Top Stories of The Week
Grayscale calls out SEC delay of Digital Large Cap Fund ETF listing
Attorneys for digital asset manager Grayscale pushed back against the US Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) delay on approving its Digital Large Cap exchange-traded fund (ETF) in a letter sent on Tuesday.
The SEC’s Division of Trading and Markets initially approved the ETF proposal, but the SEC’s Office of the Secretary decided to review the action immediately afterward, halting the decision, Grayscale’s attorneys said.
This violates the “statutory approval or disapproval deadline” set by the SEC and conflicts with established procedure, according to the attorneys.
Binance helped create World Liberty Financial stablecoin — Report
Cryptocurrency exchange Binance reportedly helped create the code behind the stablecoin issued by World Liberty Financial (WLF), one of the crypto businesses tied to US President Donald Trump.
According to a Friday Bloomberg report citing three people familiar with the matter, Binance helped create, promote and played a role in the largest transaction of WLF’s USD1 stablecoin. The crypto business, backed by Trump and his three sons, launched USD1 on March 4.
An Abu Dhabi-based investment firm, MGX, announced a $2 billion investment in Binance on March 12 using a then-unnamed stablecoin. Eric Trump, one of WLF’s co-founders, said in May that the company would be using USD1 to settle the investment.
Peter Schiff says sell Bitcoin for silver as BTC smashes new highs
Longtime Bitcoin critic and gold advocate Peter Schiff said the latest BTC rally may be a selling opportunity for investors to buy silver instead.
“With Bitcoin hitting new highs today (in dollars), it’s a great time to sell some and buy silver ahead of silver’s next big leg up,” Schiff said in a Thursday X post as Bitcoin put on its moon boots again and set new highs above $112,000.
He claimed that silver has more upside potential than Bitcoin and added that while BTC “can easily crash, silver’s downside seems very limited.”
Arthur Hayes, co-founder and former CEO of BitMEX, also weighed in on market conditions in a Friday X post. He said he was “slightly bearish” due to the US Treasury General Account being replenished through new debt issuance, which could temporarily drain liquidity.
High-leverage trader James Wynn deactivates X account
James Wynn, a crypto trader known for his high-leverage crypto bets, appears to have deactivated his X social media account, following nine-digit losses.
Wynn’s X handle “JamesWynnReal” now routes to a page that says “This account doesn’t exist. Try searching for another.”
The trader’s wallets show a combined balance of just $10,176, according to balances displayed by Arkham Intelligence and Hypurrscan.
Cointelegraph reached out to Wynn for comment but was unable to get in touch with the trader. Before deleting the X account, Wynn changed his profile bio to one word: “broke.”
Snoop Dogg’s Telegram ‘gifts’ sell out in 30 minutes: NFTs back?
American rapper Snoop Dogg sold out a collection of almost a million non-fungible tokens (NFTs) on Telegram in 30 minutes on Wednesday, seemingly defying the notion that the NFT industry is “dead.”
Snoop Dogg’s new digital gift collection of around 996,000 non-fungible tokens (NFTs) powered by the TON blockchain is “inspired by Snoop’s iconic style” and generated $12 million in sales, Telegram founder Pavel Durov said in an X post on Wednesday.
“Blockchain minting and the secondary market go live in 21 days. It’s going to be wild,” he added.
The tokens in the collection included representations of vintage cars, swag bags, a digital dog, marijuana-related objects, and a mix of other items and symbols.
Winners and Losers
At the end of the week, Bitcoin (BTC) is at $117,967 Ether (ETH) at $2,962 and XRP at $2.78. The total market cap is at $3.68 trillion, according to CoinMarketCap.
Among the biggest 100 cryptocurrencies, the top three altcoin gainers of the week are MemeCore (M) at 1,234.52%, Stellar (XLM) at 59.52% and Story (IP) at 49.69%.
The top three altcoin losers of the week are Jito (JTO) at 4.57%, OKB (OKB) at 0.64% and Pi (PI) at 0.15%. For more info on crypto prices, make sure to read Cointelegraph’s market analysis.
Most Memorable Quotations
“BTC confirms daily higher-high and confirms an end to the downtrend that started in late May.”
Matthew Hyland, crypto trader
“So Ethereum is scalable enough, affordable enough, legal enough in the United States.”
