Hodler’s Digest, August 4-10 – Cointelegraph Magazine

The main news of the week

XRP rockets 26% as Ripple execs hail $125 million fine as ‘victory'

As a New York federal judge nears the end of a three-year bankruptcy case against Ripple Labs, the price of XRP has increased by 26%, which executives call a “victory” for the industry.

In the year On August 7, a judge ordered Ripple Labs to pay a $125 million civil penalty and said the company is “permanently enjoined and enjoined” from violating US securities laws as part of a case filed by the Securities and Exchange Commission. As Cointelegraph reports, the decision appears to put Ripple's case with the SEC at its final stage since the regulator first filed charges in December 2020.

XRP rose 26% to $0.63 after the news, paring most of its losses from the broader crypto since Aug. 5, according to CoinMarketCap data. At the time of publication, XRP was trading at $0.59.

Brad Garlinghouse, CEO of Ripple Labs, said on XPost shortly after: “This is a victory for Ripple, the industry and the rule of law. The SEC has lost its wind on the entire XRP community.””The SEC's relentless campaign against us is finally over. Let's all hope this ends the administration's war on crypto,” Ripple Labs founder Chris Larson added in a post on X.

India seeks $86M from Binance for unpaid GST taxes

Indian law enforcement agencies have demanded 722 crore Indian rupees ($86 million) in unpaid taxes from crypto exchange Binance.

Binance, along with several other offshore crypto exchanges, was banned in India in January 2024 for not complying with local regulations. However, in April, Binance expressed its desire to resume its crypto business in the region after paying pending taxes. On August 6, the Directorate General of Goods and Services Tax Information (DGGI) – India's law enforcement agency – requested 86 million. from Binance under Goods and Services Tax as reported by Times of India. A local source cited in the report:

“Binance reportedly earned at least Rs 4,000 crore from transaction fees charged to Indian customers. A detailed investigation revealed that the proceeds of these fees were credited to the account of a Binance Group company – Nest Services Limited – based in Seychelles.

The DGGI notice to Binance is the first tax demand imposed by the Indian government on any crypto exchange.

Indian authorities also sent email notifications to Binance offices in Seychelles, Cayman Islands and Switzerland, which the crypto exchange ignored. However, Binance later appointed local counsel to officially address its tax obligations.

Bitcoin falls below $50K: Crypto market falls 17%

In the year On August 5, Bitcoin price fell below $50,000 for the first time since February, hitting a low of $49,351 before returning to the $51,000 mark.

In both the altcoin and stock markets crash, while BTC's dominance reached 58%, more than 17% of the cryptocurrency market capitalization was wiped out. According to CoinMarketCap, the total market capitalization of the crypto market was about $2.16 trillion, but on August 5 it fell to $1.76 trillion.

Bitcoin's early August 5th decline led to the liquidation of $600 million worth of long positions taken by traders. This market crash saw Ether plummet, losing nearly 20% of its value in just two hours. At the time of writing, the price of ETH was around $2,200 after recovering from a low of $2,172 on August 5 at 7:25 am UTC.

Donald Trump Jr. is pitching a crypto platform to ‘take over' banks.

Donald Trump Jr. has announced plans to launch a new decentralized financial cryptocurrency platform to address inequality in access to banking. However, the platform is still in its early stages and will take some time to materialize.

In the year During a subscription-based question-and-answer session on August 8, Donald Trump Jr., the eldest son of presidential candidate and former president Donald Trump, said he had not launched memecoin but was working on a crypto platform. Banks.

“We are talking about a large platform” which is very different and not memecoin, he said. However, he added that not giving anything by the deadline “will take a long time to do something.”

Trump Jr. didn't give many more details on stage, but emphasized that he would target the banking system.

What we want to do is take on more of the banking world. I think there is a lot of inequality in that only some people can get financial aid. […] So this idea of ​​decentralized finance obviously appeals to unbanked people like me.

Grayscale, Bitwise, NYSE American apply to list options on 3 Ether ETFs.

NYSE American LLC has proposed a rule change that would allow listing and trading of options for three Ether exchange-traded funds managed by crypto asset managers Grayscale and Bitwise.

In the year In an Aug. 7 filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the NYSE has requested that the SEC approve the listing and trading of Bitwise Ethereum ETF (ETHW), Grayscale Ethereum Trust (ETHE), and Grayscale Ethereum Mini. ETH)

NYSE America said allowing options trading on the three Ether ETFs would benefit investors by providing them with a low-cost investment vehicle to gain additional exposure to Ether. Additionally, the introduction of options trading will provide investors with a hedge to meet their investment needs regarding ETH products and positions.

Comments on the proposal are expected to be submitted within the next 21 days. Specifically, the NYSE American rule change request applies only to Grayscale and Bitwise, which are listed on the Ether Funds Exchange. NYSE America's request comes a day after options exchange Nasdaq asked the SEC to allow trading in BlackRock's iShares Ethereum Trust ( ETHA ).

Winners and losers

At the end of the week, Bitcoin (BTC) at $60,697, Ether (ETH) at $2,611 and XRP at $0.57. According to CoinMarketCap, the total market cap is $2.10 trillion.

Among the top 100 cryptocurrencies, the top three altcoin gainers for the week were Sui (SUI) at 31.95%, Helium (HNT) at 27.14% and Zcash (ZEC) at 2.45%.

