Gensler receives multiple death threats; SBF appeals fraud conviction

Headlines

▌US SEC Chairman Gary Gensler has received multiple death threats since 2022

Recently, Bloomberg reporters revealed through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request that since 2022, Gary Gensler, Chairman of the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), has received multiple threatening emails and voice messages from the United States and internationally. The threats included violent rhetoric, one of which claimed to shoot and "chop him up", and another threatening email with the subject "Go to hell" came from Australia. Some threats may even come from government employees. Although these threats are not explicitly related to Gensler's cryptocurrency regulatory policies, Gensler has long been ridiculed and criticized in the crypto community for his suppression of the digital asset industry. Many crypto users have publicly expressed their dissatisfaction with him on social media. At the 2024 Bitcoin Conference, Donald Trump promised to "fire" Gensler "once he takes office," winning a warm response from the audience.  

Currently, Gensler's term will last until 2026, but the election results may affect his stay.

▌SBF appeals against his fraud conviction and asks the court for a new trial

SBF, the founder of the crypto trading platform FTX, has formally appealed against his fraud conviction, asking for a new trial and accusing the judge who tried his case of being unfairly biased against him. 

Last November, a New York jury convicted SBF of seven counts of fraud and conspiracy related to the collapse of his cryptocurrency trading platform in November 2022. In March of this year, Lewis Kaplan, a U.S. District Judge for the Southern District of New York (SDNY), sentenced SBF to 25 years in prison for the crime, and he has currently served six months of his sentence.  

In a 102-page appeal filed Friday afternoon, SBF’s attorneys argued that Judge Kaplan treated the FTX founder unfairly throughout the trial, making “scathing remarks that undermined the defense” and “ridiculing” his testimony in front of the jury.

Market

As of press time, according to Coingecko data:

BTC's latest transaction price is $60,578.87, with a daily increase or decrease of +4.1%;

ETH's latest transaction price is $2,440.71, with a daily increase or decrease of +3.3%;

BNB's latest transaction price is $556.77, with a daily increase or decrease of +2.2%;

SOL's latest transaction price is $139.12, with a daily increase or decrease of +2.2%；

DOGE's latest transaction price is $0.1071, with a daily increase or decrease of +4.3%；

XPR's latest transaction price is $0.5728, with a daily increase or decrease of +1.9%。

Policy

▌Galaxy Research: The US SEC's attitude towards SAB-121 has eased

In his speech on September 9, Paul Munter, chief accountant of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), seemed to relax his attitude towards the SAB-121 policy that restricts banks from providing digital asset custody services. According to analysis by Alex Thorn, head of research at Galaxy, Munter proposed exemption standards that would allow bank holding companies and introducing brokers to circumvent the custody provisions in SAB-121. Banks can avoid SAB-121 reporting requirements by obtaining written permission from state regulators, holding customer assets in a "bankruptcy remote" manner, specifying standards in contracts, and conducting regular risk assessments. Introducing brokers must meet three conditions: they cannot hold customer private keys, cannot be a third party to transactions, cannot be an agent of the introducing broker, and must obtain a legal opinion confirming their exemption status. While this exemption may allow a large number of entities to avoid SAB-121 reporting requirements, large national banks may still need to appeal directly to the SEC. Thorn believes that the SEC's relaxation of SAB-121 is a positive development for the crypto industry and digital assets, although some believe that these measures may initially target the crypto industry.

▌Magic Eden CEO: Welcome to the regulation, unclear regulation is basically inevitable

Last month, OpenSea received a notice from the U.S. SEC Wells. Although the regulator had previously taken enforcement actions against NFT projects, the disclosure against OpenSea showed that the U.S. SEC had begun to review entities that provide trading platforms for NFTs, not just the entities that initially provided these platforms.  

Magic Eden has not yet become a target of the SEC, but its CEO Lu admitted that the lawsuit against OpenSea could have a wide impact on the cryptocurrency field, which is relatively untouched by regulators compared to exchanges or cryptocurrency issuers. "Unclear regulation is basically inevitable." Lu said, "If this incident can bring more clarity to this field, I welcome it."

Blockchain Applications

▌Ethereum Foundation Researcher Danny Ryan Ends Seven Years of Contribution and Leaves

Ethereum Foundation Researcher Danny Ryan announced his resignation to end his seven years of contribution in the Ethereum ecosystem. He stated on GitHub that the reason for his departure was personal reasons and to make room for new opportunities, emphasizing that this decision does not reflect problems in Ethereum or the crypto industry.  

Ryan played an important role in key upgrades of Ethereum, including the launch of the Beacon Chain in 2021 and the implementation of the "merge" protocol, and he also actively participated in the progress update of Ethereum Improvement Proposals. He said that although the experience of working on Ethereum was very valuable, he is now ready to make room for other things and find new directions.

Cryptocurrency

▌If Bitcoin breaks through $61,000, the cumulative short order liquidation strength of mainstream CEX will reach 452 million

According to Coinglass data, if Bitcoin rebounds and breaks through $61,000, the cumulative short order liquidation strength of mainstream CEX will reach 452 million.  

On the contrary, if Bitcoin falls below $58,000, the cumulative long order liquidation strength of mainstream CEX will reach 727 million.  

