FreeCryptoCurrency.Me

Reddit’s Terms of Service recently changed where it now explicitly allows for trading Reddit’s tokenized Community Points, one observer said while explaining the price rally.

CoinGlass data shows that in the last 24 hours, $116.38 million worth of futures bets were liquidated, with $85.68 in bullish long positions.

Cathie Wood’s Ark Invest sold 248,838 more shares of Coinbase on Monday as the stock continues to perform well off the back of a ruling in the Ripple case.

Ark’s flagship fund, Ark Innovation ETF (ARKK), sold 127,266 shares of Coinbase, according to an update from the fund manager’s trading desk on Monday. Its Ark Next Generation Internet ETF (ARKW) offloaded 44,784 shares, and Ark Fintech Innovation ETF (ARKF) sold 76,788 shares. Together, the sales were worth $26.3 million, based on the stock’s closing price of $105.5 on Monday.

The latest sale marks Ark’s third sale of Coinbase shares in recent days after nearly a year of building up its position. On the sales, Ark CEO and CIO Cathie Wood said the fund manager is “simply taking profits and reallocating the capital to some laggards” and that it is still “very positive about Coinbase, especially in light of the court ruling for Ripple against the SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission).”

Last week, Ripple pocketed a partial victory after a federal judge ruled that its XRP token is not a security when sold on the secondary market but is a security when sold to institutional investors. The ruling is favorable for Coinbase since it may affect the 13 tokens actively traded on Coinbase that the SEC alleged are securities in its lawsuit against the company last month, according to experts, including Wood and JPMorgan analysts.

The ruling has resulted in a significant surge in Coinbase’s price, with it currently trading close to its highest level in the past year. The shares have also rallied because Coinbase was listed as a surveillance-sharing partner for several spot bitcoin ETF applicants, including giants BlackRock and Fidelity.

While Ark is selling some Coinbase shares, it is still the second-largest owner, with more than a 6% stake, according to CNN data.

© 2023 The Block Crypto, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.

Mike Novogratz’s Galaxy Digital purchased self-custody platform GK8 from Celsius in December as part of bankruptcy proceedings.

The sale comes a day after ARK sold $50.5 million of the crypto exchange’s stock.

PLUS: A day in the life of Binance’s head of law enforcement training – petty crooks, fake subpoenas, and dodging politically sensitive requests.

Decentralized lending protocol Compound’s outstanding debt on Ethereum surpassed $1 billion– the highest it has been in a year, according to The Block’s data dashboard. 

The increase in outstanding debt represents a shift in the crypto market, which was hammered by a credit crisis in 2022. Across the board lenders from BlockFi to Celsius declared bankruptcy, resulting in a gap in crypto’s market structure. On July 14, outstanding debt stood at $1.07 billion. 

 

© 2023 The Block Crypto, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.

Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Gary Gensler said “it’s too early” to determine whether the agency he heads will draft more crypto-specific rules following a federal judge’s split decision in a high-profile enforcement case last week.

Gensler went on to note that the SEC has proposed rule changes during his tenure that apply to digital assets.

“There’s rules on the books about what it means to be a securities exchange, a broker, and investment adviser, there are rules on the books,” Gensler said in an online interview with Yahoo Finance.

“We’ve also put forward or even adopted rules with regard to broker-dealers in this space called special purpose broker-dealers, we’ve put forward rules with regards to the safeguarding of assets, so we’ve done some of that, but again, we’ll continue to consider it,” he continued.

Companies and crypto industry advocates have pushed back against some of those proposed rules, which included applying the definition of an exchange to decentralized finance entities and making explicit that custodial rules also apply to digital assets.

The final point became a point of emphasis after high-profile bankruptcies at Celsius, Voyager Digital and FTX tied up billions in customer assets because they were held by the firms rather than a third-party custodian. Those customers are unlikely to see the return of their entire holdings at the end of those bankruptcy processes.

Gensler sees ‘DeFi’ as ‘CeFi’

The financial markets regulator also challenged the concept of decentralized finance.

“This field is actually quite centralized,” Gensler said, arguing that decentralized projects sometimes have individuals with the title of CEO or chief technology officer, and that the assets are often held by less than 100 people. “Finance tends towards some centralization.”

“The investing public comes first, that’s how our securities laws were first written, companies raising money in the markets as well, and really protecting them and protecting the integrity of the markets as well,” he added.

Can’t comment on ‘ongoing’ litigation

Gensler declined to comment directly on the Ripple case, citing “ongoing litigation.” In addition to the possibility of an appeal of the split decision, which saw the judge side with the SEC on Ripple’s sales to institutional investors but with the company as to whether blind bid sales constituted securities violations, the SEC also has active enforcement cases against U.S. crypto giant Coinbase and global trading leader Binance.

The SEC chair also demurred when asked his thoughts about legislation in the House of Representatives aimed at tweaking existing rules around digital assets to create a clear pathway for a security asset to become a commodity, as well as giving the Commodity Futures Trading Commission more power over spot markets.

“We are asked by members of Congress, both in the House and the Senate, and we generally give them our feedback directly rather than through the interviews on-air,” Gensler said. “I’m going to save our comments for any draft legislation for members who are asking us directly.”

© 2023 The Block Crypto, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.

Equity analysts at Berenberg Capital Markets say that Coinbase’s suspension of staking in four states illustrates the stock’s regulatory risk and could open the door to scrutiny over its so-called Earn product, the firm said in a note Monday. 

Coinbase said retail clients in four states will no longer to be able to add new assets to its staking product while numerous legal proceedings carry on. 

Ten states — including Alabama, California, and New Jersey — filed actions against the exchange to halt its staking program within their jurisdictions on the heels of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s lawsuit against the firm in June.

Berenberg said this news reflects the regulatory risk around Coinbase’s stock that may have been forgotten after a federal judge issued a split decision in the SEC’s case against Ripple Labs last week.

“We believe this news served as a reminder to investors who may have viewed COIN’s risk profile as significantly improved after last week’s court ruling on Ripple Labs and the XRP cryptocurrency that the company’s challenges on the U.S. regulatory front remain significant while appearing far from being resolved,” analysts at the firm said. 

“We believe Coinbase Earn, the securitized product through which COIN offers staking rewards to retail customers, appears particularly vulnerable to being defined as a security within the context of the judge’s ruling.” the firm added. 

Coinbase rallied more than 20% on Thursday alongside the broader crypto market after a judge ruled that Ripple Lab’s sales of XRP on exchanges did not violate securities laws. 

© 2023 The Block Crypto, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.

The number of unique addresses on the Bitcoin network hit a high for the year, according to The Block’s data dashboard. 

The seven-day moving average for new addresses topped 500,000 for the first time this year, surpassing the previous high of 499,000 on April 8.

On July 12, the metric reached 501,440. That’s the highest level since May 2021.

The increase in new addresses has been underpinned by an appreciation in the price of the largest cryptocurrency, which has soared 43% this year. Trading on Monday was mostly muted, with the world’s largest crypto currency by market capitalization declining 0.3% to $30,212, according to CoinGecko.

© 2023 The Block Crypto, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.