Joseph Lubin, co-founder of Ethereum and CEO of ConsenSys
“We cannot have the people who are in charge of passing legislation and enforcing legislation, implementing legislation, have conflicts of interest with their official responsibilities. You should be divesting from crypto if you’re going to be regulating crypto.”
Richard Painter, former White House chief ethics lawyer
“The crypto-friendly SEC, along with the GENIUS Act, can align the crypto industry to rapidly expand, with the potential for the stablecoin market to reach $1-2 trillion in market cap in a few years.”
Nick Ruck, director at LVRG Research
“However, I am not sure that there is a compelling case for stablecoins moving the needle on dollar dominance beyond that, unless retail use accelerates in developing countries on the back of incentives.”
Katalin Tischhauser, head of research at Sygnum
“[The testimony] would be unfairly prejudicial as it would likely confuse and mislead the jurors into believing that Mr. Storm was involved in the underlying purported hack or intended to facilitate it, which is not true.”
Attorneys representing Tornado Cash co-founder and developer Roman Storm
Top Prediction of The Week
Bitcoin Christmas rally to $200K or $300K possible based on ‘power law’ model
Bitcoin has rallied by 10% in July, reaching new highs at $118,600, and this could be just the beginning of a parabolic rally according to anonymous Bitcoin analyst apsk32. The analyst said that Bitcoin could be worth as much as $258,000 if history repeats itself.
According to apsk32, Bitcoin’s price action has followed a long-term power curve trendline, a mathematical model reflecting BTC’s exponential growth over time. It measures price deviation from this trendline, not just in dollar terms, but in units of time, an approach known as Power Law Time Contours.
Top FUD of The Week
Chinese creditor challenges FTX motion to halt payouts in restricted countries
A Chinese creditor has filed an objection to a motion from the FTX estate that would pause payouts to residents in jurisdictions with laws or regulations restricting cryptocurrency transactions, according to a Tuesday court filing.
The creditor, Weiwei Ji, stated that although they reside in Singapore, they have been classified as a Chinese creditor due to holding a Chinese passport. Ji noted that the objection was submitted on behalf of Ji and a growing group of Chinese creditors — reportedly over 300 individuals, according to the filing.
The objection raises two key arguments: First, that FTX settlements are made in US dollars, which are a standard legal repayment method. Second, it notes that cryptocurrency distributions are legal in China, with digital assets constituting “personal property.”
Bitzlato co-founder requests US pardon after guilty plea — Report
Anatoly Legkodymov, a Russian national and former CEO of cryptocurrency exchange Bitzlato, reportedly requested a federal pardon from US President Donald Trump after a 2023 guilty plea and serving 18 months in prison.
According to a Friday report from the Russian state media outlet TASS, Legkodymov’s legal team officially asked Trump for a presidential pardon after he pleaded guilty to operating an unlicensed money transmitting business. Legkodymov was indicted in January 2023, pleaded guilty in December, and was sentenced to time served in July 2024 after being in custody for about 18 months.
“Anatoly […] became a target in a political campaign against the crypto market and talented Russian programmers,” said Ivan Melnikov, vice president of the Russian branch of the International Committee for Human Rights, according to TASS.
France opens criminal investigation into X for alleged algorithmic manipulation
The French Public Prosecutor’s Office has opened an investigation into X over the alleged use of its algorithm for foreign interference.
According to a statement from Magistrate Laure Beccuau on Friday, prosecutors have launched a probe into whether X violated French law by manipulating its algorithms to extract user data fraudulently.
The investigation was launched after two reports were submitted to the Paris Public Prosecutor’s Office’s cybercrime division on Jan. 12 — one by Member of Parliament Éric Bothorel, a member of French President Emmanuel Macron’s Ensemble Pour La Republique party, and another by a senior government official whose identity was not disclosed.
Top Magazine Stories of The Week
Inside a 30,000 phone bot farm stealing crypto airdrops from real users
“The industry has absolutely no clue how sophisticated this stuff is,” says the CEO of Mirai Labs, who takes Magazine inside a 30,000-phone farm.
China’s 100K TPS blockchain, Japan’s Minna Bank eyes Solana: Asia Express
North Korean defectors targeted by scam crypto app, Indonesian exchange lists locally as COIN and more.
Digital art will ‘age like fine wine’: Inside Flamingo DAO’s 9-figure NFT collection
Flamingo DAO members can spend 5 ETH from the treasury on any NFTs they like. One minted ‘massively profitable’ Bored Apes.
