Paxos’ $500K Bitcoin fee, FTX tokens sales set to begin and other news: Hodler’s Digest, Sept. 10-16
Top Stories This Week
Paxos confirms it’s responsible for paying a $500K Bitcoin transaction fee
The Bitcoin miner who received 19.8 BTC in fees from blockchain infrastructure firm Paxos has returned the funds following Paxos’ claim that it made a mistake in paying over $500,000 in transfer fees. On Sept. 10, Paxos paid the six-figure fee to move $2,000, with the average network fee typically being around $2. The company later acknowledged the mistake, confirming the transfer came from its servers. Almost a day after Paxos’ claims, the Bitcoin miner who received the funds went on X (formerly Twitter) to express frustrations after agreeing to refund the amount to Paxos. The funds were returned on Sept. 15.
Court approves sale of FTX digital assets
A bankruptcy court has approved the sale of FTX digital assets in weekly batches through an investment adviser and under preestablished guidelines. The sale does not include Bitcoin, Ether and “certain insider-affiliated tokens,” which can be sold through a separate decision by FTX after 10 days’ notice. FTX sales are not expected to have a heavy impact on markets. According to a recent shareholder update, the bankrupt exchange has $833 million worth of Bitcoin and Ether. A total of $3.4 billion is held in Digital Assets A — the top 10 assets the company holds — which include Solana, Bitcoin, Ether, Aptos and others.
Gemini Earn users could recover all funds in new DCG remuneration scheme
Digital Currency Group has proposed a new agreement plan for the creditors of the now-bankrupt Genesis Global. The plan estimates unsecured creditors will receive “a 70–90% recovery with a meaningful portion of the recovery in digital currencies.” Additionally, the remuneration plan says the recovery of claims for Gemini Earn users would be projected at “approximately 95–110%” without any contribution from Gemini. According to the filing: “If Gemini were to agree to provide $100 million to Gemini Earn users under the Proposed Agreement, as it previously did, there would be little doubt Gemini Earn users would receive more than full recovery.”
Franklin Templeton files for spot Bitcoin ETF
Asset manager Franklin Templeton applied with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission to launch a spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF). According to the application, the fund would be structured as a trust. Coinbase would custody the BTC, and The Bank of New York Mellon would be the cash custodian and administrator. Franklin Templeton has $1.5 trillion in assets under management and joins a long list of asset managers waiting for regulatory approval. The SEC recently delayed decisions on spot ETF applications from WisdomTree, Valkyrie, Fidelity, VanEck, Bitwise and Invesco on Aug. 31.
Two more top executives depart Binance.US amid layoffs, SEC action
The exodus of executives from crypto exchange Binance has reached the firm’s offshoot in the United States, as at least three top employees left Binance.US over the past few days. This week’s departures included the exchange’s CEO, Brian Shroder, alongside legal head Krishna Juvvadi and chief risk officer Sidney Majalya. The mass exit is believed to be tied to the ongoing U.S. investigation into Binance and Binance.US. The SEC sued Binance.US, Binance and CEO Changpeng Zhao in June for allegedly engaging in unregistered securities operations and other improprieties. On Aug. 28, the agency requested to file sealed documents in the case, fueling concerns about a criminal probe by the U.S. Department of Justice.
Winners and Losers
At the end of the week, Bitcoin (BTC) is at $26,465, Ether (ETH) at $1,628 and XRP at $0.50. The total market cap is at $1.05 trillion, according to CoinMarketCap.
Among the biggest 100 cryptocurrencies, the top three altcoin gainers of the week are Toncoin (TON) at 21.30%, VeChain (VET) at 11.94% and Bitcoin Cash (BCH) at 11.36%.
The top three altcoin losers of the week are ApeCoin (APE) at -16.82%, Astar (ASTR) at 14.47% and Flare (FLR) at 12.61%.
For more info on crypto prices, make sure to read Cointelegraph’s market analysis.
Read also
Most Memorable Quotations
“I think my generation and younger than me are the ones that are really going to change that narrative for investing, whether it’s in cryptocurrency or other investments moving forward.”
Scotty James, Australian snowboarder
“The only country I would not encourage you to start a company right now is in the U.S.”
Brad Garlinghouse, CEO of Ripple
“We’re still in the fax era of global payments.”
David Marcus, former PayPal executive and co-founder Lightspark
“I don’t think everybody in D.C. actually fully realizes how powerful the crypto voting community block is.”
Brian Armstrong, CEO of Coinbase
“You cannot get 100% transparency and 100% privacy.”
Alex Svanevik, CEO of Nansen
“Climate change is still a systemic threat to our species. I think as a society, we kind of owe it to ourselves to do anything that we can.”
Marek Olszewski, CEO of Celo
Prediction of the Week
Bitcoin price all-time high will precede 2024 halving — New prediction
Bitcoin has a $250,000 target for after its next block subsidy halving — but new all-time highs will come sooner, according to the latest BTC price prediction from BitQuant, a popular social media commentator who sees a rosy future for the largest cryptocurrency.
