Top Stories This Week

U.S. SEC sues Binance and Coinbase amidst crypto crackdown

Binance and Coinbase have been targeted in a new round of lawsuits by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) against crypto businesses. The regulator pressed 13 charges against Binance on June 5, including those involving unregistered offerings and sales of tokens, and failing to register as an exchange or broker-dealer. The commission also went after Coinbase on similar grounds, alleging that popular cryptocurrencies offered by the exchange are securities. Trading volume across the major decentralized exchanges jumped 444% in the hours following the legal actions. In the six months after FTX’s bankruptcy, SEC crypto-related enforcement actions rose 183%.

SEC lawsuits: 67 cryptocurrencies are now seen as securities by the SEC

The total number of cryptocurrencies the United States securities regulator has labeled as a “security” has now reached an estimated 67, after adding a few more to the list in its lawsuit against crypto exchanges Binance and Coinbase. In its case against Binance, the SEC introduced 10 cryptocurrencies into the securities classification, while it named 13 cryptocurrencies in its Coinbase suit. The “security” label now applies to over $100 billion worth of the market, or around 10% of the $1.09 trillion total crypto market capitalization.

Coinbase CEO’s stock sale was probably not planned to occur a day ahead of SEC suit

Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong sold company shares the day before the SEC lawsuit against the exchange. The transaction caused a minor stir in the Twitter cryptoverse, as Armstrong avoided a sharp loss by doing so. SEC records show that Armstrong sold 29,730 shares of the company on June 5, the day before the SEC suit. Armstrong has been selling Coinbase stock regularly since November under a 10b5-1 plan adopted in August, which determines the timing and size of transactions in advance. The net worths of Armstrong and Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao have suffered heavy blows due to the suits. Within 30 hours, Armstrong’s net worth plummeted by $289 million and Zhao’s by $1.33 billion.

Binance.US suspends USD deposits, warns of fiat withdrawal pause

Binance.US has suspended U.S. dollar deposits and announced an upcoming pause for fiat withdrawals as early as June 13. According to the exchange, it was forced to take action amid “extremely aggressive and intimidating tactics” from American regulators. Trading, staking, deposits and withdrawals in crypto remain fully operational. Binance.US also delisted eight Bitcoin pairs and two BUSD pairs while noting that OTC Trading Portal services were paused.

June 2023 has proven to be a tumultuous month for cryptocurrency exchanges in America. Crypto.com will no longer serve institutional clients in the United States after announcing the suspension of the service starting June 21. The Singapore-based cryptocurrency exchange cited limited demand from institutional customers as a primary reason for the move, which has been exacerbated by testing prevailing market conditions. American retail users still have access to cryptocurrency derivatives trading and the UpDown Options offering.

Winners and Losers

At the end of the week, Bitcoin (BTC) is at $26,449, Ether (ETH) at $1,837 and XRP at $0.53. The total market cap is at $1.1 trillion, according to CoinMarketCap.

Among the biggest 100 cryptocurrencies, the top three altcoin gainers of the week are Terra Classic (LUNC) at 17.73%, XRP (XRP) at 2.40% and Stacks (STX) at 2.39%.

The top three altcoin losers of the week are Sui (SUI) at -22.08%, Conflux (CFX) at -20.97%, and Flare (FLR) at 20.57%.

For more info on crypto prices, make sure to read Cointelegraph’s market analysis.

Most Memorable Quotations

“The SEC doesn’t make the law. Indeed, this approach to regulation is unacceptable, but it is what we have come to expect from the SEC and its anti-crypto stance.”

Kristin Smith, CEO of the Blockchain Association

“We’re proud to represent the industry in court to finally get some clarity around crypto rules.”

Brian Armstrong, CEO of Coinbase

“We believe that blockchain and Web3 technology have enormous potential to transform a wide range of industries and prepare them for the future.”

Lars Rensing, CEO of Protokol

“[Gary Gensler] opened up this year, in 2023, with all these enforcement actions; I think it looks like CYA [cover your ass] to me.”

French Hill, United States Representative

“When regulation does not meet novel technology where it is, the U.S. loses its competitive edge over other countries.”

Ryan Wyatt, president of Polygon Labs

“We believe that the capital market information will be completely different in a few years, and it is our job to lead the revolution.”

Ittai Ben Zeev, CEO of the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange

Prediction of the Week

Bitcoin price can gain 60% if ‘textbook’ chart pattern confirms — Trader

Bitcoin may be in line for a 60% upside if a long-term chart feature stays intact. Popular pseudonymous trader Mikybull Crypto flagged encouraging signs on the BTC/USD weekly chart, arguing that it shows the pair completing and now retesting an inverse head-and-shoulders pattern.

