Cryptocurrency analyst and trader Ali Martinez is leaning bullish on the largest memecoin by market cap.

Martinez tells his 73,200 followers on the social media platform X that the Moving Average Convergence/Divergence (MACD), an indicator used to determine the strength and direction of a trend, is potentially forming a bullish crossover on the weekly chart of Dogecoin (DOGE).

The crypto analyst and trader says,

“The last two times Dogecoin DOGE had a MACD bullish crossover on the weekly chart, it rallied 90% and 180%, respectively.”

Martinez further says that the Dogecoin network is recording “significant growth” with the number of new addresses going up by double digits in a week.

“Over the past week, there’s been a 72% increase in new DOGE addresses, and just yesterday alone, 19,630 new DOGE addresses were created!”

Dogecoin is trading at $0.105 at time of writing.

Next up is Bitcoin (BTC). The analyst and trader says that Bitcoin may have witnessed a trend shift if the crypto king’s price action on the daily chart.

“As of today, it appears Bitcoin has made a higher low and a higher high, suggesting the trend may have shifted from bearish to bullish!”

Bitcoin is trading at $60,880 at time of writing.

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Disclaimer: Opinions expressed at The Daily Hodl are not investment advice. Investors should do their due diligence before making any high-risk investments in Bitcoin, cryptocurrency or digital assets. Please be advised that your transfers and trades are at your own risk, and any losses you may incur are your responsibility. The Daily Hodl does not recommend the buying or selling of any cryptocurrencies or digital assets, nor is The Daily Hodl an investment advisor. Please note that The Daily Hodl participates in affiliate marketing.

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Bitcoin started the month of October on a negative note, deviating from what many investors had expected leading up to the month. Bitcoin, which had been on a notable price increase earlier, started to face setbacks as September ended, leading up to the first 24 hours of October.

The first 24 hours of October have been riddled with outflows from the crypto industry. Bitcoin, in particular, fell below $61,000, according to Coinmarketcap, as tensions started to rise in the Middle East. Going by this decline, it has raised questions as to the outlook for Bitcoin in the rest of the month. 

Current Bitcoin Price Action

The buzz leading into October centered around expectations that Bitcoin would extend its bullish momentum and break through key resistance levels. According to price data, Bitcoin ended the month of September 7.11% above where it started, even peaking above $66,000 at one point.

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However, at the time of writing, Bitcoin has fallen by almost 7% from the September peak. Furthermore, Coinmarketcap data shows that Bitcoin has been down by 3.6% in the past 24 hours. The swift downturn has altered the market’s sentiment, with the once-bullish outlook giving way to fear and uncertainty. The Fear and Greed Index, which gauges the market’s emotions and risk appetite, now reads 39 and signals “Fear.” It would seem crypto investors are now panicking, with crypto analyst Kaleo even calling this to attention on social media platform X.

After spending five minutes scrolling through the timeline you’d think we’re never going to see a green candle again

— K A L E O (@CryptoKaleo) October 1, 2024

Bitcoin’s price action is highly sensitive to events in the world. Notably, the recent decline in the price of Bitcoin can be attributed to geopolitical conflicts in the Middle East. Its recent performance in the face of geopolitical turmoil casts doubts on its role as a safe haven asset. 

Spot Bitcoin ETFs, which are meant to prop up the Bitcoin spot price, also ended eight consecutive days of inflows with massive outflows on October 1, most likely in reaction to the Middle East tensions. According to Spot Bitcoin ETF flow data from Farside Investors, institutional investors pulled out $246.2 million yesterday.

Is Uptober A Myth?

The optimistic outlook seems to have faded quickly among many crypto investors. However, many participants are still holding on to the bullish outlook, especially considering the month still has a long way to go before its conclusion. 

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History shows, more often than not, that October has always been a positive month for Bitcoin. Most importantly, the positive performance was mostly in the second half of the month. Considering the month is only at its beginning, it is more logical to wait and examine how the price action plays out for the rest of the week before drawing any conclusion on Uptober. 

In the face of these tensions, Bitcoin’s potential role as a safe haven asset similar to gold could rise among market participants in the rest of the month and beyond.

Featured image created with Dall.E, chart from Tradingview.com

A U.S. court has ruled that crypto mining boxes sold by Green United are securities, satisfying the SEC claims.

