Hodler’s Digest, July 28 – Aug. 3 – Cointelegraph Magazine

High 5 Tales of the Week

Sen. Lummis introduces Bitcoin Strategic Reserve invoice in Senate

On July 31, Senator Cynthia Lummis formally launched the Bitcoin Strategic Reserve invoice, which might direct the US authorities to start out a reserve fund for the scarce decentralized asset. Extra particularly, the invoice would set up a “decentralized community of safe Bitcoin vaults” below the management of the US Treasury. 

The invoice additionally directs lawmakers and bureaucrats to enact strict cybersecurity parameters and different bodily safety measures to make sure that Bitcoin funds are usually not stolen. Moreover, the invoice laid out a aim of accumulating 1 million Bitcoin over time, or roughly 5% of Bitcoin’s whole provide, utilizing current U.S. Treasury funds to amass the Bitcoin in quantities that mirror the U.S. Treasury’s gold allocation.

Lummis’ invoice additionally reaffirmed the precise to self-custody in the US. It seeks to guard this proper, which has come below fireplace from sure U.S. lawmakers.

Bitfinex hacker Heather Morgan noticed at Bitcoin Convention 2024

Heather Morgan — a self-styled social engineer and flamboyant rapper additionally recognized by her alter ego “Razzlekhan” — made headlines after being arrested for and subsequently pleading responsible to probably the most audacious cyber heists in historical past: the 2016 Bitfinex hack ensuing within the theft of 120,000 Bitcoin, value $4.5 billion on the time of her arrest.

Opposite to fashionable perception that she was behind bars, Morgan reportedly appeared on the Bitcoin 2024 convention in Nashville, sparking curiosity and controversy amongst attendees. 

When Morgan pleaded responsible on Aug. 3, 2023, she knew she might withstand 5 years in jail and obtain a nice of $250,000. Since then, she’s been awaiting sentencing, scheduled for Nov. 8, 2024.

Jameson Lopp, a Bitcoin developer and co-founder of Bitcoin custody agency Casa, discovered her presence extraordinarily suspicious. He suggested Bitcoin occasion organizers to treat her as a risk actor and deny her entry.

Lopp’s issues spotlight the broader unease inside the crypto group concerning Morgan’s intentions and the potential dangers she may pose at these gatherings. He advised Cointelegraph that he believes there may very well be two explanations for her attendance at these occasions.

A “charitable rationalization can be that she’s in search of consulting gigs as a way to pay the $250,000 nice she owes to the federal government,” in keeping with Lopp. She has reportedly launched herself as a “Web3 adviser” at Bitcoin conferences.

Nonetheless, Lopp mentioned an “adversarial rationalization” can be that she’s “in search of to cut back her sentence by amassing intel on behalf of the federal government.”

4 suspects compelled a Bitcoiner to switch BTC earlier than killing him, police say

Police have arrested 4 suspects for allegedly kidnapping and murdering an unidentified 29-year-old overseas nationwide Bitcoiner in Kyiv, Ukraine, after stealing $170,000 value of Bitcoin from him.

The 4 suspects — all male and aged between 24 and 29 — reportedly premeditated the assault, launching their assault round midnight on July 29, Kyiv Police mentioned. Residents contacted police after listening to screams and several other individuals beating and forcing a person right into a automotive.

Police mentioned the sufferer was taken to an deserted constructing the place he was compelled to switch roughly 7 million Ukrainian hryvnias value of Bitcoin (round 2.55 BTC), earlier than the assailants strangled the person to dying and buried his physique in a forest.

Kyiv Police additionally allege the 4 males modified the looks and quantity plates of the automotive used to attempt to conceal the crime. The suspects then transformed the Bitcoin into stacks of United States {dollars} and euros earlier than being discovered and detained by Kyiv Police.

Trump’s Bitcoin sneakers are already on eBay for $2,500

Listings for pairs of Donald Trump’s limited-edition orange Bitcoin-themed sneakers have already made their method onto eBay, with scalpers hoping to promote their spot within the pre-order queue for as a lot as $2,500. 

On the time of writing, there have been 12 listings on eBay for the Bitcoin orange-colored high-tops. Costs begin as little as $700 by way of a dwell public sale however vary as excessive as $2,500 with a “or finest provide” situation. One provide jokingly set a value of $69,999.

Nonetheless, there’s no telling if the sellers will preserve their phrase or if the listings are respectable.

