This week's major news is that the SEC is bowing out of its investigation into Ethereum. The regulatory agency has, for now, dropped its attempts to categorize ETH as a security thanks to the pressure put on it by Ethereum developer Consensys.
Despite the SEC’s dropping of the investigation, Consensys has decided to proceed with the lawsuit against the regulatory agency. Let’s find out more.
Bitcoin
UK-based Standard Chartered is officially establishing a spot Bitcoin and Spot Ethereum trading desk. The London-based desk will soon begin operations and be part of the bank’s FX trading unit.
MicroStrategy has further solidified its position as the largest corporate holder of Bitcoin by acquiring 11,931 BTC for $786 million, bringing its total holdings to 226,331 BTC valued at nearly $15 billion.
The VanEck Bitcoin Exchange-Traded Fund (ETF) marked a significant milestone with its debut on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) on June 20.
Ethereum
In a major win for the crypto industry, the SEC is dropping its investigation into whether ETH is a security after Consensys sent the commission a letter requesting clarification on Ether’s category in the approval of spot Ethereum ETFs.
Leading Ethereum software company Consensys is pressing forward with its lawsuit against the SEC, seeking greater regulatory clarity for the cryptocurrency sector even after the SEC concluded its 14-month investigation into the Ethereum developer.
In 2017, Vitalik Buterin and Joseph Poon proposed Plasma as a novel solution to bring Visa-level transaction volumes (reportedly between 1,700 - 4,000 transactions per second) to the Ethereum network.
Security
On June 9, the cryptocurrency exchange Kraken revealed that it had suffered an exploit by a security researcher who robbed the platform of $3 million worth of assets. Blockchain security firm CertiK has identified itself as the security researcher after stating it had informed Kraken about an exploit that allowed it to remove millions from the exchange’s accounts.
CBDC
After thoroughly analyzing seven potential platforms, Swiss digital asset specialist Nabatech has selected Polkadot’s Substrate blockchain to build its digital asset platform for central banks and financial institutions.
Regulation
Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss have donated $1 million in Bitcoin each to support former President Donald Trump’s reelection campaign because of the Biden administration’s hawkish stance on crypto.
David Hirsch, the head of the SEC’s Crypto Asset and Cyber Unit, has left the agency after stepping down from his role.
While speaking at Coinbase’s State of Crypto Summit 2024, billionaire and cryptocurrency advocate Mark Cuban said that Gary Gensler and his actions as the head of the SEC could wreck President Joe Biden’s bid for reelection.
Disclaimer: This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.