On Sept. 15, the pseudonymous “central banker and Bitcoiner” revealed a pre-halving target above $69,000. “No, Bitcoin is not going to top before the halving,” he wrote in part of the commentary.
Bitcoin has just over six months before the halving, the event that cuts miner rewards earned per block by 50% every four years. “No, BTC is not going to $160K because the magnitude of every pullback is large,” he wrote, adding that “this means it will peak after the halving, in 2024. And yes, the target price is around $250K.”
FUD of the Week
SEC charges company behind Stoner Cats NFT series with unregistered securities sale
Stoner Cats 2 LLC (SC2), the company behind the Stoner Cats animated web series, has agreed to a cease-and-desist order and other measures imposed by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission after being charged with conducting an unregistered offering of crypto-asset securities in the form of nonfungible tokens (NFTs). According to the SEC, SC2 sold more than 10,000 NFTs for about $800 apiece. The sale took 35 minutes and occurred on July 27, 2021, and the proceeds were used to fund the series. Besides agreeing to the cease-and-desist order, SC2 will pay a civil penalty of $1 million.
OneCoin co-founder Greenwood gets 20 years in US jail for fraud, money laundering
Karl Greenwood, co-founder of OneCoin with Ruja Ignatova, was sentenced in the United States to 20 years in prison and ordered to pay $300 million on Sept. 20. Ignatova remains at large. Greenwood, who is a citizen of the United Kingdom and Sweden, was sentenced in a court in New York. In a statement by the Justice Department, U.S. Attorney Damian Williams called OneCoin “one of the largest fraud schemes ever perpetrated.” The multilevel marketing and Ponzi scheme reaped $4 billion from 3.5 million victims, the statement said. Ignatova has not been seen since October 2017 and is on the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Ten Most Wanted List.
North Korea’s Lazarus Group responsible for $55M CoinEx hack
The attack on crypto exchange CoinEx, which drained at least $55 million, was carried out by the North Korean hacker group Lazarus, according to blockchain security firm SlowMist and pseudonymous on-chain investigator ZachXBT. The hacker group was identified after it inadvertently exposed its address, which was the same one used in the recent Stake and Optimism hacks. On Sept. 12, CoinEx saw large outflows of funds to an address without any prior history. Security experts immediately suspected that the exchange was breached, with initial estimates reaching approximately $27 million.
Are DAOs overhyped and unworkable? Lessons from the front lines
Many contend that DAOs have failed to deliver on their promises, but developers are coming up with novel solutions.
6 Questions for Kei Oda: From Goldman Sachs to cryptocurrency
Kei Oda spent 16 years trading bonds for Goldman Sachs — a life that eventually bored him. That was when he turned to cryptocurrency.
Web3 Gamer: PUBG devs’ Web3 project, Animoca’s $20M raise, Shardbound review
The company behind PUBG announces a new Web3 platform, monetization in Web3 and more.
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In the marginal seat of North East Fife in this election, it is not a straight fight between red and blue, but shades of yellow too.
In 2017, the SNP won here by just two votes ahead of the Scottish Liberal Democrats. That astonishing two-vote tipping point made it the UK’s most marginal seat at the time.
But in 2019, the Lib Dems won it from the SNP, giving the party one of its four MPs in Scotland.
Today, Lib Dem posters line the winding road that takes you to Anstruther’s waterfront.
It’s a charming fishing village and overlooking the harbour are quaint restaurants and gift shops – handmade soap, whisky and fresh fish – it’s all on offer.
With this allure comes a melee of tourists who join us as we hop to each business, talking to them about how the campaigns have resonated with them here.
Election latest: Minister says election ‘not about the past’ as poll suggests Tory wipeout on 4 July
“The tourists are a big part of this area for us,” says Tom Cooper, who’s owned his whisky gift shop for over six years.
Whisky shop owner Tom Cooper wants the main parties to offer more help to small businesses
He’s even had a few celebrities pop by.
“We get up to eight to nine tourist buses each day in the summer, if we didn’t have that, we wouldn’t survive,” he adds.
He loves having them dropped off outside his door, but the tourist season isn’t long enough to make the off-season easier.
Keep up with all the latest news from the UK and around the world by following Sky News
“When it’s very, very quiet, you’re talking maybe four months of the year with maybe a six or seven hours a day, that you’re not doing very much. And you can’t really drag people in the door.
“We need to bring people in. The villages needs money. You know, that’s that’s where the economy lies, I think, in the future.”
And when at the ballot box, Tom says it’ll be his shop at the forefront of his mind.
“I look for somebody that’s going to help businesses like myself, small businesses, and keep the high streets going, get people out,” he says.
This is one of the constituencies to have had its boundary lines redrawn.
Changes have now led to areas with higher levels of deprivation being added to the North East Fife seat.
Away from the picturesque coastline, further inland there are signs of a lack of investment and care.
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Glenrothes shopping centre stands partially derelict.
“That’s been like that for about six years,” someone comments, as we look on at the peeling sides of a building and faded shop signage.