A lot of the listings promise to ship the footwear to their purchaser as soon as they obtain it, which is anticipated between September and November. A lot of the sellers seem to have excessive rankings, although a couple of has been accused of being a “rip-off” within the purchaser suggestions part.

Trump’s Bitcoin-themed footwear went dwell for pre-order on the official Trump Sneakers web site on July 31, with a restricted version run of 1,000 for the orange high-top footwear. They offered out inside three hours of launch.

Notably, the web site mentioned 5 pairs of the restricted version footwear can be randomly signed by Trump — that means that Trump sneakerheads would have a 1 in 200 likelihood of receiving a signed pair.

Choose grants ex-FTX exec’s request to postpone reporting to jail

A federal decide has granted a movement filed by legal professionals representing former FTX Digital Markets co-CEO Ryan Salame to delay reporting to jail till Oct. 13.

In a July 30 submitting by the US District Courtroom for the Southern District of New York, Choose Lewis Kaplan accepted a movement permitting Salame to push again his self-surrender date by 45 days as a part of his sentence of seven.5 years in jail. Salame’s authorized staff requested the delay because of medical issues from a canine biting the previous FTX government’s face on June 29 whereas he was visiting a pal’s residence.

The July 26 movement by Salame’s authorized staff redacted medical data associated to his accidents however claimed {that a} German Shepherd “mauled” him and he would require remedy and surgical procedure earlier than reporting to jail. He was initially going to report back to jail on Aug. 29, roughly three months after being sentenced.

The previous FTX government returned to the social media platform X after roughly two years following his Might sentencing listening to. On the day of the alleged canine assault, he recommended {that a} surgeon who didn’t maintain his political beliefs can be extra more likely to deliberately hurt him whereas treating the wound.

Winners and Losers

On the finish of the week, Bitcoin (BTC) is at $62,083, Ether (ETH) at $3,038 and XRP at $0.56. The entire market cap is at $2.21 trillion, in keeping with CoinMarketCap.

Among the many greatest 100 cryptocurrencies, the highest three altcoin gainers of the week are AAVE (AAVE) at 14.02%, Bitcoin Money (BCH) at 4.14% and Kaspa (KAS) at 2.45%.

The highest three altcoin losers of the week are dogwifhat (WIF) at 35.25%, Render (RENDER) at 27.10% and Bittensor (TAO) at 24.54%.

For more information on crypto costs, make certain to learn Cointelegraph’s market evaluation. 

Most Memorable Quotations

“The overall premise is that if criminals are much less conscious of you, they’re much less more likely to goal you.”

Jameson Lopp, co-founder of Casa

“There isn’t a purpose to suppose SEC has determined SOL is a non-security,”

Jake Chervinsky, chief authorized officer at Variant

“As households throughout Wyoming wrestle to maintain up with hovering inflation charges and our nationwide debt reaches new and unprecedented heights, it’s time for us to take daring steps to create a brighter future for generations to come back by making a strategic Bitcoin reserve.”

Cynthia Lummis, United States senator

“Politicians are embracing crypto as a result of People are embracing crypto.”

Matt Hougan, chief funding officer at Bitwise Asset Administration

“Tone deaf anybody??? Transferring Silk Highway BTC two days after Trumps pledge to not transfer them is simply dumb!!!!”

Mike Novogratz, CEO of Galaxy Digital

“The SEC’s strategy threatens the livelihoods of artists and creators which can be merely experimenting with a novel, fast-growing expertise or have chosen it as their most well-liked medium.”

David L. Patron, legal professional at Phelps Dunbar

Prediction of the Week

Ethereum ETFs might attain $10B AUM in first yr: Sygnum Financial institution

Spot Ether exchange-traded funds might amass as a lot as $10 billion in belongings below administration inside their first yr of buying and selling.

Katalin Tischhauser, head of funding analysis at Sygnum Financial institution and a former government at Goldman Sachs, advised Cointelegraph in an interview that the projections are based mostly on her forecast for spot Bitcoin ETFs. She predicted that Bitcoin ETF inflows can be within the $30 billion to $50 billion vary for the primary 12 months of buying and selling, and Ethereum merchandise would comply with.

“Ethereum’s lesser title recognition is more likely to imply slower adoption,” she mentioned, earlier than including:

“With Ethereum’s market capitalization a 3rd of Bitcoin’s, we anticipate the relative inflows to be within the 15-35% vary versus Bitcoin, with a ensuing forecast of $5 to $10 billion within the first yr.”

