- Bitcoin Climbs Over $19.5K Amid Wider Rally in Riskier Assets
Bitcoin rose for the second consecutive day and was recently trading just over $19,500, a nearly 2% gain over the past 24 hours and stark contrast from last week’s late roller coaster ride.
The largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization tracked U.S. equity indexes, which also climbed with the tech-focused Nasdaq and S&P 500, recently up 3.5%, and 2.7%, respectively, as investors awaited the latest third-quarter earnings reports and housing data that seem likely to reflect a continued cooling of the real estate market. On Monday, Bank of America became the latest financial services giant to report sagging results, joining Citigroup and Morgan Stanley, among others.
“The gains [of bitcoin] today mirror those in equity markets, with risk assets more broadly getting the week off to a good start,” Craig Erlam, senior market analyst at foreign exchange market maker Oanda, wrote in a Monday note.
- India to Discuss Crypto During G20 Presidency to Establish Tech-Driven Regulatory Framework, Says Finance Minister
Indian Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman shared the government’s plan regarding crypto regulation Saturday before concluding her trip to Washington, D.C., to attend the annual meetings of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank, PTI reported.
The finance minister told a group of Indian reporters that crypto will be part of India’s agenda during its G20 presidency. Noting that various organizations are doing their own research on cryptocurrency, she said:
We would definitely want to collate all this and do a bit of study and then bring it on to the table of the G20 so that members can discuss it and hopefully arrive at a framework or SOP, so that globally, countries can have a technology-driven regulatory framework.
“But implicit in this is that we don’t want the technology to be disturbed,” Sitharaman stressed. “We want the technology to survive and also be in a position for the fintech and other sectors to benefit from it.”
- Cryptocurrencies Will Play ‘Very important Role’ in Payments Disruption: Walmart CTO
Cryptocurrencies fall into one of the major areas of payments disruption and “will become an important part of how customers transact,” according to Suresh Kumar, the global chief technology at the retail giant Walmart.
“Crypto is going to continue to play a very important role in that. And obviously, we want to be there where the customer really needs us to be,” Kumar said at Yahoo Finance’s All Markets Summit on Monday.
Kumar also suggested that part of that disruption will be happening in the metaverse—“on live streams, inside your social media app.”
“So whether it is physical goods or virtual goods, [cryptocurrencies] play a part in terms of what the customer wants,” said Kumar.
- “Not Even a Single TX Has Been Censored on ETH”, Cyber Capital Founder Says
Ethereum bulls have hit back against claims the network has become prone to censorship post-Merge, with one arguing that “not even a single” transaction has been censored on the network.
In a 19-part thread to his 29,100 followers on Oct. 17, Cyber Capital founder and CIO Justin Bons argued that contrary to “what some Bitcoiners are falsely claiming,” not a single transaction on Ethereum has been stopped as a result of Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctions.
Bons was referring to recent reports suggesting Ethereum has become too reliant on OFAC-compliant Miner Extractable Value (MEV)-Boost relays since the Merge.
Last week, it was reported that more than 51% of Ethereum blocks are now complying with the U.S. sanctions after transitioning to proof-of-stake (PoS).
https://www.binance.com/en/news/flash/7239981
- Bitcoin, space travel and TikTok debut in Guinness World Records
Guinness World Records has added Bitcoin (BTC tickers down $19,541) and a number of blockchain events in the latest edition of its record book under the category of “Cryptomania.”
The recognition of crypto by a mainstream staple such as Guinness World Records indicates that blockchain and digital assets were among the most publicly touched-on subjects over the past couple of years.
The 2023 edition, launched last month, has seen a number of notable crypto achievements included which spanning Bitcoin, crypto adoption, fan tokens and nonfungible tokens (NFTs).
Bitcoin was unsurprisingly recognized as the most valuable cryptocurrency, with its market cap of $816.69 billion as of March 24, 2022, while it also got recognition for being the world’s first decentralized crypto after launching in early 2009.
https://cointelegraph.com/news/bitcoin-space-travel-and-tiktok-debut-in-guinness-world-records
- Crypto Venture Capital Fund Paradigm Also Wants CFTC to Serve Ooki DAO’s Members
Crypto venture capital fund Paradigm Operations has asked a federal court for permission to join two other groups in arguing that the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) should serve the members of a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) directly, rather than through a generic website help portal.