Note: The liquidation chart does not show the exact number of contracts to be liquidated or the exact value of the contracts to be liquidated. The columns on the liquidation chart actually show the importance of each liquidation cluster relative to the adjacent liquidation clusters, that is, the strength.  

Therefore, the liquidation chart shows the extent to which the underlying price will be affected when it reaches a certain position. A higher "liquidation column" means that the price will react more strongly to the liquidity wave after it reaches it.

▌Cryptocurrency trading platform Bit2Me obtains Argentine virtual asset service provider license

Bit2Me, a Spanish cryptocurrency trading platform, said it has been approved by the Argentine National Securities Commission (CNV) to become a virtual asset service provider (VASP).  

In March this year, CNV opened registration for virtual asset service providers, which is a prerequisite for companies in the industry that want to do business in the country. According to the official list provided by CNV, 79 companies have been approved.  

As previously reported, on June 15, 2023, Bit2Me completed a $15 million financing, led by Investcorp, and Telefónica Ventures, the investment arm of Telefónica, Spain's largest telecommunications company, Stratminds VC, Cardano and YGG Fund participated.

▌Aptos on-chain activity hits record high, suspected to be affected by robots

Layer 1 blockchain Aptos is showing significant signs of growth amid the crypto market downturn. Last month, Aptos' active monthly addresses reached 5.4 million, and user transactions exceeded 578 million times, setting a new record high. The APT token has risen 4.9% in the past 12 months, showing some resilience. However, while these data show that the Aptos ecosystem is active, the outside world is skeptical about the authenticity of its on-chain activities. Analysts believe that robot activities and airdrops may have led to the inflation of transaction volumes and active addresses, and these high transaction volumes do not necessarily mean there is actual economic activity. It will be key to observe whether growth can be maintained after the promotion ends.  

A sustainable blockchain ecosystem requires a balance of new and active users, not just a temporary surge in activity.

Important Economic Dynamics

▌International gold prices continue to hit new highs, with spot gold and COMEX gold futures both rising by more than 3% this week

International gold prices continue to hit new highs, with spot gold and COMEX gold futures both rising by more than 3% this week. Spot gold rose 0.77% to $2,577.7 per ounce, up 3.21% this week; COMEX gold futures rose 1.08% to $2,608.4 per ounce, up 3.31% this week. Spot silver rose 2.81% to $30.719 per ounce, up 9.97% this week. COMEX silver futures rose 3.22% to $31.075 per ounce, up 10.26% this week.

▌U.S. stocks opened higher and closed higher, with the S&P 500 and Nasdaq recording their largest weekly gains since November last year

U.S. stocks opened higher and closed higher, with the three major indexes collectively closing higher. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.72%, up 2.6% this week; the Nasdaq rose 0.65%, up 5.95% this week; and the S&P 500 rose 0.54%, up 4.02% this week. Among them, the S&P 500 and Nasdaq recorded their largest weekly gains since November last year, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average recorded its largest weekly gain in a month.  

Large-cap technology stocks rose and fell, with Intel, Google, and Netflix rising more than 1%, Tesla and Microsoft rising slightly; Amazon, Meta, Nvidia, and Apple falling slightly. Trump Media rose more than 11%, after Trump announced that he would not sell his shares in Trump Media Group.  

Coinbase in the cryptocurrency sector closed up 0.098%, up 7.98% for the week; MicroStrategy closed up 8.18%, up 18.83% for the week; Riot Platforms closed up 2.42%, up 9.59% for the week.

▌Goldman Sachs: Still expects the Fed to cut interest rates by 25 basis points next week

Goldman Sachs analysts recently said that they still expect the Fed to cut interest rates by 25 basis points next week, and will cut interest rates at each of the remaining meetings this year (November and December). In contrast, speculation about a larger Fed rate cut has reappeared. Former New York Federal Reserve Bank President Dudley said on Thursday that there is a high probability that the Fed will cut interest rates by 50 basis points at next week's meeting. Investors reacted significantly to news articles in the Financial Times and the Wall Street Journal on Friday, which emphasized that the first rate cut may be a difficult decision for Fed officials, which triggered market speculation about a larger rate cut.

Golden Encyclopedia

▌What is the Ethereum Prague-Electra (Pectra) upgrade?

Ethereum's Pectra upgrade combines two separate upgrades: the Prague upgrade and the Electra upgrade. The Prague upgrade focuses on changes to the network's execution layer, while the Electra upgrade affects the consensus layer. These upgrades are collectively referred to as the "Pectra" upgrade when combined. The Pectra upgrade will follow "Dencun," a merger of the Deneb and Cancun upgrades in March 2024. Technically, Dencun is an Ethereum hard fork designed to reduce transaction fees for Layer 2 solutions. Pectra is a new milestone on the Ethereum development roadmap and is scheduled to go live in the first quarter of 2025. This timeline allows for the inclusion of additional features to improve the Ethereum user experience (UX).

Disclaimer: As a blockchain information platform, Golden Finance publishes articles for information reference only and is not intended as actual investment advice. Please establish a correct investment philosophy and be sure to raise your risk awareness.