Hodler’s Digest, July 28 – August 3 – Cointelegraph Magazine

Top five stories of the week

Senator Lummis introduced the Bitcoin Strategic Reserve Bill in the Senate

On July 31, Senator Cynthia Lammis officially introduced the Bitcoin Strategic Reserve Account, which would lead the United States government to launch a decentralized asset reserve fund. Specifically, the bill would establish a “decentralized secure Bitcoin storage network” controlled by the United States Treasury.

The bill also directs lawmakers and bureaucracies to enact strict cyber security measures and other physical security measures to prevent Bitcoin funds from being stolen. Additionally, the bill sets a goal of accumulating 1 million Bitcoins over time, or 5% of the total Bitcoin supply, in an amount that reflects the U.S. Treasury's gold allocation using U.S. Treasury funds.

The Loomis Act reaffirmed the right to self-government in the United States. He wants to protect this right, which is being criticized by some US lawmakers.

Bitfinex Hacker Heather Morgan Appears at Bitcoin Conference 2024

After Heather Morgan — a self-proclaimed social engineer and prolific rapper known by her alter ego “Razilcan” — was arrested and pleaded guilty to one of the most daring cyber-heists in history, she stole 120,000 bitcoins worth $4.5 billion during the 2016 Bitfinex hack.

Contrary to what many believed she was behind bars, Morgan's appearance at the Bitcoin 2024 conference in Nashville sparked curiosity and controversy among attendees.

Morgan faces up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine if she pleads guilty on Aug. 3, 2023. Since then, she is awaiting sentencing, scheduled for November 8, 2024.

Jameson Loup, a Bitcoin developer and co-founder of Bitcoin protection organization Casa, finds her existence highly dubious. He advised Bitcoin event organizers to treat her as a threat actor and deny her entry.

Loop's concerns highlight the widespread uncertainty in the crypto community about Morgan's intentions and the threat he could bring to these meetings. He told Cointelegraph that he believes there are two possible explanations for her attendance at these events.

“Charity's explanation is that she needs consulting gigs to pay the $250,000 fine she owes the government,” Lopp said. She reportedly introduced herself as a “Web3 consultant” at a Bitcoin conference.

However, Lopp said the “dissenter's explanation” was that she “gathered intel on behalf of the government and wanted to reduce her sentence.”

4 Suspects Forced Bitcoiner to Transfer BTC Before Killing Him, Police Say

Police have arrested four suspects in the murder of an unidentified 29-year-old foreign Bitcoiner in Kiev, Ukraine, after they allegedly stole $170,000 worth of bitcoins.

The four suspects – all male and aged between 24 and 29 – reportedly planned the attack and began their attack at midnight on July 29, Kyiv police said. Residents called the police after hearing screams and saw several people beating a man and forcing him into a car.

Police said the victim was taken to an abandoned building where he was forced to hand over nearly 7 million Ukrainian hryvnias worth of bitcoins (around 2.55 BTC) before the attackers strangled the man and buried his body in the woods.

Kyiv police said the four men changed the appearance and license plate of the car used to hide the crime. The suspects exchanged the bitcoins for piles of US dollars and euros before being apprehended by Kiev police.

Trump's Bitcoin sneakers are on eBay for $2,500.

A pair of Donald Trump's limited-edition orange Bitcoin-themed sneakers have made their way to eBay, with skulls hoping to sell their place in the pre-order queue for up to $2,500.

At the time of writing, there were 12 listings on eBay for Bitcoin orange tops. Prices start as low as $700 in live auctions but go up to $2,500 in “best offer” conditions. One offer set the price at $69,999 as a joke.

However, there's no telling if the sellers will keep their word or if the listings are legit.

Most listings promise to ship the shoes to their buyers once they receive them, which is expected between September and November. Most sellers seem to have high ratings, although more than one has been accused of “fraud” in the buyer feedback section.

The Trump Bitcoin-themed sneaker went live for pre-order on the official Trump Sneakers website on July 31, with a limited edition of 1,000 orange high-tops. Sold out in three hours.

Specifically, the website says five pairs of the limited edition shoes will be randomly signed by Trump — meaning Trump sneakers will have a 1 in 200 chance of receiving a signed pair.

The judge allowed the request of the former FTX exec to be postponed to report to prison

A federal judge granted former FTX Digital Markets CEO Ryan Salame's request to delay until Oct. 13 to report to prison.

In a July 30 filing in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, Judge Lewis Kaplan approved a request to delay Salameh's surrender date by 45 days as part of a 7.5-year prison sentence. Salameh's legal team bit the former FTX executive's face on June 29 while visiting a friend's house and asked for a delay due to medical problems.

In a July 26 filing, Salameh's legal team redacted medical information related to his injuries, but said a German shepherd “mauled” him and required treatment and surgery before taking him to jail. He was originally scheduled to report to prison on Aug. 29, nearly three months after his sentencing.

The former FTX executive returned to social media platform X two years after his May trial. On the day of the dog attack, he suggested that a surgeon who did not hold back his political views may have deliberately injured him while treating the wound.

Winners and losers

At the end of the week, Bitcoin (BTC) at $62,083, Ether (ETH) at $3,038 and XRP at $0.56. According to CoinMarketCap, the total market cap is $2.21 trillion.

Among the largest 100 cryptocurrencies, the top three altcoin gainers for the week were AAVE (AAVE) at 14.02%, Bitcoin Cash (BCH) at 4.14% and Kaspa (KAS) at 2.45%.

The top three altcoin losers of the week were Dogwiffhat (WIF) at 35.25%, Render (RENDER) at 27.10% and Bittensor (TAO) at 24.54%.

Be sure to read Cointelegraph's market analysis for more information on crypto prices.

