SEC
Community reacts after SEC’s Gensler affirms BTC’s commodity status
Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Gary Gensler riled up Crypto Twitter on Monday after affirming that Bitcoin (BTC) is a commodity. Questions were raised about its impact on Grayscales’ proposed Bitcoin ETF and why Ethereum wasn’t mentioned. Speaking to Jim Cramer on CNBC’s Squawk Box on Monday, June 27, the SEC chair said while many crypto-financial assets have the key attribute of a security, Bitcoin is the “only one” that he was comfortable publicly labeling as a commodity. “Some, like Bitcoin — and that’s the only one I’m going to say because I’m not going to talk about any one of these tokens, but my predecessors and others have said they’re a commodity.” Grayscale Bitcoin ETF The remarks kicked up chatter about Grayscale’s application to convert its Bitcoi...
Grayscale reports 99% of SEC comment letters support spot Bitcoin ETF
Digital asset manager Grayscale reported overwhelming support in public comments for its application to launch a spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund. In a Monday letter to investors, Grayscale said that of the more than 11,400 letters the United States Securities and Exchange Commission, or SEC, had received in regards to its proposed Bitcoin (BTC) investment vehicle, “99.96 percent of those comment letters were supportive of Grayscale’s case” as of June 9. According to Grayscale, roughly 33% of the letters questioned the lack of a spot BTC ETF in the U.S., given the SEC had already approved investment vehicles linked to Bitcoin futures, as was the case for ProShares and Valkyrie. “The SEC’s actions over the past eight months […] have signaled an increased recognition of and comfort wi...
XRP price rally stalls near key level that last time triggered a 65% crash
Ripple’s (XRP) ongoing upside retracement risks exhaustion as its price tests a resistance level with a history of triggering a 65% price crash. XRP price rebounds 30% XRP’s price gained nearly 30%, rising to $0.36 on June 24, four days after rebounding from $0.28, its lowest level since January 2021. The token’s retracement rally could extend to $0.41 next, according to its cup-and-handle pattern shown in the chart below. XRP/USD four-hour price chart featuring “cup and handle” pattern. Source: TradingView Interestingly, the indicator’s profit target is the same as XRP’s 50-day exponential moving average (50-day EMA; the red wave). XRP/USD daily price chart featuring 50-day EMA upside target. Source: TradingView Major resistance hurdle The cup-and-handle bullis...
Gensler appeals for ‘one rule book’ in negotiations with CFTC over crypto regulation
United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) chair Gary Gensler is in talks with Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) officials on a “memorandum of understanding” on the regulation of digital assets. Together, the agencies can assure market integrity, Gensler told The Financial Times in an interview published Thursday. “I’m talking about one rule book on the exchange that protects all trading regardless of the pair — [be it] a security token versus security token, security token versus commodity token, commodity token versus commodity token,” Gensler told the newspaper. Gensler’s desire to be collaborative comes as a variety of legislative initiatives have been introduced to create a more comprehensive regulatory framework for digital assets. The Digital Commodity Ex...
Senators join chorus of disapproval of ‘backdoor regulation’ in SEC staff accounting bulletin
United States Senator Bill Hagerty has sent a letter, cosigned by four other Republican senators, to Securities and Exchange (SEC) Commission chair Gary Gensler urging the withdrawal of a staff accounting bulletin, referred to as SAB 121, issued by the agency March 31. According to the senators, the bulletin amounts to “regulation disguised as staff guidance” and does not adhere to the Administrative Procedure Act. SAB 121 provides guidance on accounting and disclosure for companies that safeguard clients’ crypto assets and allow them to perform transactions with them. The bulletin said those companies, which include platforms such as Coinbase and Robinhood, should list digital assets as liabilities on their balance sheets at fair value. The need for the new accounting procedure was chalke...
Elusive Bitcoin ETF: Hester Perice criticizes lack of legal clarity for crypto
The crypto sector may be maturing, but regulatory clarity around the treatment of digital assets continues to remain cumbersome. This was recently highlighted by Commissioner Hester Peirce — also known as the United States Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) “crypto mom” — in remarks she made at “The Regulatory Transparency Project Conference on Regulating the New Crypto Ecosystem: Necessary Regulation or Crippling Future Innovation?” Peirce began her speech by emphasizing the importance of “regulating the new crypto ecosystem.” While this may be, Peirce also noted that the crypto industry is still in search of an actual regulator. She said: “A bipartisan bill announced last week attempts to answer that question. Some people in the crypto industry are celebrating the all...
