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The SEC can’t stop suing crypto companies
Robinhood is the latest company to draw the ire of the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). This weekend, he reported receiving a Wells Notice – an announcement that the securities regulator is initiating proceedings and intends to sue. In an 8-K filing, the fintech company disclosed that it received the letter from the SEC’s enforcement division over alleged securities violations.
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At this point, it’s hard to be surprised by the SEC’s anti-crypto actions, however shameless they may be. The agency apparently sent the warning after Robinhood cooperated with the SEC’s investigative warrants into its crypto operations. A Wells Notice is essentially the defendant’s last chance to convince regulators that he hasn’t broken the law, which would be a sign of good faith, except the vast majority of these letters end up in a lawsuit.
As Dan Gallagher, Robinhood’s Chief Legal, Compliance and Corporate Officer noted in a statement, the company has been in direct communication with the SEC about its cryptocurrency offerings for years, which is exactly what you’d expect from a company that really only dabbles in cryptocurrencies. It is unclear from the letter which tokens are considered securities by the SEC, although it is worth noting that the brokerage has proactively removed a number of tokens, including Solana (SOL)Polygon (MATIC) and Cardano (ADA) – in response to previous SEC lawsuits against rival trading firms.
“We firmly believe that the assets listed on our platform are not securities, and we look forward to working with the SEC to clarify how weak any case against Robinhood Crypto would be on both the facts and the law,” Gallagher said. He noted in particular the company’s “years of good faith attempts to work with the SEC to gain regulatory clarity” and, like other cryptocurrency companies in legal limbo, “the notorious ‘go in and register’ attempt.”
Additionally, in heeding “calls from the SEC,” Robinhood attempted to register as a special purpose broker-dealer with the agency. Although so far there are many licensed crypto companies Prometheus Ember Capitala trading firm that does not yet offer any assets to trade is essentially the only one to receive a special purpose broker-dealer license, which was introduced in 2020 to allow companies to store and trade “cryptocurrency securities”.
While this is just speculation, my sense is that the SEC began building a case right around the time that Gallagher, himself a former SEC commissioner and securities law expert, testified before Congress that the SPBD process is hopelessly broken and a profound waste of resources. That means:
“When SEC Chairman Gensler said in 2021, ‘Come in and register,’ we did,” Gallagher said at a June 2023 House Agriculture Committee hearing on cryptocurrencies. “We went through a process of 16 months with SEC staff trying to register [as] a special purpose broker-dealer. And then in March we were told rather summarily that that process was over and that we would not see any fruit from that effort.”
So, to summarize, the SEC has announced plans to sue a company for failing to register a license after apparently denying the company that same license (though to be precise, SPBD licenses are given out by the self-regulatory organization FINRA).
This fits a long pattern. Since taking office in 2021, SEC Chairman Gary Gensler has pledged to rein in the cryptocurrency industry, which he claims is his purview (a questionable argument). These efforts increased dramatically following the collapse of FTX, which was particularly embarrassing for US regulators given how coy Sam Bankman-Fried had been towards them.
The SEC now spends a disproportionate amount of time and money pursuing lawsuits against crypto companies, both large and small. The agency filed an application at least one cause per month since last November against a cryptocurrency company, most of which go unnoticed and typically end in a settlement.
“The SEC just sent a Wells notice to Robinhood. The number they have been posting about cryptocurrencies over the past few months is astonishing. It’s hard to imagine that they could (or could) take so many enforcement actions at once,” Variant Fund chief legal officer Jake Chervinsky said on X. “It appears they are abusing the Wells process as a scare tactic now.”
In some ways, these lawsuits, particularly those filed against large companies like Coinbase and Robinhood, are an attempt to signal that cryptocurrencies are essentially lawless. This isn’t exactly the SEC’s fault, but also the fact that Congress has slept on cryptocurrency regulation for over a decade and is now hamstrung by partisan gridlock.
“I do not know why [the SEC] they did what they did. But there’s no going back on the rules now,” Beau J. Baumann, a PhD. candidate at Yale Law School and co-author of an influential cryptocurrency bill paper, CoinDesk said in an interview. “In this sense it is all bad faith. If enforcement actions are illegal, writing a rule is much more obviously illegal.”
“Congress should pass new legislation to avoid legal pitfalls, but it is not clear to me that it will actually do so,” Baumann added. Gensler, for his part, has directly stated that he does not think cryptocurrencies need bespoke legislation or guidance, given his view that all cryptocurrencies, excluding bitcoin, walk and talk like securities.
While the SEC has achieved legal victories, it has also suffered many judicial losses. It remains to be seen whether Robinhood will actually be sued, and if so, whether it will follow the path of Coinbase and Consensys and mount its own offensive legal campaign.
