Gemini, Genesis, DCG Sued by New York AG for Allegedly Defrauding Investors of $1B (CoinDesk)
New York Attorney General Letitia James filed a lawsuit on Thursday against cryptocurrency companies Gemini Trust, Genesis Global Capital and Digital Currency Group (DCG) for allegedly defrauding more than 230,000 investors, including at least 29,000 New Yorkers, of more than $1 billion. James is seeking to ban Gemini, Genesis, and DCG from the financial investment industry in New York.
SEC Asks Judge to Dismiss Charges Against Ripple Co-Founder, CEO (Bloomberg)
The Securities and Exchange Commission asked a federal judge in New York to dismiss its case against crypto company Ripple’s co-founder Christian Larsen and Chief Executive Officer Bradley Garlinghouse. The SEC and Ripple intend to meet about a briefing schedule for discussing 'what remedies are proper against Ripple' for its violations tied to institutional sales of the XRP token, agency attorneys wrote Thursday.
US Treasury Plans to Designate International Crypto Mixers as Money-Laundering Hubs (WSJ)
The Biden administration is set Thursday to designate international “mixers,” cryptocurrency exchanges that provide customers anonymity, as money-laundering hubs that threaten national security. The designation, a form of sanction, will require special reporting for any financial transactions.
Ethereum Co-Founder Vaporized Employee Stock Awards, Lawsuit Says (Bloomberg)
Ethereum co-founder Joseph Lubin robbed his earliest employees of the value of stock awards that drew them to his blockchain firm, Consensys, in the first place, ex-workers allege in a lawsuit. More than two dozen ex-employees sued Lubin, accusing him of leaving workers with worthless shares in a Swiss holding company called Consensys AG by shuffling assets including crypto wallet provider MetaMask out of the unit.
Coinbase-Incubated Layer 2 Base Open-Sources Code to Enhance Transparency (The Block)
Coinbase-incubated Layer 2 network Base has open-sourced its code repositories to enhance transparency and open the project to public contributions. As of today, developers can access the underlying code enabling various Base processes including contracts and other deployments, according to a statement. “By sharing our work openly, we enable the community to track our progress and ensure that we're living up to our commitments,” Base said in the announcement. “This transparency also serves as a catalyst for collaboration, as it allows developers to tap into our knowledge base, building upon and refining what's already in place. Further, it provides a channel for valuable community feedback, whether it's about improving documentation or spotting an overlooked bug.”
California 'BitLicense' Bill Signed by Gov. Newsom (CoinDesk)
California Governor Gavin Newsom signed a crypto licensing bill on Friday, set to take effect in July 2025. Considered California's answer to New York's "BitLicense," the Digital Financial Assets Law faced heavy industry criticism but was passed by the U.S. state's Assembly in September 2022. The law requires California's Department of Financial Protection (DFPI) and Innovation to create a regulatory framework for crypto. The framework includes a licensing regime and gives the department enforcement and rulemaking authority over the sector. The DFPI also gets an 18-month implementation period to ensure "the adopted regulatory framework can be thoughtfully tailored to address industry trends and mitigate consumer harm," the letter said.
ECB’s Digital Euro Moves One Step Closer to Becoming a Reality (Bloomberg)
The European Central Bank shifted to the next stage of its digital-euro project — preparing the ground to issue the currency in the coming years, though a final decision has yet to be taken. The Governing Council gave the green light to move to a 'preparation phase' that will initially last two years, the ECB said Wednesday in a statement. During that time, the ECB will complete its rulebook and select providers to develop a platform and the needed infrastructure.
Eligible Coinbase Retail Customers Outside the US Can Now Trade Perpetuals (The Block)
Crypto exchange Coinbase has rolled out perpetuals trading for eligible non-U.S. retail customers via the Coinbase Advanced platform — aiming to cater to the derivatives market. Perpetuals, also known as “perps,” are a type of futures that lack an expiration date and are a popular instrument among crypto derivatives traders. The perpetuals trading offered by Coinbase starting today includes four contracts — Bitcoin (BTC), Litecoin (LTC), Ether (ETH), and XRP — all of which are settled in the USDC stablecoin.
