- Analysts Warn of Headwinds as Cryptos Gain Ahead of CPI Data, Luna Classic Pares Rally
Canadian cryptocurrency exchange Coinberry has filed a lawsuit against 50 users who Major cryptocurrencies inched higher over the weekend and Asian and European equity markets rose Monday as investors wait for Tuesday’s U.S. inflation report.
Some economists expect the data to show inflation slowed for a second straight month in August, figures that might influence the Federal Reserve to turn less hawkish in its outlook.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 stock index gained as much as 1.69% Monday, the Stoxx Europe 600 rose 0.83%, and Germany’s DAX added 1.57%. The euro jumped to a more than three-week peak against the dollar as European Central Bank officials pushed for further aggressive monetary tightening.
Two months of falling gasoline prices – down 8% in July and 13% in August – could fuel another year-on-year decline in the consumer price index report, economists at crypto fund GlobalBlock said in an email to CoinDesk.
- Gary Gensler Asks SEC Staff to Fine-Tune Crypto Compliance — Says ‘Vast Majority Are Securities’
Gary Gensler, the chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), talked about crypto regulation and compliance at the Practising Law Institute’s SEC Speaks conference Thursday.
Noting that the core principles of the SEC’s statutes apply to all securities markets, including securities and intermediaries in the crypto market, he stated:
Of the nearly 10,000 tokens in the crypto market, I believe the vast majority are securities. Offers and sales of these thousands of crypto security tokens are covered under the securities laws.
Gensler admitted that some crypto tokens may not meet the definition of a security. “These likely represent only a small number of tokens, even though they may represent a significant portion of the crypto market’s aggregate value,” he opined.
For example, he previously indicated that bitcoin, the largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, is a commodity, and falls under the purview of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).
The SEC chairman described bitcoin during his speech Thursday:
Bitcoin, the first crypto token, is referred to by some as ‘digital gold’: trading like a precious metal, a speculative, scarce — yet digital — store of value.
- Crypto Exchange WazirX Sees Assets Unfrozen Amid Indian Regulator’s Investigation
India’s Enforcement Directorate (ED) has unfrozen the accounts of crypto exchange WazirX, according to the exchange’s update.
The exchange’s bank accounts were unfrozen following “active cooperation” with the ED via active anti-money laundering (AML) checks which blocked “suspicious accounts,” read today’s announcement.
The exchange, one of India’s largest with a $2.9 million 24-hour trading volume, has had $8.14 million in assets frozen for more than a month.
The financial watchdogs accused the exchange of facilitating money laundering “via purchase and transfer of virtual crypto assets.” The ED’s release also stated that 16 fintech companies used WazirX to direct crypto assets to “unknown foreign wallets.”
The financial regulator found during its investigation of the exchange that of the suspected 16 companies allegedly laundering money through WazirX, most accounts had already been blocked between 2020 and 2021.
Today’s news comes amid an “ongoing money laundering investigation into Chinese-owned illegal online betting Applications,” the regulator said back in June. At that time, the ED issued WazirX with a show-cause notice as part of its investigation.
- Half of Bitcoin Is Held at a Net Unrealized Profit
At the 6M and 1Y view, the Bitcoin price chart blares “crypto winter.” Last November, it commanded $68K. Since mid-June this year, however, it’s rangebound around the $20K level. But today, just over half of holders have a net unrealized profit on hand.
The Bitcoin price rallied abruptly last week, starting Wednesday. The PoW king posted a double-digit percentage gain at the height of the surge on Friday and keeps going up since then. After recovering above the $20,000 level this week, the Bitcoin price action flushed out $160 million worth of bitcoin shorts.
But even before this rally, nearly 50% of BTC holders were in positive or unrealized gain territory. That’s according to an on-chain metric called Net Unrealized Profit or Loss (NUPL).
Bitcoin Held At An Unrealized Profit Matches That Held at a Loss
“Unrealized” simply means this metric is for those who haven’t sold. It’s a measure of whether or not they would gain or lose if they sold at the current average market price.
https://www.binance.com/en/news/flash
- Aussies already lost $242M to investment and crypto scams in 2022
Australians have continued getting duped by investment and crypto-related scams, losing 242.5 million Australian dollars to scammers so far in 2022, according to Scamwatch’s latest data.
From January to July of this year, the majority of all funds lost to scams of all types were investment scams, which range from romance baiting scams to classic Ponzi schemes and cryptocurrency scams.
The figure is already 36% higher than the figures across all of 2021, which revealed that Australians lost 178.2 million Australian dollars to investment scams in the year.
It’s a threat that has prompted consumer advocates to push for banks to shoulder more responsibility for reimbursing scams to “drive greater investment in stopping fraud.”
According to a Thursday report from the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), advocacy groups are pushing for reforms requiring banks to check the recipient’s name matches the account name when money is transferred online.
