Celsius nailed 🙅 Ripple unleashed 👐
Celsius nailed 🙅 Ripple unleashed 👐
Former Celsius CEO Alex Mashinsky arrested for fraud. Ripple Labs wins the judgment in the US court. The Altcoin season reboot? Whales swoop meme coins. Now pay merchants on Telegram in Bitcoin.
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Former Celsius CEO Alex Mashinsky was arrested, with a slew of federal charges raining down on him and the once-prominent crypto lending platform.
Celsius and its former CEO had been hit with a storm of federal charges. The Department of Justice, along with the SEC, CFTC, and FTC, were all joining forces to bring allegations against the once-respected company and its high-profile leader.
A costly manipulation: The accusations revolve around his alleged manipulation of the price of Celsius' native digital asset, CEL, which resulted in personal gains exceeding $40 million.
The former chief revenue officer, Roni Cohen-Pavon, is also implicated, allegedly profiting around $3.6 million.
The charges: securities fraud, commodities fraud, wire fraud, conspiracy to manipulate the price of CEL, fraudulent scheme to manipulate the price of CEL, and market manipulation of CEL.
Cohen-Pavon faces four criminal counts, encompassing conspiracy to commit securities fraud, market manipulation, and wire fraud.
The SEC wasted no time in filing a lawsuit against Celsius and its co-founder, Alex Mashinsky. The allegations of securities fraud and misrepresentation were front and centre. The commission claimed that Celsius had misrepresented its business model and the risks involved, ultimately leading to its downfall and subsequent bankruptcy.
CFTC's claims pile on
Not to be outdone, the CFTC also launched its own lawsuit against Mashinsky and Celsius. The allegations included defrauding investors and engaging in risky investment strategies, particularly through multi-million-dollar uncollateralised loans.
FTC settles, but not for everyone
The FTC announced a settlement with Celsius, banning the firm and its affiliates from offering or promoting any product or service involving user assets. However, Mashinsky and two co-founders did not agree to the settlement, and the FTC vowed to take them to federal court.
"But the message we send today is quite simple: If you rip off ordinary investors to line your own pockets, we will hold you accountable." - U.S. Attorney Damian Williams.
The fall of Celsius: Celsius Network, once a high-flying crypto lending platform with over $25 billion in assets, boasted about offering "financial freedom" and "economic opportunity" to its customers. However, last June, the company suspended user withdrawals, citing "extreme market conditions." A month later, Celsius filed for bankruptcy, revealing liabilities that exceeded its assets by a staggering $1.2 billion.
The staff knew?
There's some serious trouble brewing for Alex Mashinsky and his former company, Celsius Network. According to the Feds, Mashinsky and his staff knew all along that the value of their crypto token, CEL, was as fake as a three-dollar bill.
Now here's where things get really interesting. The Feds claim that Celsius staff members were well aware that the value of their CEL token was about as real as a unicorn. In fact, they secretly plotted to inflate the token's price by buying up more tokens than they admitted to the public. All this while Celsius misled investors about the token's value, making it seem like the backbone of their network.
$100,000 stuck
A Celsius Network customer, Fred Shanks, is furious as $100,000 worth of Bitcoin is trapped in the collapsed crypto lender. Shanks received a margin call on a $10,000 loan from Celsius, but the company froze his account, preventing him from accessing his funds. Shanks desperately tried to resolve the margin call, but Celsius refused to unfreeze his accounts.
Celsius declined to accept its own native token, CEL, for loan interest payments, further complicating matters. Withdrawals, swaps, and transfers between accounts were halted, leaving customers like Shanks uncertain.
The bailout?
Per court documents, Mashinsky has agreed to a $40 million personal recognisance bond, which has to be signed by his wife by Friday, July 14, and by another, yet to be identified financially responsible person before July 21.
What’s the deal? Mashinsky is required to hand his travel documents to authorities, with his travels restricted to New York.
Barred from opening any new financial, business, or personal bank accounts, lines of credit, or cryptocurrency accounts, without the approval of Pretrial Services.
TTD XRP 🤫
Ripple Labs won in the U.S. District Court as Judge Analisa Torres rules in favour of the company.
The court grants summary judgment in favour of Ripple Labs and XRP goes up.
Did XRP also just hit the reset button on the alt season? It seems like the ruling unleashed a wave of excitement in the crypto world, with various altcoins dancing their way to double-digit gains.
XRP is up by 63% at the time of writing
Ethereum, the second-largest cryptocurrency, has surpassed the $2,000 mark for the first time in over two months.
