NY sues crypto corporations, FTX’s Nishad faces 75 years in jail, and Grayscale’s new BTC submitting: Hodler’s Digest, Oct. 15-21

Top Stories This Week

Grayscale recordsdata for new spot Bitcoin ETF on NYSE Arca

Major cryptocurrency funding agency Grayscale Investments has filed a new application with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for a new spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF). The new submitting aligns with Grayscale’s ongoing effort to transform its Grayscale Bitcoin Trust right into a spot Bitcoin ETF, based on an announcement from the agency. The information comes weeks after Grayscale won an SEC lawsuit for its spot Bitcoin ETF review, with a court docket of appeals ordering the SEC to elucidate why it rejected Grayscale’s software in June 2023. The firm additionally filed with the SEC to listing an Ether futures ETF in September.

New York Attorney General sues Gemini, Genesis, DGC for allegedly defrauding traders

New York’s legal professional basic has filed a lawsuit against cryptocurrency firms Gemini, Genesis and Digital Currency Group (DCG) for allegedly defrauding greater than 23,000 traders by way of the Gemini Earn funding program. The go well with claims that Gemini assured traders that this system was a low-risk funding, whereas investigations carried out by the workplace of New York State Attorney General Letitia James discovered that Genesis’ financials “were risky.” The lawsuit additionally prices Genesis’ former CEO, Soichiro Moro, and its dad or mum firm’s CEO, Barry Silbert, with defrauding traders by trying to hide greater than $1.1 billion in losses. In addition, the court docket case seems to be to ban Gemini, Genesis and DCG from working in the monetary funding trade in New York.

Former FTX engineering director faces as much as 75 years in jail following responsible plea

Nishad Singh, the previous engineering director at now-defunct crypto trade FTX, faces up to 75 years in prison for prices associated to defrauding customers of the crypto trade. He pleaded responsible to fraud prices as a part of his cooperation settlement with the U.S. prosecutors. During his testimony this week, Singh mentioned that when liquidity points at FTX started in November 2022, he felt “suicidal for some days” whereas coping with alleged inconsistencies between the trade’s public statements and its actions behind the scenes. Singh additionally claimed that Bankman-Fried had the habit of deciding on purchases by way of Alameda Research by himself.

Binance shutting down European Visa debit card in December

Binance Visa debit card companies will close down in the European Economic Area in December, marking the most recent setback for Binance. The termination of the cardboard companies was introduced a day after the trade restored euro deposits and withdrawals, which had been unavailable for a month after funds processor Paysafe dropped the trade. Binance is still not onboarding new users in the United Kingdom because of the lack of a third-party service supplier.

Elon Musk, Mark Cuban crew as much as contest SEC trial methods

Elon Musk, Mark Cuban and others have collaboratively submitted a shared amicus brief to the Supreme Court of the United States to boost issues concerning the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) method to conducting inner proceedings with out the inclusion of juries. The context of this authorized problem facilities across the SEC vs. Jarkesy case. George Jarkesy argues that the SEC’s inner adjudication course of, which lacks a jury and is overseen by an administrative legislation decide appointed by the fee, contradicts his Seventh Amendment rights. Effectively ensuing in a single entity fulfilling the roles of decide, jury and enforcer.

Winners and Losers

At the top of the week, Bitcoin (BTC) is at $29,590, Ether (ETH) at $1,607 and XRP at $0.52. The whole market cap is at $1.12 trillion, according to CoinMarketCap.

Among the most important 100 cryptocurrencies, the highest three altcoin gainers of the week are Bitcoin SV (BSV) at 59.00%, Stacks (STX) at 25.91% and MX TOKEN (MX) at 25.26%. 

The prime three altcoin losers of the week are Conflux (CFX) at -8.03%, Frax Share (FXS) and Sui (SUI) at -6.35%.

For extra information on crypto costs, be sure to learn Cointelegraph’s market analysis.

Most Memorable Quotations

“We are all part of a bigger game, and Bitcoin is one of the strongest levers in that.”

Edward Snowden, technologist and whistleblower

“Using publicly available information to learn is not stealing. Nor is it an invasion of privacy, conversion, negligence, unfair competition, or copyright infringement.”

