SEC delays BTC ETF decision, Grayscale triumphs over SEC and BitBoy gets the boot: Hodler’s Digest, Aug. 27 – Sept. 2

Published

1 year ago

September 3, 2023

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Grayscale wins SEC lawsuit for Bitcoin ETF review

Crypto asset manager Grayscale Investments recently scored a big win in its battle against the United States Securities and Exchange Commission.

In an ongoing effort to convert its Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) into a Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF), the U.S. appeals court judge accepted Grayscale’s argument that the SEC’s rejection of its recent ETF application was unfair. The SEC had alleged that the GBTC didn’t have enough safe practices and fraud protection in place.

Judge Neomi Rao gave the green light to Grayscale’s request for a second review.Previously, Rao said that the SEC did not “offer any explanation” as to why Grayscale was in the wrong.

However, the victory doesn’t automatically mean Grayscale’s Bitcoin ETF is a done deal. There’s still more to come…

BitBoy Crypto brand will no longer include YouTuber Ben Armstrong

The parent company of Hit Network, the folks behind the “BitBoy Crypto” brand, just gave the boot to its public face, Ben Armstrong.

The company alleged issues of substance abuse and financial damage as reasons behind the decision.

In a YouTube and social media announcement, Hit Network revealed that despite its efforts to support Armstrong during his struggle with addiction, it had decided to part ways with the influencer.

This follows Armstrong facing a series of lawsuits in recent times. He was in a class-action lawsuit where investors accused him and other influencers of promoting FTX without disclosing how much they were getting paid by the exchange.

Furthermore, during the lawsuit, there were claims that Armstrong threatened the plaintiff’s lawyers and even blew off a federal judge’s orders to show up in court. The case was put on hold in June.

SEC delays decision on 6 spot Bitcoin ETF applications

The SEC has chosen to postpone delivering a decision on six applications for spot Bitcoin ETFs in the United States. The commission has opted to extend its review period by an additional 45 days, pushing the eventual decision back until October. Shortly after the news broke, the SEC also put BlackRock, the biggest asset manager in the world, in the same delayed decision boat.

Bitwise withdraws Bitcoin and Ether Market Cap ETF application

In a surprising twist following the U.S. SEC’s announcement of delays, Bitwise has submitted a request to retract its application for its Bitcoin and Ether Market Cap Weight Strategy ETF. This application was originally submitted to the SEC on Aug. 3. It seems that Bitwise is taking a step back to reconsider its approach, despite the brief positive market sentiment that followed Grayscale’s recent SEC win.

Robinhood bought back Sam Bankman-Fried’s stake from US gov’t for $606M

Crypto and stock trading platform Robinhood scooped up more than 55 million shares of their own company that were previously owned by Sam Bankman-Fried, the former CEO of FTX. The purchase, which cost Robinhood roughly $606 million, was finalized this week after it filed the paperwork with the U.S. SEC. These shares originally held by Bankman-Fried and Gary Wang, a co-founder of FTX, through a company called Emergent Fidelity Technologies.

However, back in January, the U.S. Department of Justice seized these shares. The purchase has been in the works for a while. Robinhood’s board of directors gave it the green light in its Q4 2022 report, and an SEC filing from August confirmed that the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York approved the purchase without any legal complications.

Winners and Losers

At the end of the week, Bitcoin (BTC) is at $25,610, Ether (ETH) at $1,618 and XRP (XRP) at $0.49. The total market cap is $1.03 trillion, according to CoinMarketCap.

Among the biggest 100 cryptocurrencies, the top three altcoin gainers of the week are Toncoin (TON) at 33.90%, Iota (MIOTA) at 13.13% and Maker (MKR) at 12.33%.

The top three altcoin losers of the week are KuCoin Token (KCS) at 15.53%, Hedera (HBAR) at 15.02% and Astar (ASTR) at 12.82%.

For more info on crypto prices, make sure to read Cointelegraph’s market analysis.

Most Memorable Quotes

“There are many cases where transparency is a feature, but people do not want most transactions in the economy to be public.”

Brian Armstrong, CEO of Coinbase

“Now that the courts are starting to rein in the SEC a bit, I think there’s some hope that the industry is kind of igniting again in the U.S.”

Jeremy McLaughlin, partner at K&L Gates

“In the end, we will win. You can’t steal someone’s company they built on their identity and win.”

Ben Armstrong, former frontman of BitBoy Crypto

“I definitely do think we could see in this next cycle $100,000 cost per Bitcoin, and that’s based on if BTC were to capture even 2 to 5% of gold’s $13 trillion place in institutional portfolios.”