Other altcoins previously labeled as securities by the SEC are riding the green wave too. Solana (SOL) is flexing its muscles with a 32% gain. It's changing hands at around $28. T
Polygon (MATIC) is strutting its stuff with a 17.81% and is trading at $0.84.
Stellar Lumens (XLM) is boasting a massive 35% gain.
Meanwhile, Filecoin (FIL) had a modest 6% gain. And Cosmos Hub (ATOM) is following suit, enjoying a nearly 10.67% gain over the day. It's trading at around $9.99.
XRP x Exchanges
Coinbase plans to resume trading XRP if there is enough liquidity.
Gemini is considering listing XRP for spot and derivatives trading.
Kraken has made XRP trading available for U.S. users.
Bitstamp has relisted XRP for trading in the United States.
Adding fuel to the rally
The liquidation game is in full swing today. Over $180 million worth of short positions got liquidated in the past 24 hours, with XRP taking the lead. There was even a single liquidation of $2.8 million on the BitMex exchange.
The cooling off of the U.S. dollar index (DXY): Whenever the DXY retreats, it's like a green light for risk assets like Bitcoin. The DXY has been on a downward trajectory, showing the smallest 12-month jump since March 2021. Investors see this as an opportunity to pump up the volume on cryptocurrencies and take on more risk.
And of course the Bitcoin ETF buzz: While speculations about the first Bitcoin ETF approval in the U.S. have been floating around, the recent victory of Ripple Labs against the SEC might make it harder for Chairman Gary Gensler to reject the current round of Bitcoin ETF applications. If a spot Bitcoin ETF gets the green light, it would be like the government giving a seal of approval to Bitcoin.
TTD Whale 🐳
The largest whale of Shiba Inu (SHIB) just made a significant move today.
According to Lookonchain, this whale transferred a whopping four trillion SHIB tokens to eight new addresses. Totalling around $29.8 million! It's the first major transaction from this whale in nearly two years, with the previous one happening 610 days ago.
This whale's account reportedly holds 101.47 trillion SHIB tokens, making up about 10.15% of the total supply - Worth approximately $756 million.
Waves of acquisition and sale 🌊
The story of this whale's journey is quite a ride. It all started with an even larger acquisition of 103.33 trillion SHIB tokens, purchased with 38 Ether (ETH) back when it was worth around $14,000. Some tokens were sold later for 2,411 ETH or $9.6 million, while an additional 1.25 trillion SHIB tokens (about $8.77 million) were deposited on Coinbase in 2021.
Even after this grand transfer, the whale still holds a substantial balance. With 4 trillion SHIB tokens on the move, it still retains 101.47 trillion SHIB tokens. They've distributed them across 23 different wallets.
The SEC response
TTD Telegram 🏧
Paying merchants on Telegram with Bitcoin?
It's happening.
A new chatbot called Wallet, powered by the TON blockchain, has just made it possible to pay merchants directly in crypto on Telegram.
Wallet is an independent chatbot that has been integrated with Telegram, allowing users to store, trade, and transfer three cryptocurrencies: Toncoin (TON), Tether's USDT on Tron, and Bitcoin (BTC).
This chatbot is not developed by Telegram itself, but it offers an innovative way to handle crypto payments within the popular messaging app.
Wallet pay API ⚡️
Now, the Wallet chatbot's team launched a new feature called Wallet Pay API. This development enables merchants to receive crypto payments directly on Telegram. It's a game-changer for businesses and opens up new possibilities for seamless crypto transactions.
About TON 🔒
TON, which stands for The Open Network, is a layer-1 blockchain network based on the proof-of-stake consensus mechanism. It was originally developed by the Telegram team, but the project was abandoned in May 2020 due to litigation with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Toncoin (TON) serves as the native gas-paying token of The Open Network.
How to receive crypto payments on Telegram? 💸
Merchants who want to start accepting crypto payments on Telegram need to apply on the Wallet Pay website. The chatbot's team mentioned that there are already around 200 companies in the queue to implement this feature, with thousands of small businesses expected to join in.
Users can add @wallet on Telegram as a new contact and instantly create a crypto wallet linked to their Telegram account. The best part? No need to worry about saving seed phrases or private keys. The integration is designed to be user-friendly and hassle-free.
A demo merchant called Pineapple Store showcases the seamless payment experience within Telegram chat. As for the future, the team is considering adding more essential coins but will mainly focus on TON.
TTD Surfer 🏄
Indonesia government plans to launch a national cryptocurrency exchange, and expects to debut the platform in the coming weeks.
Google launches Bard chatbot to users in the Europe and Brazil. Launch comes after the company overcame regulatory hurdles faced in the EU.
Jacobi Asset Management is set to launch the first Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) in Europe after a delay forced by the crypto crash.
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