NY sues crypto firms, FTX’s Nishad faces 75 years in jail, and Grayscale’s new BTC filing: Hodler’s Digest, Oct. 15-21

Published

2 years ago

October 21, 2023

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Grayscale files for new spot Bitcoin ETF on NYSE Arca

Major cryptocurrency investment firm Grayscale Investments has filed a new application with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for a new spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF). The new filing aligns with Grayscale’s ongoing effort to convert its Grayscale Bitcoin Trust into a spot Bitcoin ETF, according to a statement from the firm. The news comes weeks after Grayscale won an SEC lawsuit for its spot Bitcoin ETF review, with a court of appeals ordering the SEC to explain why it rejected Grayscale’s application in June 2023. The company also filed with the SEC to list an Ether futures ETF in September.

New York Attorney General sues Gemini, Genesis, DGC for allegedly defrauding investors

New York’s attorney general has filed a lawsuit against cryptocurrency firms Gemini, Genesis and Digital Currency Group (DCG) for allegedly defrauding more than 23,000 investors through the Gemini Earn investment program. The suit claims that Gemini assured investors that the program was a low-risk investment, while investigations carried out by the office of New York State Attorney General Letitia James found that Genesis’ financials “were risky.” The lawsuit also charges Genesis’ former CEO, Soichiro Moro, and its parent company’s CEO, Barry Silbert, with defrauding investors by attempting to conceal more than $1.1 billion in losses. In addition, the court case looks to ban Gemini, Genesis and DCG from operating in the financial investment industry in New York.

Former FTX engineering director faces up to 75 years in prison following guilty plea

Nishad Singh, the former engineering director at now-defunct crypto exchange FTX, faces up to 75 years in prison for charges related to defrauding users of the crypto exchange. He pleaded guilty to fraud charges as part of his cooperation agreement with the U.S. prosecutors. During his testimony this week, Singh said that when liquidity issues at FTX began in November 2022, he felt “suicidal for some days” while dealing with alleged inconsistencies between the exchange’s public statements and its activities behind the scenes. Singh also claimed that Bankman-Fried had the habit of deciding on purchases through Alameda Research by himself.

Binance shutting down European Visa debit card in December

Binance Visa debit card services will close down in the European Economic Area in December, marking the latest setback for Binance. The termination of the card services was announced a day after the exchange restored euro deposits and withdrawals, which had been unavailable for a month after payments processor Paysafe dropped the exchange. Binance is still not onboarding new users in the United Kingdom due to the loss of a third-party service provider.

Elon Musk, Mark Cuban team up to contest SEC trial strategies

Elon Musk, Mark Cuban and others have collaboratively submitted a shared amicus brief to the Supreme Court of the United States to raise concerns about the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) approach to conducting internal proceedings without the inclusion of juries. The context of this legal challenge centers around the SEC vs. Jarkesy case. George Jarkesy argues that the SEC’s internal adjudication process, which lacks a jury and is overseen by an administrative law judge appointed by the commission, contradicts his Seventh Amendment rights. Effectively resulting in a single entity fulfilling the roles of judge, jury and enforcer.

Winners and Losers

At the end of the week, Bitcoin (BTC) is at $29,590, Ether (ETH) at $1,607 and XRP at $0.52. The total market cap is at $1.12 trillion, according to CoinMarketCap.

Among the biggest 100 cryptocurrencies, the top three altcoin gainers of the week are Bitcoin SV (BSV) at 59.00%, Stacks (STX) at 25.91% and MX TOKEN (MX) at 25.26%.

The top three altcoin losers of the week are Conflux (CFX) at -8.03%, Frax Share (FXS) and Sui (SUI) at -6.35%.

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

Most Memorable Quotations

“We are all part of a bigger game, and Bitcoin is one of the strongest levers in that.”

Edward Snowden, technologist and whistleblower

“Using publicly available information to learn is not stealing. Nor is it an invasion of privacy, conversion, negligence, unfair competition, or copyright infringement.”

Google

“I felt betrayed, something I’d put in blood, sweat and tears for five years turning out so horrible.”

Nishad Singh, former engineering director of FTX

“The games funded 2 years ago are going live over the next 12 months. We will see hits.”

Robbie Ferguson, co-founder and president of Immutable

“After extensive DAO forum discussion followed by community vote, the sunsetting of the Lido on Solana protocol was approved by Lido token holders and the process will begin shortly.”

Lido Finance

“Any innovation — especially this one with financial impact, cultural value and status — will attract questioning during its downs.”

Anjali Young, co-founder of Collab.Land

Prediction of the Week

BTC price hits 2-month high amid bet Bitcoin will break $32K ‘soon’

On Oct. 20, data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView captured new two-month Bitcoin highs of $30,233 on Bitstamp. BTC price showed continued strength during the Asia trading session on the same day, with a slight comedown taking the spot price back below $29,500.

With volatility still evident, market participants argued that a weekly candle close was needed in order to establish the rally’s true staying power. For Keith Alan, co-founder of monitoring resource Material Indicators, the 100-week moving average (MA) at $28,627 was of particular importance.