Sue Ennis, vice president of Hut 8

“We see limited downside for crypto markets over the near term.”

JPMorgan analysts

“I spoke to a guy the other day that has 80 altcoins in his portfolio. There’s no way an individual investor can stay across and know exactly what 80 different coins are doing at any one time.”

Ben Simpson, founder of Collective Shift

Prediction of the Week

Bitcoin risks ‘swift’ $23K dive after BTC price loses 11% in August

Data indicates that Bitcoin is on track for a retest of long-term support levels following a drop in BTC price as August came to a close. Reversing the gains witnessed the previous week, BTC/USD is now trading below $26,000 as of Sept. 1, according to data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView.

Initially, market participants had reasons to be optimistic as Bitcoin held a key long-term trendline and maintained the $27,000 level. However, a decision by the U.S. SEC to delay several Bitcoin ETF applications caused a change in sentiment.Bitcoin swiftly shed $1,000 in value over just two hourly candles.

FUD of the Week

Balancer exploited in nearly $900k after vulnerability warning.

The Ethereum automated market maker and decentralized finance protocol, Balancer, confirmed that it had fallen victim to an exploit, resulting in losses of nearly $900,000. This incident occurred shortly after it had disclosed a vulnerability that impacted several pools.

An Ethereum address allegedly belonging to the attacker has been revealed by blockchain security expert Meier Dolev. Following the exploit, the address received two transfers of Dai stablecoin worth $636,812 and $257,527, respectively, bringing its total balance to over $893,978.

“Balancer is aware of an exploit related to the vulnerability below,” the protocol’s team posted on X, adding that, while mitigation measures taken in recent days had drastically reduced risks, affected pools could not be paused. “To prevent further exploits, users must withdraw from affected LPs,” the team advised.

Brazilian crypto streamer loses money by accidentally exposing private key

A Brazilian cryptocurrency streamer is one of the latest victims of unsafe self-custody practices, reportedly losing thousands of dollars due to a private key accident. The owner of the Fraternidade Crypto channel, Ivan Bianco, unwittingly exposed his private key to a self-custodial cryptocurrency wallet during a livestream on YouTube.

In the middle of the livestream related to Bitcoin and blockchain games, Bianco apparently tried to access his passwords for the blockchain games platform Gala Games through a text file on his computer.

Unfortunately for the streamer, his Gala Games passwords were stored in the same text file as the seed phrase for his MetaMask wallet, which had a significant amount of Polygon (MATIC).

Exploits, hacks and scams stole almost $1B in 2023: Report

Cybersecurity firm CertiK reported that over $997 million was lost to flash loan attacks, exit scams and exploits in 2023. Malicious actors targeting the crypto space have taken more than $45 million in digital assets from their victims in the month of August alone and a total of $997 million year-to-date.

In the report, CertiK highlighted that exit scams took around $26 million, flash loan attacks took $6.4 million, and exploits took $13.5 million from their victims in August 2023. The cybersecurity firm confirmed that the total losses amounted to over $45 million.

Best Cointelegraph Features

How to protect your crypto in a volatile market: Bitcoin OGs and experts weigh in.

Crypto is a volatile place. Money can be as easily lost as made through the ups and downs of Bitcoin and the wider market. Bitcoin OGs, veterans and experts provide their opinions, tools and views on how to protect your crypto.

6 Questions for Leila Ismailova: Digital fashion and life after Artisant

Leila Ismailova began her professional career at the age of 15 as a broadcasting star in Belarus, the Russian-neighboring Eastern European country that plays home to 9.3 million citizens. She continued in the role for 10 years, she says, before reaching what she felt was a “professional ceiling” and beginning a journey that led to Web3.

Crypto Banter’s Ran Neuner says Ripple is ‘despicable,’ tips hat to ZachXBT: Hall of Flame

Ran Neuner is the CEO of Onchain Capital, founder of Crypto Banter, and a vocal crypto commentator on X. According to Crypto Banter’s Ran Neuner, following people you dislike on Twitter/X can actually make you smarter.

Editorial Staff

Cointelegraph Magazine writers and reporters contributed to this article.

Politics

Killer of MP Sir David Amess was ‘exited’ from Prevent ‘too quickly’, review finds

Published

2 hours ago

February 12, 2025

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Killer of MP Sir David Amess was 'exited' from Prevent 'too quickly', review finds

The man who killed MP Sir David Amess was released from the Prevent anti-terror programme “too quickly”, a review has found.

