Saylor gets sued, FBI warns about DeFi exploits, and Crypto.com drops $495M sponsorship: Hodler’s Digest, Aug. 28

Coming every Saturday, Hodler’s Digest will help you track every single important news story that happened this week. The best (and worst) quotes, adoption and regulation highlights, leading coins, predictions and much more — a week on Cointelegraph in one link.

Top Stories This Week

 

US Fed vice chair Michael Barr favors hard line on crypto, OCC acting head no friendlier

Global crypto regulation remains a prevalent topic looming over the sector. Recent comments from United States Federal Reserve Board Vice Chair for Supervision Michael Barr and Acting Comptroller of the Currency Michael Hsu favored a lean toward more government overwatch. Barr expressed a desire for stablecoin regulation as well as crypto-related banking regulations. Hsu’s comments included looking at the industry cautiously.

 

GameStop doubles down on crypto amid a new partnership with FTX US

GameStop is teaming up with crypto exchange FTX US in a promotional partnership. So far, 2022 has seen GameStop pursuing increasing involvement in the crypto space, evident in its NFT marketplace launch and its new gaming division devoted to Web3. GameStop has a long-term vision for crypto involvement, according to CEO Matt Furlong during a Q2 fiscal year earnings call.

 

 

Binance: No plans to auto-convert Tether, though that ‘may change’

This week, Binance revealed plans to phase out three stablecoins on its trading platform: USD Coin (USDC), TrueUSD (TUSD) and USDP Stablecoin (USDP). The three assets, as well as associated spot trading pairs, will no longer be tradable on the exchange. In addition, Binance plans to terminate other services related to USDC on its platform, such as staking.

The transition is essentially an effort to centralize liquidity into the exchange’s own stablecoin, Binance USD (BUSD), based on an explanation tweeted by CEO Changpeng Zhao. The exchange will convert users’ remaining holdings of USDC, TUSD and USDP into BUSD over a span of 24 hours, commencing on Sept. 29. A conversion of Tether (USDT) to BUSD, however, was not included in Binance’s plans, though that could change, according to a Binance spokesperson.

 

Bank of Russia agrees to legalize crypto for cross-border payments: Report

Russia’s central bank is expected to allow cross-border crypto payments to and from the country, but digital asset payments inside its borders will remain banned. The country banned crypto as a payment vehicle via previous legislation. According to Russian Deputy Finance Minister Alexey Moiseev, the government’s new approach to crypto is a response to changing circumstances globally following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine earlier this year.

A statement to media outlet RIA Novosti from the Bank of Russia explained: “It is important to emphasize that we are not talking about the legalization of cryptocurrency as a means of payment on the territory of our country.” A day later, news came in regarding Russia reportedly looking to cooperate with so-called “friendly” countries to set up a stablecoin platform for cross-border payments.

 

UK economic secretary commits to make country a crypto hub under new PM

Developments in the United Kingdom this week appeared positive for crypto adoption in the country. Among several comments about crypto, Economic Secretary to the Treasury Richard Fuller said: “We want to become the country of choice for those looking to create, innovate and build in the crypto space.” The U.K. now has a new prime minister in Liz Truss, who expressed in 2018 that crypto’s potential should not be stifled in the country.

 

 

 

Winners and Losers

 

At the end of the week, Bitcoin (BTC) is at $21,293, Ether (ETH) at $1,715 and XRP at $0.34. The total market cap is at $1.04 trillion, according to CoinMarketCap.

Among the biggest 100 cryptocurrencies, the top three altcoin gainers of the week are Terra (LUNA) at 218.74%, Terra Classic (LUNC) at 76.92% and Ravencoin (RVN) at 65.43%.  

The top three altcoin losers of the week are Nexo (NEXO) at -11.74%, 1inch Network (1INCH) at -8.75% and UNUS SED LEO (LEO) at -6.35%.