Paradigm filed for permission to join Ooki DAO’s case on Monday, arguing in a motion that the CFTC’s view that any voting token holder who participated in the DAO’s governance process is liable may threaten DAOs in general. The company is hoping to file an amicus, or friend of the court, brief and included its proposed amicus filing.
The CFTC filed suit against Ooki DAO last month in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, alleging the DAO was violating federal commodities laws by offering U.S. residents access to unregistered leveraged and margin crypto trading products. The DAO has since geofenced users whose IP addresses are located within the U.S., but has not responded to the CFTC in court as of press time.
- Blockchain-Based Platform Created by Saudi Students Places Third in National Women’s Coding Competition
A blockchain-based bidding platform created by female students at the Saudi Arabian learning institution Imam Abdulrahman bin Faisal University was recently recognized as one of the three best projects in this year’s coding competition. Known as Bidchain, the bidding platform placed third in the competition.
According to a report by Laraontheblock, the coding competition, also known as “She Codes 2022,” was conducted under the auspices of the Saudi Arabian Ministry of Education along with Princess Nourah Bint Abdulrahman University. The competition is said to be part of Princess Nourah bint Abdulrahman University’s broader goal of supporting and empowering women in Saudi Arabia’s technology sector.
In addition to working with the government on the coding competition, Enas bint Suleiman Al-Issa, the president of the university, revealed at the award ceremony that his institution is also organizing local and international partnerships as well as holding exhibitions and specialized forums for women.
- SEC, CFTC Launch Probe Into Bankrupt Crypto Fund Three Arrows Capital: Report
Two key U.S. regulators are reportedly investigating the bankrupt crypto-focused hedge fund Three Arrows Capital (3AC).
According to anonymous sources reported by Bloomberg, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) are now looking into whether the fund “violated rules by misleading investors about the strength of its balance sheet and not registering with the agencies.”
The Singapore-based fund, which began actively trading cryptocurrencies in 2017, was one of the world’s largest crypto funds before filing Chapter 15 bankruptcy proceedings on July 1, claiming that it owed $3.5 billion to creditors following its collapse.
Blockchain analytics firm Nansen estimated that it had around $10 billion in assets under management in March 2022.
https://decrypt.co/112254/sec-cftc-launch-probe-bankrupt-crypto-fund-three-arrows-capital-report
- SEC Received Over 11,000 Letters Supporting Grayscale Spot BTC ETF
After GrayScale launched a campaign to support investors, the SEC received more than 11,000 letters in support of the asset manager’s Grayscale Bitcoin conversion plan. Trusting an ETF, Chief Legal Officer Craig Salm said the company expects similar support when your court brief is filed for a deadline on Tuesday.
Asset manager hoping for strong follow-up to 11,000 letters sent to the SEC in support of a spot-market fund: https://t.co/BQ28tgG5hZ by @ninabambysheva
— Forbes Crypto (@ForbesCrypto) October 18, 2022
As mentioned in previous Coincu News articles, on June 29, the SEC rejected the company’s application to convert the trust, the world’s largest bitcoin fund, into an exchange-traded product change. On the same day, Grayscale filed a motion for reconsideration with the District of Columbia Court of Appeals, filing a lawsuit to challenge the decision. Because the action was against an agency of the United States government, the case began at the appellate level, rather than the district court, the usual venue of trial.
https://www.binance.com/en/news/flash/7239943
- EU Commissioner urges lawmakers to hurry up with crypto regulations
While the European Union proceeds with smoothly passing its landmark crypto framework, the Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA), through the legislation phases, its financial services chief urges their United States’ counterparts to keep in step to ensure the forthcoming regulations will be global, not local.
On Oct. 18, the European Commission’s financial services commissioner Mairead McGuinness emphasized to the Financial Times that the regulatory efforts should take a global character. “We do need to see other players also legislating,” said McGuinness, adding, “We need to look at global regulation of crypto.”
These remarks were made during McGuinness’ visit to Washington DC, where she met the Republican Representative Patrick McHenry and the Democratic Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, one of the co-sponsors of the U.S. crypto bill.
https://cointelegraph.com/news/eu-commissioner-urges-lawmakers-to-hurry-up-with-crypto-regulations
