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| Hey Insider! Welcome back to the Inside Cryptocurrency newsletter! The week's latest issue covers some of the most thrilling stories in the crypto market, including the U.S. securities regulator's legal motion to drop its charges against some Ripple executives, Binance's new partnerships for euro services, the dramatic decline in the number of Bitcoin ATMs worldwide, and more. Enjoy your reading, and if you find this newsletter useful, please do not forget to share it with your friends and colleagues! Doğa
p/dogayurduneri | |
| 1 | | The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has recently filed a new legal motion, asking a federal judge to dismiss its lawsuit against the payment protocol Ripple's CEO Brad Garlinghouse and co-founder Christian Larsen. The agency's attorneys said the SEC and Ripple plan to meet to discuss what remedies are proper against the crypto firm for its violations related to institutional sales of its native token, XRP. More: - The legal battle between the two parties started in December 2020 when the SEC accused Ripple and some of its executives of the unregistered sale of nearly $1.3B of XRP tokens in a lawsuit.
- However, in July this year, U.S. District Judge Analisa Torres ruled that XRP is not a security when sold to the general public.
- Torres' ruling was considered a partial victory for Ripple since the SEC classified XRP as a security in the lawsuit.
- Then, the SEC requested an interlocutory appeal to the ruling, which was also denied by Judge Torres.
- Since Torres' ruling did not end the case, the SEC had to seek permission from the judge to appeal.
- Some analysts have interpreted the regulator's latest move as a case strategy that would allow it to appeal certain parts of the case it lost sooner.
- Ripple's chief legal officer, Stuart Alderoty, also defined the move as a surrender by the SEC rather than a settlement.
Zoom Out: - On the other hand, the SEC classifies all digital assets other than Bitcoin (BTC) as securities in the light of current chair Gary Gensler's approach, claiming jurisdiction over the crypto market.
- Within the last several months alone, many crypto exchanges, including Binance, Coinbase, Kraken, Gemini, and Bittrex, faced increased scrutiny by the agency over alleged securities law violations.
Q: Do you agree that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's new legal motion is a case strategy? Join the conversation here. |     | |
| 2 | | 
What the numbers say: The data compiled by AltIndex has shown that the number of Bitcoin ATMs worldwide has declined by more than 5,000 since the beginning of the year. The drop represents the biggest decline in the crypto market's history, with the figure retreating to the levels in 2021. The number of ATMs showed a continuous decrease over the past months after reaching an all-time high of 39,100 in December 2022. However, July has become the biggest month in 2023 by the number of closed ATMs, with more than 4,000 Bitcoin ATMs removed in that month alone. After July, the figure remained relatively stable at the 32,000 level, though it experienced a slight recovery. Relevance: The decline in the number of Bitcoin ATMs was mainly attributed to the regulators' crackdown on the machines due to concerns about their potential criminal use. Most of the removed ATMs in 2023 were in the U.S., where the number declined to 26,700 in October from 34,200 at the end of last year. The U.K. regulators also showed a similar effort to combat the possible illicit use. In July, the U.K. Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), the country's financial market regulator, announced that it shut down 26 illegal crypto ATMs since the beginning of 2023. At the time, the agency also warned U.K. citizens that they could lose all their money in these machines operating illegally across the country. Brands that should care: On the other hand, General Bytes is currently the largest Bitcoin ATM producer, with a 32.6% market share. The company is followed by Genesis Coin, BitAccess, and Bitstop in the ranking, respectively. | | | |
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| 3 | | Binance, the largest crypto exchange by trading volume, has announced that it partnered with new service providers to handle euro (EUR) payments, deposits, and withdrawals. The company has pointed out that users have already started being migrated to the services provided by its new regulated and authorized partners. More: - The firm did not name the new partners.
- The new partnerships will see users becoming able to deposit and withdraw funds in EUR seamlessly again.
- The agreements will also allow Binance customers to buy and sell cryptocurrencies with their balances in euros through bank transfers and bank cards.
- Besides, users will be able to trade EUR spot pairs.
- The move came nearly a month after Binance's European banking partner, Paysafe Payment Solutions, halted supporting Binance, leaving the exchange with no access to its wallet solution.
- Paysafe mainly served as an intermediary banking partner for customers' euro deposits and withdrawals.
Zoom Out: - On the other hand, Paysafe's decision to halt supporting Binance followed an increased regulatory crackdown on the platform in many countries worldwide, including the U.S., Australia, France, Belgium, and Brazil.
