Binance.US Fires Back: Where's the Evidence, SEC? 🔍

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What’s Poppin’?

Binance.US: SEC Acknowledged It Has No Evidence Customer Funds Were Misused

by Samyuktha Sriram

Lawyers for the crypto exchange said the SEC’s requests for documents and depositions are overly broad and beyond the scope of the consent order.

Milady NFT Founder Says Rogue Developer Embezzled $1 Million From Treasury

The founder of the Milady Maker NFT project disclosed that a developer had embezzled funds from the treasury and seized control of its codebase.

FinCEN Issues Warning on Crypto ‘Pig Butchering’ Scams as US Victims Lose Billions

by Kari McMahon

FinCEN issues an alert as crypto “pig butchering” scams become increasingly sophisticated with scammers using strategies such as play-to-earn gaming to defraud victims.

Fireblocks Rolls Out Service Helping Corporates Launch Non-Custodial Wallets

by Kari McMahon

Customers of Fireblocks, such as Revolut and BNY Mellon, will be able to launch non-custodial wallets that can have gated access to Web3 services.

On the Pod…

USDC issuer Circle has had a hectic year, introducing new products and forming partnerships amid a crypto banking crisis and increasing global regulatory changes, including a progressing U.S. bill.

Circle's CEO, Jeremy Allaire, discusses Coinbase's investment in Circle, the company's resilience post-crisis, his opinions on PYUSD and the ongoing U.S. stablecoin legislation, and predictions for the stablecoin bill.

Daily Bits…✍️✍️✍️

• 📢 SEC Chair Gary Gensler maintained his critical stance on the crypto industry, emphasizing noncompliance issues, ahead of his Senate testimony this week.

• 📆 Bitfinex and Tether CTO Paolo Ardoino is set to testify this week in an ongoing lawsuit, despite requests for a postponement to prepare.

• 📊 Bankrupt FTX's estate holds around  $1.16 billion in SOL tokens and $560 million in BTC, with billions paid to executives before its November bankruptcy.

• 🏛️ The defense team of Sam Bankman-Fried accused the DOJ of attempting to obstruct a fair trial by seeking to exclude proposed expert witnesses.

• ⚖️ Former Celsius CEO, Alex Mashinsky, petitioned the court to dismiss the FTC case accusing him of misleading investors and manipulating CEL token prices.

• 🇬🇧 Ahead of new FCA regulations, the Luno crypto exchange will temporarily suspend certain trading activities for some UK customers from October 6.

• 📑 The DeFi Education Fund filed a petition with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to defend the crypto industry's use of open-source software, following lawsuits against MakerDAO and Compound Protocol for alleged patent infringement.

• 💰 Binance plans to distribute $3 million in BNB tokens to verified users residing in the earthquake-stricken Marrakesh-Safi province in Morocco.

• 🍎 Polygon Labs used an apple orchard analogy to elucidate crypto staking to U.S. senators, advocating for the taxation of staking rewards to be akin to oil and gas, where individuals are taxed only when they sell their assets, not when they are acquired.

• 🌍 The Bank for International Settlements and UAE entities urged developers to create blockchain solutions for sustainable finance under the COP28 initiative.

Today in Crypto Adoption...

• 💱 PayPal expanded its crypto services, introducing an "off ramp" feature that enables US users to convert their digital currencies to USD directly within their PayPal wallets.

The $$$ Corner…

• 💼 Bitget announced a $100 million EmpowerX Fund to diversify its ecosystem by investing in regional exchanges, data analytics, and media organizations.

What Do You Meme?

Recommended Reads

1. CoinDesk: Will the CFTC Blot Out DeFi in the U.S.?

2. Mr. Purple on the FTX stakeholder presentation

3. Unchained: What Is The Bitcoin Mempool?

📈 Your Market Update 📉

• BTC is up 1.5%, trading at $26,062

• ETH is up 1.1%, trading at $1,607

• BTC dominance: 47.14%

• Crypto market cap: $1.08 trillion

*All data as of today, 7:40 am ET

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