This key Ethereum price metric shows ETH traders aren’t as bearish as they appear
Ether (ETH) is down 25% in just a month and even the recent upgrade to a proof-of-stake (PoS) consensus on the Ropsten testnet failed to move the altcoin’s price. The merge is meant to address energy-use issues and open a path for higher transaction output, but the actual full transition for the Ethereum network is not expected until later in the year. Ethereum developer Parithosh Jayanthi also noted that some bugs on the PoS implementation emerged, but those should be fixed over the coming weeks. Luckily for Ethereum, two of its top competitors recently faced challenges of their own. The Solana (SOL) network faced the fifth outage in 2022 after no new blocks were produced for four hours on June 1. Every decentralized application was halted until the validators were able to addr...
BNB price risks 40% drop as SEC launches probe against Binance
Binance Coin (BNB) price dropped by nearly 7.3% on June 7 to below $275, its lowest level in three weeks. What’s more, BNB price could drop by another 25%–40% in 2022 as its parent firm, Binance, faces allegations of breaking securities rules and laundering billions of dollars in illicit funds for criminals. Bad news twice in a row BNB was issued as a part of an initial coin offering (ICO) in 2017 that amassed $15 million for Binance. The token mainly behaves as a utility asset within the Binance ecosystem, primarily enabling traders to earn discounts on their trading activities. Simultaneously, BNB also functions as a speculative financial asset, which has made it the fifth-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization. BNB market capitalization was $45.42 billion as of June ...
Bad day for Binance with SEC investigation and Reuters exposé
The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is investigating whether Binance Holdings broke securities rules when it launched its BNB token in an initial coin offering (ICO) five years ago, Bloomberg reported on June 6. Binance is the world’s largest crypto exchange, and BNB is the fifth largest cryptocurrency. The BNB ICO took place in July 2017 on several platforms, during the height of the so-called ICO boom, and the Binance exchange opened just days afterward. According to Bloomberg, citing unnamed people familiar with the matter, at least one U.S. resident claimed to have taken part in the ICO, which could be a crucial fact for an SEC case, if the agency chose to pursue one. The SEC has claimed most cryptocurrencies are securities and brought cases against a number of I...
OpenSea ‘insider trading’ could see NFTs labeled securities: Former SEC lawyer
Former Securities and Exchange Commission lawyer Alma Angotti says this week’s news about an OpenSea employee being charged with insider trading could open the doors to non-fungible tokens being labeled as securities. On Wednesday, in a first for the industry, prosecutors in Manhattan charged former OpenSea product manager Nathaniel Chastain with insider trading. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York said the exact charges were “wire fraud and money laundering in connection with a scheme to commit insider trading.” Until now, the phrase “insider trading” has not been used in regard to cryptocurrency and typically refers to insider trading of securities. Related: EU commissioner calls for global coordination on crypto regulation Angotti was once an enforceme...
One River’s spot Bitcoin ETF application rejected by SEC
The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) maintained its perfect record for rejecting Bitcoin (BTC) spot exchange-traded fund (ETF) applications Friday when it disapproved a rule change to allow cryptocurrency-focused hedge fund One River Digital to offer the One River Carbon Neutral Bitcoin Trust on the New York Stock Exchange Arca. The decision comes somewhat ahead of schedule, as the agency had extended the original deadline to June 2 to allow more time for consideration. The commission wrote that, when considering One River’s proposed rule change, it applied “the same standard used in its orders considering previous proposals to list bitcoin-based commodity trusts.” Specifically, the proposed rule change did not meet the SEC’s rules around fraud...
Cathie Wood’s Ark and 21Shares refile for spot Bitcoin ETF
ARK Investment Management, an investment firm founded by veteran investor Cathie Wood, is taking another try to launch a spot Bitcoin (BTC) exchange-traded fund (ETF) in the United States. ARK Invest submitted on May 13 yet another application for its physical Bitcoin ETF, the ARK 21Shares Bitcoin ETF, according to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The application includes a proposed rule change from the Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE) BZX Exchange. According to Bloomberg ETF analyst Henry Jim, the latest deadline for approval or disapproval of the ARK 21Shares Bitcoin ETF is January 24, 2023. Ark 21Shares decides to try again for a “Spot” Bitcoin ETF and files 19b-4 with SEC. Deadline for approval / disapproval: Jan 24, 2023 (latest). Deadlines:2...
