SEC's Big Catches 🔐
SEC's Big Catches 🔐
The SEC's been busier than ever with a 3% uptick in enforcement actions. Adrian Day's sees a stormy future. Disney is launching 'digital pins' and Binance execs kidnapped?
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The US SEC has had a bustling year, especially in the crypto arena.
Reported a 3% increase in enforcement actions in 2023.
784 actions.
$5 billion in financial remedies.
$930 million to harmed investors.
SEC Chair Gary Gensler is all bragging about the SEC's effectiveness in maintaining market integrity.
"The investing public benefits from the Division of Enforcement's work as a cop on the beat," said SEC Chair Gary Gensler in a statement. "Last fiscal year's results demonstrate yet again the Division's effectiveness — working alongside colleagues throughout the agency — in following the facts and the law wherever they lead to hold wrongdoers accountable."
Read in detail here.
Notable SEC Charges: Charges were issued against entities like Terraform Labs, FTX's Sam Bankman-Fried, Celsius, and various exchanges, including Bittrex, Binance, Beaxy, and Coinbase.
Crackdown on Unregistered Offerings: Targeted companies like Celsius, Kraken, Genesis, Gemini, and Nexo, with Kraken and Nexo paying substantial civil penalties.
NFTs Under SEC’s Lens: Impact Theory LLC and Stoner Cats 2 LLC faced charges for conducting illegal, unregistered offerings of crypto asset securities.
Celebrity Settlements: For promoting crypto without proper disclosures - Paul Pierce and Kim Kardashian settled for $1.35 million and $1.26 million, respectively. Other celebrities like Lindsay Lohan, Jake Paul, and several others were also charged, with most settling the charges.
Beyond Crypto: Record-keeping charges against Wells Fargo and HSBC, data inaccuracy charges against Citadel Securities LLC, and fraud charges against McDonald's former CEO.
Btw, why hasn't Gensler approved ETFs yet?
His political ambitions? Cathie Wood thinks so.
Despite the regulatory hurdles, Cathie Wood boldly predicts a growth from the current $1 trillion market cap to $25 trillion by 2030.
Also👇🏻
Well all that aside, Tuesday was a tough day for crypto bulls.
The crypto market witnessed a sharp decline, with over $307 million in liquidated leveraged crypto long positions - Largest since August 17.
Bitcoin experienced a 4% drop to $35,000, and Ether fell by 6% to below $2,000.
Large-cap altcoins like Dogecoin (DOGE), Polygon (MATIC), and Tron’s TRX experienced similar declines.
The sharp decline contrasts with previous weeks' trends, where "short squeezes" were more common due to rising asset prices.
Traditional markets?
The 10-year Treasury yield dropped significantly by 20 basis points to 4.44%, and the dollar index also saw a sharp decline.
But, Nasdaq and S&P 500 soared, with gains of 2.3% and 1.8% respectively.
Why? hopes of potential rate cuts from the Federal Reserve in 2024.
Inflation Data Fuels Rally
October's CPI remained unchanged, contrasting with the 0.1% rise predicted by economists and September’s 0.4% gain.
The core CPI, excluding food and energy costs, saw a modest increase of 0.2% in October, less than the anticipated 0.3%.
Annually, the CPI was up by 3.2% - lower than the expected 3.3% and down from 3.7% in September.
Year-over-year, the core CPI rose by 4.0%, slightly below the forecasted 4.1%.
How did it make BTC slightly happy? A brief surge of nearly 1%, reaching close to $36,700.
TTD Blockquote🎙️
Investor/CEO of Adrian Day Asset Management, Adrian Day.
“A recession is inevitable in my view.”
Adrian Day's stark warning: A recession is barreling down on the US economy.
In an interview with Michelle Makori of Kitco News, he likened the looming recession to an "inevitable freight train" heading straight for the US.
What else?
He notes a historical trend where recessions typically follow rate hikes after about 22 months.
Criticises the Federal Reserve's strategies, suggesting their 'tighter for longer' approach might worsen the economic downturn.
Expecting a comeback in inflation, driven by base effects and rising oil prices, Day doubts the Fed's ability to smoothly transition the economy.
Recommends diversifying into undervalued assets like gold and maintaining a significant portion in cash or short-term treasuries for flexibility.
