Take Bitcoin profits at $110K, CME tops Binance in BTC futures open interest: Hodler’s Digest, Nov. 5-11
Top Stories This Week
CME overtakes Binance to grab largest share of Bitcoin futures open interest
Bitcoin’s futures market is showing an interesting shift as global derivatives marketplace the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) has surpassed Binance in terms of Bitcoin futures open interest. This change occurred after Bitcoin exceeded the $37,000 mark for the first time in over 18 months.
However, James Seyffart, a research analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence specializing in exchange-traded funds, questioned whether the increasing open interest in Bitcoin futures on CME would address historical concerns of the United States Securities and Exchange Commission regarding the depth of Bitcoin markets and the potential for market manipulation.
“Okay this is interesting… Does this constitute a ‘market of significant size’ now?” Seyffart stated in a post on X (formerly Twitter).
Cryptoqueen’s OneCoin legal chief pleads guilty to fraud
The former head of legal and compliance at OneCoin is looking at a potential 10-year prison term for her involvement in the $4 billion cryptocurrency trading scheme. In Manhattan federal court, the ex-compliance chief of OneCoin, Irinia Dilkinska, pleaded guilty to charges of wire fraud and money laundering.
According to a statement from the U.S. Department of Justice, U.S. District Judge Edgardo Ramos accepted Dilkinska’s guilty plea. She admitted to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering. Each charge carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison.
Dilkinska is scheduled for sentencing on February 14, 2024, facing a potential maximum sentence of 10 years in prison for her role in the OneCoin scheme.
Genesis seeks court’s approval to reduce Three Arrows Capital claim from $1B to $33M
Bankrupt cryptocurrency lender Genesis has asked the court to approve its proposed settlement agreement with the collapsed crypto hedge fund Three Arrows Capital (3AC).
In a recent court document, Genesis stated that 3AC should be given a claim of $33 million against Genesis. This represents 3.3% of the total claims initially made against Genesis, which amounted to $1 billion.
According to Genesis, 3AC’s claims against Genesis were the largest asserted claims in Chapter 11 cases associated with the collapse of the FTX exchange. Genesis stressed that the 3AC debtor was one of Genesis’s largest borrowers from 2020 to 2022, up until the time of its collapse.
SafeMoon CEO bail release goes on hold after Feds cite flight risk
SafeMoon CEO Braden John Karony’s bail release has been delayed by U.S. federal prosecutors, who argue that he may try to leave the country due to his alleged access to funds and connections abroad. The prosecutors expressed concerns that his release could pose a flight risk and be a potential danger to the community.
The delay comes after a New York District Judge, LaShann DeArcy Hall, decided to put a hold on the bail release order issued on Nov. 8 by a Utah Magistrate judge, who had allowed Karony to be released on a $500,000 bail. However, prosecutors contested this decision, claiming that the release order was made “without consideration of the defendant’s substantial financial means and ability to flee,” and they emphasized that his release could be a “continued danger to the community.”
Binance to terminate Russian ruble deposits next week
Binance users in Russia need to take note: They have a little over two months, until Jan. 31, 2024, to withdraw their rubles from the platform. Binance is wrapping up its operations in Russia and plans to stop accepting deposits in Russian rubles from November 15, 2023.
This comes after Binance declared its complete exit from Russia by selling its business to a newly established crypto exchange called CommEX in September 2023. However, there’s been limited information about the details of the deal, including the size of the transaction and the founders of CommEX, causing some controversy.
Winners and Losers
At the end of the week, Bitcoin (BTC) is at $37,249, Ether (ETH) at $2,078 and XRP (XRP) at $0.67. The total market cap is at $1.42 trillion, according to CoinMarketCap.
Among the biggest 100 cryptocurrencies, the top three altcoin gainers of the week were FTX Token (FTT) at 250.48%, Kaspa (KAS) at 67.23% and Cronos (CRO) at 52.20%.