Binance.US Halts Direct Dollar Withdrawals (CoinDesk)
Binance.US users can no longer withdraw dollars directly from the platform after the exchange updated its terms of use on Monday. "In the event that customers wish to withdraw U.S. dollar funds from their account, they may do so by converting U.S. dollar funds to stablecoin or other digital assets, which can subsequently be withdrawn," the email said. In early June, the firm suspended dollar deposits, saying the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's (SEC) "extremely aggressive and intimidating tactics" against the crypto industry had left banking partners reluctant to engage with the sector.
FDIC Needs to Do More to Prepare for Crypto Risks: Inspector General Report (The Block)
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, tasked with supervising financial institutions, needs to do more work to assess risks in the cryptocurrency industry, according to a new report. Volatility in the crypto market over the years highlights risks could affect financial institutions, and ultimately the FDIC's mission, according to a report released Wednesday by the Office of the Inspector General. The office, which oversees the FDIC, also made a few recommendations.
EU Formally Agrees on New Crypto Tax Data Sharing Rules (CoinDesk)
New European Union rules that let tax authorities share data on individuals' crypto holdings were formally adopted by the bloc's finance ministers on Tuesday. The document will now be published in the EU's Official Journal and enter into force 20 days later. The rules were proposed last year in a bid to block assets from being stashed overseas using crypto and had unanimous support from EU member states despite discussions mostly taking place largely behind closed doors.
Uniswap Labs to Charge 0.15% Fee on Crypto Swaps Involving ETH, USDC, Other Tokens (CoinDesk)
Uniswap Labs, the key company building atop decentralized crypto exchange Uniswap, will impose a 0.15% fee starting Tuesday on trades involving ETH, USDC and other tokens. Only swaps that execute through Uniswap Labs’ front end will be taxed. The fee is different from Uniswap’s existing “protocol fee” that’s managed by governance voters. It’s being levied by Uniswap Labs in an effort to “sustainably fund our operations,” a blog post said.
Sui Foundation Calls Report of Supply Manipulation 'Materially False' (CoinDesk)
SUI, the native token of the blockchain that was built by former Meta (META) employees, has tumbled as much as 9% after the director of the South Korean Financial Supervisory Service reported to have said that he will check if the Sui team is manipulating the supply of the token. BlockMedia reported that the regulator's director, Lee Bok-Hyeon, will "inspect" SUI's behavior to see if the team has intentionally inflated supply "through staking or unfair disclosure."
Reddit Is Killing Blockchain-Based Community Points (TechCrunch)
Reddit is winding down Community Points — the blockchain-based “internet points” program designed to reward creators and developers — in favor of prioritizing rewards programs that are less difficult to scale. “Though we saw some future opportunities for Community Points, the resourcing needed was unfortunately too high to justify,” Reddit’s director of consumer and product communications Tim Rathschmidt told TechCrunch. “The regulatory environment has since added to that effort. Though the moderators and communities that supported Community Points have been incredible partners — as it’s evolved, the product is no longer set up to scale.”
Fantom Foundation Employee Loses at Least $7 Million of Crypto in Exploit (The Block)
An employee of the Fantom Foundation lost at least $7 million of crypto in an exploit today, according to on-chain data and comments from Fantom Foundation Director Andre Cronje. "All foundation funds are secured. A fantom employee however was targeted in an attack and their personal funds were stolen," Cronje told The Block. An admin in the Fantom Telegram channel said that this was due to a zero-day exploit in the Chrome browser. The admin had said the wallets belonged to the Fantom Foundation and they were tagged as such on blockchain explorers.
BlackRock’s Larry Fink Says Bitcoin Rumor Rally Shows ‘Pent up Interest in Crypto' (The Block)
BlackRock CEO Larry Fink said Monday that a rally in the price of bitcoin triggered by a false news report about the approval of a spot ETF served as an example of the "pent up interest in crypto." Fink, who said that he couldn't comment on the specifics of his own firm's pending application for a spot bitcoin ETF, said he'd been hearing "from clients from around the world about the need for crypto."
Judge Orders Genesis to Respond in Five Days to Subpoena in Terraform Case (The Block)
A New York district judge ordered crypto lender Genesis to comply with a subpoena after he said the firm failed to share certain documents in a case involving the dramatic collapse of algorithmic stablecoin TerraUSD. Genesis has five days to respond after failing to produce those documents on Oct. 9, Judge Jed Rakoff of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York said in an order from Oct. 13.
