What happened in crypto this week?
It's been another busy week in crypto: Donald Trump's World Freedom Financial (WLFI) plans to launch a stablecoin, BlackRock's spot Bitcoin ETF hits $30 billion in assets in 293 days, ex-FTX executive Nishad Singh stays out of jail, and immutable Wells embraces . Notice from the SEC.
Let's take a closer look at these and give you a recap of what happened in the crypt this week.
Donald Trump plans to open a financial stable coin
As the US election approaches, Donald Trump's Global Freedom Financial Project plans to enter the crypto market by linking a stablecoin to the US dollar.
The news of this is that the project has collected 14 million dollars in initial funding. However, despite plans to capitalize on the growing demand for stablecoins, the project has seen limited success, falling short of the $300 million dollar token sale.
On top of that, shortly after the sale went live, the platform's website crashed, and despite 100,000 people registering, only 6,832 unique wallets held WLFI tokens, Eterscan reported.
With election day only a few days away, if Trump becomes US president again, he will have a significant impact on the regulatory environment surrounding stablecoins, which could be a crucial step for WWFI in the future.
BlackRock's Spot Bitcoin ETF Hits $30 Billion in Assets
BlackRock's spot bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) reached a record $30 billion in assets in 293 days. In doing so, gold performed in 1,790 days and the JPMorgan Equity Premium Income ETF ( JEPI ) performed in 1,272 days.
BlackRock holds more than 433,000 bitcoins, worth $30.5 billion, according to iShares data.
BlackRock's milestone comes 10 months after the company launched its Bitcoin ETF position in January. BlackRock then reportedly traded $7.5 million in shares in the first 10 minutes of its launch.
With the combined Bitcoin ETFs, they now have over a million Bitcoin holdings and will soon surpass Satoshi Nakamoto's wallet holding 1.1 Bitcoins.
12,000 btc a day keeps the doctor away lol. At this rate, Satoshi will pass in less than two weeks. Altho you can't keep up this Joey Chestnut level pace, can you?
— Eric Balchunas (@EricBalchunas) October 31, 2024
Former FTX executive Nishad Singh avoids jail
Earlier this week, Nishad Singh, the former director of engineering at crypto exchange FTX, was sentenced to three years of supervised release in federal court in New York.
“This may be one of the greatest crimes in American history,” said Judge Louis Kaplan. Kaplan also noted that Singh's involvement seemed limited compared to that of FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried and former Alameda Research CEO Caroline Ellison.
The lawyers argued for a lenient sentence because of the “significant assistance” provided by Singh. Bankman-Fried was sentenced to 25 years in prison, while Ellison is expected to surrender by Nov. 7 and was sentenced to 24 months in prison.
As the crackdown on FTX executives continues, Singh is the fourth former executive to receive a sentence, with co-founder Gary Wang set to appear in court on November 20.
Unchanged will receive a notice from the SEC
Blockchain gaming platform Idle Wells has become the latest to receive a notice from the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), citing violations of securities laws.
According to Immutable, nothing was revealed in the ad; However, he believes “the claims are aimed at IMX's listing and private sales in 2021.” They said that they are sure that the immovable IMX token is not a security.
Wells' announcement before the U.S. election shows reason to be skeptical that “the industry is trying to provide transparency to any investigation from this SEC,” Immutable said.
“There are months of interviews and discussions between the company's counsel and the SEC before Wells' announcement, so the SEC can fully understand the situation,” Immutable added. “Instead, in our first contact with the SEC, we were told that Wells' notice would be provided to the company within the week. We received it within hours.”
Unchangeable joins the list of companies in the crypto industry that have faced or been sued by the SEC. Other crypto firms that have received a Welsh notice from the SEC include Coinbase, Crypto.com and OpenSea.