The researcher mentioned that there have been important benefits to ETFs for conventional buyers as a result of they’re largely not set as much as commerce, settle, and risk-manage direct crypto investments:

“A well-recognized regulated product corresponding to ETFs makes Ether simply accessible to buyers who’re taken with easy funding publicity.”

FUD of the Week

SEC seemingly nonetheless believes SOL is a safety, say crypto execs

America Securities and Alternate Fee hasn’t essentially let Solana off the hook as a safety regardless of retracting its request for a courtroom to resolve on the matter as a part of its Binance lawsuit on July 30.

“There isn’t a purpose to suppose SEC has determined SOL is a non-security,” mentioned Jake Chervinsky, chief authorized officer at crypto-focused enterprise capital agency Variant Fund, in a July 30 submit on X.

Chervinsky’s submit refers back to the newest response from the SEC, in search of to amend its grievance concerning the “Third Social gathering Crypto Asset Securities,” basically telling the courtroom it’s not asking to find out whether or not the tokens listed within the lawsuit are securities or not.

Whereas Chervinsky didn’t increase on what that “litigation tactic” could also be, he highlighted that the SEC nonetheless refers back to the identical tokens as securities in different crypto change lawsuits, together with its one with Coinbase.

In separate posts, Miles Jennings, common counsel and head of decentralization at a16z Crypto, and Justin Slaughter, coverage director at Paradigm, appeared to agree.

Slaughter argued that many are “overreading this submitting” and that it doesn’t imply the SEC has determined that Solana and different tokens are usually not securities.

Jennings defined that Choose Amy Berman Jackson had set such a excessive bar to determine the Howey take a look at within the Binance case that it wasn’t definitely worth the SEC’s effort and time to show these tokens had been securities.

SEC Costs BitClout founder Nader Al-Naji with fraud

On July 30, the US Securities and Alternate Fee (SEC), alongside the U.S. Lawyer’s Workplace for the Southern District of New York, introduced expenses towards BitClout founder Nader Al-Naji.

The SEC’s grievance alleged the BitClout founder offered $257 million in unregistered securities via BitClout’s native token, BTCLT, and defrauded buyers by misusing a portion of these funds. The SEC additionally named Decentralized Social (DeSo), a more moderen undertaking from Al-Naji, within the grievance and a corresponding press launch.

Extra particularly, the grievance accused Al-Naji of spending $7 million in buyer funds on luxurious gadgets like leasing a Beverly Hills mansion and giving beneficiant money items to relations regardless of promising buyers that funds wouldn’t be used as compensation for any BitClout staff members.

The SEC grievance claimed that Al-Naji additionally mischaracterized the core internal workings of the BitClout undertaking. In response to the securities regulator, the BitClout founder misled buyers and authorized corporations by claiming the undertaking was decentralized, with no governing firm controlling It, but was operating the undertaking behind the scenes.

Crypto sleuth investigates suspect in Sydney Sweeney’s hack

A number of weeks after American actress Sydney Sweeney suffered a significant cryptocurrency-related hack on X, some new particulars on the assault and the alleged hacker have surfaced.

ZachXBT, a pseudonymous, impartial on-chain sleuth, took to X on July 30 to submit his investigation into the latest hack of Sydney Sweeney’s X account and the alleged connection of convicted hacker Gurvinder Bhangu to the incident.

The X account of the actress was hacked on July 2, 2024, with the attacker selling a Solana-based token, SWEENEY, in a pump-and-dump scheme. 

In response to findings by ZachXBT, Bhangu was one of many individuals behind the hack.

Bhangu, additionally known as “Gurv” within the submit by ZachXBT, is described as a convicted hacker who has served time in the UK for hacking into Instagram accounts and blackmailing customers.

High Journal Tales of the Week

How crypto bots are ruining crypto — together with auto memecoin rug pulls

Crypto buying and selling can not operate with out crypto bots, however additionally they manipulate markets, wreck airdrops and extract billions in MEV.

‘Elon Musk at Bitcoin 2024’ rip-off, Lazarus Group hacks, MOG phishing: Crypto-Sec

Traders misplaced $79K to deepfake Elon Musk at Bitcoin 2024, MOG holder phished a foul, ransomware backdoor in ESXi server software program.

Backlash as WazirX ‘socializes’ $235M loss, $10B metaverse plan for shut-ins: Asia Categorical

Japan’s ‘hikikomori’ may very well be a $10B alternative within the metaverse, clock is ticking for Binance within the Philippines, and extra.

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Cointelegraph Journal writers and reporters contributed to this text.