If there’s a silver lining here, it’s that, after years of trying to eat the entire crypto pie, Gensler’s SEC may have bitten off more than it can chew. Robinhood shares fell in premarket trading today, but have since recovered, indicating in part that the market isn’t taking this stock seriously, at least in material terms.
After all, even if the SEC wins, it’s hard to imagine the tangible benefits of preventing people from trading Stellar Lumens (XLM) or dogecoin (DOGE).
News
Cryptocurrency Price August 1: Bitcoin Dips Below $65K; Solana, XRP Down Up To 8%
Major cryptocurrencies fell in Thursday trading following the Federal Reserve’s decision to keep its key interest rate unchanged. Overnight, the U.S. Federal Reserve kept its key interest rate at 5.25-5.5% for the eighth consecutive time, as expected, while also signaling the possibility of a rate cut at its next meeting in September. The unanimous decision by the Federal Open Market Committee reflects a continued wait-and-see approach as it monitors inflation trends.
CoinSwitch Markets Desk said: “Bitcoin has fallen below $65,000 after the US Federal Reserve announced it would keep interest rates unchanged. However, with markets now anticipating rate cuts at the next Federal Reserve meeting in September, the outlook for a Bitcoin rally by the end of the year has strengthened.”
Meanwhile, CoinDCX research team said: “The crypto market has plunged after the Fed decision. Tomorrow’s US unemployment rate announcement is expected to induce more volatility, with the ‘actual’ figure coming in higher than the ‘expected’ one, which is positive for cryptocurrencies.”
At 12:21 pm IST, Bitcoin (BTC) was down 3.2% at $64,285, while Ethereum was down nearly 4.5% at $3,313. Meanwhile, the global market cryptocurrency The market capitalization fell 3.6% to around $2.3 trillion in the last 24 hours.
“Bitcoin needs to clear its 200-day EMA at $64,510 to consolidate further. Otherwise, a retest of $62,000 could be in the cards,” said Vikram Subburaj, CEO of Giottus.
Altcoins and meme coins, such as BNB (3%), Solana (8%), XRP (5.7%), Dogecoin (5%), Cardano (4.6%), Avalanche (4.3%), Shiba Inu (3.8%), Polkadot (3.4%), and Chainlink (4%) also saw declines.
The volume of all stablecoins is now $71.64 billion, which is 92.19% of the total cryptocurrency market volume in 24 hours, according to data available on CoinMarketCap. Bitcoin’s dominance is currently 54.99%. BTC volume in the last 24 hours increased by 23.3% to $35.7 billion.
(Disclaimer: Recommendations, suggestions, opinions and views provided by experts are personal. They do not represent the views of the Economic Times)
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Altcoins WIF, BONK, RUNE, JUP Down 10% While Bitcoin Drops 4%
Altcoins dogwifhat, Bonk, THORChain, and Jupiter have suffered losses of more than 10%, while Bitcoin is down 4% in the last 24 hours.
After a period of relative calm yesterday, July 31, Bitcoin (BTC) price action has seen a drastic change as the cryptocurrency dropped by more than $3,500, bringing its value to $63,300. At the same time, altcoins mirrored this trend, with the total value of liquidated positions rising to nearly $225 million over the course of the day.
Initially, the week started on a positive note for Bitcoin, which reached its highest point since early June, hitting $70,000. However, this peak was short-lived, as it was quickly rejected, leading to a substantial decline, with Bitcoin falling below $65,500.
The cryptocurrency managed to regain some stability, trading comfortably at around $66,800. However, following a Press conference According to Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, the value of Bitcoin has fallen again to $64,300, down more than 3% in 24 hours.
BTC Price Chart 24 Hours | Source: crypto.news
The recession coincided with a relationship from the New York Times stating that Iran had called for retaliatory measures against Israel following the assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran, increasing the risk of further conflict in the region.
Meanwhile, on the economic front, the Federal Reserve decided to keep its benchmark interest rates in place, offering little information on a planned September rate cut. Powell also hinted that while no concrete decisions have been made on the September adjustment, there is growing consensus that a rate cut is likely.
Amid Bitcoin’s decline, altcoins have suffered even more significant losses. For example, dogwifhat (Wife) saw a 12.4% drop and (DISGUST) has suffered a 10% drop. Other altcoins such as THORChain (RUNE) also fell by 10%, while Jupiter (JUPITER) and the Ethereum naming service (ENS) decreased by 8% and 9% respectively.
Among the largest-cap cryptocurrencies, the biggest losers are Solana (SOL) with a decrease of 8%, (Exchange rate risk) down 6%, Cardano (ADA) down 4%, and both Ethereum (ETH) and Dogecoin (DOGE) recording a decrease of 4.4%.
