The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has concluded a three-year investigation into Hiro Systems, the entity behind Bitcoin’s Stacks layer-2 blockchain, which raised $70 million through token sales between 2017 and 2019.
According to a regulatory filing on July 12, the SEC has decided not to pursue enforcement action against Hiro Systems PBC, formerly known as Blockstack PBC.
In a letter included in the filing, the SEC stated, “Based on the information we have as of this date, we do not intend to recommend an enforcement action by the Commission against Hiro Systems PBC.”
This decision marks a pivotal moment for Hiro, which has treated its native token, STX, as a security under US law since its inception in 2018.
Since 2019, Hiro has consistently filed with the SEC under Regulation A+, a registration exemption for smaller securities issuances.
Additionally, it utilized exemptions under Regulations D and S for private and international offerings respectively.
In 2021, Hiro argued that the Stacks blockchain had achieved sufficient decentralization, asserting that it no longer qualified as a securities issuer.
In a filing, the company stated, “Management concluded further that if Hiro is no longer in the position of providing, and will no longer be able to provide, essential managerial services to the Stacks Blockchain, then it is no longer necessary for Hiro to treat the Stacks Tokens as investment contracts that are securities under the federal securities laws.”
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This decision by the SEC comes shortly after another crypto-related investigation was dropped earlier in the week.
On July 11, Paxos announced that the SEC had opted against enforcement action related to its investigation of the Binance USD stablecoin.
Despite these decisions, the SEC continues to pursue enforcement actions against other firms in the crypto space, such as Ripple, Binance, Kraken, and Coinbase.
Recent legal developments, including a significant Supreme Court ruling in June, have constrained the SEC’s regulatory approach.
The Supreme Court’s decision in Loper Bright v. Raimondo overturned the Chevron Doctrine, limiting the SEC’s flexibility in enforcing existing laws.
Moreover, recent court rulings against Ripple and Binance have further shaped the regulatory landscape for crypto issuers, challenging the SEC’s interpretations of securities laws.
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The European Union (EU) has confirmed it will continue collaborating with ChromaWay to develop blockchain-based sustainability solutions.
This announcement came on July 12, following ChromaWay’s presentation at the EU Pre-Commercial Procurement (PCP) final review meeting.
The presentation highlighted advancements in decentralized applications for Digital Product Passports (DPP) and intellectual property (IP) rights.
During the review meeting in Brussels, ChromaWay showcased its relational blockchain technology.
This technology enhances efficiency by improving the organization and complexity of on-chain data, combining the flexibility of relational databases with the decentralized security of blockchain.
It supports enterprise solutions and underpins Chromia, a public layer-1 platform for decentralized applications, which is set to launch its mainnet on July 16.
Or Perelman, co-founder of Chromia, told Cointelegraph, “By fostering collaboration among governments, regulators, institutions, and blockchain innovators, we can unlock the full potential of Web3 technology and drive widespread adoption.”
This statement reflects the platform’s eagerness to develop innovative solutions for institutional applications alongside the EU.
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The EU’s positive assessment of ChromaWay’s contributions highlights the significant potential of relational blockchain technology in both public and private sectors.
This aligns with the EU’s broader strategy to integrate innovative blockchain solutions, promoting sustainability and efficiency.
The EU has consistently emphasized its commitment to fostering technological advancements for economic and environmental benefits across Europe.
In July 2024, representatives from RBN Eco and ChromaWay will be interviewed by the European Blockchain Association to assess their compatibility with upcoming EU initiatives.
Additionally, the team will participate in a follow-up workshop in Brussels this September to outline the next steps for Q4 2024 and into 2025.
The EU has also partnered with other blockchain solutions, such as Iota. In June 2024, the European Commission selected Iota for its Web3 ID in the blockchain sandbox, further demonstrating the EU’s dedication to leveraging blockchain technology for various applications.
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A cryptocurrency wallet linked to Genesis Trading has transferred nearly $720 million worth of Bitcoin to Coinbase over the past month, indicating possible asset liquidations.
