Telegram CEO can’t leave France, OpenSea receives Welsh announcement and more: Hodler’s Digest, August 25

Top 5 stories of the week

Binance is under investigation for its handling of Palestinian crypto funds.

Major global cryptocurrency exchange Binance has seized cryptocurrency at the request of Palestinians in Israel, according to sources from a prominent industry executive.

Ray Youssef, co-founder of peer-to-peer (P2P) crypto platform Paxful and P2P crypto platform NoOnes, took to X on August 26 to report that Binance had seized funds from Palestinians at the request of the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF). ).

“Binance has taken all the funds from all Palestinians at the request of the IDF. They refuse to return the money. They reject all appeals,” Youssef wrote, citing multiple sources, including a letter from Israeli officials sent by Binance.

Stating that the move affected all Palestinians, he predicted that other countries such as Lebanon and Syria would follow.

“All Palestinians are affected and the way things are going, all Lebanese and Syrians will get the same treatment. Not your keys, not your coins,” Yusuf said.

Telegram CEO Pavel Durov was banned from leaving France and released

Telegram messaging app founder and CEO Pavel Durov has been released from prison after being charged by French authorities and taken into custody.

According to an August 28 Bloomberg report, French prosecutors have charged Durov with criminal offenses related to his role in Telegram. He was banned from leaving France and had to post 5 million euros ($5.5 million) bail before being released.

A video widely shared by Russia's state-owned news outlet RIA Novosti shows Durov walking free from a Paris court on August 28.

Police took Durov to court after arresting him at an airport north of Paris on Aug. 24. Authorities initially extended the Telegram CEO's detention until Aug. 28, when he was expected to be released or face charges.

OpenSea Marketplace will receive a notification from the SEC

Devin Finzer, CEO of non-fungible token (NFT) marketplace OpenSea, said the company had received a notice of Wells from the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), suggesting possible enforcement action.

In an Aug. 28 X post, Finzer said the SEC issued a Wells Notice stating that NFTs traded on the marketplace may qualify as unregistered securities. The CEO of OpenSea said the platform is ready to “stand and fight” any enforcement actions.

“This is a move into uncharted territory,” Finzer said. “By targeting NFTs, the SEC stifles innovation on a broad scale: hundreds of thousands of online artists and creators are at risk, and many lack the resources to protect themselves.”

The CEO of OpenSea added:

“In addition to standing our ground, we have pledged $5M to cover legal fees for NFT creators and Davis who receive Wells' notice. Every creator, big or small, should be able to create something new without fear.

The judge ordered the former FTX executive to appear after being asked to drop the guilty plea

A federal judge has ordered a trial for former FTX Digital Markets CEO Ryan Salame, despite a request to vacate his guilty plea.

In an Aug. 29 filing in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, Judge Lewis Kaplan said Salameh must appear in court as part of his Sept. 12 bail condition. He was originally scheduled to report to prison starting Aug. 29 to serve a 90-month sentence, but that was delayed to Oct. 13 after he reported medical complications from a dog bite.

In the year On August 21, the legal team of the former FTX executive submitted a petition to the court to withdraw the guilty plea, the authorities agreed not to investigate his colleague, Michelle Bond. However, after prosecutors dropped the campaign finance law charges against Bond on Aug. 22, Salamee said she could withdraw the plea and rule on the case.

The Brazilian judge blocked X for refusing to call Elon Musk's representative

A Brazilian Supreme Court judge has ordered social media platform X to be banned in Brazil after Elon Musk refused to call the company's legal representative.

According to an August 30 Associated Press report, Judge Alexander de Moraes in 2011 If Musk fails to appoint a legal representative by August 29, he will follow up with plans to close X's Brazilian operations. with [Moraes’] Illegal Order to Censor His Political Rivals”

It's unclear what X's next move will be for Brazilian users. Musk has made several posts calling Judge Mores “evil” and “tyrannical” for alleged “illegal political censorship.” Moras was investigating X for authorizing and promoting disinformation related to former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro.

At the time of publication, Brazil X reported that users could still access the social media platform. According to Statista, more than 20 million of the country's 217 million residents use X.

Winners and losers

At the end of the week, Bitcoin (BTC) at $59,224, Ether (ETH) at $2,525 and XRP at $0.56. According to CoinMarketCap, the total market cap is $2.08 trillion.

Among the largest 100 cryptocurrencies, the top three altcoin gainers of the week are Helium (HNT) up 6.51%, TRON (TRX) up 0.88% and Akash Network (AKT) -1.23%. The top three altcoin losers of the week are: Be sure to read Cointelegraph's market analysis for more information on crypto prices with Notcoin (NOT) up 27.76%, Celestia (TIA) up 24.42% and SATS (1000SATS) up 23.96%.