“The key reform is to shift that liability from individual consumers to banks when it comes to scam losses,” Consumer Action Law Centre CEO Gerard Brody said:
“They [banks] ask you for the account name, but they don’t actually check.”
https://cointelegraph.com/news/aussies-already-lost-242m-to-investment-and-crypto-scams-in-2022
- A Bitcoin ETF Is Long Past Due, Crypto Lobbyists Say in New Report
The question of whether the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) should be forced to permit spot-based bitcoin exchange-traded-funds (ETFs) is now inching through the courts, but industry lobbyists are making another public push to declare the regulator is wrong in opposing the product.
The Chamber of Digital Commerce, a Washington, D.C.-based advocacy group, commissioned a report set for release Monday that will accuse the SEC of harming U.S. investors by depriving them of a type of trading vehicle already available in other countries.
“It has determined that the American public cannot yet handle the responsibility of familiar, cost-effective, liquid, transparent and regulated access to the bitcoin markets,” according to the report. “The SEC continues to force U.S. investors who wish to invest in this transformative asset class into unregulated or foreign alternatives.”
- Russia’s Tech Giant Rostec to Test Digital Asset Payments in International Trade
The largest Russian industrial and technology conglomerate, Rostec, us preparing to launch a project dedicated to integrating cryptocurrencies into cross-border transactions. The main task will be to limit the negative effects of sanctions on the activities of Russian importers and exporters that are experiencing mounting pressure.
The Russian economy, especially foreign trade operations, was hit hard by financial restrictions imposed by the West over Moscow’s military intervention in Ukraine. Proposals to legalize the use of digital financial assets in deals with partners, including cryptocurrencies, stablecoins and the upcoming digital ruble, have been gaining support among officials.
Speaking during the “Digital Finance: New Ways of Development” conference at the Eastern Economic Forum this week, Rostec’s Managing Director for National Projects Anna Sharipova unveiled that the corporation is exploring the possibility of testing digital assets as a means of payment for imports and exports. Trials will be held under the experimental legal regime for electronic trading on Russky Island, off the coast of Vladivostok, the second-largest city in the Russian Far East.
- Double-Digit Weekly Gains for Bitcoin and Ethereum Send BTC Over $22,000
Bitcoin, the largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, has soared more than 12% over the past seven days. The leading cryptocurrency has since retaken $22,000 at press time, a figure not seen since August.
Over the past 24 hours, the cryptocurrency has jumped just over 2.6% and is trading hands at around $22,235, according to CoinMarketCap.
Despite the tamed rally in the past day, trading volumes for Bitcoin have risen by more than 20%. Key markets on Binance, FTX Exchange, and Coinbase have hosted a majority of this trading.
The heft of Bitcoin’s weekly price surge began on September 7, with the cryptocurrency rising from $18,661. From this trough to today’s price marks a whopping increase of over 18%.
Ethereum has enjoyed an equally bullish rally over the past week, jumping from roughly $1,562 to today’s price of around $1,755. Over the past day, though, the second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization has dropped by roughly 0.4%.
Like Bitcoin, the majority of Ethereum’s 12% rise since last Monday came on September 7, when the asset rose from just over $1,500.
https://decrypt.co/109470/bitcoin-ethereum-jump-week
- The Conservative Party of Canada Elects Pro-Bitcoin Leader Pierre Poilievre as Party Head
The Conservative Party of Canada (CPC) elected pro-Bitcoin Ontario Member of Parliament, Pierre Poilievre, as the party’s new leader on Saturday – and it wasn’t even close.
Poilievre garnered over 68% of the conservative vote, miles ahead of his closest rival, former Quebec premier, Jean Charest, who only managed to scrounge up 16% of total votes. Poilievre not only dominated in vote count, but was also the preferred candidate in almost every single riding (electoral district) across Canada.
As the CPC’s new leader, Poilievre is now poised to battle current Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, for Canada’s top job in the 2025 federal election. This means Canadians may soon have the opportunity to elect a pro-Bitcoin Prime Minister – a first in North American politics.
“Government is ruining the Canadian dollar, so Canadians should have the freedom to use other money, such as bitcoin,” Poilievre said earlier this year.
https://www.binance.com/en/news/flash/7198240
- Norwegian central bank uses Ethereum to build national digital currency
The central bank of Norway has hit a major milestone in digital currency efforts, releasing the open source code for the country’s central bank digital currency (CBDC) sandbox.
Available on GitHub, the sandbox is designed to offer an interface for interacting with the test network, enabling functions like minting, burning and transferring ERC-20 tokens, the Norges Bank’s official CBDC partner Nahmii said in a blog post.
Nahmii stressed that the current version of the code does not support the major Ethereum wallet MetaMask by design and is only privately accessible by users with appropriate credentials.
In addition to deploying the appropriate smart contracts and access controls, the Norges Bank sandbox includes a custom frontend and network monitoring tools like BlockScout and Grafana. The front end also shows a filterable summary of transactions on the network, Nahmii noted.