Sir David was stabbed to death by Islamic State (ISIS) supporter Ali Harbi Ali during a constituency surgery at a church hall in Leigh-on-Sea in October 2021.

The killer, who was given a whole-life sentence, had become radicalised by ISIS propaganda and had been referred to the anti-terror programme Prevent before the attack, but his case had been closed five years before.

Despite Prevent policy and guidance at the time being “mostly followed”, his case was “exited too quickly”, security minister Dan Jarvis told the House of Commons on Wednesday.

Following the publication of a review into Prevent’s handling of Southport child killer Axel Rudakubana earlier this month, Mr Jarvis said a Prevent learning review into Sir David’s killing would be released this week in a commitment to transparency over the anti-terror programme.

Matt Juke, head of counter-terrorism policing, said it is clear the management and handling of Ali’s case by Prevent “should have been better” and it is “critical” the review is acted on “so that other families are spared the pain felt by the loved ones of Sir David”.

The review found:

• Ali was referred to Prevent in 2014 by his school after teachers said his demeanour, appearance and behaviour changed from a previously “engaging student with a bright future” with aspirations to be a doctor to failing his A-levels and wanting to move to a “more Islamic state because he could no longer live among unbelievers”

• Prevent quickly took his case on and he was referred to Channel, part of the programme that aims to prevent involvement in extremism

• He was “exited from Prevent too quickly”, Mr Jarvis said, just five months later “after his terrorism risk was assessed as low”

• A review by police 12 months after he was released from Prevent “also found no terrorism concerns” and the case was closed. This was not uploaded for eight more months due to an “IT issue”

• People released from Prevent are meant to have a review at six and 12 months

• The assessment of Ali’s vulnerabilities “was problematic and outdated” as it did not follow the proper procedure, which led to “questionable decision-making and sub-optimal handling of the case”

• Ali’s symptoms were prioritised over addressing the underlying causes of his vulnerabilities – and support provided did not tackle those issues

• Record keeping of decisions, actions and rationale was “problematic, disjointed and lacked clarity”

• The rationale for certain decisions was “not explicit”

• Ali’s school was not involved in discussions to help determine risk and appropriate support – they were only called once to be told the “matter was being dealt with”

• A miscommunication led to only one intervention session being provided, instead of two.

The review found most of the failures in Ali’s case would not be repeated today as the guidance and requirements are much clearer.

It said referrers, in Ali’s case his school, are kept informed and engaged, different departments and agencies – not just police – have clear roles, which records need to be kept is clear and guidance for detecting underlying vulnerabilities has changed and would have made a difference.

The review said a Prevent “intervention provider” met Ali at a McDonald’s to deal with his understanding of “haram” (forbidden under Islamic law). No risk assessment was made but they suggested one more meeting, however a breakdown in communication between police and the provider meant there were no more meetings.

Training for providers is “substantially different” now and the review says this would not be repeated today, with the provider in question saying the process is “a completely different one today”.

However, the review said there are still problems – not just in Ali’s case – with the Vulnerability Assessment Form, an “incredibly complex document that is vital to Channel” and the progression of a case.

It also found a decision by the College of Police to only hold Prevent case data for five years “may prove to be problematic” and if Ali’s case material had been deleted under that ruling “it would have been nigh on impossible to conduct this review.

Sir David’s daughter, Katie Amess, 39, last week welcomed the announcement to publish a review into Ali’s case but said every victim failed by Prevent deserves an inquiry, not just the Southport victims.

“We potentially wouldn’t be in the same situation today with repeat failings of Prevent had somebody had just listened to me back when it [her father’s killing] happened and launched a full public inquiry,” she told LBC.

Ms Amess said she believes if the Southport attack had not happened, the review into Prevent’s handling of her father’s killer would never have been released into the public domain.

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Politics

Crypto platform Bitpanda expands services in UK with FCA approval

Published

7 hours ago

February 12, 2025

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Crypto platform Bitpanda expands services in UK with FCA approval

Bitpanda’s crypto offering in the United Kingdom won’t differ from that in the European Union, deputy CEO Lukas Enzersdorfer-Konrad said.

Politics

Trump plans to pick a16z head of policy Brian Quintenz as CFTC chair: Report

Published

10 hours ago

February 12, 2025

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Trump plans to pick a16z head of policy Brian Quintenz as CFTC chair: Report

President Donald Trump is reportedly planning to pick Brian Quintenz — the head of policy at a16z’s crypto arm — as the next chair of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.