“This move is one to watch, but what I’m watching for right now is to see if this Weekly candle closes above the 100-Week MA and if next week’s candle can stay above it with no wicks below,” Alan wrote in part of an X post on the day. “Some might consider that a confirmation of a bull breakout, but this market is known for squeezes and fake outs so I’m looking for more confirmations. For me BTC will also need to take out prior resistance at $30.5k, $31.5k and ultimately $33k to call a bull breakout confirmed and validated.”

FUD of the Week

Fantom Foundation hot wallet hacked for $550K

The Fantom Foundation, the developer of the Fantom network, has been hacked for over $550,000 worth of cryptocurrency. The foundation confirmed the attack on X, claiming that most of the funds stolen belonged to other users and that 99% of the foundation’s funds remain safe. Blockchain security researchers initially reported that the attacker stole approximately $7 million in crypto. The Fantom Foundation later released an official statement saying that some of the wallets labeled “Fantom: Foundation wallet” were mislabeled by block explorers and that not all the stolen funds were from the foundation.

TrueCoin’s third-party vendor breach potentially leaks TUSD user data

TrueUSD (TUSD) announced a potential leak of certain Know Your Customer (KYC) and transaction history data after one of TrueCoin’s third-party vendors was compromised. The company was the operator of the TUSD stablecoin until July 13, 2023. The impact of the attack and the resultant data leak is yet to be identified, as the total number of users’ data was not revealed during the announcement. Data collected from such breaches — names, email addresses and phone numbers, among others — are typically used for phishing attacks. Attackers reach out to unwary investors by mimicking various crypto services, often promising high profits in short amounts of time.

Web3 game project allegedly hired actors to pose as executives in $1.6M exit scam

The development team for gaming project FinSoul carried out an alleged exit scam, siphoning away $1.6 million from investors through market manipulation, according to a recent report from blockchain security platform CertiK shared with Cointelegraph. The FinSoul team allegedly hired paid actors to pretend to be its executives, then raised funds for the sole purpose of developing a gaming platform. However, instead of actually creating the platform, the FinSoul team allegedly transferred $1.6 million in bridged Tether from investors to itself. Blockchain data indicates developers then laundered the funds through cryptocurrency mixer Tornado Cash.

Big Questions: What did Satoshi Nakamoto think about ZK-proofs?

What was once a passing interest of Bitcoin inventor Satoshi Nakamoto, zero-knowledge-proof technology is now a major part of the crypto world.

Ethereum restaking: Blockchain innovation or dangerous house of cards?

“Restaking” involves reusing staked Ether to earn fees and rewards. The restaked tokens can then help secure and validate other protocols. But many fear restaking could disrupt Ethereum’s chain itself.

Bitmain’s revenge, Hong Kong’s crypto rollercoaster: Asia Express

Bitmain allegedly fires staff for speaking out against salary cuts, Hong Kong investors lose faith in crypto after JPEX scandal, Bitget gets a new crypto credit card and more.

Editorial Staff

Cointelegraph Magazine writers and reporters contributed to this article.

Politics

Government delays Chinese super embassy decision again

Published

49 mins ago

October 16, 2025

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Government delays Chinese super embassy decision again

The government has again delayed making a decision on whether the Chinese super embassy can go ahead.

New Housing Secretary Steve Reed, who took over from Angela Rayner, was due to approve or deny Beijing’s application for a 600,000 sq ft embassy near the Tower of London next Tuesday.

However, the decision has been delayed to 10 December, “given the detailed nature” of the planning application, and the need to give parties sufficient opportunity to respond”, the prime minister’s spokesman confirmed.

He added that the new deadline is “not legally binding”.

Politics latest: Senior MP hits back at ‘patronising’ CPS lawyers

The spokesman denied the postponement was politically influenced and said it was “very much bound by the quasi-judicial” nature of planning law.

The delay comes the day after the government published witness statements it provided to prosecutors in the China spy trial that collapsed, prompting a blame game over whose fault it was that it dropped.

A decision had already been delayed from 9 September to 21 October after China submitted plans with large greyed-out sections, which said: “Redacted for security reasons.”

Explainer: Everything we know about China’s new ‘super embassy’

What are the concerns about the embassy?

It has become controversial due to concerns about it being turned into a Chinese spy hub for Europe and the fact highly sensitive financial cables run beneath it to the City of London and Canary Wharf.

The decision to delay again was made after the national security strategy committee wrote to Mr Reed on Monday saying that approving the embassy at its proposed site was “not in the UK’s long-term interest”.

Committee chairman Matt Western, a Labour MP, said in the letter the location presents “eavesdropping risks in peacetime and sabotage risks in a crisis”.

Tower Hamlets Council rejected China’s initial planning application in 2022 to turn Royal Mint Court, where British coins were minted until 1975, into the largest embassy in Europe over security concerns and opposition from residents.

