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| Here's your daily Inside Cryptocurrency briefing: - ❌ The sanctions imposed by a U.S. Judge against the top U.S. securities regulator for its misconduct in a crypto case,
- 📚 Former Binance CEO's new educational initiative,
- 🆕 Bakkt's decision to appoint a new CEO amid its financial troubles, and more.
Enjoy your reading! Doğa
p/dogayurduneri | |
| 1 | | U.S. Judge Robert Shelby has imposed sanctions against the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in the regulator's lawsuit against Utah-based crypto company Digital Licensing Inc., which operates as DEBT Box. In his ruling, Judge Shelby ordered the SEC to pay DEBT Box's attorney fees and other costs related to a restraining order the agency had sought against the firm. More: - In an 80-page filing, the judge said the SEC abused the authority given to it by Congress, and its conduct substantially undermined the judicial process.
- Shelby also denied the SEC's request for the dismissal of the case.
- The federal judge underlined that the latest order exclusively focuses on the SEC's conduct, emphasizing that it should not be read as an opinion related to the case.
- The SEC took enforcement action against DEBT Box in 2023, accusing the firm of conducting a nearly $50M fraudulent crypto scheme by selling unregistered securities under the name of node licenses.
- However, in December 2023, Judge Shelby discovered that the SEC made deceptive statements in its case against DEBT Box.
- At the time, Shelby said the evidence presented by the SEC to convince the court to freeze DEBT Box's assets was inaccurate, the firm was not moving to Dubai, no bank account was closed, and the alleged $720,000 overseas transfer was domestic.
- The judge further stated that the regulator's misconduct was not limited to a single misstatement, and each piece of evidence presented by the SEC has a false, mischaracterized, or misleading aspect.
- The SEC later admitted that its lawyers made inaccurate statements in court by pledging to train its enforcement staff on the matter, and an SEC lawyer confirmed that he made an inference based on a YouTube video by a DEBT Box official while claiming that the firm was moving investor funds abroad.
Zoom Out: - Last month, five U.S. senators on the Senate Banking Committee also questioned the SEC's reliability in the ongoing crypto enforcement actions in a letter, expressing their concerns about the agency's conduct in the DEBT Box case.
- Over the past several years, many other crypto firms, including Coinbase, Binance, Ripple, Gemini, Kraken, and Bittrex, came under increased scrutiny by the SEC over alleged securities law violations.
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What the numbers say: The price of dogwifhat (WIF), one of the most popular meme coins of recent weeks, briefly jumped by 25% on Monday. The token's value reached as much as $3.20 within the day, up from the $2.50 level a few hours earlier. The latest rally also brought the token's weekly price gain to nearly 30%. However, the upward trend in WIF lasted a short time. The popular cryptocurrency later saw a retreat back to the $2.50 level. Relevance: The 25% jump in the WIF price came shortly after Elon Musk shared a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, wishing his followers a happy St. Patrick's Day. The post featured an image of three dogs wearing green hats. The move was interpreted as a reference to dogwifhat since the Solana-based token's icon includes a photo of a dog named Achi wearing a hat. Ultimately, the WIF price reacted to the post positively with a brief price jump, though it later experienced a decline. What it means: A meme coin is a type of cryptocurrency originating from an internet meme and mostly having some humorous characteristics. Some of the most popular meme coins include Dogecoin (DOGE) and Shibu Inu (SHIB). Brands that should care: Musk also previously caused another dog-themed meme coin, Dogecoin, to increase in value many times through his social media posts. The worldwide-known CEO's companies, including Tesla, SpaceX, and The Boring Company, similarly showed their support for DOGE by accepting the token as a payment method in the sales of their several commercial products and services. Especially in 2021, Musk was highly criticized for deliberately influencing the crypto market through his posts. However, in 2022, the CEO said he would continue supporting Dogecoin wherever possible. | | | |
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| 3 | | Crypto exchange Binance's co-founder and former CEO, Changpeng Zhao (CZ), has announced his new educational initiative, Giggle Academy. The new nonprofit online platform aims to teach underprivileged children in developing nations by providing courses covering education from grades one to 12, making basic education accessible for everyone. More: - CZ said the initiative has already started hiring, and the recruited talents will work directly with him.
- The initiative will offer free basic education for children all around the world in an adaptive, gamified, and entertaining way without generating any revenue.
- Giggle Academy's online courses will cover both core subjects and exclusive topics, such as emotional intelligence, finance, and blockchain.
- The academy will gamify its educational content to maintain student interest and engagement through a system involving points, scores, rankings, and NFT badges that certify achievements.
- Zhao underlined that the project would not involve cryptocurrencies, though Giggle Academy's concept paper mentioned the future possibility of adopting a learn-to-earn system.
Zoom Out: - CZ stepped down as Binance CEO in November 2023 after pleading guilty to violating anti-money laundering requirements and sanctions in the U.S. by allowing terrorist groups to make crypto transactions on the platform.
- Under a settlement deal, the co-founder was ordered to pay a $50M penalty and blocked from engaging in the exchange's management for three years.
- At the time, Binance, the largest crypto exchange by trading volume, also agreed to pay a $4.3B fine to settle the U.S. authorities' money laundering, unlicensed money-transmitting business operations, and sanction violation charges.