Huobi, KuCoin Among Crypto Firms Added to UK Watchdog’s Warning List (Bloomberg)
Crypto exchanges Huobi and KuCoin were among dozens of digital asset companies added to the UK Financial Conduct Authority’s warning list on Sunday for marketing their services in the UK without proper approvals, as the regulator tightens its grip on the industry. The UK’s rules on financial promotions were widened starting on Oct. 8 to include cryptoasset service providers — regardless of their location. All crypto platforms are now required by the regulator to display clear risk warnings to UK-based consumers and meet higher technical standards, including a 24-hour cooling-off period for new customers.
FTX Plans to Return 90% of Customer Funds, But There's a Catch (CoinDesk)
Bankrupt crypto exchange FTX floated an amended proposal to return up to 90% of creditor holdings held at the exchange before it went bust last November. The debtors' group, which is currently overseeing the bankruptcy process, will formally file the plan by Dec. 16, 2023, to a U.S. Bankruptcy Court for perusal. FTX collapsed last year after CoinDesk published revelations concerning the state of its balance sheet. New CEO John J. Ray III has berated financial controls at the company, while founder Sam Bankman-Fried is undergoing trial on criminal charges.
Binance to Temporarily Stop Accepting New UK Users After FCA Restriction (The Block)
Binance, the world's largest crypto exchange, said it would temporarily stop accepting new UK users from today, in an interim measure taken after its UK promotions approver Rebuilding Society was hit by a restriction from the country's Financial Conduct Authority regulator last week regarding new crypto promotions rules. Binance said in an announcement it was currently looking for a new FCA-authorized partner in the UK but that there would be some temporary restrictions to its platform and mobile app for UK users until a new partner is found and its financial promotions reapproved.
SEC Does Not Plan to Appeal Court Decision on Grayscale Bitcoin ETF, Source Says (Reuters)
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) will not appeal a recent court ruling that found it was wrong to reject an application from Grayscale Investments to create a spot bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF), said a source familiar with the matter. The District of Columbia Court of Appeals in Washington in August ruled that the SEC was wrong to reject Grayscale's proposed bitcoin ETF, in a case that has been closely watched by the industry which has been trying for a decade to advance such products.
Tether’s Tech Boss to Take Over as Stablecoin Firm’s New CEO (Bloomberg)
Stablecoin issuer Tether Holdings Ltd. appointed its technology boss Paolo Ardoino as its new chief executive officer, following several years in which the executive had emerged as the company’s main public figure. Starting in December, Ardoino will replace Jean-Louis van der Velde who is transitioning into an advisory role at the company, Tether said in a statement on Friday. Van der Velde remains chief executive of Tether’s sister cryptocurrency platform Bitfinex, while Ardoino will remain the exchange’s CTO, according to the statement. Ardoino will also continue to manage Tether’s technology teams, according to a Tether spokesperson.
Metamask Appears to Have Been Removed From the Apple App Store (The Block)
Crypto wallet MetaMask's mobile app appears to have been removed from the Apple App Store. The app no longer appears in the App Store and direct links to the app — such as the one on MetaMask's download page — no longer work. "We expect MetaMask to be back on the App Store shortly, and we sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused," said the MetaMask account on X. "We're aware, working on figuring out what happened, and resolving the issue asap," MetaMask Lead Product Manager Taylor Monahan said on X. "This issue exclusively impacts those trying to install the app fresh from the Apple App Store. And we will be resolving that issue [very] shortly."
FTX Estate Stakes $122 Million of Solana, On-Chain Data Shows (The Block)
Earlier today, the FTX estate staked over 5.5 million Solana (SOL) coins, valued at $122 million, from one of its principal wallets on the Solana blockchain, according to on-chain data from SolanaFM. One of the wallet addresses identified as managed by the FTX estate delegated the coins with Figment, one of the network validators for staking, as first noted by on-chain analyst ‘ashpool’ on X.
Ferrari to Accept Crypto as Payment for Its Cars in the US (Reuters)
Ferrari (RACE.MI) has started to accept payment in cryptocurrency for its luxury sports cars in the U.S. and will extend the scheme to Europe following requests from its wealthy customers, its marketing and commercial chief told Reuters. The vast majority of blue-chip companies have steered clear of crypto as the volatility of bitcoin and other tokens renders them impractical for commerce. Patchy regulation and high energy usage have also prevented the spread of crypto as a means of payment.