| Here is a quick look at the hits from the week's latest Inside Cryptocurrency newsletter: - U.S. Judge ruling in favor of the Securities and Exchange Commission in a lawsuit against Terraform Labs,
- Indian regulators' compliance notice blocking nine foreign crypto exchanges in the country,
- Canadian crypto exchange Catalyx's decision to halt all trading activities following a recent security breach, and more.
Enjoy your reading! Doğa
p/dogayurduneri | |
| 1 | | U.S. Judge Jed S. Rakoff has granted summary judgment to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in its case against Terraform Labs, the firm behind the collapsed Terra ecosystem, nearly two months after the regulator requested it. The move will see both Terraform Labs and the SEC joining a trial involving the U.S.-based trading firm Jump Trading next month since Judge Rakoff ruled that the case must be tried by a jury. More: - During the latest hearing, the U.S. judge ruled in favor of the SEC and said Terraform Labs sold unregistered securities, labeling the firm's native tokens as securities.
- Rakoff also approved the SEC's request to exclude testimony from two defense experts from the case.
- The SEC filed a lawsuit against Terraform Labs in February this year, accusing the company of defrauding customers and selling billions of dollars of unregistered securities in the form of digital assets.
- The lawsuit also claimed that the firm misled investors about the stability of its stablecoin pegged to the U.S. dollar (USD) and TerraUSD (UST) and promised a value increase in its tokens.
- The upcoming trial, scheduled for Jan. 29, is expected to reveal details about Jump Trading's role as a key trader of Terraform Labs' TerraUSD and Luna tokens, too.
- In its lawsuit, the SEC claimed that Terraform Labs secretly entered into an arrangement with Jump Trading to support TerraUSD a year before it collapsed.
- A former Jump Trading employee, who became a whistleblower for the SEC, also previously disclosed that a co-founder of the company was willing to risk about $200M to help restore TerraUSD's peg to USD.
Zoom Out: - The multibillion-dollar Terra ecosystem collapsed last year after the prices of its native tokens, Luna and TerraUSD, plummeted nearly to zero in May and lost all their value against USD, triggering a prolonged crypto winter.
- The downfall caused over $60B to be wiped off the crypto market.
- In another lawsuit filed by the SEC against blockchain-based payment protocol Ripple, U.S. Judge Analisa Torres ruled that the firm's native token, XRP, is not a security when sold to the general public as opposed to Judge Rakoff.
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What the numbers say: The Google Trends data has shown that the search interest in the Solana network recently surpassed the interest in Ethereum for the first time in 2023. The search volume for the term "solana" experienced a shift on Dec. 21, though Ethereum had been a front-runner in the race throughout the year. Besides, Solana reached an all-time high in Google search interest on Dec. 24, hitting its peak of 100. Google Trends underlined that the score of 100 refers to the peak popularity for the term. In addition, the data revealed that users searching "solana" have also shown interest in the Solana-based meme coin Bonk and the Solana-based NFT marketplace Tensor. Relevance: The increase in search interest for Solana and its ecosystem was mainly triggered by the overall success of the Solana blockchain in 2023. The network has become one of the most successful blockchains this year, achieving an exit from the downward trend created by last year's prolonged crypto winter. As a result of this success, the network's native token, SOL, outperformed many cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin and Ether, in 2023. The token gained more than 1,040% in value since the beginning of the year. The popular cryptocurrency has recently overtaken Ripple's (XRP) spot among the top cryptocurrencies, becoming the fifth-largest digital asset by market cap. SOL's outperformance also positively impacted the prices of other altcoins like Cardano (ADA) and Avalanche (AVAX), causing investor confidence in the altcoin market. Brands that should care: On the other hand, the Solana network hit the headlines with partnerships with major brands, such as Google Cloud, Shopify, and Visa, several times this year due to its rising popularity and improvement with essential upgrades. | | | |
| 3 | | Canadian crypto exchange Catalyx has temporarily suspended all deposits, withdrawals, and trading activity on the platform shortly after discovering a security breach. The platform said the breach resulted in the loss of a portion of the crypto assets held by Catalyx on behalf of the customers without disclosing the exact amount of losses. More: - Catalyx also pointed out that its management suspects the security breach involves an employee.
- The exchange added that it launched an investigation into the incident, partnering with consulting firm Deloitte to receive forensic and investigative services.
- The platform's official website currently displays a warning banner stating that it is suffering from technical difficulties and will alert users when regular functions are restored.