The most memorable quotes

“If you're neutral, you're basically anti-DeFi at this point.”

Cain Warwick, founder of Syntex

“In addition to standing our ground, we have pledged $5M to cover legal fees for NFT creators and Davis who receive Wells' notice. Every creator, big or small, should be able to create something new without fear.

Devin Finzer, CEO of OpenSea

“My biggest hope is that we can really do it. [Web3] It's free for everyone.

Polkadot founder Gavin Wood

In the latter stages of the third quarter, fiat liquidity conditions could not be more favorable. As crypto hodlers, we have a following tailwind at our backs.

Arthur Hayes, co-founder of BitMEX

“Bitcoin bounces back to convince bull market is over.”

Rekt Capital, anonymous crypto trader

Forecast of the week

$1.3T in RWAs by 2030, more likely than $30T – Analyst

A crypto analyst is skeptical of predictions that real-world assets (RWAs) could hit $30 trillion by 2030, suggesting that 5% of that amount is a more realistic target.

If the current 2-year CAGR [compound annual growth rate] At 121 percent, we could see nearly $1.3 trillion in traditional assets by 2030, said Jamie Coates, chief crypto analyst at RealVision, in an Aug. 27 post on X.

Asset tokenization is the process of issuing security tokens (a type of blockchain) that represent real digital tradable assets. These symbols represent anything from real estate and bonds to art and stocks.

In June, Standard Chartered and Synpulse predicted that tokenized RWAs could reach $30.1 trillion by 2034.

While Coates thinks Wall Street's forecast is “overly optimistic,” even the more conservative estimate could do serious damage to the Web3 ecosystem if it pans out the way he thinks it does.

He believes that if $1.3 trillion in RWAs were onchain, it would “create a huge flywheel effect” on other parts of the crypto ecosystem, such as non-fungible tokens (NFTs), social platforms and games.

FUD of the week

Chinese ‘CoinGecko' local police investigation – report

Feixiaohao, a major cryptocurrency market information and industry news provider in China, is reportedly under investigation by local police.

Several top executives at Feixiaohao have reportedly been arrested in an ongoing investigation by Inner Mongolia, an autonomous region in northern China, Chinese cryptocurrency journalist Colin Wu reported on the Telegram channel Wu Blockchain News on August 28.

Wu cited a report from a local crypto channel on WeChat that said “several key members of the Feixiaohao group” had been taken in by Inner Mongolia police for questioning.

MT Gox and the US government could introduce a 15B Bitcoin selling push.

Bitcoin's slow pace could carry over into September as Matt Gox and the US government could inject about $15 billion in additional selling pressure.

More than $14.8 billion worth of Bitcoin will soon flood the market and may put further downward pressure on prices.

The US government holds more than 203,000 bitcoins worth $12.1 billion, and the defunct crypto exchange Mt. Gox to distribute another 46,000 bitcoins worth more than $2.7 billion.

The Altcoin season didn't arrive because everyone jumped ‘straight to the punchline'

As crypto traders eagerly await the altcoin season, one analyst contends it won't pan out as expected.

“The joke's been told, everybody knows the punchline, and they've gone straight to the punchline, and it's not funny anymore,” Glassnode lead analyst James Check said on the Aug. 29 episode of the Rough Consensus podcast.

Analyzing traders' behavior during the bull run of 2021 and comparing it to 2024, Czech traders tried to tackle the market by jumping directly into buying overvalued memecoins as soon as possible.

In past bull runs, memecoins have typically risen toward the end of a broader market rally, but this time, the asset is rallying faster than ever.

“In 2021, we will have everything bubble, where this beautiful capital falls, Bitcoin, Ethereum, L1s, DeFi, up to monkey JPEGs,” Czech explained.

The best magazine stories of the week

‘Everything seems to be angry': Peter McCormack reveals new podcast

Peter McCormack's podcast joins the McCormack Show and Real Bedford FC football categories.

Bitcoiners have been ‘all in' on Trump since Bitcoin '24, but it's getting dangerous.

This choice can make or break Bitcoin. But tying the fortunes of the crypto industry to Donald Trump is a high stakes gamble.

Elon Musk is worth 100 thousand followers: Yat Siu, X Hall of Flame

Yat Siu, founder of Animoka Brands, says each X series has a unique “network effect” and is trying to figure out how to measure it.

Subscribe

A very engaging read in Blockchain. It is given once a week.

Editorial staff

Cointelegraph magazine writers and reporters contributed to this article.