The most memorable quotes

“The general idea is that if criminals don't know much about you, they're less likely to target you.”

Jameson Lopp, co-founder of Kasa

“There is no reason to think that the SEC has determined that SOL is unsafe.”

Jake Chervinsky, Variant's chief legal officer

“As families across Wyoming struggle to keep up with ever-increasing inflation and our national debt reaches new and unprecedented highs, now is the time to take bold steps to create a strategic bitcoin stockpile to create hope for generations to come.”

Cynthia Lummis, United States Senator

“Politicians are embracing crypto because Americans are embracing crypto.”

Matt Hougan, Chief Investment Officer of Bitwise Asset Management

“Anyone deaf??? Silk Road BTC moving two days after Trump promised not to move!!!!!

Mike Novogratz, CEO of Galaxy Digital

“The SEC's approach simply threatens the livelihoods of artists and creators who are experimenting with novel, rapidly evolving technology or have chosen it as their preferred medium.”

David L. Patron, attorney at Phelps Dunbar

Forecast of the week

Ethereum ETFs Could Reach $10B AUM in First Year: Signum Bank

SpotEther's exchange-traded funds can accumulate up to $10 billion in assets under management in their first year of business.

Kathleen Tischhauser, head of investment research at Signum Bank and a former executive at Goldman Sachs, told Cointelegraph in an interview that the predictions are based on her predictions for spot Bitcoin ETFs. For the first 12 months of trading, Bitcoin ETF revenues are predicted to be in the range of $30 billion to $50 billion, and Ethereum products will follow.

“Ethereum's low name recognition could mean slower adoption,” she said before adding.

“With Ethereum a third of Bitcoin's market capitalization, we expect the relative revenue streams to be in the 15-35% range with Bitcoin, with a forecast of $5 to $10 billion in the first year.”

According to the researcher, there were significant advantages to ETFs for traditional investors because they are mostly not prepared to directly trade, stabilize and manage risk of crypto investments.

“A familiar regulated product like ETFs makes Ether more accessible to investors looking for simple investment exposure.”

FUD of the week

SEC still believes SOL is a security, say crypto execs

The United States Securities and Exchange Commission on July 30 withdrew its request for a court to rule on the case against Binance, but did not let Solana off the hook as a security.

“The SEC has no reason to think SOL is unsafe,” said Jake Chervinsky, chief legal officer at crypto-focused venture capital firm Variant Fund, in a July 30 post on X.

Chervinsky's post refers to the SEC's latest response, which seeks to amend its complaint about “third-party crypto asset securities,” essentially telling the court that it does not seek to identify whether the tokens listed in the complaint are securities or not.

While Chervinsky didn't elaborate on what that “litigation mechanism” might be, he pointed out that the SEC still points to similar signs in other crypto exchange lawsuits, including the one against Coinbase.

In separate posts, Miles Jennings, general counsel and head of decentralization at a16z Crypto, and Justin Slough, director of policy at Paradigm, seem to agree.

Slaw argued that many are “reading too much into this filing” and that this does not mean the SEC has ruled that Solana and other tokens are not securities.

Jennings said Judge Amy Berman Jackson in the Binance case set the bar so high for establishing the Hawaii challenge that it was not worth the SEC's time and effort to prove that these tokens were securities.

SEC accuses BitClout founder Nader Al-Naji of fraud

In the year On July 30, the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), along with the United States Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York, announced the indictment of BitClout founder Nader Al-Naji.

The SEC complaint alleges that BitClout's founder sold $257 million in unregistered securities in BitClout's native token, BTCLT, and misappropriated a portion of those funds to defraud investors. The SEC also named Decentralized Social (DeSo), a new project from Al-Naji, in the complaint and related press release.

Specifically, the complaint accuses Al-Naji of spending client funds on luxuries such as renting a Beverly Hills mansion and giving generous cash gifts to family members, despite promises to investors that the money would not be used to compensate any members of the Bitcoin group.

The SEC's complaint alleges that Al-Naji also misrepresented the BitClout project's core internal operations. According to the securities regulator, BitClout's founder has misled investors and law firms by claiming the project is decentralized, with no ruling company controlling it, running the project behind the scenes.

Crypto sleuths investigate suspect in Sydney Sweeney hack.

A few weeks after American actress Sydney Sweeney suffered a high-profile cryptocurrency-related hack on X, some new details have emerged about the attack and the alleged hacker.

ZachXBT, an anonymous, free sleuth on the chain, took to X to post an investigation on the hacking of Sidney Sweeney's X account on July 30 and the connection to the hacker Gurvinder Bhangu who was accused of the incident.

Artist X's account was hacked on July 2, 2024, with the attacker promoting the Solana-based token, SWEENEY, through a pump-and-dump method.

According to ZachXBT findings, Bhangu was one of the men behind the hack.

Bhangu, who goes by the name “Gurv” in ZachXBT's post, is described as a criminal hacker who used to hack Instagram accounts and scam users in the UK.

The best magazine stories of the week

How crypto bots are ruining crypto — including pulling the auto memecoin rug

Crypto trading cannot function without crypto bots, but they manipulate markets, disrupt airdrops and spend billions in MEV.

‘Elon Musk in Bitcoin 2024' Scam, Lazarus Group Hacks, MOG Phishing: Crypto-Sec

Investors Lose $79K in Bitcoin 2024 Deep Scam Elon Musk, MOG Holder Impersonates Malware Ransomware on ESXi Server Software

WazirX ‘coordinates' $235m loss, $10B equity reverse plan to backfire: Asia Express

Japan's ‘hikikomori' could be a $10B opportunity in Metaverse, the clock is ticking for Binance in the Philippines and more.

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Cointelegraph magazine writers and reporters contributed to this article.