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The SEC Ends Its Ethereum 2.0 Investigation, but Staking Isn’t in the Clear

Last week, Consensys revealed that the SEC had concluded an investigation into Ethereum 2.0, referring to when Ethereum transitioned from a proof-of-work consensus mechanism to a proof-of-stake one.

In this episode, Laura Brookover, senior counsel & head of litigation and investigations at Consensys, and Sam Enzer, partner at Cahill Gordon & Reindel, explore the implications of this decision on ether’s status as a commodity versus a security, and why the SEC dropped the pursuit, including whether the shifting political winds played a role. For instance, how much of the decision was influenced by the ETH ETF approvals, Democrats crossing party lines to vote for FIT21 and the repeal of SAB 121, and/or SEC crypto enforcement chief David Hirsch’s resignation?

In this discussion, they also explained why the closure doesn’t necessarily mean that staking, or restaking, is safe from the SEC. Plus, what’s the impact of this closure on the other big crypto cases, such as Coinbase, Kraken, Uniswap, and Ripple?

Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Pods, Fountain, Overcast, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Amazon Music, or on your favorite podcast platform. Or watch it on YouTube.

What’s Poppin’?

by Sage Young and Sam Sriram

US Spot Ethereum ETFs Could Launch on July 4: Report

A lawyer for one of the prospective issuers said that the approval process for a spot Ethereum ETF was “down to the finishing touches.”

US Government Sends $241 Million in Bitcoin to Coinbase: Arkham

Wallets tied to the US government sent 3,940 BTC, worth $241 million, to Coinbase Prime.

Layer 2 Networks Are Arriving on the Telegram-Associated TON Blockchain

The TON blockchain’s total value locked (TVL) has skyrocketed to $671.43 million since Jan. 1, reflecting an increase of over 4,600%.

NEAR Protocol Sees Growth in Multiple Areas, Signs of a ‘Major Breakout’: Flipside Crypto

Showing growth in key metrics such as TVL, transaction volume, and new wallets, NEAR also has three applications that are responsible for 72% of its total value locked.

Daily Bits… ✍️✍️✍️

• 🔧 Venture firm Paradigm introduced Reth 1.0, its first production-ready Ethereum execution client developed in Rust, which can sync to the Ethereum mainnet in about 50 hours and manage extensive storage.

• 🛫 A significant Bitcoin donation of 8.07 BTC nearly met the $520,000 goal for Julian Assange’s jet and recovery costs within hours, highlighting strong supporter response.

• 📈 Zeta Markets, a Solana-based DEX, launched its native ZEX token and started an airdrop distribution of 100 million tokens.

• 🇺🇸 Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse criticized SEC chair Gary Gensler, suggesting his crypto crackdown could negatively impact President Biden’s re-election campaign.

• 💸 The U.S. State Department is offering a $5 million reward for the capture of Ruja Ignatova, the "Crypto Queen" behind the massive OneCoin fraud scheme.

• 🤝 Sam Trabucco, former co-CEO of Alameda Research, returned to X (formerly Twitter) to support Ryan Salame, liking tweets but avoiding public comments or media interaction.

• 🇳🇬 Nigeria’s government refuted claims from US lawmakers that detained Binance executive Tigran Gambaryan is being denied medical care, stating that he has access to quality healthcare and consular services.

• 📈 Animoca Brands, valued at $5.9 billion, is considering going public in 2025 with potential listings in Hong Kong or the Middle East, following discussions with investment banks.

• 💼 Abra agreed to return up to $82 million to US customers and cease certain operations, after settling with 25 states for operating without proper licenses.

• 🎁 Blast issued 17 billion BLAST tokens to early adopters, with 35% claimed within hours.

Today in Crypto Adoption...

• 📊 State Street Global Advisors and Galaxy Digital are collaborating to develop crypto investment products, including spot and futures-based ETFs, to provide investors access to the digital asset ecosystem.

• 🔗 Investcorp and Securitize announced a partnership to tokenize funds, aiming to bring efficiencies to investors by creating onchain real-world assets based on Investcorp's funds.

The $$$ Corner…

• 🤖 Ora secured $20 million to integrate AI into decentralized applications, enhancing Ethereum's ecosystem with onchain AI models through its "AI oracle."

• 🌏 Covalent closed $5 million in strategic funding to expand its blockchain data services in Asia, aiming to enhance long-term data accessibility in countries such as China and Singapore.

What Do You Meme?

📈 Your Market Update 📉

• BTC is down 0.4%, trading at $61,089

• ETH is up 0.5%, trading at $3,393

• BTC dominance: 50.64%

• Crypto market cap: $2.38T

*All data as of today, 06:55 am ET. Source: CoinGecko

Recommended Reads

1. Decrypt: What to Expect From Xai as It Aims to Become Ethereum Gaming's Valve

2. DL News: Will Biden say ‘malarkey’ when debating Trump? Polymarket bettors pile millions on strange wagers

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