Beijing did not appeal the decision after making it clear it wanted Conservative ministers to give assurances they would back a resubmitted application – but the then-Tory government refused.

Eleven days after Labour won the election last July, the application was resubmitted in nearly exactly the same form, and was soon “called in” by Ms Rayner for central government to decide.

Conservative shadow housing secretary Sir James Cleverly accused the government of having “actively sought to silence the warnings” about the threats to national security from the embassy.

“It is essential the planning review has access to the full unredacted drawings for the Chinese embassy, and that the UK security agencies are able to submit evidence in private, using established processes,” he said.

“If Keir Starmer had any backbone, he would ensure his government threw out this sinister application – as Ireland and Australia did when faced with similar embassy development proposals from Russia.”

What has China said about the concerns?

In August, the Chinese embassy in the UK said the planning and design was “of high quality” and the application had “followed the customary diplomatic practices, as well as necessary protocol and procedures”.

The embassy added that it is “an international obligation of the host country to provide support and facilitation for the construction of diplomatic premises”.

And it reminded the UK that London wants to knock down and rebuild the British embassy in Beijing, which is in a very poor condition.

In September, a Chinese embassy spokesperson told Sky News that claims the new embassy poses a potential security risk to the UK are “completely groundless and malicious slander, and we firmly oppose it”.

They added: “Anti-China forces are using security risks as an excuse to interfere with the British government’s consideration over this planning application. This is a despicable move that is unpopular and will not succeed.”

Politics

The three key questions about the China spy case that need to be answered

Published

7 hours ago

October 16, 2025

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The three key questions about the China spy case that need to be answered

The government has published witness statements submitted by a senior official connected to the collapse of a trial involving two men accused of spying for China.

Here are three big questions that flow from them:

1. Why weren’t these statements enough for the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) to carry on with the trial?

For this prosecution to go ahead, the CPS needed evidence that China was a “threat to national security”.

The deputy national security adviser Matthew Collins doesn’t explicitly use this form of words in his evidence. But he comes pretty close.

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In the February 2025 witness statement, he calls China “the biggest state-based threat to the UK’s economic security”.

Six months later, he says China’s espionage operations “harm the interests and security of the UK”.

Yes, he does quote the language of the Tory government at the time of the alleged offences, naming China as an “epoch-defining and systemic challenge”.

But he also provides examples of malicious cyber activity and the targeting of individuals in government during the two-year period that the alleged Chinese spies are said to have been operating.

In short, you can see why some MPs and ex-security chiefs are wondering why this wasn’t enough.

Former MI6 head Sir Richard Dearlove told Sky News this morning that “it seems to be there was enough” and added that the CPS could have called other witnesses – such as sitting intelligence directors – to back up the claim that China was a threat.

Expect the current director of public prosecutions (DPP) Stephen Parkinson to be called before MPs to answer all these questions.

2. Why didn’t the government give the CPS the extra evidence it needed?

The DPP, Stephen Parkinson, spoke to senior MPs yesterday and apparently told them he had 95% of the evidence he needed to bring the case.

The government has said it’s for the DPP to explain what that extra 5% was.

He’s already said the missing link was that he needed evidence to show China was a “threat to national security”, and the government did not give him that.

The newly published witness statements show they came close.

But if what was needed was that explicit form of words, why was the government reticent to jump through that hoop?

The defence from ministers is that the previous Conservative administration defined China as a “challenge”, rather than a “threat” (despite the numerous examples from the time of China being a threat).

The attack from the Tories is that Labour is seeking closer economic ties with China and so didn’t want to brand them an explicit threat.

3. Why do these statements contain current Labour policy?

Sir Keir Starmer says the key reason for the collapse of this trial is the position held by the previous Tory government on China.

But the witness statements from Matthew Collins do contain explicit references to current Labour policy. The most eye-catching is the final paragraph of the third witness statement provided by the Deputy National Security Adviser, where he quotes directly from Labour’s 2024 manifesto.

He writes: “It is important for me to emphasise… the government’s position is that we will co-operate where we can; compete where we need to; and challenge where we must, including on issues of national security.”

Did these warmer words towards China influence the DPP’s decision to drop the case?

Why did Matthew Collins feel it so important to include this statement?

Was he simply covering his back by inserting the current government’s approach, or was he instructed to put this section in?

A complicated relationship

Everyone agrees that the UK-China relationship is a complicated one.

There is ample evidence to suggest that China poses a threat to the UK’s national security. But that doesn’t mean the government here shouldn’t try and work with the country economically and on issues like climate change.

It appears the multi-faceted nature of these links struggled to fit the legal specificity required to bring a successful prosecution.

But there are still plenty of questions about why the government and the CPS weren’t able or willing to do more to square these circles.

Politics

Trump’s second term fuels a $1B crypto fortune for his family: Report

Published

8 hours ago

October 16, 2025

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Trump’s second term fuels a B crypto fortune for his family: Report

The Trump family’s crypto ventures have generated over $1 billion in profit, led by World Liberty Financial and memecoins including TRUMP and MELANIA.