The wallet, associated with Genesis Trading, moved over 12,600 Bitcoin, valued at around $719.9 million, in the last 30 days.
These transfers mostly ranged from 500 to 700 BTC each.
According to Arkham Intelligence, the wallet’s Bitcoin balance has decreased from over 46,000 BTC a month ago to 33,356 BTC as of now.
These significant transfers occurred two months after Letitia James, the attorney general of New York, announced a settlement with Genesis.
The agreement requires Genesis to pay $2 billion to defrauded investors involved in its Earn program. The settlement also prohibits Genesis from operating in New York.
The recent transfers suggest that the Genesis Trading-labeled wallet might be preparing to repay users, given the amount of assets and the moves to Coinbase.
The wallet currently holds $2.28 billion in cryptocurrency, with Bitcoin making up $1.91 billion, followed by $364 million in Ether.
This amount exceeds the $2 billion that Genesis was ordered to pay to defrauded investors in its Earn program.
On June 14, the New York Attorney General’s office announced the recovery of over $50 million from Gemini, which will be returned to investors in its Earn program.
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The settlement also banned Gemini from operating any cryptocurrency lending program in New York.
James stated on X that “everyone that Gemini deceived will get their money back.” Gemini Trust assured that affected Earn users would receive “100% of the assets owed to them” within seven days.
The New York Attorney General’s office filed its lawsuit against Genesis in October 2023, later including the Digital Currency Group, its CEO Barry Silbert, and former Genesis CEO Soichiro Moro.
The lawsuit claimed Gemini defrauded 230,000 investors, including New Yorkers, through its Earn program with Genesis Global Capital and failed to disclose the associated risks.
Additionally, the NYAG filed a lawsuit against former Celsius CEO Alex Mashinsky for allegedly concealing the platform’s financial troubles.
Mashinsky faces criminal charges related to securities fraud, wire fraud, and conspiracy to commit fraud and is set to go to trial in January 2025.
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Cryptocurrency adoption is poised to surpass the significant milestone of one billion users, potentially as early as 2026.
Pavlo Denysiuk, CEO of crypto payments firm Lunu, predicts that the number of cryptocurrency holders could triple in the next two years if current growth trends continue.
Speaking at NFT Fest 2024, Denysiuk stated:
“Within two years there will be at least two times or three times more crypto holders worldwide.
“This is where we get more adoption everywhere and in terms of payments as well.”
The 2024 Cryptocurrency Ownership report by Triple-A estimates there are around 560 million crypto holders globally, which equates to approximately 6.8% of the world’s population.
Crypto adoption is expected to accelerate once the necessary infrastructure is established.
With nearly 7% of the global population holding cryptocurrency, broader acceptance of crypto payments is imminent.
Denysiuk asserts that mainstream companies like Starbucks adopting crypto payment infrastructure will drive this change:
“[Crypto payment adoption] is not something that you need to convince someone of.
“Whenever the infrastructure is there, whenever you come to your Starbucks shop or somewhere else and there is a sticker saying ‘we accept crypto.’”
He further explained that crypto payments are comparable to current digital payment methods such as credit cards and neobank-enabled payments, which are already widely used.
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Denysiuk leads Berlin-based Lunu, a company focused on creating a stablecoin-powered payments ecosystem to facilitate economic integrations.
Stablecoins play a crucial role in mass adoption, but improving user experience remains the biggest challenge. According to Denysiuk:
“Stablecoins are very important for adoption.
“In our case, we almost never see people paying in Bitcoin, even though Bitcoin was invented as a digital currency.”
The stablecoin market is valued at over $163 billion, representing 7.7% of the entire crypto market’s $2.11 trillion market capitalization, as reported by CoinMarketCap.
However, achieving the first billion crypto users will require more beginner-friendly applications. Chintan Turakhia, senior director of engineering at Coinbase, emphasized the need for streamlined user experiences:
“If our goal is to bring in the next billion users — and let’s start with just 100 million — we have to take all those friction points out.”