“Bitcoin is flashing a text book inverse head and shoulders on the weekly TF. Price is currently retesting the Neckline after the breakout,” Mikybull Crypto explained, before adding that “if the range between the head and neckline is usually the sprint, we are anticipating another 60% rally on BTC.”

That 60% “sprint” would place BTC/USD at around $40,000.

FUD of the Week

US Bitcoin supply fell over 10% in the past year — Glassnode

Bitcoin abandoned the United States during the 2022 bear market, new research from on-chain analytics firm Glassnode. The latest analysis of the Bitcoin supply shows a global migration away from the U.S. and toward Asia. Since mid-2022, the amount of the supply held and traded by U.S. entities has decreased by more than 10%. At the same time, Europe’s share has stayed roughly equal, translating to a redistribution from west to east. The Year-over-year Supply Change shows the U.S. share beginning to decline in March 2021 but accelerating beginning in May this year.

Gary Gensler: Crypto market is like 1920s stock market, full of ‘fraudsters’

During a speech this week, U.S. SEC chair Gary Gensler compared the current crypto market to the 1920s stock market, saying that it is full of “hucksters,” “fraudsters,” and “Ponzi schemes.” Just as Congress cleaned up the stock market by enacting securities laws in the past, the current SEC can also clean up the crypto market by applying these laws, he argued. Gensler has been heavily criticized within the crypto industry, especially since the SEC filed lawsuits against crypto exchanges Binance and Coinbase. Critics say he has an overly expansive view of the SEC’s regulatory authority and is driving innovation out of the U.S.

GameStop fires CEO Matt Furlong months after axing crypto push

GameStop has fired its CEO Matt Furlong, the executive responsible for launching the company’s push into NFTs. The news came alongside GameStop’s first quarter earnings call, which saw earnings per share that missed market expectations by more than 133%. The company did not provide a reason for Furlong’s termination. He will be succeeded by billionaire investor Ryan Cohen. GameStop launched its NFT marketplace in June 2022 with nearly $2 million in sales in the first 24 hours of operation. In August, however, daily sales volumes had fallen to under $4,000, a 99.8% drop from opening day.

Best Cointelegraph Features

Tornado Cash 2.0: The race to build safe and legal coin mixers

Projects are racing to create legal coin mixers that preserve privacy while revealing just enough data to stay on the right side of the law.

6 Questions for Thiago Cesar of Transfero

Transfero’s Thiago Cesar says when he started buying Bitcoin in 2012 he knew it had amazing potential for “internationalizing money.”

Layah Heilpern had a stint working as a journalist for a Chinese state-run TV network before falling “down the rabbit hole” of cryptocurrency.

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Cointelegraph Magazine writers and reporters contributed to this article.

Top Stories This Week

Dogecoin investors accuse Elon Musk of insider trading in amended class-action lawsuit

A group of Dogecoin investors has requested leave to amend a class-action lawsuit against tech entrepreneur Elon Musk, alleging he is responsible for insider trading of DOGE and asserting the token is a security under U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission regulations. According to the complaint, Musk profited off DOGE trading at the expense of other investors by causing the price of the token to spike through actions including changing Twitter’s logo to the Dogecoin logo. As one of the world’s richest people, the Twitter CEO has made frequent statements about Dogecoin to his millions of followers since 2019, often causing the price of the token to surge.

Satoshi Nak-AI-moto: Bitcoin’s creator has become an AI chatbot

Satoshi Nakamoto may have effectively disappeared over 12 years ago, but two artificial intelligence dabblers are seeking to revive the ability to chat with the famed Bitcoin creator. The model, essentially, is OpenAI’s ChatGPT trained on a limited data set, including Nakamoto’s public emails and forum posts, as well as other Bitcoin sources. In testing, the chatbot generates responses that are typically uncertain of the future of fiat currencies and hopeful about Bitcoin. Its goal is to show that AI tools could potentially be used in education, one of the creators said.

Buying a bank won’t solve crypto’s debanking issue — Binance CEO

Binance CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao has considered acquiring a bank amid the ongoing debanking of crypto firms across the globe. However, according to CZ, regulatory complexity and capital requirements make it unwise for Binance. “The reality is much more complex than the concept,” said the crypto executive. Binance has recently lost its fiat on-ramp and off-ramp partner in Australia — after difficulties finding a bank partner in the United States earlier this year. The company has been seeking a new payment provider in the country.

