Hodler’s Digest, Aug. 4-10 – Cointelegraph Magazine

Top Stories of The Week

XRP rockets 26% as Ripple execs hail $125M penalty as ‘victory’

The price of XRP surged 26% as a New York federal judge moved closer to ending a three-year securities lawsuit against Ripple Labs, which executives are calling a “victory” for the industry.

On Aug. 7, a judge ordered Ripple Labs to pay a $125 million civil penalty and said the firm was “permanently restrained and enjoined” from violating United States securities laws as part of a case brought by the Securities and Exchange Commission. Cointelegraph reported that the ruling seemingly puts Ripple’s case with the SEC in its final stages since the regulator initially filed the lawsuit in December 2020.

XRP rallied 26% to $0.63 after the news, recouping most of its losses from the broader crypto downturn since Aug. 5, according to CoinMarketCap data. At the time of publication, XRP was trading at $0.59.

Ripple Labs CEO Brad Garlinghouse stated in an X post shortly after: “This is a victory for Ripple, the industry and the rule of law. The SEC’s headwinds against the whole of the XRP community are gone.”“The SEC’s unhinged campaign against us is finally over. Let’s all hope this ends this Administration’s war on crypto,” Ripple Labs co-founder Chris Larsen added in a post on X.

India demands $86M from Binance in unpaid GST taxes

Indian law enforcement agencies have demanded 722 crore Indian rupees ($86 million) in unpaid taxes from crypto exchange Binance.

Binance, along with numerous other offshore crypto exchanges, was banned in India in January 2024 for noncompliance with local regulations. However, in April, Binance revealed its intent to restart its crypto trading operations in the region after paying pending taxes.On Aug. 6, the Directorate General of Goods and Services Tax Intelligence (DGGI) — an Indian law enforcement agency — demanded 86 million from Binance under the Goods and Services Tax, according to The Times of India. A local source cited in the report said:

“Binance reportedly earned at least Rs 4,000 crore from transaction fees charged to Indian customers. Detailed investigation revealed that the earnings of these fees were credited to the account of a Binance Group Company — Nest Services Limited — based in Seychelles.”

The DGGI notice to Binance is the first tax demand levied by the Indian government on any crypto exchange. 

Additionally, Indian authorities sent email notices to Binance offices in Seychelles, the Cayman Islands and Switzerland, which the crypto exchange ignored. However, Binance later appointed a local counsel to officially resolve its tax obligations.

Bitcoin dips below $50K: Crypto market crashes 17%

On Aug. 5, the Bitcoin price fell below $50,000 for the first time since February, hitting a low of $49,351 before bouncing back toward the $51,000 mark.

As BTC dominance hits 58% amid a collapse in both the altcoin and stock markets, over 17% of the cryptocurrency’s total market capitalization has been wiped out. According to CoinMarketCap, the crypto market’s total market cap was roughly $2.16 trillion but fell to a low of around $1.76 trillion on Aug. 5.

In the early hours of Aug. 5, the start of the Bitcoin price decline resulted in $600 million of leveraged long positions taken by traders being wiped out. This market crash also saw Ether plummet, losing almost 20% of its value in just two hours. At the time of writing, the price of ETH was roughly $2,200 after recovering from a low of $2,172 at 7:25 am UTC on Aug. 5.

Donald Trump Jr. is launching a crypto platform to ‘take on’ the banks

Donald Trump Jr. has announced plans to launch a new decentralized finance cryptocurrency platform to address inequality in banking access. However, the platform is still in the early stages and will take some time to become a reality.

During a Q&A session on subscription-based platform Locals on Aug. 8, Donald Trump Jr., the eldest son of presidential candidate and former President Donald Trump, said he wasn’t launching a memecoin but working on a crypto platform to take on the banks.

“What we’re talking about is a larger type of platform” that’s very different and not a memecoin, he said. However, he added that it would be a “long time before we can do anything,” not giving anything away on a time frame.

Trump Jr. didn’t provide much more detail on the platform but emphasized that it would target the banking system:

“What we want to do is take on a lot of the banking world. I think there has been a lot of inequality in that only certain people can get financing. (…) So this notion of decentralized finance is obviously very appealing to guys like me who have been debanked.”

Grayscale, Bitwise, NYSE American apply to list options on 3 Ether ETFs

NYSE American LLC has proposed a rule change that will allow it to list and trade options for three Ether exchange-traded funds operated by crypto asset managers Grayscale and Bitwise.

In an Aug. 7 filing to the Securities and Exchange Commission, NYSE American asked the SEC to “permit the listing and trading of options” for the Bitwise Ethereum ETF (ETHW), the Grayscale Ethereum Trust (ETHE) and the Grayscale Ethereum Mini (ETH).

NYSE American said that allowing the trading of options on the three Ether ETFs would benefit investors by providing a low-cost investment tool for gaining additional exposure to Ether. Additionally, the filing said introducing options trading would offer investors a hedging mechanism to meet investment needs regarding ETH products and positions.

Comments on the proposal are expected to be submitted within the next 21 days.Notably, NYSE American’s request for rule change would apply solely to Grayscale and Bitwise, the only spot Ether funds listed on its exchange. NYSE American’s request comes just one day after the Nasdaq options exchange asked the SEC to allow options trading on the BlackRock iShares Ethereum Trust (ETHA).

Winners and Losers

At the end of the week, Bitcoin (BTC) is at $60,697, Ether (ETH) at $2,611 and XRP at $0.57. The total market cap is at $2.10 trillion, according to CoinMarketCap.

Among the biggest 100 cryptocurrencies, the top three altcoin gainers of the week are Sui (SUI) at 31.95%, Helium (HNT) at 27.14% and Zcash (ZEC) at 2.45%.