- Zhao is currently free within the U.S. under a $175M bond, faces up to 10 years in prison, and awaits his sentencing hearing on April 30, though he is expected to get no more than 18 months under his plea deal.
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| 4 | | Digital asset platform and crypto payment app provider Bakkt has appointed Andy Main, a member of its board of directors, as its new CEO and president amid its ongoing financial troubles. Main will replace Gavin Michael for the two roles as of March 26, and Michael will continue serving in an advisory role through March 2025. More: - Main has been a part of Bakkt's board of directors since the firm's public listing in 2021 and has work experience at advertising, marketing, and public relations firm Ogilvy and professional services firm Deloitte.
- The replacement in the CEO role came several days after the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) warned Bakkt that it would delist the firm's stock if its average closing price would not return to above $1 over the next six months.
- Bakkt's stock experienced a strong price decline in early February after the firm disclosed that it may not have enough cash to continue operating its business over the next 12 months in a document filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
- At the time, the firm underlined that its future success depends on its ability to raise additional capital, revealing its intention to issue and sell up to $150M in registered securities to ease its financial troubles.
- Main said Bakkt has entered into a $40M registered direct offering with institutional investors and a $10M concurrent registered direct offering since then, alleviating doubts about its future.
- The upcoming CEO also pointed out that they are actively cutting their expenses and plan to increase the firm's revenue through partnerships.
Zoom Out: - Bakkt was founded by Intercontinental Exchange, the owner of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), in 2018.
- The firm's platform allows institutions to buy, sell, store, and spend crypto assets.
- The platform previously made strategic partnerships with several major brands, including Starbucks, Microsoft, and Amazon Web Services, to help their customers buy products and services with Bitcoin (BTC).
- However, the company has reported net losses for eight consecutive quarters since it first listed its shares on the NYSE in 2021, making them available for purchase by the general public.
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| 5 | | Japan's Government Pension Investment Fund (GPIF), the world's largest pension fund by assets under management (AUM), has recently started gathering information on illiquid assets, including Bitcoin (BTC), as part of a five-year research plan. The plan aims to explore potential investment strategies to diversify the fund's portfolio while helping it adapt to the rapid technological changes and shifts within traditional finance. More: - The research plan will mainly focus on sustainability, risk management, and how these assets could be incorporated into the GPIF's portfolio.
- The assets to be explored by the GPIF also include forests, farmland, and precious metals like gold.
- The fund currently puts its holdings only in domestic and foreign bonds and stocks, infrastructure and private equity, and real estate.
- The announcement does not directly mean that the GPIF will invest in Bitcoin.
- Instead, the fund will assess the gathered information and conduct due diligence during the research period before deciding whether to proceed with further research on these potential investment tools.
- The GPIF's latest announcement came shortly after Bitcoin, the largest cryptocurrency by market cap, experienced a strong price rally and hit new all-time highs consecutively, reaching as much as $73,750.
- The latest upward trend in the leading cryptocurrency was mainly triggered by the massive investor interest in the U.S.-based spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs), which received approval from regulators and began trading in January.
Zoom Out: - The GPIF had $1.54T of AUM as of December 2023.
- In November last year, South Korea's National Pension Service (NPS), the third-largest public pension fund by AUM, also announced that it incorporated crypto-related assets into its portfolio, buying 282,673 shares of the largest U.S. crypto exchange Coinbase (COIN) during Q3.
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| 6 | | South Asia-based super-app Grab has started allowing its users in Singapore to make payments with cryptocurrencies for its services in partnership with the crypto payment gateway Triple-A. The collaboration will see Singaporean users depositing cryptocurrencies in their GrabPay Wallet to use them in everyday transactions. More: - Grab offers ride-hailing, food delivery, and digital payment services across eight countries in South Asia.
- The platform pointed out that the new offering will be available only in Singapore.
- However, the firm underlined that it will monitor user adoption and respond to demand, implying that the crypto payment option could be expanded to more countries.
- Singaporean users will be able to make payments using five tokens, including Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH), Tether (USDT), USD Coin (USDC), and StraitsX Singapore Dollar (XSGD).
- Triple-A is the first crypto payment gateway licensed by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), the region's financial market regulator.
Zoom Out: - Grab has previously taken several other steps to strengthen its presence in the Web3 space.
- In September 2023, the platform started offering its users an option to set up a Web3 wallet to use blockchain-based services and partnered with the stablecoin issuer Circle to pilot a Web3 wallet for its Singaporean users.
- In June last year, the platform also participated in a pilot study of the MAS involving the use of central bank digital currencies (CBDCs), stablecoins, and tokenized bank deposits.
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- The U.S.-based business intelligence firm MicroStrategy, the largest corporate Bitcoin (BTC) holder, has become the owner of around 1% of the total Bitcoin supply after purchasing an additional 9,245 BTC for $623M.
- A Nigerian high court has ordered Binance, the largest crypto exchange by trading volume, to provide comprehensive information on all its users in Nigeria to the country's anti-corruption agency, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
- Web3 wallet Bitget Wallet, formerly known as BitKeep, has announced that it will launch a native token under the ticker BWB.
- Visa and Mastercard have reached a groundbreaking $5B settlement, reshaping the landscape of financial transactions as we know it.*
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 | 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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