The top three altcoin losers of the week are Maker (MKR) at -3.39%, Tether Gold (XAUt) at -2.60% and PAX Gold (PAXG) at -2.51%.
For more info on crypto prices, make sure to read Cointelegraph’s market analysis.
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Most Memorable Quotations
SEC Chair Gensler cannot continue to abuse the powers of his agency to fulfill a political agenda of driving the new and promising digital asset industry offshore.”
Tom Emmer, United States Republican congressman
Ordinals help to express the core values of Bitcoin in a much more friendly way than Bitcoin, which is too technical or harsh for some people.”
Lugui Tillier, commercial director for Lumx Studios
Binance’s Chief Compliance Officer crudely but succinctly summed up this case when he admitted that Binance was ‘operating as a fking unlicensed securities exchange in the USA bro.’ He was right.”
The United States Securities and Exchange Commission
As we have witnessed with cryptocurrency, heavy-handed constraints have hindered the exploration of potentially revolutionary applications.”
Matthew Putman, CEO and co-founder of Nanotronics
In Web3, it’s not the code that’s king, but the community. Instead of perfecting backend logic, focus on front-end transparency.”
Tiago Serôdio, head of community at Partisia Blockchain
I say, ‘Sorry, we are boring.’ But we are one of the oldest projects. We are very big… We are the one who has the most changes on GitHub, and we have not been down for over 2000 days… Boring sometimes is good.”
Frederik Gregaard, Cardano Foundation CEO
Prediction of the week
Bitcoin ‘Terminal Price’ hints next BTC all-time high is at least $110K
As the price of BTC hovers around its highest levels in the past 18 months, analysts are already speculating about the potential upward trajectory it may take in the upcoming months and years. Bitcoin may next be a “sell” at $110,000 as its new bull cycle plays out, a classic on-chain indicator suggests.
Analyzing its Terminal Price, Look Into Bitcoin creator Philip Swift described its value as a “simple” method of estimating long-term BTC price peaks. Terminal Price is calculated from Bitcoin’s so-called “Transferred Price” — a value derived by dividing “Coin Days Destroyed” by the existing supply. Not every all-time high reaches Terminal Price, but BTC/USD did hit the trendline during its 2017 all-time and initial peak in April 2021. The current all-time high of $69,000, seen in November of that year, fell short.
As Terminal Price increases with time, $110,000 may ultimately end up a conservative target should the next all-time high occur only later in the next cycle.
FUD of the Week
JPEX scandal: Taiwan determines new suspects in alleged fraud — Report
Taiwanese prosecutors are seeking to detain Chang Tung-ying, the chief partner at JPEX’s Taiwan office, on charges of fraud related to the JPEX cryptocurrency exchange. The situation surrounding the collapsed exchange is unfolding, with the Taipei District Prosecutors Office (TDPO) reportedly identifying new suspects. According to a report from local TV channel TVBS News on November 9, the TDPO has requested the custody of Chang Tung-ying over allegations of fraud.
As part of the ongoing JPEX investigation, prosecutors in Taipei searched nine locations and summoned Chang along with three other individuals believed to be involved. Chang and JPEX lecturer Shih Yu-sheng (also known as Shi Yu) are considered suspects in the case for violating the Banking Act and the Money Laundering Control Act.
Crypto exchange CoinSpot reportedly suffers $2M hot wallet hack
Blockchain security firm CertiK indicates that the recent $2.4 million theft from Australian cryptocurrency exchange CoinSpot hot wallet likely occurred due to a “private key compromise.” CoinSpot appears to have experienced a hack, involving the probable compromise of a private key in one of its hot wallets.
Pseudonymous blockchain investigator ZachXBT highlighted two transactions on Nov. 8 that entered the wallet belonging to the alleged hacker. Subsequently, the wallet’s owner transferred the funds to the Bitcoin network via THORChain and Wan Bridge. CertiK stated that the apparent exploit was likely the result of a “probable private key compromise” on at least one of CoinSpot’s hot wallets.
