Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to the Coinsents Crypto Wire, your regular update of news and events regarding Bitcoin, Ethereum, the other digital assets and the greater global geopolitical scene at large. Today is December 22, 2022.
The former CEO of Alameda Research, Caroline Ellison, and co-founder of FTX, Gary Wang, have pleaded guilty to charges related to the fraudulent activities of FTX. The Securities and Exchange Commission has also brought fraud charges against Ellison and Wang; accusing Ellison of manipulating the price of FTX's FTT token, and misusing customer funds to support Alameda's trading activity; and alleging that Wang programed software that allowed Alameda to divert FTX customer funds for its own purposes. The SEC is investigating other possible violations of Securities Law and other individuals who may have committed such violations. FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried has been charged with eight crimes, including money laundering and securities fraud, and is being extradited to the United States.
Caroline Ellison's plea deal states that if she fully cooperates with investigations, she will not face further prosecution, except for possible criminal tax violations. The deal requires Ellison to provide a $250,000 personal bond, to surrender her travel documents, and restrict travel to the United States.
Uniswap has announced a partnership with Moonpay to allow users to purchase digital assets using debit and credit cards or bank accounts. Uniswap will initially support a variety of stable coins for its customers inside the United States, and for its customers outside the United States, additionally will be able to purchase wrapped Bitcoin and wrapped ETH. The deal between Uniswap and Moonpay has not been disclosed and Uniswap is not offering off-ramp services at this time.
The European Central Bank has released its second progress report on its investigation into a central bank digital currency for the Eurozone. The report outlines the central bank's vision for the digital Euro, stating that private entities such as Banks and payment providers will be responsible for handling transactions, such as opening accounts and wallets, or processing payments.
The United States Securities and Exchange Commission has argued in a recent court filing that FTX's exchange token FTT is a security, which has implications for the wider cryptocurrency industry. The SEC argues that FTT was offered and sold as an investment contract, that FTX promised investors higher returns if they purchased the FTT token, and FTX used marketing materials that emphasized the potential for profit as a result of the SEC's classification of FTT as a security. FTX and its executives may face charges related to issuing unregistered securities.
The British Columbia government in Canada has announced that it will deny electricity to new cryptocurrency mining firms in an effort to conserve energy for other uses. The decision comes amid criticism that the mining practice consumes large amounts of electricity while creating few jobs in the local economy.
Twitter has launched a new feature that allows users to view live market data for certain search terms including stocks cryptocurrencies and ETFs. When users search for certain symbols such as BTC or ETH, a live price chart for the relevant cryptocurrency will be displayed.
Data from Glassnode and Santiment shows that retail investors, or those holding less than 10 BTC, now hold 17% of the total supply in Bitcoin. This marks a significant increase from the 13.9% of supply held by small investors at the beginning of 2021. This trend follows previous bull markets where the average retail holder numbers has always been seen as a positive sign for the adoption and distribution of Bitcoin. However, it is important to note that the current crypto market climate referred to as a "Crypto Winter", may mean that the next bull market is still a ways off.
Binance CEO, CZ, has advised inexperienced traders to stay out of the crypto market for the time being due to the current unpredictableness and high volatility of the market. CZ recommended that people only invest crypto with discretionary cash that they won't need for a long time, and warned against using money needed for the short term.
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