Crypto.com has been granted a major payment institution license for digital payment token (DPT) services in Singapore. With the license, the crypto exchange is now authorized to offer its DPT services to customers in the country. The latest announcement adds to Crypto.com’s track record of securing regulatory licenses. The exchange has also been granted registration and/or licenses in France, the United Kingdom, Dubai, South Korea, Australia, Italy, Greece and Cyprus..

Web3 developer Magic raises $52M in funding led by PayPal Ventures

Wallet-as-a-service provider Magic raised $52 million in a strategic funding round led by PayPal Ventures. The funding round also saw participation from venture firms Cherubic, Synchrony, KX, Northzone and Volt Capital, bringing Magic’s total funds raised to over $80 million. Magic’s software is currently used by brands in retail, music, fashion and gaming, including Mattel, Macy’s, Xsolla and Immutable. Founded in 2020, Magic has generated over 20 million unique wallets to date.

Winners and Losers

At the end of the week, Bitcoin (BTC) is at $27,160, Ether (ETH) at $1,903 and XRP at $0.52. The total market cap is at $1.15 trillion, according to CoinMarketCap.

Among the biggest 100 cryptocurrencies, the top three altcoin gainers of the week are Injective (INJ) at 22.67%, Quant (QNT) at 18.60% XDC Network (XDC) at 15.92%.

The top three altcoin losers of the week are Pepe (PEPE) at -14.26%, Kava (KAVA) at -11.13% and Flare (FLR) at -10.80%.

For more info on crypto prices, make sure to read Cointelegraph’s market analysis.

Most Memorable Quotations

“The bear phase is finished. […] I think we’ll see new highs probably in the second half of 2024, 2025. […] We’ll probably hit up to 6-to-8 trillion [in market capitalization].”

Dan Tapiero, founder of 10T Holdings and 1RoundTable Partners

“Are the creators of the AI responsible for creating the tool that’s used to infringe copyright, or is it the people who are actually using that to infringe on copyright?”

Andrew Petale, trademarks attorney at Y Intellectual Property

“The debt ceiling deal once again highlights Bitcoin’s utility because it’s essentially a break away from the traditional financial system.”

Josh Gilbert, market analyst at eToro

“Even though Ethereum doesn’t have the biggest market cap compared to Bitcoin, I think Ethereum is the front-runner in terms of driving worldwide adoption.”

Roger Ver, early Bitcoin investor and Bitcoin Cash advocate

“Crypto, like the internet before it, has the potential to modernize finance and numerous other sectors, […] by offering a faster, cheaper, more private, and accessible platform.”

Brian Armstrong, CEO of Coinbase

“By combining the power of cryptography with the power of a decentralized crypto network like Bitcoin, we can bring cost and consequence into cyberspace.”

Michael Saylor, executive chairman of MicroStrategy

Prediction of the Week

Bitcoin wicks down to $26.5K, but trader eyes chance for ‘bullish surprise’

On Bitstamp, the BTC/USD pair reached a low of $26,519 this week, showing little signs of a trend change as a stalemate between bulls and bears continued to produce little volatility.

Analyzing the current setup, pseudonymous trader Crypto Ed considered the potential for upside topping out at $27,500. “I do think we go down, but as long as we do not break that $26,000, there is a chance for a bullish surprise,” he said.

To break the current impasse, Crypto Ed continued, Bitcoin would nonetheless need to tackle the area above $27,600. “Now I think we bounce back toward $27,500 — resistance of the previous range high — and from there I will be looking for, possibly, shorts toward $25,000,” he said.

FUD of the Week

Missing ‘Bitcoin Millionaire’ and ONFO coin co-creator found dead

The co-founder of crypto project ONFO coin has been found dead from an apparent gunshot wound about a week after he went missing. John Forsyth, a crypto advocate and emergency room doctor, was reported missing by relatives after not showing up to his shift in a hospital in Missouri. The ONFO coin project allows users to earn coins by referring others to the platform, a term it calls “network mining.” Forsyth joins a list of crypto advocates and founders that have died under mysterious circumstances.

Jimbos Protocol offers $800K bounty to the public after hacker ignores deal

DeFi platform Jimbos Protocol has offered 10% of the exploited funds to the general public after giving the hacker several days to respond to the deal. The Arbitrum-based DeFi app was exploited on May 28 through a lack of slippage control on liquidity conversions, allowing the exploiter to seize assets worth about $7.5 million. The team behind the exploited protocol attempted to negotiate with the hacker offering a “fast $800k payday” in exchange for the return of 90% of the funds. Now, the protocol has extended the bounty offer to the general public.