The top three altcoin losers of the week are Lido DAO (LDO) at 22.67%, Artificial Superintelligence Alliance (FET) at 20.91% and Beam (BEAM) at 19.17%.For more info on crypto prices, make sure to read Cointelegraph’s market analysis.

Most Memorable Quotations

“This is a victory for Ripple, the industry and the rule of law. The SEC’s headwinds against the whole of the XRP community are gone.”

Brad Garlinghouse, CEO of Ripple Labs

“I think people will be surprised by how quickly ‘cross-L2 interoperability problems’ stop being problems and we get a smooth user experience across the entire Ethereum-verse.”

Vitalik Buterin, co-founder of Ethereum

“If the SEC is going to engage in an unprecedented regulation by enforcement campaign, the least they owe to those they target – and the public – is transparency.”

Paul Grewal, chief legal officer at Coinbase

“To ideally time the next bull market entry, we aim for Bitcoin prices to fall into the low 40,000s.”

Markus Thielen, CEO of 10x Research

“Telegram is currently one of the hottest platforms in the crypto world. With one billion users and the lowest user acquisition cost, it can quickly and affordably onboard new users into crypto.”

Ruslan Fakhrutdinov, CEO and founder of X10

“Now, it’s possible to discuss nation-states holding Bitcoin on the balance sheet. And if nation-states are going to buy it, then it’s reasonable for institutions, corporations and individuals to buy it as well.”

Michael Saylor, co-founder of MicroStrategy.

Prediction of the Week

Bitcoin could fall below $50K if Magnificent 7 stocks stage another $500 billion loss

The “Magnificent Seven” stocks have seen a sharp decline, threatening to bring more downward pressure on Bitcoin price.

Magnificent Seven, a moniker for some of the top-performing tech stocks like Nvidia and Microsoft, lost over $650 billion in cumulative market capitalization during regular trading on Aug. 5.

Despite staging a slight recovery since, another potential decline in the top tech stocks could lead to lower Bitcoin prices, according to Akshay Nassa, the founder of Chimp exchange. 

Nassa told Cointelegraph:

“The correlation between stock market performance and cryptocurrency values is well-documented; as major tech stocks falter, investor sentiment generally shifts away from alternative assets, including Bitcoin.”

The correlation between Bitcoin and tech stocks gained even more importance, as the tech-heavy Nasdaq has entered a significant correction, which could spill over into the crypto space, according to Nassa.

While stocks are generally more resilient to market volatility, another decline in the Magnificent Seven could hurt Bitcoin price, according to Alvin Kan, the Chief Operating Officer at Bitget Wallet.

Kan told Cointelegraph:

“If the Magnificent 7, including Amazon and Apple, are falling, investors would want some form of insulation from even more risky assets like Bitcoin. This means that the extreme capital flight in the broader financial market can also weigh on Bitcoin price.”

FUD of the Week

Bitcoin price must flip $62K to avoid worst ‘death cross’ consequences

Bitcoin can beat its imminent “death cross” if it flips $62,000 to support, the latest analysis says. In a dedicated X thread on Aug. 9, popular trader Benjamin Cowen used history to suggest how bulls might avoid a fresh Bitcoin price dive.

Recent BTC price action has led BTC/USD to the door of another moving average crossover classically known as a “death cross.” This involves the downward-sloping 50-day simple moving average (SMA) crossing below its 200-day equivalent. Currently, the 50-day and 200-day SMAs stand at $61,998 and $61,882, respectively, per data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView.

The death cross gets its name from the assumption that the crossover acts as a pre-warning for the downside of the BTC price once it is complete.

As Cowen shows, however, the results are often mixed. The last daily death cross in 2023, in fact, precluded a bout of gains. “In 2023, BTC started its rally just after the death cross. It then got above its 50D SMA and subsequently held it as support before going higher,” he noted.

Bitrace warns of new crypto scam using QR codes

According to a social media post by blockchain analysis firm Bitrace, scanning the wrong QR code could drain your wallet. 

Bitrace is warning of a new type of crypto scam “where theft is carried out through a payment QR code transfer test, essentially deceiving users into authorizing wallets.”

According to the firm, the scam follows a specific pattern. First, the scammer proposes that the user swap tokens over-the-counter — through a wallet-to-wallet transfer rather than an exchange — and offers an exchange rate that beats the market.

They also offer a fee denominated in Tron’s TRX token in exchange for long-term cooperation. To gain the user’s trust, they even make a small payment of USDT, a dollar-pegged stablecoin.

Missing ‘Cryptoqueen’ Ruja Ignatova has assets frozen by UK court

In an Aug. 7 ruling, the United Kingdom’s High Court of Justice issued a Worldwide Freezing Order against Ruja Ignatova, popularly known as the “Cryptoqueen,” and several of her alleged accomplices in the OneCoin scheme.

More than 400 victims of the OneCoin collapse came together to petition the court to freeze the assets of Ignatova, OneCoin co-founder Sebastian Greenwood, Christopher Hamilton, and Robert MacDonald, who are alleged to have helped launder funds on behalf of OneCoin, and four influencers who advertised OneCoin to the public.

Additionally, business entities Ignatova allegedly used to launder funds from OneCoin and purchase assets have also been subjected to the worldwide asset freeze. Ignatova is alleged to have defrauded investors in an apparent $4 billion Ponzi scheme from the inception of Onecoin in 2014 until the 2017 collapse of the fraudulent project and the disappearance of Ignatova. 

Ignatova was last seen in Athens, Greece in 2017 and has not been seen since, prompting the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation to place her on their Ten Most Wanted list.

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Cointelegraph Magazine writers and reporters contributed to this article.