- On the other hand, the suspension of crypto activities came around a week after the Alberta Securities Commission ordered the platform to cease all trading activities, launching an investigation into the exchange over the security breach.
- At the time, the CEO Jae Ho Lee agreed to freeze trading activities for 15 days under the commission's order, which expires on Jan. 5.
Zoom Out: - Catalyx was founded by Jae Ho Lee in 2018 and is registered with Canada's national financial intelligence agency, the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada (FINTRAC).
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| 4 | | India's Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) has recently issued a compliance notice against nine foreign crypto exchanges. The unit, which runs under the Indian Finance Ministry, has stated that those exchanges are operating illegally in the country without complying with the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). More: - The nine exchanges in the notice include Binance, KuCoin, Huobi, Kraken, Gate.io, Bittrex, Bitstamp, MEXC Global, and Bitfinex.
- The unit also requested the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology to block the nine exchanges' URLs, preventing access to their websites in India.
- However, the notice did not provide a specific timeframe for the block and the consequences of incompliance with the notice.
- India became the second-largest market by crypto transaction volume in 2022, behind the U.S.
- Due to the growing adoption of crypto, India's Finance Ministry mandated digital asset firms to register with the FIU and comply with the provisions of the PMLA to protect investors as of March this year.
- At the time, the FIU clarified that the obligation was based on the activity, not physical presence in India.
- The latest notice pointed out that several offshore exchanges catering to a substantial part of Indian users were still not registered and complying with the country's anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing requirements.
Zoom Out: - There are currently 31 domestic crypto service providers registered with the FIU in India.
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| 5 | | The Avalanche Foundation, a nonprofit organization overseeing the development of the Avalanche blockchain network, has announced that it would purchase select Avalanche-based meme coins to create a collection as part of its Culture Catalyst program. The announcement pointed out that the move aims to broaden the foundation's portfolio and help it embrace more possibilities. More: - The selection process for the collection will be based on a bunch of criteria, including the number of holders, liquidity thresholds, the maturity of the project, principles of a fair launch, and overall social sentiment.
- The foundation also said the collection would represent the collective spirit and shared interests of diverse crypto communities.
- Following the announcement, several Avalanche-based meme coins, such as Husky Avax (HUSKY) and Coq Inu (COQ), increased by double digits in price.
Zoom Out: - Meme coins are cryptocurrencies originating from an internet meme, which refers to jokes and images shared on social media, and mostly have some humorous characteristics.
- The first meme coin was Dogecoin (DOGE), and it was created as a joke to mock the massive proliferation of altcoins and wild speculation in cryptocurrencies at the time. However, it later became enormously famous in its own right.
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| 6 | | A recent report published by South Korea's Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission has revealed that the members of the National Assembly, the country's parliament, traded $97.6M of crypto during the past three years. The report followed a three-month investigation into all 298 lawmakers' digital asset transaction records between May 2020 and May 2023. More: - The probe found that 18 of 298 South Korean lawmakers possessed digital assets at some point in the last three years.
- However, only 11 lawmakers traded these cryptocurrencies during the specified period.
- The report pointed out that the most popular cryptocurrency among lawmakers was Bitcoin (BTC), though 107 other crypto assets were also mentioned in the parliament members' portfolios.
- South Korea increased its crackdown on public officials' crypto holdings after May when Democratic Party member Kim Nam-kuk turned out to be holding at least $4.5M of Wemix tokens (WEMIX).
- At the time, Kim Nam-kuk came under fire over public concerns about potential conflicts of interest, insider information, and money laundering.
Zoom Out: - South Korea's Ministry of Personnel Management also recently announced that it will require high-ranking government officials to publicly disclose their crypto holdings as of 2024 to increase transparency.
- The move will see South Korean citizens having access to at least 5,800 officials' declarations on their crypto holdings in 2024.
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- Crypto exchange Binance's co-founder and former CEO, Changpeng Zhao (CZ), has asked the court to seal certain documents related to his travel requests in the case against him, citing concerns about his family privacy.
- The Ethereum blockchain network's co-founder Vitalik Buterin has stated that the original visions of Web3 have somewhat faded, and many projects have shifted away from the core idea of decentralization.
- Japanese online brokerage, asset management, and crypto exchange firm Monex Group has announced its plans to acquire a majority stake in Canadian crypto asset firm 3iQ Digital Holdings.
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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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