Top Stories of The Week
Coinbase files legal motion over Gensler, SEC missing text messages
Coinbase is escalating its dispute with US regulators over past communications involving former Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chair Gary Gensler.
Coinbase filed a legal motion on Thursday requesting a hearing to address the SEC Office of the Inspector General’s investigation, which found that the agency deleted nearly one year’s worth of text messages from Gensler and other senior officials in “avoidable” errors.
The exchange said the SEC should explain why it did not conduct a full search of agency records, including text messages from Gensler and senior SEC officials, when it requested the messages in several Freedom of Information Act filings from 2023 and 2024.
According to the motion, Coinbase wants the court to compel the SEC to search and produce all responsive communications originally requested, including all messages and documents from Gensler and the agency regarding Ethereum’s shift to proof-of-stake consensus.
Bitcoin in consolidation as treasuries eye altcoins: Novogratz
Bitcoin has likely been trading sideways as corporations have focused on stacking altcoins lately, though there could be an upswing coming later in the year, says Mike Novogratz, CEO of asset manager Galaxy Digital.
“Bitcoin’s at a consolidation right now. Partly because you’re seeing a lot of these treasury companies in other coins take their shot,” said Novogratz during an episode of CNBC’s Squawk Box on Thursday.
Blockchain tech firm BitMine Immersion Technologies has been leading the pack among altcoin treasury firms, recently buying $200 million Ether and growing its stockpile to over $9 billion in ETH.
US court to hear arguments for Sam Bankman-Fried’s appeal on Nov. 4
Former FTX CEO Sam “SBF” Bankman-Fried, serving a 25-year sentence after his conviction on seven felony counts, will take the next step in his appeals process with a hearing scheduled for November.
According to a Wednesday notice in the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, Bankman-Fried’s appeals case has been calendared for arguments on Nov. 4. The court proceeding will mark the first significant movement in the former CEO’s criminal case since his transfer from a New York City facility in March to one in California.
The hearing in the Second Circuit had been expected since Bankman-Fried’s lawyers filed a notice of appeal in April 2024 over his 2023 conviction and 25-year sentence.
Bankman-Fried’s legal team argued in his appeal filed in September 2024 that the former CEO was “never presumed innocent,” also claiming that prosecutors presented a “false narrative” of FTX user funds as permanently lost.
Goldman Sachs CEO doubts 50 basis point cut is ‘on the cards’
Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon has shot down the notion that the US Federal Reserve will cut interest rates by 50 basis points in September, just days after Standard Chartered Bank made the aggressive forecast.
“Whether or not we have a 50 basis cut, I don’t think that’s probably on the cards,” Solomon said during an interview with CNBC on Wednesday.
While CME FedWatch Tool data shows just 7.8% of market participants expect such a move at the Sept. 17 Fed meeting, Standard Chartered Bank recently raised its forecast to that level, citing August’s weaker-than-expected jobs report, according to a Reuters report on Monday.
Pseudonymous crypto trader Mister Crypto said in an X post on Wednesday, “If that happens, crypto will explode through previous ATHs.”
Prospective CFTC chair releases private texts with Winklevoss twins, hours before IPO
Brian Quintenz, US President Donald Trump’s pick to chair the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), has made public several texts between himself and Gemini co-founders Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, suggesting reasons why the brothers may have attempted to interfere with his nomination to the agency.
In a Wednesday X post, Quintenz said he had released the texts over concerns that Trump “might have been misled” by the Gemini co-founders. The chain appeared to show Tyler Winklevoss sending Quintenz information on Gemini’s civil case with the CFTC, settled with a $5 million fine in January.
“The CFTC totally abused the deliberative process privilege amongst many other abuses to prevent us from even be [sic] able to defend ourselves fairly in court,” Winklevoss texted to Quintenz on July 25.
Winners and Losers
At the end of the week, Bitcoin (BTC) is at $115,855, Ether (ETH) at $4,724 and XRP at $3.11. The total market cap is at $4.07 trillion, according to CoinMarketCap.
Among the biggest 100 cryptocurrencies, the top three altcoin gainers of the week are MYX Finance (M) at 1,007.91%, Worldcoin (WLD) at 81.02% and Mantle (MNT) at 50.25%.
The top three altcoin losers of the week are Four (FOUR) at 28.29%, Cronos (CRO) at 7.74% and XDC Network (XDC) at 3.12%.
For more info on crypto prices, make sure to read Cointelegraph’s market analysis.
Most Memorable Quotations
“Bitcoin’s at a consolidation right now. Partly because you’re seeing a lot of these treasury companies in other coins take their shot.”
Mike Novogratz, founder and CEO of Galaxy Digital
“If we notice, at some date in the future, that you’ve held n LINEA tokens for m days, that just might lead to another token landing in your account.”
Joseph Lubin, founder and CEO of Consensys
“All the cool kids are talking about the ‘fat app’ thesis. Feels like that could be a dominant theme in the coming months.”