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Decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol Dough Finance lost $1.8 million in digital assets following a flash loan attack.
On July 12, Web3 security firm Cyvers flagged multiple suspicious transactions, collaborating with lending protocol Aave to check for potential impacts on its pools. Cyvers confirmed that Aave’s pools were not affected.
However, Dough Finance bore the brunt of the attack. Cyvers reported that the attacker used the zero-knowledge (ZK) protocol Railgun to fund their operation, swapping the stolen USD Coin for Ether.
The total amount stolen was 608 ETH, equivalent to approximately $1.8 million.
Olympix, another Web3 security provider, explained that the exploit resulted from unvalidated calldata within the “ConnectorDeleverageParaswap” contract.
The firm elaborated:
“The contract didn’t properly check the data it received during flash loan calls, allowing the attacker to manipulate it for their benefit.”
This vulnerability allowed the attacker to manipulate data and steal the funds.
Olympix warned that depositors in the exploited contract could be affected but reassured that Aave pools remained secure.
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They advised Dough Finance users to withdraw their funds to secure wallets and to stay alert for updates from the Dough Finance team, avoiding interaction with the protocol until the issue is resolved.
Although Dough Finance’s losses were close to $2 million, the broader crypto space has faced over $1 billion in digital asset losses from various incidents.
On July 3, blockchain security firm CertiK published a report revealing that onchain incidents had already caused $1.19 billion in losses in the first half of 2024.
Phishing attacks and private key compromises were the primary culprits, with phishing attacks alone accounting for nearly $500 million and private key compromises for almost $409 million.
CertiK co-founder Ronghui Gu emphasized the need for enhanced security measures, including multifactor authentication methods such as two-factor authentication (2FA) and security keys, to protect against such substantial losses.
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Bitcoin approached $58,000 around the Wall Street open on July 12 as markets reacted to the latest U.S. inflation data.
Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView data indicated that Bitcoin’s price improved as the Producer Price Index (PPI) for June exceeded expectations.
The year-on-year PPI was 2.6%, higher than the forecasted 2.3% and 0.1% above the previous month.
“On an unadjusted basis, the index for final demand rose 2.6 percent for the 12 months ended in June, the largest advance since moving up 2.7 percent for the 12 months ended March 2023,” the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported.
Despite contrasting with the Consumer Price Index (CPI) numbers from July 11, BTC/USD avoided a decline after the PPI release.
Instead, it saw modest gains alongside U.S. stocks, while the dollar weakened.
“So overall PPI is sticky on YoY basis if not higher due to higher prices & lack of supply,” popular trader Skew remarked on X (formerly Twitter). “Increasing energy, food and trade services prices is not a great look.”
Skew pointed out that excluding energy, food, and trade services, the index was “basically flat” and less surprising to markets.
“Initial reaction was DXY & Yields up before lower, this tells me the market is transitioning into expecting a harsh reality when demand continues to buckle,” he concluded.
READ MORE: Bitcoin Long-Term Holders Remain Resilient Amid Deepest Correction of Current Price Cycle
“NQ & ES likely recovering here with hedges coming off. End of day performance will be important.”
The U.S. Dollar Index (DXY) dropped 0.35% on July 12, nearing its lowest levels in over a month.
Skew also described Binance’s spot order book as “pretty healthy.” “Although orderbooks are skew to bid, need to see this translate into market flows being bid,” he noted alongside a liquidity chart.
Other traders called for a stronger move from BTC/USD to signal a longer-term recovery. Popular trader Rekt Capital identified $58,350 as a crucial level for the daily close.
“There’s the rebound Bitcoin needed and price is now challenging that Lower High resistance again,” he informed his X followers, highlighting the PPI reaction with a chart.
“Bitcoin needs to Daily Close above $58350 (black) to break the Lower High and more importantly – position itself for a rally to $60600 (blue).”
Rekt Capital reiterated that BTC/USD had been attempting to break through a downward trendline but faced rejection in recent days.