“It’s (recession) all but inevitable, it’s built-in and a lot of people think, well you know the FED’s done all is dramatic hiking and we haven’t had a recession yet, therefore we’ve escaped it — I think they’re living in fantasy land"
TTD Court 👩🏻⚖️
NFT Rug Pull Scandal: French developer Aurelien Michel, the brains behind the Mutant Ape Planet NFT collection, has pleaded guilty to wire fraud, landing himself up to five years behind bars.
Michel duped investors for $3 million by overhyping his NFTs with false promises.
Arrested in New York, he's now agreed to cough up $1.4 million in restitution.
His once-popular NFT collection? Plummeted in value since his arrest. The NFT market’s volatility and the dark alleys of digital deception.
Tornado Cash Users Fight Back: A group of Tornado Cash users isn’t taking the US Treasury’s sanctions lying down.
They’ve launched a legal appeal, arguing that Tornado Cash’s smart contracts are “immutable and ownerless,” thus not fitting the bill of sanctionable property.
They’ve got some heavy hitters in their corner too: Coinbase and crypto advocacy group Coin Center have supported the plaintiffs. Coin Center also filed its own lawsuit against the Treasury over Tornado Cash but lost in court.
FTX and BlockFi in Settlement Talks: In the bankruptcy ring, we have FTX and BlockFi given the green light to negotiate over claims settlement.
The two bankrupt crypto giants are looking to untangle a financial web involving millions in frozen funds and debts.
BlockFi's CEO even took the stand against former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried. All eyes are on the mediation, set to kick off by Christmas Eve 2023.
Genesis Settles with Three Arrows Capital: Crypto lender Genesis is looking to close a chapter with a $33 million settlement over a billion-dollar claim against the defunct hedge fund Three Arrows Capital (3AC).
This development follows a bankruptcy filing by Genesis and a hefty claim they lodged against 3AC earlier in the year.
The court will weigh in on this proposed settlement come the end of November.
Where’s ETF? 🚨
The discount on Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) shares has reached its lowest level since July 2021, as optimism grows around the potential approval of a spot Bitcoin ETF. 👇🏻
TTD Kidnap 🙄
Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao (CZ), shared a gripping tale of how the exchange swooped in to save the day after a distressing incident involving the kidnapping of executives from a Binance client.
The Kidnapping: Executives on a business trip in Montenegro were abducted and coerced into draining their crypto wallets.
Rapid Response: Binance leaped into action, tracking the stolen funds transferred to a Tron wallet, all in tether (USDT).
Major Recovery: Binance's efficient intervention led to the freezing of $11.8 million, salvaging about 94.4% of the stolen assets.
Binance’s Protocol for Stolen Funds
Binance can temporarily freeze stolen funds, provided clients submit a police report within seven days.
The freeze period may be extended for clients needing more time to acquire a police report.
Binance’s New Web3 Wallet Launch
Self-Custody Focus: The recently launched Web3 wallet within the Binance app aims to simplify self-custody of digital assets.
Key-Shares System: This wallet features a unique key-shares system, where users maintain primary control over two out of three parts of their private keys.
TTD Disney🧚🏻♀️
Disney is teaming up with Dapper Labs, the creators behind NBA Top Shot.
Why?
To launch a “digital pin” platform.
Named Disney Pinnacle, it's bringing characters from Disney, Pixar, and the Star Wars galaxy into the realm of collectible and tradable digital pins.
Built on the Flow blockchain, developed by Dapper Labs.
Grand debut on the Apple App Store by the end of this year.
Accessible on - the Apple App Store for iOS, the Google Play Store for Android, and also via the web.
Not Disney's First Digital Rodeo: Earlier this year, announced limited-edition Star Wars toys in partnership with Cryptoys, backed by Dapper Labs.
Earlier this year, Disney made headlines by shutting down its metaverse division amid a broader restructuring effort.
Dapper Labs' Expanding Portfolio: Vancouver-based Dapper Labs, founded in 2018, has been a significant player in the NFT space.
With a $15 million investment from Animoca Brands and a history of popular NFT projects like CryptoKitties and NBA Top Shot, Dapper Labs brings substantial expertise to this collaboration.
TTD Surfer 🏄
Delaware authorities are referring a fake filing claiming that BlackRock registered an "iShares XRP Trust" to the state's Department of Justice.
Venture capital firm Animoca Brands has joined the Chiliz Chain as a validator, supporting the fan token blockchain.
Crypto exchange OKX has launched a new zero-knowledge Layer 2 network called "X1" in collaboration with Polygon Labs.
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