The top three altcoin losers of the week were Lido DAO (LDO) at 22.67%, Artificial Superintelligence Alliance (FET) at 20.91%, and Beam (BEAM) at 19.17%. For more information on crypto prices, be sure to read Cointelegraph's market analysis. .

The most memorable quotes

“This is a victory for Ripple, the industry, and the rule of law. The SEC's windfall has been lost on the entire XRP community.

Ripple Labs CEO Brad Garlinghouse

I think how quickly people stop ‘cross-L2 interoperability issues' being problems and we get a smoother user experience across the whole Ethereum-verse.

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin

“If the SEC is to engage in an unprecedented regulatory campaign, it's the transparency of what they're targeting—and the public—that they owe.”

Paul Grewal, Chief Legal Officer at Coinbase

“To time the entry of the next bull market, we aim for the price of bitcoin to drop to the low 40,000s.”

Marcus Thielen, CEO of 10x Research

“Telegram is currently one of the hottest platforms in the crypto world. With one billion users and the lowest user acquisition cost, it can quickly and affordably introduce new users to crypto.

Ruslan Fakhrutdinov, CEO and founder of X10

“Now, nation-states holding Bitcoin on the ledger can be discussed. And if nations are going to buy it, it is reasonable for institutions, corporations and individuals to buy it too.

Michael Saylor, co-founder of MicroStrategy.

Forecast of the week

If the Magnificent 7 stocks post another $500 billion loss, Bitcoin could fall below $50k.

Shares of the “Magnificent Seven” have been falling sharply, threatening to put further downward pressure on the price of Bitcoin.

The Magnificent Seven, the moniker for some top-performing tech stocks like Nvidia and Microsoft, lost more than $650 billion in accumulated market capitalization during regular trading on Aug. 5.

Although it has made a slight recovery since then, another potential downturn in high-tech stocks could send Bitcoin prices lower, said Akshay Nasa, founder of Chimp Exchange.

NASA told Cointelegraph:

“The correlation between stock market performance and cryptocurrency values ​​is well-documented; as major tech stocks decline, investor sentiment generally shifts away from alternative assets, including bitcoin.”

According to Nasa, the correlation between Bitcoin and technology stocks has gained more importance, as the tech heavyweight Nasdaq has entered a significant correction, which could flow into the crypto space.

While stocks are generally more resilient to market volatility, another decline in the Magnificent Seven could hurt Bitcoin's price, said Alvin Kahn, chief executive officer of Bitgate Wallet.

Khan told Cointelegraph:

“If the Magnificent 7, including Amazon and Apple, are falling, investors will need some form of protection against riskier assets like Bitcoin. This means that significant capital flight in the broader financial market could weigh on Bitcoin's price.”

FUD of the week

To avoid the worst ‘death cross' consequences, the price of Bitcoin needs to reverse $62k.

Bitcoin could hit an inevitable “death cross” if it breaks through $62,000 for support, according to a recent analysis. In the year In an X thread on August 9th, popular trader Benjamin Cowen used history to suggest how bulls can avoid a new dip in bitcoin prices.

BTC's recent price action has led BTC/USD to reach another moving average crossover gate, classically known as the “death cross”. This includes a crossing of the 50-day simple moving average (SMA) below its 200-day counterpart. Currently, the 50-day and 200-day SMAs are at $61,998 and $61,882, respectively, according to data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView.

The Death Cross gets its name from the assumption that the drop in value for BTC after the crossing is done is an early warning.

As Cowen points out, however, the results are often mixed. The last daily death cross in 2023, in fact, prevented many gains. “In 2023, BTC started its rally after the death cross. It then broke above the 50D SMA and held it as support before going higher,” he said.

Bittress warns of new crypto scams using QR codes

According to a report posted on social media by blockchain analytics firm Bitrace, scanning the wrong QR code can drain your wallet.

Bittress is warning about a new type of crypto scam: “Theft is carried out through a payment QR code transfer attempt, essentially tricking users into handing over wallets.”

According to the organization, the scam follows a certain pattern. First, the scammer proposes that the user exchange tokens over the counter – a wallet-to-wallet transfer rather than an exchange – and offers an exchange rate that beats the market.

They also offer a payout in Tron's TRX token in exchange for long-term cooperation. In order to gain user trust, they make payments for USDT, Dollar Page's stable coin.

Missing ‘Cryptoqueen' Ruja Ignatova has assets frozen in UK court.

In a ruling on August 7, the United Kingdom's High Court of Justice granted an international freezing order against Ruja Ignatova, the popular “cryptocoin” and several other alleged co-conspirators in the OneCoin scheme.

More than 400 victims of the OneCoin debacle have banded together and filed a lawsuit against Ignatova, OneCoin co-founder Sebastian Greenwood, Christopher Hamilton and Robert MacDonald for allegedly helping to launder funds in OneCoin's name, and four influencers who promoted OneCoin to the public.

In addition, Ignatova has been slapped with a global asset freeze for businesses that allegedly used OneCoin to launder money and buy assets. Ignatova From the time Onecoin was founded in 2014 until the collapse of the fraudulent project in 2017 and the disappearance of Ignatova, he was accused of defrauding investors in a $4 billion Ponzi scheme.

Ignatova was last seen in She was in Athens, Greece in 2017 and has not been seen since, putting her on the US FBI's top ten most wanted list.

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Cointelegraph magazine writers and reporters contributed to this article.