- The company also recently had to withdraw from several markets in the West, such as Canada, Austria, the Netherlands, Cyprus, the U.K., and Germany, mainly due to compliance issues.
- The heightened scrutiny caused Binance's banking partners in some other countries, like Australia and the U.S., to cut their ties with the platform, forcing the exchange to halt deposit and withdrawal services for certain fiat currencies.
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| 4 | | Bitcoin (BTC), the largest cryptocurrency by market cap, briefly surpassed the $30,000 level within the day for the first time in two months. The popular cryptocurrency hit as much as $30,022, which represents the highest figure since July. More: - The jump in Bitcoin's price took the token's weekly gains to 10%.
- The leading cryptocurrency has increased its value by almost 80% since the beginning of the year.
- However, the coin is still nearly 60% below its all-time high in November 2021.
Zoom Out: - On the other hand, Bitcoin's price saw strong volatility over the past few months after several leading traditional finance (TradFi) giants like BlackRock, Grayscale Investments, WisdomTree, Invesco Galaxy, Valkyrie, and Wise Origin consecutively applied to launch a Bitcoin spot exchange-traded fund (ETF).
- Analysts believe that the approval of such applications could bring a significant amount of capital to the crypto market, causing a price increase in Bitcoin.
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| 5 | | The U.S. Department of the Treasury has proposed a new rulemaking to label international crypto mixers as money-laundering hubs. The proposed rulemaking will remain open to public comment for 90 days. More: - Crypto mixers make it harder to track digital assets, claiming to provide untraceable financial transactions for the sake of anonymity and privacy.
- The department cited Palestinian militant group Hamas' use of the crypto mixers along with other terrorist groups while explaining the reason for the proposal.
- If approved, the designation will require crypto mixing services to follow stricter reporting rules for any financial transactions.
- Deputy Secretary of the Treasury Wally Adeyemo said the move demonstrates the department's commitment to combating the exploitation of crypto by illicit actors, including Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad.
Zoom Out: - On the other hand, the new designation proposal came shortly after the Wall Street Journal reported that Hamas and other militant groups used crypto as a financing tool amid the attacks in Israel.
- In response, blockchain data analysis firm Chainalysis stated that the reports about the alleged use of crypto by terrorist groups might be overstating metrics and using faulty analysis.
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| 6 | | Tether, the issuer of the largest stablecoin USDT, has announced that it would publish data on the reserves backing its stablecoin in real-time as of 2024. The company had a $3.3B excess in reserves at the end of Q2. More: - In 2021, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) fined Tether $42.5M, alleging that USDT was not fully backed for the majority of a 26-month period between 2016 and 2018.
- Since then, the company has grown in size significantly, bringing USDT's market cap to $89.3B.
- The popular stablecoin usually surpasses $30B in daily trading volume.
Zoom Out: - Tether's new decision was announced shortly after the company appointed its chief technology officer (CTO), Paolo Ardoino, as its new CEO.
- At the time, Ardoino said he visions Tether as a tech powerhouse that would reshape the future of finance.
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| 7 | | Quick Hits: - Don't settle for the sidelines. Participate in Sandhill Markets' auctions and bid on shares of pre-IPO giants like Stripe, Databricks, Anduril, and OpenAI.*
- LBRY Inc., the firm behind the LBRY blockchain, has announced that it is winding down its operations, citing several million dollars of debts that make it impossible for the company to survive.
- The U.S.-based crypto exchange Gemini has stated that it was the victim of the fraud conducted by the other two defendants in response to a lawsuit filed by the New York Attorney General against it.
- Google's cloud computing division, Google Cloud, has entered into a strategic partnership with the metaverse-focused blockchain firm MultiversX, formerly known as Elrond.
- Final day to invest in LiquidPiston is 10/24. Become a LiquidPiston investor before it's too late.*
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INSIDE CRYPTOCURRENCY LEADERBOARD (30 DAYS) |
 | Staff Writer | | Doga is a tech and science editor who has been writing news for nearly 10 years. She worked for leading tech platforms and mainstrem media channels as an editor and presenter throughout his career. Then, she carried her know-how to more than one platform. She is a part-time cat lover and binge-watcher, and also fond of science, space, and emerging tech. She always has a story to tell. She is a bit addict to the laughter and -unfortunately- the '90s culture. | | This newsletter was edited by Aaron Crutchfield | |
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