X obtains financial license / SBF trial could be delayed / Analysts say a BTC ETF in 2024 is 95% likely

Plus: Robinhood adds wallet support for BTC and Doge

Inside Cryptocurrency For August 30, 2023

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Hey Insiders, Welcome to today's Inside Cryptocurrency! Here are the top stories:  💰 X, formerly Twitter, obtains a financial license in Rhode Island. ⚖️ Sam Bankman Fried's fraud trial could be delayed until October 🪙 Bloomberg analysts estimate a BTC ETF is 95% likely in 2024 If you find this newsletter useful, please share it with your friends and colleagues. Thank you. Arbër p/Arber

1 Social media platform X has obtained a license to trade cryptocurrencies in Rhode Island. The company is now eligible to carry out both fiat and digital transactions. More: The Rhode Island currency transmitter license covers the storing, trading, and transferring of assets, including traditional fiat money and digital currencies. X has acquired similar licenses in Michigan, Missouri, and New Hampshire. Adding features that help users carry financial transactions is a further step into making X the "everything app," an ambition that Elon Musk expressed when he acquired Twitter (now rebranded to "X"). The feature could potentially be available for 400 million individuals who use X monthly. Question: Would you use X (formerly Twitter) to send money and/or cryptocurrency? Let us know here.

2 What happened: Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder and former CEO of cryptocurrency exchange FTX, could see his fraud trial delayed until October, as his defense team argued that they didn't have enough time to review crucial material. Once the world's largest second cryptocurrency exchange, FTX is inactive and has seen its market share go to Coinbase, Kraken, and Kucoin. More details: The possible delay will be decided on Sept. 1. According to his lawyers, Bankman Fried has limited internet access and uses a laptop that doesn't charge properly to go through pretrial evidence. Judge Lewis Kaplan of the Southern District of New York gave both parties until next Tuesday to brief him on the conditions in Brooklyn's MDC facility. Kaplan will decide whether to release Bankman-Fried based on the evidence presented to him. The former FTX CEO was sent to New York City's Metropolitan Detention Center in August. As a reason for the decision, Judge Kaplan said that SBF had crossed the line in his communication with witnesses. Why it matters: The cryptocurrency industry has suffered from a credibility issue with consumers who did not understand the technology. Cases such as the FTX one hurt crypto's credibility as a business; therefore, a proper court ruling could go a long way toward convincing legislators and consumers that this industry has matured and is ready to go mainstream.

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3 Two Bloomberg analysts are estimating there is a 95% chance a Bitcoin ETF will be approved in 2024. Their estimate comes a day after a U.S. court ruled in favor of Grayscale in its lawsuit against the SEC. More: Two of Bloomberg's ETF analysts have claimed that they believe there is a 75% chance that a Bitcoin ETF will launch this year and a 95% chance that a BTC ETF will launch by the end of 2024. According to them, the unanimity and decisiveness of the court decision have left the SEC with no choice but to approve the ETF. One of the analysts, Eric Balchunas, said he would not be surprised if the SEC delays the decision again, but that ultimately delays will not be able to halt the process. Zoom Out: Yesterday, a U.S. court voted in favor of Grayscale on its lawsuit against the SEC. Grayscale had filed a lawsuit against the regulator after the latter had rejected its application for the creation of a Bitcoin ETF that would be backed solely by Bitcoin and not its derivatives.

4 Robinhood has announced that it has added wallet support for Bitcoin and Doge. The company previously supported only Ethereum transactions. More: Users can now hold, send, and receive cryptocurrencies on the Bitcoin and Doge networks. Robinhood stated that its wallet, launched six months ago, has hundreds of thousands of users across 140 countries. The company also began rolling out swap features for a limited number of users. The feature will allow them to trade ether for over 200 different assets. This feature will be available to all users in the coming weeks, according to a company statement. NOTE: Inside.com founder and CEO Jason Calacanis is an investor in Robinhood.

5 A U.S. court has dismissed a class action lawsuit against Uniswap that alleged the company had committed fraud. The judge who oversaw this case is also overseeing the SEC vs. Coinbase case. More: The suit contended that Uniswap should register with the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority and that it was involved in the sale of unregistered securities. In her ruling, Judge Katherine Polk Failla pointed out the decentralized nature of Uniswap, stating that the identities of alleged Scam Token issuers are largely unidentifiable. This left the plaintiffs in a paradoxical situation where they claimed injury but could not point to a specific defendant. The judge also noted that the current regulatory environment surrounding cryptocurrencies is still in flux, adding that it has not been definitively determined whether certain digital assets qualify as commodities or securities. She suggested that concerns around federal securities laws should be directed toward Congress rather than the judiciary.

6 CoinFund has raised $152M to invest in cryptocurrency and AI startups. The New York firm claims to have initially wanted to raise $125M. More: CoinFund has invested in over 100 companies, including names such as: Polygon, Upshot, Genies, etc. The funding round was led by high-net-worth individuals, family offices, and institutional investors. The company invests in the Pre-Seed, Seed, and Series A stages.

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Knowledge Hub Term of the Day Keyword research: Keyword research involves analyzing the words and phrases that people type into search engines to find information relevant to their search query. Read More Question of the Week Do you share details about your salary with your coworkers? Join the conversation

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Arbër Musliu Writer Arbër is an Inside writer who also has experience in entrepreneurship. He has experience covering Consumer Tech, Venture Capital, NFTs, Crypto, etc. Arbër holds a Bachelor's degree in Business from XAMK University in Finland. When he is not reading(and writing) business news, he chooses to watch sports or anime...and then read news about sports or anime. This newsletter was edited by Aaron Crutchfield

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