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Global cryptocurrency trading is on the rise, with a study from CoinWire predicting industry trading volumes will exceed $108 trillion by the end of 2024.
This estimate represents a 90% increase compared to 2022.
The United States is leading with a projected crypto trading volume surpassing $2 trillion.
While the US may lead in trading volume, Europe dominates in global cryptocurrency transaction value, accounting for 37.32%.
Europe has been proactive in shaping its cryptocurrency industry through regulations, providing clear guidelines for traders and exchanges.
The European Union’s landmark Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation partially came into effect on June 30, focusing on stablecoins.
Further regulations for crypto asset service providers are expected in December.
This legislative framework, in development since 2020, represents the EU’s first set of uniform market rules for crypto assets.
The survey anticipates Europe’s cryptocurrency trading volume will reach $40.5 trillion in 2024, a 2.7-fold increase from its $15 trillion in 2022.
READ MORE: BitMEX Downplays 2020 BSA Violation as Founders Settle Charges and Avoid Further Penalties
Asia follows closely, accounting for 36.17% of the world’s cryptocurrency transaction value.
The study’s conclusions were drawn by analyzing centralized exchanges with trust scores higher than six on CoinGecko.
This analysis considered factors like web traffic by country, supported languages, headquarters location, and trading time zones.
One key finding is that Binance dominates the crypto exchange market in over 100 countries, with a trading volume of $2.77 trillion.
Binance.US also holds a significant presence, though with a lower trading volume of $3.9 billion. This makes Binance the most “widely used” exchange globally.
On July 5, Binance celebrated its seventh anniversary and the milestone of reaching 200 million users worldwide.
Following Binance are OKX and Cex.io, with a presence in 93 and 92 countries, respectively, and trading volumes of $759 billion and $1.83 billion.
Coinbase and Bybit operate in 90 and 87 countries, respectively, with trading volumes of $662 billion and $1.14 trillion.
The rise in global crypto trading and the increasing regulatory clarity in regions like Europe signify a rapidly maturing industry poised for significant growth in the coming years.
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King Doge (KINGDOGE) is a new memecoin that was launched on the Solana blockchain earlier this week, and it has huge potential.
New Solana memecoin King Doge is poised to skyrocket over 16,000% in the coming days, before it begins trading on centralized exchanges.
The memecoin currently has a market cap of around $20,000, and it can only be purchased via decentralized exchanges, such as Raydium and Jup.ag.
However, once it gets listed on centralized exchanges later this month, its market cap and price will skyrocket, because millions of new crypto traders will be able to easily buy it.
This means that smart crypto investors who purchase King Doge before its first CEX listing will make huge returns.
All of King Doge’s liquidity is burned, meaning the developers cannot take out the liquidity that they have allocated (unlike 99% of new Solana memecoins.) This a major advantage for early investors and it significantly increases its potential of generating huge gains in the coming days and weeks.
To buy KINGDOGE on Raydium or Jup.ag, users need to connect their Solflare, MetaMask or Phantom wallet, and then exchange Solana for King Doge by entering the token’s contract address – 8wcpzdFBrHHkzfZXDV73DnuizCpQUd7WWMyu3nwQWTSy – in the receiving field.
If you don’t have a wallet already, you can easily create a new one and transfer some Solana to it from any centralized exchange of your choice, before swapping the Solana for KINGDOGE tokens.
The United States Supreme Court’s decision in Loper Bright vs. Raimondo has significant implications for the cryptocurrency industry.
The ruling, which ended the long-standing Chevron deference, shifts power between the judicial and executive branches of the US government.
Since 1984, Chevron allowed courts to defer to federal agencies in interpreting ambiguous statutes, but the 6–3 decision on June 28 changed that.
“Chevron is overruled,” the court declared.
“This decision impacts many sectors, including technology, finance, healthcare, and the environment.
Jim Lundy, a securities enforcement and litigation partner at Foley & Lardner, commented, “The Supreme Court did the appropriate thing with this ruling because the Chevron deference had started to stretch too far for certain agencies.”
