fed. Actions regulated below this system embrace the custody, lending, buying and selling, issuance or distribution of crypto together with stablecoins.

SEC declares $24M settlement for case in opposition to 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 working an unregistered change.Bittrex and Bittrex International agreed to pay $14.4 million in disgorgement (the compensation of ill-gotten good points), $4 million in prejudgment curiosity, and $5.6 million in civil penalties to settle the authorized dispute with the federal regulator. The settlement continues to be topic to courtroom approval. The SEC’s grievance, filed in April, claimed Bittrex and Shihara operated an unregistered nationwide securities change, dealer and clearing company.

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Grails’ fortunate dip of well-known NFT artists, new hope for PFP holders: NFT Collector

Pudgy Penguins CEO reveals why PFT holders aren’t doomed, Grails gives a blind tasting to purchase well-known NFT artists, and free Amazon Prime NFTs.