Matt Hougan, chief investment officer at Bitwise
“Policy will no longer be set by ad hoc enforcement actions.”
Paul Atkins, chair of the US Securities and Exchange Commission
“The rolling 30-day performance of Bitcoin is negative and that suggests we’ve already gone through a correction, which will have shaken out a lot of weak hands since we hit the $124,000 top.”
Pav Hundal, lead market analyst at Swyftx
“Whether or not we have a 50 basis cut, I don’t think that’s probably on the cards.”
David Solomon, CEO of Goldman Sachs
Top Prediction of The Week
XRP flirts with $3 amid ETF approval hope: Is $3.60 the next stop?
XRP price faced rejection on Tuesday after reaching its highest level in nearly two weeks at $3.04. The move was driven by speculation around a potential XRP exchange-traded fund approval in the United States and increased institutional participation in XRP derivatives, raising expectations about whether XRP might revisit the $3.60 level seen in July.
Demand for XRP futures climbed 5% from the previous month, totaling 2.69 billion XRP — equivalent to $7.91 billion at prevailing prices. More notably, the number of outstanding XRP futures contracts listed at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange jumped 74% during the same 30-day span, reaching 386 million XRP. The increase highlights stronger participation from professional fund managers and market makers.
While higher futures activity generally indicates interest, long and short positions are always balanced. Still, monthly futures contracts can provide signals of leverage imbalances. Under neutral market conditions, XRP futures typically trade 5% to 10% above spot markets to account for the longer settlement period.
Top FUD of The Week
Auditor flagged issue before $2.59M Nemo hack, team admits
Sui-based yield trading protocol Nemo lost about $2.59 million due to a known vulnerability introduced by non-audited code being deployed, according to the project.
According to Nemo’s post-mortem analysis of the Sept. 7 hack, a flaw in a function intended to reduce slippage allowed the attacker to change the state of the protocol. This function, named “get_sy_amount_in_for_exact_py_out,” was pushed onchain without being audited by smart contract auditor Asymptotic.
Furthermore, Asymptotic’s team identified the issue in a preliminary report. Still, the Nemo team admits that its “team did not adequately address this security concern in a timely manner.”
Deploying new code only required a signature from a single address, allowing the developer to push unaudited code onchain without disclosing the changes. Furthermore, he did not use the confirmation hash provided in the audit for the deployment, breaking the procedure.
Blockstream sounds the alarm on new email phishing campaign
Blockstream, an infrastructure and hardware wallet provider, issued a warning about a new email phishing campaign attempting to target Blockstream Jade hardware wallet users.
The company confirmed on Friday that it never sends firmware files through email and said that no data has been compromised in the attack.
Phishing attacks are designed to steal crypto and sensitive user information through seemingly legitimate communication. According to Blockstream, the email featured a simple message directing users to download the latest version of Blockstream Jade wallet firmware by clicking on a link, which was malicious.
Phishing scams cost crypto users over $12 million in August and affected over 15,000 victims — a 67% increase from July, according to anti-scam service Scam Sniffer.
Kalshi ‘ready to defend’ prediction markets amid Massachusetts lawsuit
Prediction market platform Kalshi has vowed to fight a new lawsuit from the US state of Massachusetts, which accuses the company of offering unlicensed sports betting to residents.
“We are proud to be the company that has pioneered this technology and stand ready to defend it once again in a court of law,” a spokesperson for Kalshi told Cointelegraph on Friday.
“Prediction markets are a critical innovation of the 21st century, and all Americans should be able to access them,” the spokesperson added.
The civil lawsuit, filed on Friday by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in Suffolk County Superior Court, alleged that Kalshi disguises sports wagering as “event contracts” and violates the state’s strict gambling laws.
Top Magazine Stories of The Week
Meet the Ethereum and Polkadot co-founder who wasn’t in Time Magazine
The creator of Ethereum’s Solidity language doesn’t like crypto conferences but does want to make the world a better place with Polkadot and Parity.
Thailand’s ‘Big Secret’ crypto hack, Chinese developer’s RWA tokens: Asia Express
Thailand’s SEC probes crypto hack rumors reported by “The BIG Secret” Facebook channel, Chinese private property developer turns to RWAs, and more.
What people still get wrong about VeeFriends: Andy Krainak, NFT Creator
VeeFriends President Andy Krainak says Gary Vaynerchuck built the NFT ecosystem to last.
Editorial Staff
‘Make or break’ for Bitcoin, Binance under pressure, Strike attacks Coinbase: Hodler’s Digest, June 27–July 3
The best (and worst) quotes, adoption and regulation highlights, leading coins, predictions and much more — one week on Cointelegraph in one link!
Read more
SEC calls ETF filings inadequate, Binance loses euro partner and other news: Hodler’s Digest, June 25 – July 1
SEC calls BTC ETF filings inadequate, Binance loses euro partner, and a record number of DeFi hacks and scams in 2023.
Read moreXRP to retest highs? Bitcoin won’t go sideways for long: Hodler’s Digest, Sept. 7 – 13