Joshua Simmons, a partner at Wiley Rein, noted the ruling’s significant long-term impact, especially for the crypto and blockchain sector.
“The decision takes away the deference that agencies had,” Simmons said, suggesting that more companies will challenge agency decisions and face a more level playing field.
Joanna Wasick, a litigation partner at BakerHostetler, highlighted how crypto was referenced during oral arguments.
“Loper Bright’s attorney, Paul Clement, pointed directly to crypto as an example of how the SEC [Securities and Exchange Commission] oversteps its authority.”
This ruling could push Congress to pass crypto reform legislation and encourage companies to bring lawsuits.
Peter Van Valkenburgh wrote in a Coin Center blog, “Without Chevron, a judge in SEC v. Consensys need not defer to the SEC’s own understanding of what exactly a ‘broker’ is.” Uniswap Labs also referenced Loper Bright, urging the SEC to drop its proposal on decentralized finance.
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Other federal agencies might also feel Loper Bright’s impact. Custodia, a state-chartered crypto bank, recently appealed the Federal Reserve’s decision to deny it a Master Account, potentially benefiting from this ruling.
Kathryn Haun called the ruling “the most significant court case for technology policy in the U.S. in years.”
Lundy emphasized that while the ruling doesn’t eliminate regulatory agencies’ rulemaking abilities, it removes Chevron deference in ambiguous cases.
This change may not be a game-changer historically but will influence how agencies like the SEC and CFTC craft rules for the cryptocurrency industry.
In Europe, the impact of Loper Bright is seen as potentially reducing regulatory barriers, similar to the EU’s MiCA framework.
Annabelle Rau of McDermott Will & Emery suggested that a more predictable regulatory landscape could encourage innovation in digital asset tokenization.
Overall, while the ruling alters the game, its full impact will unfold over time through further litigation and challenges.
As Lundy noted, the defense bar will likely explore new ways to challenge SEC and CFTC rulemakings for the cryptocurrency and blockchain industries.
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The Institute of Certified Public Accountants of Cyprus (ICPAC) has urged accounting and auditing professionals to play a crucial role in detecting and preventing terror financing.
This alert highlights five primary methods terrorists use to transfer funds, including cryptocurrencies.
ICPAC, which regulates the accountancy profession in Cyprus, issued a “terror financing alert” to enhance efforts against such activities.
While law enforcement agencies usually handle financial crimes such as money laundering and terror financing, ICPAC emphasizes the need for accounting professionals to participate in monitoring. The regulator stated:
“These days, given the nature of services provided and the role of professionals as gatekeepers, it is a requirement for obliged entities to take an active role in the prevention phase.”
ICPAC identified five fund transfer methods used by terrorists: donations through nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), cash, bank transfers and gift cards, cryptocurrencies, and shell companies.
Regarding cryptocurrencies, ICPAC advises accountants to watch for anonymous cross-border peer-to-peer transfers, crowdfunding, charitable donations, and anonymous online fundraising campaigns.
ICPAC instructed its members, firms, and compliance officers to report suspicious activities, warning that failure to do so constitutes an offense.
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Consequently, flagged transactions will undergo thorough scrutiny, including profiling individuals, screening crypto wallets and transactions, and using specialized blockchain tools.
A U.S. Treasury official revealed that Palestinian militant groups, including Hamas, used small amounts of cryptocurrencies for funding but preferred traditional financial methods.
Blockchain analytics firm Elliptic confirmed that Palestinian Islamic Jihad raised $12 million through crypto fundraising, contradicting a Wall Street Journal report that initially claimed they received between $41 million and $93 million from August 2021 to June 2023.
Elliptic found no evidence of such high amounts raised through crypto, prompting the Journal to correct its report.
“To be clear,” Representative Tom Emmer asked the Treasury’s Undersecretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Brian Nelson, ”Hamas is using crypto in relatively small amounts compared to what’s been widely reported, that’s correct?”
“That’s our assessment, yep,” Nelson confirmed.
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