According to Bloomberg Law, Green United did not convince a federal court to dismiss a civil fraud lawsuit from the Securities and Exchange Commission, which accused the firm of misleading investors.

The lawsuit says the company’s mining equipment, known as “Green Boxes,” was part of a securities transaction.

What is the essence of the fraud?

In March 2023, the Utah-based mining company Green United was suspected of fraud. The Commission later charged the company with violating the Securities Act and selling fake assets worth $18 million.

All the details of the case were included in the SEC filing. It featured two people — the company’s founder, Wright Thurston, and the leading promoter, Kristoffer Krohn.

Thurston and Krohn positioned their business as green mining. They offered their clients the opportunity to invest in equipment and promised a monthly income of up to 50%. The minimum investment was $3,000.

The agency concluded that Green United had never been involved in green mining. They directed all client funds to mining Bitcoin (BTC) and took the profits for themselves.

“Unlike ERC-20 tokens (such as GREEN), certain crypto assets like Bitcoin use the process of mining to generate new tokens. With such crypto assets, a new token is mined as a reward for the miners who complete algorithms with cryptographic hash functions that verify new transactions on the Blockchain.”

The SEC believes that Green United defrauded its investors. The devices were sold with hosting agreements, under which the company would manage Green Boxes for investors, promising them huge profits. The U.S. District Court for the District of Utah, headed by Judge Ann Marie McIff Allen, agreed with the SEC.

According to the SEC, Green United did not mine tokens with its hardware despite its promises to investors. As a result, the company raised $18 million from people hoping to profit from crypto mining. Instead of fulfilling those promises, it purchased unmined tokens and deposited them into investors’ accounts.

This was allegedly done to simulate a successful mining operation. According to the SEC, GREEN’s mined currency had no actual value.

Green United claims no investors lost money

Responding to the SEC’s claims, Green United stated that no investors lost money and that the regulator’s allegations were baseless. The company argued that the SEC was trying to rewrite the law by classifying hosted mining as a security, which they say is common practice even among public firms.

In May, the company’s executives motioned to dismiss the SEC’s lawsuit. Thurston and Krohn claimed that Congress has considered and rejected the Commission’s authority to regulate the crypto sector. At the same time, the SEC had allegedly been “vague and inconsistent” in enforcing its measures against the industry through enforcement.

“It is fundamentally unfair and unconstitutional for a regulatory agency to leave an industry to guess at the meaning of the law from its hodgepodge of disjointed statements, inconsistent application, vague testimony, and unhelpful guidance.”

Court filing

Another argument made by Thurston and Krohn is the SEC’s unclear position on the Green Boxes. The regulator allegedly had not confirmed that the “boxes” are an investment contract or product.

However, the judge said the defendants failed to prove their innocence and refute the agency’s statements.

What else does the SEC consider securities?

In addition to mining hardware, the SEC equated the sale of NFTs to transactions in unregistered securities in August. This came to light during the indictment of the Impact Theory media company for selling non-fungible tokens (NFTs) as unregistered securities.

In addition, the SEC notified OpenSea that NFTs on the platform may be considered unregistered securities. The regulator also ruled against Flyfish Club, LLC, for conducting an unregistered offering of cryptocurrency securities by selling non-fungible tokens.

However, attacks on NFTs are much less common than on tokens. Regulator kept on claiming that all cryptocurrencies except Bitcoin should be considered as securities.

SEC clarifies the definition of securities for cryptocurrencies

In calling cryptocurrencies securities, the SEC is guided by the Howey test, a somewhat outdated legal framework developed back in 1946. Named after the SEC’s landmark lawsuit against W.J. Howey, this test determines whether an asset qualifies as a security. This is based on factors such as initial sales and fundraising campaigns, ongoing promises of project development, and the use of social media to promote the features and benefits of its protocols.

However, earlier in September, the SEC, in an amended complaint against Binance, stated that it never considered specific tokens as securities but took into account the full set of contracts, expectations, and agreements to sell the assets.

The statement completely contradicted the words of SEC Chairman Gary Gensler, who claimed that tokens are securities because there is a group of developers, and the public expects profits from the activities of this group. Thus, he argued that crypto investors hope to profit from the efforts of the project creators — just like shareholders of public companies.

This approach explains the SEC’s attacks on Green United — the company offered to invest in Boxes, promising profits in return.