Is It Time for an ETH ETF? 🚀

In today's edition: 🎙️ New episode on the detention of SBF, 🫡 SEC's win in Ripple case, 🙅‍♂️ OpenSea's royalties, 💲 a $175 million deal, and more!

August 18, 2023

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What’s Poppin’?

by Juan Aranovich

The anticipated approval of Ethereum futures ETFs by the SEC would mark a significant development in the crypto market.

Judge Analisa Torres granted the SEC’s request to file a motion for leave to file an appeal in the Ripple case, marking a significant turn in the legal battle.

As NFT platforms vie for dominance and the industry matures, once-established norms are being challenged and redefined.

Genesis agrees to pay $175 million to FTX, aiming to smooth the path to bankruptcy confirmation and eliminate risks of prolonged litigation.

On the Pod…

Lawyer Brian Klein joins the show to explain why Sam Bankman-Fried being locked up makes it “much tougher” for his legal team. This week, the judge presiding over the case said SBF went too far in attempting to intimidate key witnesses – chief among them former Alameda Research co-CEO (and ex-flame) Caroline Ellison. Will a jail cell change SBF’s defiant tune ahead of a hotly anticipated October trial date? Klein weighs in.

Daily Bits…✍️✍️✍️

  • ⚖️ A Coinbase-backed group lost a lawsuit against the U.S. Treasury Department, failing to prove that sanctions against Tornado Cash, a crypto mixing service, overstepped the Treasury's authority.

  • 💸 Crypto traders faced $1.04 billion in liquidations amid intense market volatility, with Bitcoin's rapid price changes affecting long positions, and major exchanges like OKX and Binance recording significant liquidations.

  • 💼 Creditors of bankrupt crypto lender Celsius will vote on a plan to sell assets to Fahrenheit consortium, with court-approved disclosures suggesting a recovery of 67%-85% of holdings.

  • 🔒 A filing in the Celsius bankruptcy case last year revealed 15,759 personal crypto wallets, holding as much as $3 billion at their peak, linked to named customers.

  • 🚀 SpaceX wrote down the value of its Bitcoin holdings by $373 million last year and in 2021, according to a report by the Wall Street Journal.

  • 🚫 The Federal Reserve ordered FTX-linked Farmington State Bank to wind down operations for secretly engaging in digital assets activities, violating a prior agreement.

  • 📰 Coinbase will suspend trading of USDT, DAI, and RAI stablecoins for Canadian users starting August 31, but deposits and withdrawals will continue.

  • 💧 The newly launched Sei Blockchain's SEI token plunged 24% after an airdrop, with complaints on X (formerly Twitter) about scant allocations and apparent market dumping.

Today in Crypto Adoption...

  • 💳 Mastercard created a forum for crypto industry collaboration on central bank digital currencies (CBDCs), including partners like Ripple, Fireblocks, and Consensys.

The $$$ Corner…

  • 💰 Avalanche Foundation is providing $3 million in AVAX tokens to Dexalot, a decentralized exchange, as part of an incentive fund to promote the growth of new subnets.

What Do You Meme?

Learn 🤓

Learn about central bank digital currency (CBDC), its pros and cons, and why it is considered so controversial.

📈 Your Market Update 📉

  • BTC is down 7.2%, trading at $26,465

  • ETH is down 5.6%, trading at $1,684

  • BTC dominance: 46.52%

  • Crypto market cap: $1.11 trillion

*All data as of today, 8:00 am ET

Recommended Reads

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