According to Etherscan data, a transaction of 1,262 Ether, valued at $2.4 million at current prices, originated from a recognized CoinSpot wallet and entered the wallet linked to the alleged hacker.
Poloniex exchange suffers $100M exploit, offers 5% bounty
A crypto wallet linked to the digital exchange Poloniex has experienced suspicious outflows, evident on the blockchain explorer Etherscan. Blockchain security experts suspect a breach, resulting in attackers draining up to $100 million in crypto.
On Nov. 10, millions in crypto assets were moved from an account labeled Poloniex 4 on Etherscan. Initially estimated at $60 million, later assessments revealed the loss exceeded $100 million. CertiK, a blockchain security firm, suggests a “private key compromise” as the likely cause and notes that the funds have already been transferred to four externally owned accounts, with some converted into Ether.
Read also
Top Magazine Pieces of the Week
Exclusive: 2 years after John McAfee’s death, widow Janice is broke and needs answers
Two years after John McAfee’s death, his wife, Janice, is still unable to get closure. “All I want is to see his body for myself and know that really happened.”
‘$10K JPGs’ scare away gamers, Animoca’s crypto game streaming plans: Web3 Gamer
Animoca buys Twitch-like platform and Web3 gaming was a major talking point at Binance Blockchain Week.
6 Questions for Lugui Tillier about Bitcoin, Ordinals, and the future of crypto
Lugui Tillier is the commercial director for Lumx Studios, one of the top cryptocurrency firms in Rio de Janeiro — a city with a burgeoning crypto industry.
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Sony Bank, the online lending subsidiary of Sony Financial Group, is reportedly preparing to launch a stablecoin that will enable payments across the Sony ecosystem in the US.
Sony is planning to issue a US dollar-pegged stablecoin in 2026 and expects it to be used for purchases of PlayStation games, subscriptions and anime content, Nikkei reported on Monday.
Targeting US customers — who make up roughly 30% of Sony Group’s external sales — the stablecoin is expected to work alongside existing payment options such as credit cards, helping reduce fees paid to card networks, the report said.
Sony Bank applied in October for a banking license in the US to establish a stablecoin-focused subsidiary and has partnered with the US stablecoin issuer Bastion. Sony’s venture arm also joined Bastion’s $14.6 million raise, led by Coinbase Ventures.
Sony Bank has been actively venturing into Web3
Sony Bank’s stablecoin push in the US comes amid the company’s active venture into Web3, with the bank establishing a dedicated Web3 subsidiary in June.
“Digital assets utilizing blockchain technology are incorporated into a diverse range of services and business models,” Sony Bank said in a statement in May.
“Financial services, such as wallets, which store NFT (non-fungible tokens) and cryptocurrency assets, and crypto exchange providers are becoming increasingly important,” it added.
The Web3 unit, later named BlockBloom, aims to build an ecosystem that blends fans, artists, NFTs, digital and physical experiences, and both fiat and digital currencies.
Related: Animoca eyes stablecoins, AI, DePIN as it expands focus in 2026: Exec
Sony Bank’s stablecoin initiative follows the recent spin-off of its parent, Sony Financial Group, which was separated from Sony Group and listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange in September.
The move was intended to decouple the financial arm’s balance sheet and operations from the broader Sony conglomerate, allowing each to sharpen its strategic focus.
Cointelegraph reached out to Sony Bank for comment regarding its potential US stablecoin launch, but had not received a response by the time of publication.
Magazine: Koreans ‘pump’ alts after Upbit hack, China BTC mining surge: Asia Express
Ripple Labs has received approval from Singapore’s central bank to expand its payment activities in the region, amid a broader push to grow its business and institutional-focused offerings through acquisitions.
Ripple’s Singapore subsidiary, Ripple Markets APAC, has been approved by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) to expand the scope of its regulated payment activities under its Major Payment Institution (MPI) license, the company said on Monday.