Multichain team cannot locate CEO, halts service for affected chains

Cross-chain protocol Multichain revealed that its team has been unable to contact its CEO, Zhaojun, fueling rumors that the protocol’s leadership may have been arrested in China amid ongoing technical issues. The protocol has experienced technical problems over the past week, with transactions delayed across multiple cross-chain bridges. After failing to contact the CEO and lacking permission to address the issue, the team suspended services for over 10 chains on May 31, including KeKchain, Public Mint, DynoChain, Redlight Chain, Dexit, Ekta, High Performance Blockchain, Onus, Omax, Findora and Planq.

Best Cointelegraph Features

Bitcoin is on a collision course with ‘Net Zero’ promises

Every year countries are pressured to ramp up their climate change commitments at the COP conference — and Bitcoin mining is an easy target.

Mad scientist’s NFTs degrade when they’re traded: 0xDEAFBEEF, NFT Creator

Self-proclaimed tinkerer 0xDEAFBEEF has hit it big with audiovisual NFTs that slowly degrade in quality every time they’re traded.

AI Eye: 25K traders bet on ChatGPT’s stock picks, AI sucks at dice throws, and more

Decentralized ledger technology is arguably everything that AI is not: transparent, traceable, trustworthy and tamper-free. Could it offset the opaqueness of AI’s black-box solutions?

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Cointelegraph Magazine writers and reporters contributed to this article.

Top Stories This Week

Binance suspends deposits for bridged tokens, seeks clarity from Multichain team

Crypto exchange Binance suspended deposits for 10 bridged tokens following days of uncertainty surrounding the Multichain protocol. Transactions on the cross-chain protocol have been delayed over multiple bridges in the past few days, with little information from Multichain’s team about the ongoing issues. In a tweet from May 24, Multichain said that some cross-chain routes were unavailable “due to force majeure,” noting that the time for service restoration was unclear. Binance was not the only company to take steps amid the unexplained downtime — the Fantom Foundation removed 449,740 MULTI ($2.4 million) from liquidity on SushiSwap. The MULTI token plunged during the week. On Twitter, rumors circulated that Multichain’s team had been arrested by the Chinese police, with $1.5 billion of smart contract funds under authorities’ control.

FTX 2.0 launching soon? Court filing shows a reboot plan in the works

Bankrupt crypto exchange FTX’s revival plans could soon become reality. According to court filing documents, FTX’s new management had a series of meetings with creditors and debtors in the past month, reviewing plans for restarting the exchange and finalizing the material required for its rebooting as FTX 2.0. The documents also suggest FTX could soon enter into a bidding process. Previous reports pointed out that a reboot could come as early as 2024, as the exchange has already recovered over $7 billion in assets.

Sam Altman’s Worldcoin secures $115M for decentralized ID

The bear market didn’t stop Worldcoin from raising $115 million this week in a Series C round led by Blockchain Capital. Funds will be used to support its decentralized World ID and recently released gas-free crypto wallet, World App. The project was co-founded by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and built by Tools for Humanity developers to address issues emerging from the exponential complexity of artificial intelligence, such as proving personhood. Worldcoin’s token, WLD, is not available in the United States and some other countries.

Fahrenheit wins bid to acquire assets of crypto lender Celsius

Crypto consortium Fahrenheit won the bidding war for insolvent crypto lender Celsius Network. The bid incorporates Celsius assets previously valued at nearly $2 billion, including institutional loan portfolio, staked cryptocurrencies, mining unit, alternative assets, and over $450 million in liquid cryptocurrency. Behind the consortium are the venture capital firm Arrington Capital and crypto miner US Bitcoin Corp. While Celsius and its creditors have accepted the bid, regulatory approval is still required to complete the acquisition. Celsius filed for bankruptcy protection in July 2022, contributing to a prolonged “crypto winter” in the industry.

Earlier this week, the crypto community celebrated the 13th anniversary of the first Bitcoin transaction when developer Laszlo Hanyecz made the first documented purchase of a good with BTC. The exchange involved 10,000 BTC — worth $41 at the time — and two pizzas from a local restaurant in Florida. The milestone turned into an annual celebration for the crypto space, with community members reminiscing on how far the industry has come since the transaction. Over a decade on, the pioneer cryptocurrency network faces a new wave of disruption thanks to the advent of Ordinals, highlighting the need for developers and capital to build layer-2 solutions.

Winners and Losers

At the end of the week, Bitcoin (BTC) is at $26,737, Ether (ETH) at $1,831 and XRP at $0.46. The total market cap is at $1.12 trillion, according to CoinMarketCap.