Google

“I felt betrayed, something I’d put in blood, sweat and tears for five years turning out so horrible.”

Nishad Singh, former engineering director of FTX

“The games funded 2 years ago are going live over the next 12 months. We will see hits.”

Robbie Ferguson, co-founder and president of Immutable

“After extensive DAO forum discussion followed by community vote, the sunsetting of the Lido on Solana protocol was approved by Lido token holders and the process will begin shortly.”

Lido Finance

“Any innovation — especially this one with financial impact, cultural value and status — will attract questioning during its downs.”

Anjali Young, co-founder of Collab.Land

On Oct. 20, data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView captured new two-month Bitcoin highs of $30,233 on Bitstamp. BTC worth confirmed continued power in the course of the Asia buying and selling session on the identical day, with a slight comedown taking the spot worth again beneath $29,500.

With volatility nonetheless evident, market individuals argued {that a} weekly candle shut was wanted in order to ascertain the rally’s true endurance. For Keith Alan, co-founder of monitoring useful resource Material Indicators, the 100-week shifting common (MA) at $28,627 was of specific significance.

“This move is one to watch, but what I’m watching for right now is to see if this Weekly candle closes above the 100-Week MA and if next week’s candle can stay above it with no wicks below,” Alan wrote in a part of an X put up on the day. “Some might consider that a confirmation of a bull breakout, but this market is known for squeezes and fake outs so I’m looking for more confirmations. For me BTC will also need to take out prior resistance at $30.5k, $31.5k and ultimately $33k to call a bull breakout confirmed and validated.”

FUD of the Week 

The Fantom Foundation, the developer of the Fantom network, has been hacked for over $550,000 price of cryptocurrency. The basis confirmed the assault on X, claiming that many of the funds stolen belonged to different customers and that 99% of the inspiration’s funds stay protected. Blockchain safety researchers initially reported that the attacker stole roughly $7 million in crypto. The Fantom Foundation later launched an official assertion saying that a few of the wallets labeled “Fantom: Foundation wallet” had been mislabeled by block explorers and that not all of the stolen funds had been from the inspiration.

TrueCoin’s third-party vendor breach probably leaks TUSD person knowledge

TrueUSD (TUSD) announced a potential leak of sure Know Your Customer (KYC) and transaction historical past knowledge after one in every of TrueCoin’s third-party distributors was compromised. The firm was the operator of the TUSD stablecoin till July 13, 2023. The impression of the assault and the resultant knowledge leak is but to be recognized, as the whole variety of customers’ knowledge was not revealed in the course of the announcement. Data collected from such breaches — names, e-mail addresses and cellphone numbers, amongst others — are sometimes used for phishing assaults. Attackers attain out to unwary traders by mimicking varied crypto companies, usually promising excessive earnings in brief quantities of time.

Web3 recreation venture allegedly employed actors to pose as executives in $1.6M exit rip-off

The improvement crew for gaming venture FinSoul carried out an alleged exit scam, siphoning away $1.6 million from traders by way of market manipulation, based on a latest report from blockchain safety platform CertiK shared with Cointelegraph. The FinSoul crew allegedly employed paid actors to fake to be its executives, then raised funds for the only function of creating a gaming platform. However, as an alternative of truly creating the platform, the FinSoul crew allegedly transferred $1.6 million in bridged Tether from traders to itself. Blockchain knowledge signifies builders then laundered the funds by way of cryptocurrency mixer Tornado Cash.

Big Questions: What did Satoshi Nakamoto take into consideration ZK-proofs?

What was once a passing curiosity of Bitcoin inventor Satoshi Nakamoto, zero-knowledge-proof expertise is now a significant a part of the crypto world.

Ethereum restaking: Blockchain innovation or harmful home of playing cards?

“Restaking” involves reusing staked Ether to earn charges and rewards. The restaked tokens can then assist safe and validate different protocols. But many concern restaking might disrupt Ethereum’s chain itself.

Bitmain’s revenge, Hong Kong’s crypto rollercoaster: Asia Express

Bitmain allegedly fires staff for talking out in opposition to wage cuts, Hong Kong traders lose religion in crypto after JPEX scandal, Bitget will get a new crypto bank card and extra.

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Cointelegraph Magazine writers and reporters contributed to this text.