Monica Long, Ripple’s President, said in a statement that the company values “Singapore’s forward-thinking approach,” and the “expanded license strengthens our ability to continue investing in Singapore and to build the infrastructure financial institutions need to move money efficiently, quickly, and safely.”
Ripple Payments’ system uses digital payment tokens such as its stablecoin RLUSD and XRP (XRP) for cross-border transactions. The service was created to act as an on-ramp and off-ramp that supports collection, holding, swapping and payouts for banks and companies, according to Ripple.
The company has already made several significant acquisitions this year to expand its business and institutional-focused offerings, with one of the more recent instances on Nov. 4, when it acquired crypto custody and wallet company Palisade.
Singapore “pivotal” to Ripple’s global business
Ripple was approved for its MPI license in 2023, which allowed it to offer regulated digital payment token services in Singapore.
As of Monday, the MAS website still only lists digital payment token services under Ripple’s license, which “refers to buying or selling digital payment tokens or providing a platform to allow users to exchange digital payment tokens.”
Related: Singapore’s ‘finance-savvy’ crypto retail prefers trust over low fees: Survey
Ripple has been operating in Singapore since 2017, and the company said the area is “pivotal” to its global business.
Crypto use in the Asia Pacific region surges
Meanwhile, Fiona Murray, Ripple’s vice president and managing director in the Asia Pacific, said the region has also been experiencing huge growth, with onchain activity up roughly 70% year-over-year in the area, and Singapore sitting “at the center of that growth.”
“With this expanded scope of payment activities, we can better support the institutions driving that growth by offering a broad suite of regulated payment services, bringing faster, more efficient payments to our customers.”
The Asia-Pacific region saw the highest year-on-year growth, according to Chainalysis’ 2025 Global Adoption Index published on Sept. 3.
The total value received was up 69% to $2.36 trillion, led by India, Pakistan and Vietnam, while the Philippines, South Korea and Thailand also featured in the top 20.
Magazine: Animoca’s bet on altcoin upside, analyst eyes $100K Bitcoin: Hodler’s Digest, Nov. 23 – 29
Sir Keir Starmer will deliver a speech today defending the decisions the government made in the budget, following criticisms of sweeping tax rises and accusations the chancellor lied to the country about the state of public finances.
The prime minister is expected to set out how the budget, which saw £26bn of tax rises imposed across the economy, “moves forward the government’s programme of national renewal”, and set “the right economic course” for Britain, Downing Street says.
He will also confirm that ministers will try again to reform the “broken” welfare system, after Labour MPs forced the government to U-turn on its plans to narrow the eligibility for Personal Independence Payments (PIP) earlier this year.
Sir Keir Starmer will give a speech later defending last week’s budget. Pic: Reuters
‘Of course I didn’t’ lie about public finances, says Reeves
“We have to confront the reality that our welfare state is trapping people, not just in poverty, but out of work – young people especially. And that is a poverty of ambition,” Sir Keir will say.
“And so while we will invest in apprenticeships and make sure every young person without a job has a guaranteed offer of training or work, we must also reform the welfare state itself – that is what renewal demands.”
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Sky’s Ed Conway looks at the aftermath of the budget and explains who the winners and losers are
The prime minister will add: “This is not about propping up a broken status quo. Nor is it because we want to look somehow politically ‘tough’. The Tories played that game and the welfare bill went up by £88bn. They left children too poor to eat and young people too ill to work. A total failure.”
Instead, he will argue it is about “potential”, saying: “If you are ignored that early in your career, if you’re not given the support you need to overcome your mental health issues, or if you are simply written off because you’re neurodivergent or disabled, then it can trap you in a cycle of worklessness and dependency for decades, which costs the country money, is bad for our productivity, but most importantly of all – costs the country opportunity and potential.
“And any Labour Party worthy of the name cannot ignore that. That is why we have asked Alan Milburn on the whole issue of young people, inactivity and work. We need to remove the incentives which hold back the potential of our young people.”