Data from CoinGlass indicates that approximately 67,000 traders have been negatively impacted by this increased volatility. BTC positions have seen $61.85 million in liquidations, while ETH positions have faced $61 million. In total, the value of liquidated positions stands at $225.4 million at the time of writing.
News
Riot Platforms Sees 52% Drop in Bitcoin Production in Q2
Bitcoin mining firm Riot Platforms has released its second-quarter financial results, highlighting a decline in cryptocurrency mined due to the recent halving.
Colorado-based Bitcoin (BTC) mining company Riot platforms revealed its second quarter financial results, highlighting a significant reduction in mined cryptocurrencies attributed to the recent halving event that took place in early April.
The company reported total revenue of $70 million for the quarter ended July 31, a decline of 8.7% compared to the same period in 2023. Riot Platforms attributed the revenue decline primarily to a $9.7 million decrease in engineering revenue, which was partially mitigated by a $6 million increase in Bitcoin extraction income.
During the quarter, the company mined 844 BTC, representing a decline of over 50% from Q2 2023, citing the halving event and increasing network difficulty as major factors behind the decline. Riot Platforms reported a net loss of $84.4 million, or $0.32 per share, missing Zacks Research forecast a loss of $0.16 per share.
Halving increases competitive pressure
The Colorado-based firm said the average cost of mining one BTC in the second quarter, including energy credits, rose to $25,327, a remarkable 341% increase from $5,734 per BTC in the same quarter of 2023. Despite this significant increase in production costs, the firm remains optimistic about maintaining competitiveness through recent deals.
For example, following the Recent acquisition Cryptocurrency firm Block Mining, Riot has increased its distributed hash rate forecast from 31 EH/s to 36 EH/s by the end of 2024, while also increasing its 2025 forecast from 40 EH/s to 56 EH/s.
Riot Platforms Hashrate Growth Projections by 2027 | Source: Riot Platforms
Commenting on the company’s financials, Riot CEO Jason Les said that despite the halving, the mining company still managed to achieve “significant operational growth and execution of our long-term strategy.”
“Despite this reduction in production available to all Bitcoin miners, Riot reported $70 million in revenue for the quarter and maintained strong gross margins in our core Bitcoin mining business.”
Jason Les
Following its Q2 financial report, Riot Platforms shares fell 1.74% to $10.19, according to Google Finance data. Meanwhile, the American miner continues to chase Canadian rival Bitfarms, recently acquiring an additional 10.2 million BITF shares, increasing its stake in Bitfarms to 15.9%.
As previously reported by crypto.news, Riot was the first announced a $950 million takeover bid for Bitfarms in late May, arguing that Bitfarms’ founders were not acting in the best interests of all shareholders. They said their proposal was rejected by Bitfarms’ board without substantive engagement.
In response, Bitfarms She said that Riot’s offer “significantly understates” its growth prospects. Bitfarms subsequently implemented a shareholder rights plan, also known as a “poison pill,” to protect its strategic review process from hostile takeover attempts.
News
Aave Price Increases Following Whales Accumulation and V3.1 Launch
Decentralized finance protocol Aave is seeing a significant spike in whale activity as the market looks to recover from the recent crash that pushed most altcoins into key support areas earlier this week.
July 31, Lookonchain shared details indicating that the whales had aggressively accumulated Aave (AAVE) over the past two days. According to the data, whales have withdrawn over 58,848 AAVE worth $6.47 million from exchanges during this period.
In one instance, whale address 0x9af4 withdrew 11,185 AAVE worth $1.23 million from Binance. Meanwhile, another address moved 21,619 AAVE worth over $2.38 million from the exchange and deposited the tokens into Aave.
These withdrawals follow a previous transfer of 26,044 AAVE from whale address 0xd7c5, amounting to over $2.83 million withdrawn from Binance.
AAVE price has surged over 7% in the past 24 hours amid buy-side pressure from these whales. The DeFi token is currently trading around $111 after jumping over 18% in the past week.
Recently, the price of AAVE increased by over 8% after Aave founder Marc Zeller announced a proposed fee change aimed at adopting a buyback program for AAVE tokens.
Aave v3.1 is available
The total value locked in the Aave protocol currently stands at around $22 billion. According to DeFiLlamaApproximately $19.9 billion is on Aave V3, while the V2 chain still holds approximately $1.9 billion in TVL and V1 approximately $14.6 million.
Aave Labs announced Previously, Aave V3.1 was made available on all networks with active Aave V3 instances.
V3.1 features improvements that are intended to improve the overall security of the DeFi protocol. The Aave DAO governance has approved the v3.1 improvements, which also include operational efficiency and usability for the network.
Meanwhile, Aave Labs recently outlined a ambitious roadmap for the projectwith a 2030 vision for Aave V4, among other developments.
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