For more info on crypto prices, make sure to read Cointelegraph’s market analysis.

 

 

 

 

Most Memorable Quotations

 

“Biggest reason I’m bullish on Bitcoin is because the world is not in good shape right now and Bitcoin is going to fix that.”

Prince Philip Karageorgevitch, hereditary prince of Serbia and Yugoslavia

 

“Until they actually fix the supply side of certain things, like energy especially, but commodities broadly and logistics infrastructure, until that is improved, it’s hard to have a more persistent fix to the inflationary problem.”

Lyn Alden, independent macro analyst

 

“You can’t walk into a Starbucks in America and pay with Swiss francs or pounds. Yet, both of these are real money. Context matters.”

Rockwell Shah, co-founder of Invisible College

 

“There will always be GPUs mining some GPU optimized chains, but I doubt we will return to the levels of revenue seen in ETH proof-of-work at its peak ever again.”

Andy Long, CEO of White Rock

 

“Ether’s price could decouple from other cryptocurrencies following The Merge, as its staking rewards will make it similar to an instrument like a bond or commodity with a carry premium.”

Chainalysis report

 

“I want to send a clear, strong message to everyone in the crypto world — anyone offering to hand you free money is lying. It simply doesn’t exist.”

FatManTerra, pseudonymous Twitter crypto influencer

 

Prediction of the Week 

 

Bitcoin analyst who called 2018 bottom warns ‘bad winter’ may see $10K BTC

Pseudonymous crypto market analyst Filbfilb sees Bitcoin possibly dropping down to $10,000 inside of 2022. Macro global factors and mainstream market correlation could potentially impact Bitcoin’s price trajectory, according to comments made by the analyst during an interview. Among a slew of insights, Filbfilb noted the current crypto bear market has some similarities to previous bear markets, but also includes differences. The analyst showed notable accuracy in calling Bitcoin’s bottom during its last bear market in 2018.

 

 

FUD of the Week 

Bitcoiner sentenced to federal prison warns users involved in OTC trading

Mark Alexander Hopkins, aka Rizzn on Twitter, claims he’s facing a prison sentence of 6-to-15 months. The crime? Allegedly failing to secure proper regulatory licensing for his crypto business of peer-to-peer (P2P) Bitcoin trading. Hopkins’ home was raided by U.S. authorities in 2019. Hopkins, also known as “Doctor Bitcoin,” claims to have registered with the U.S. Financial Crimes Enforcement Network but complications arose as some of his P2P Bitcoin dealings were tied to a client involved in money laundering. Authorities claim Hopkins did not conduct due diligence on his customers, although he asserts otherwise.

 

Which countries are the worst for crypto taxation? New study lists top five

Crypto taxes vary globally. Coincub, a digital asset analytics provider, recently published a study naming the five least favorable regions for paying crypto taxes. Belgium took the cake for the country with the worst crypto tax laws, requiring citizens to pay as much as 50% in some cases, with 33% levied on crypto capital gains. Following Belgium on the worst crypto tax jurisdiction list: Iceland, Israel, the Philippines and Japan.

 

Vermont’s financial regulator alleges Celsius and its CEO made ‘false and misleading claims’

Bankrupt crypto platform Celsius faces allegations from the ​​Vermont Department of Financial Regulation (DFR). The authority claims Celsius and its CEO Alex Mashinsky knew about the project’s financial issues, but proceeded to mislead the public into thinking everything was fine. The allegations also cite market manipulation of the project’s CEL asset. “By increasing its Net Position in CEL by hundreds of millions of dollars, Celsius increased and propped up the market price of CEL, thereby artificially inflating the company’s CEL holdings on its balance sheet and financial statements,” Ethan McLaughlin, assistant general counsel for the DFR, said.

 

 

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Easing monetary policies, the decline of inflation, the change in Bitcoin’s mining difficulty, and growing confidence in DeFi are factors that point to a renewed surge for crypto prices.