The announcement will come after the Conservative opposition described the budget as one for “benefits street”, following the chancellor’s decision to lift the two-child benefit cap from April, at a cost of £3bn.
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Prime Minister defends the budget
‘Government must go further and faster on growth’
The prime minister is also expected to launch a staunch defence of the budget overall, saying it will bear down on the cost of living through measures like money off energy bills and frozen rail fares; increase economic stability; and protect investment in public services and infrastructure that will drive economic growth.
He will argue that “economic growth is beating the forecasts”, but that the government must go “further and faster” to encourage it.
He will also reiterate his vow to scrap regulation across the economy, which he will argue is not only pro-business, but also a way to deal with the cost of living.
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How will your personal finances change following the budget announced by the chancellor?
“Rooting out excessive costs in every corner of the economy is an essential step to lower the cost of living for good, as well as promoting more dynamic markets for business,” the prime minister will say.
He will confirm reforms to the building of nuclear power plants, after the government’s nuclear regulatory taskforce found that “pointless gold-plating, unnecessary red-tape and well-intentioned, but fundamentally misguided environmental regulation had made Britain the most expensive place to build nuclear power”.
“We urgently need to correct this,” the prime minister will say.
Business secretary Peter Kyle will be tasked with applying the same deregulatory approach to major infrastructure schemes and to accelerate the implementation of Labour’s industrial strategy.
In response, Tory shadow chancellor Sir Mel Stride said: “It is frankly laughable to hear the prime minister say Rachel Reeves’s Benefits Street budget has put the country on the right course and that he wants to fix the welfare system.
“His chancellor has just hiked taxes by £26bn to pay for a welfare splurge, penalising people who work hard and making them pay for those who don’t work at all. And she misrepresented why she was doing it, claiming there was a fiscal black hole to fill that she knew didn’t exist.
“Labour’s leadership have repeatedly shown they lack the backbone to tackle welfare and instead are just acting to placate their left-wing backbenchers.”
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Rachel Reeves tells Sky News she did not lie about the state of the public finances
Chancellor accused of ‘lying’
Sir Mel is referring to the chancellor’s speech on 4 November in which she laid the ground for tax rises due to the decision by the independent Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) to review and downgrade productivity over recent years, at a cost of £16bn, which led to a black hole in the public finances.
But the OBR revealed on Friday that it had told the Treasury days earlier that there was actually a budget surplus of £4.2bn, leading to outrage and claims that she misled the country about the state of the public finances.
Rachel Reeves was asked directly by Sky’s Trevor Phillips if she lied, and she replied: “Of course I didn’t.”
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Why did Reeves make the situation sound ‘so bleak’?
She said: “I said in that speech that I wanted to achieve three things in the budget – tackling the cost of living, which is why I took £150 off of energy bills and froze prescription charges and rail fares.
“I wanted to continue to cut NHS waiting lists, which is why I protected NHS spending. And I wanted to bring the debt and the borrowing down, which is one of the reasons why I increased the headroom.
“£4bn of headroom would not have been enough, and it would not give the Bank of England space to continue to cut interest rates.”
Ms Reeves also said: “In the context of a downgrade in our productivity, which cost £16bn, I needed to increase taxes, and I was honest and frank about that in the speech that I gave at the beginning of November.”
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Badenoch says Rachel Reeves should resign
But Tory leader Kemi Badenoch said: “I think the chancellor has been doing a terrible job. She’s made a mess of the economy, and […] she has told lies. This is a woman who, in my view, should be resigning.”
Report due on OBR breach
The tumultuous run-up to the 26 November budget culminated in the OBR accidentally publishing its assessment of the chancellor’s measures 45 minutes before the speech began, in what was an unprecedented breach of budget security.
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The chair of the OBR, Richard Hughes, apologised for the “error”, and announced an investigation into how it happened.
The chancellor has said that she retains confidence in him, despite the “serious breach of protocol”, and confirmed to Trevor that the investigation report will be delivered to her on Monday, although it is not clear when it will be published.
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