Among the biggest 100 cryptocurrencies, the top three altcoin gainers of the week are Render Token (RNDR) at 16.86%, Kava (KAVA) at 10.71% and Huobi Token (HT) at 9.44%.

The top three altcoin losers of the week are GMX (GMX) at -13.35%, Sui (SUI) at -12.38% and Fantom (FTM) -11.00%.

For more info on crypto prices, make sure to read Cointelegraph’s market analysis.

Most Memorable Quotations

“I don’t think many people understand the concept of other people owning their data, so I think blockchain will be a big deal in the future.”

Gary Vaynerchuck, crypto entrepreneur

“Don’t overload Ethereum’s consensus.”

Vitalik Buterin, co-founder of Ethereum

“You have every right to do Bitcoin. The only reason these people in Washington don’t like it, is because they don’t control it.”

Ron DeSantis, governor of Florida

“This experience [with Ledger Recover] has been very humbling. […] We understand the community’s direction and apologize for the miscommunication.”

Pascal Gauthier, CEO of Ledger

“[Bitcoin is] so decent. There is no marketing department, there is no foundation, there’s no incentive. That’s why it is grassroots decentralized and most decentralized driven.”

Muneeb Ali, CEO of Trust Machines

“By embracing AI responsibly, we can transform policies to better serve our societies.”

Sabin Dima, CEO of Humans.ai

Prediction of the Week

Bitcoin holds $20K realized price as analyst eyes ‘big moves coming’

Bitcoin is at 10-week lows, but one longtime analyst is telling investors to ignore the “panic.”

In a Twitter update on May 25, Philip Swift, creator of data resource LookIntoBitcoin and co-founder of trading suite DecenTrader, eyed a BTC price breakout still in progress. “A lot of panic in the market today,” Swift summarized.

BTC/USD is currently testing the mettle of key moving averages against a backdrop of traders’ downside targets extending to $25,000 and below, Cointelegraph reported. Even Swift believes that Bitcoin could still return to as low as $20,000 in the coming months, despite remaining bullish on higher timeframes.

“Zooming out, bitcoin is actually performing well and as expected for this stage of cycle. A clear BTC breakout above Realized Price,” he added, referring to the aggregate price at which the BTC supply last moved. It currently sits at just above $20,000, according to LookIntoBitcoin.

FUD of the Week

DeFi protocol WDZD Swap exploited for $1.1M: CertiK

DeFi protocol WDZD Swap was recently exploited for $1.1 million worth of Binance-Pegged Ether. According to a report from blockchain security firm CertiK, a known exploiter labeled “Fake_Phishing750” by BSCScan created the contract that later drained the tokens from the protocol. Once the malicious contract was created, the attacker used it to perform nine transactions that drained the funds from the Swap LP contract where the ETH had been deposited. Fake_Phishing750 was responsible for an attack on another protocol called “Swap X,” CertiK stated.

ETH can be both a security and a commodity, former CFTC commissioner says

Ethereum’s native token, Ether, may be both a commodity and a security, the former commissioner of the United States Commodities Futures Trading Commission, Dan Berkovitz, has claimed. The CFTC regulates futures and swaps on commodities, while the SEC solely regulates securities. However, if something is a commodity in the eyes of the CFTC as well as a security under the SEC’s definition, it’s entirely possible for both regulatory bodies to have jurisdiction over it.

Binance denies fund mismanagement allegations, calls it ‘conspiracy theory’

Binance denied allegations of mismanagement of customers’ funds, in response to a Reuters report claiming the crypto exchange commingled customer’s funds with company revenue. As per Reuters’s sources, Binance allegedly blended billions of dollars of corporate revenue and customer funds between 2020 and 2021, with the majority of commingling taking place on accounts held at now-bankrupt Silvergate Bank. On Twitter, Binance chief of communication Patrick Hillmann called the report “1000 words of conspiracy theories.”

Best Cointelegraph Features

Getting a home loan using crypto collateral: Insane or just risky?

Crypto investors are often wealthy on paper but can’t get a home loan from a bank. But putting your Bitcoin up as collateral for a mortgage is super risky.

Ethereum is ‘woefully undervalued’ but growing more powerful: DeFi Dad, Hall of Flame

DeFi Dad has dabbled in everything from selling cameras to delivering food, but it was his crypto insights that amassed him a whopping 152,100 followers on Twitter.

Crypto City: Guide to Osaka, Japan’s second-biggest city

Decentralized ledger technology is arguably everything that AI is not: transparent, traceable, trustworthy and tamper-free. Could it offset the opaqueness of AI’s black-box solutions?

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Editorial Staff

Cointelegraph Magazine writers and reporters contributed to this article.