This constituency has one of the highest levels of child poverty.
“People are struggling, there are a lot of people not in work,” Chris Lewis, a business owner, tells us.
Chris runs an ice cream parlour, fish and chip bar and waterfront restaurant.
Chris Lewis believes politicians have broken their past promises
“Employment is what I care about, we need to lift people back to work on a decent wage,” he says.
“I would like to see everybody getting a job, then everybody could work hard and get people off benefits.”
Chris says he has been burnt by past promises.
“This area – whether Lib Dem and SNP – to me it seems they never seem to deliver.”
Read more:
Nigel Farage ‘terrorising’ Tories and Rishi Sunak too afraid, says Lord Mandelson
Behind the scenes of covering the election campaign
Chris adds: “There’s just so many promises and you think, you’ve had your time, can someone else do more for the country. We’re a very tourist-heavy area and we can’t afford to lose that. If Scotland loses its attraction, you know, we failed.”
The national narrative and the polls are having an impact on how he is feeling.
“I never thought I’d say it, but Labour are coming to mind, I think they’re going to do more for the country than the others.
“But who do you believe? There’s always promises. And when it comes down to how many are delivered, usually very few.”
We’ve met those across this constituency who intend to back Reform, SNP and Labour throughout the day.
A sign that even the most seemingly straightforward of seats is all to play for.
The list of candidates standing in North East Fife are:
- Conservatives – Bill Bowman
- Liberal Democrats – Wendy Chamberlain
- Labour Party – Jennifer Gallagher
- SNP – Stefan Hoggan-Radu
- Scottish Green Party – Morven Ovenstone-Jones
- Reform UK – Matthew Wren
Politics
General election: ‘Do not give matches back to arsonists’, urges Labour amid poll complacency warning
Wes Streeting has urged voters not to hand “the matches back to the arsonists to finish the job” as he warned against complacency over polls predicting a Labour landslide.
Speaking to Sky News’s Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips, the shadow health secretary stressed the choice at the election as he branded the Tory manifesto “Liz Truss’s budget on steroids” and raised the prospect of “a nightmare on Downing Street” if the governing party was returned.
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Conservatives: We’re fighting for every vote
Mr Streeting made his comments as fresh polls signalled a further grim outlook for Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, with one indicating the Conservatives on course to pick up just 72 seats.
Meanwhile, cabinet minister Mark Harper insisted the Tories were fighting for every vote, but repeated his party’s warning that a vote for Reform UK would give Labour a large majority and “a blank cheque” in office.
It comes after a separate survey on Thursday night put Nigel Farage’s party ahead of the Tories for the first time with 19% of the vote, compared with 18% for the Conservatives.
Mr Streeting said: “I just warn people, against this backdrop of breathtaking complacency in the media about the opinion polls, do not give the matches back to the arsonist to finish the job.”
He added: “Do people want to see Liz Truss’s mini budget on steroids, which is the Conservative manifesto, being delivered if there’s a nightmare on Downing Street on 5 July or do they want to see a stable economy with economic growth, shared prosperity, enable us to invest in our public services without clobbering working people with taxes, that’s the choice at this election.”
Read more on Sky News:
Tories heading for ‘warfare’, Farage predicts
How much would a Labour government change football?
Eyewitness: Behind the scenes of covering the election campaign
Despite the polls, Mr Harper told Phillips: “I’m still very much up for this fight.
“The Conservative Party across the country, led by the prime minister, is fighting for every vote.”
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He added: “But the polls do tell us one thing. They do show people that if people don’t vote Conservative and some of the people vote for the smaller parties, and Labour does end up with a very large majority, they’re going to have a blank check.
“They are trying very hard in this campaign not to spell out how they’re going to pay for any of their promises. We know there is a black hole. We can have a debate about how big it is.
“We’ve said it’s going to be £2,000 for every family in the next over the parliament, but there’s definitely a black hole.
“We’ve set out the taxes that they might have to raise and they haven’t ruled them out.”
Keep up with all the latest news from the UK and around the world by following Sky News
Mr Harper went on: “I’d say very simply to those voters who are thinking about voting Reform who have voted Conservative – they want to see lower taxes, they want to see migration under control, if they vote Reform they’re going to get a Labour government with a large majority and it’s going to deliver the opposite of what they want.”
Mr Harper also insisted the election was “not about the past”.
He said: “Elections are about the future. They’re about the offer in front of us.”
In his interview with Phillips, Mr Streeting also indicated there could be greater spending increases for the NHS than committed to in the Labour manifesto, but stressed this could happen “only if the conditions allow”.
He was responding to analysis by the Nuffield Trust thinktank that suggested both Labour and Tory pledges on the NHS would leave the health service with lower annual funding increases than during the austerity era.
Seizing on this, a Tory spokesman said: “Labour’s manifesto is just window dressing for the election campaign and they are planning to spend and tax more than they are telling the public.”
The billionaire investor also intimated that any political aspirations Gensler had would amount to nothing due to the SEC chairman’s stance against cryptocurrency
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