Telegram CEO can’t leave France, OpenSea, Wells informed, etc: Hodler’s Digest, August 25

Top 5 Stories of the Week

Binance Under Investigation for Seizing Palestinian Crypto Funds

Major global cryptocurrency exchange Binance has confiscated cryptocurrencies from Palestinians at Israel’s request, according to sources close to the industry.

Ray Youssef, co-founder of peer-to-peer cryptocurrency platform Paxful and peer-to-peer cryptocurrency platform NoOnes, told X on August 26 that Binance had seized Palestinian funds at the request of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).

“Binance has seized all funds of all Palestinians at the request of the IDF. They refuse to return the funds. All appeals have been rejected,” Youssef wrote, citing multiple sources, including a letter from Israeli authorities provided by Binance.

He predicted that the measure would affect all Palestinians, and that other countries such as Lebanon and Syria would likely follow suit.

“Every Palestinian is affected, and if you look at how things are going, every Lebanese and Syrian will be treated the same. It’s not a key, it’s not a coin,” Youssef said.

Telegram CEO Pavel Durov released after indictment, banned from leaving France

Pavel Durov, founder and CEO of messaging app Telegram, has been released from detention after being indicted by French authorities and will appear in court and be placed under judicial supervision.

French prosecutors have charged Durov with criminal offenses related to his role at Telegram, Bloomberg reported on August 28. He is banned from leaving France and must post €5 million ($5.5 million) in bail before being released from custody.

Footage widely shared by Russian state-run news agency RIA Novosti shows Durov being released from a Paris court on August 28.

Police detained Durov at an airport north of Paris on August 24 and handed him over to the court. Authorities had originally extended the Telegram CEO’s detention until August 28, by which time he would either be released or face charges in court.

OpenSea Marketplace Receives Wells Notice from SEC

Devin Finzer, CEO of non-fungible token (NFT) marketplace OpenSea, reported that the company has received a wells notice from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), indicating potential enforcement action.

In an August 28 X post, Finzer argued that the SEC had issued a Wells Notice, which said NFTs traded on the marketplace could be classified as unregistered securities. The OpenSea CEO said the platform was prepared to “stand up and fight” against potential enforcement action.

“This is moving into uncharted territory,” Finzer said. “By targeting NFTs, the SEC is stifling innovation on a broader scale. Hundreds of thousands of online artists and creatives are at risk, many of whom do not have the resources to defend themselves.”

OpenSea CEO added:

“In addition to standing our ground, we have also pledged to donate $5 million to cover legal costs for NFT creators and developers who receive Wells notices. All creators, big or small, should be able to innovate without fear.”

Judge Orders Former FTX Executive to Appear After Request to Throw Out Guilty Plea

A federal judge has ordered former FTX Digital Markets co-CEO Ryan Salameh to appear for a hearing despite his motion to dismiss his guilty plea.

In papers filed Aug. 29 in the Southern District of New York, Judge Lewis Kaplan said Salameh must appear in court on Sept. 12 as part of his bail. He was originally scheduled to report to prison Aug. 29 to begin serving his 90-month sentence, but that was pushed back to Oct. 13 after he reported health issues from the dog bite.

On August 21, the former FTX executive’s legal team filed a petition asking the court to throw out his guilty plea, claiming authorities had agreed not to pursue an investigation into his partner, Michelle Bond. But after prosecutors unsealed a campaign finance indictment against Bond on August 22, Salameh withdrew the petition and said her case could be heard.

Brazilian Judge Suspends X After Elon Musk Denies Nomination as Representative

A Brazilian Supreme Court judge has ordered the suspension of social media platform X in Brazil after Elon Musk refused to appoint a legal representative for the company.

According to an AP report on August 30, Judge Alexandre de Moraes took action to halt X’s operations in Brazil if Musk fails to appoint legal representation by August 29. X’s global government affairs team said the platform “will not comply with[Morae’s]unlawful order to censor political opponents.”

It’s unclear what X’s next move will be for Brazilian users. Musk has made numerous posts claiming that Judge Moraes is “evil” and a “dictator” for “illegal political censorship.” Moraes was investigating X for allegedly allowing and promoting disinformation related to former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro.

At the time of publication, Brazilian X users still reported having access to the social media platform. According to Statista, more than 20 million of the country’s approximately 217 million residents use X.

Winners and Losers

Bitcoin on the weekend (Bitcoin) is in $59,224ether (Ethereum) ~ in $2,525 and Ripple (XRP) ~ in $0.56. Total market capitalization is $2.08 According to CoinMarketCap, it is worth around $1 trillion.

Among the top 100 cryptocurrencies, the top 3 altcoins that have seen the most gains this week are Helium. (HNT) 6.51% of TRON (Trex) 0.88% and Akash Network (AKT) -1.23%. The top 3 altcoin losers this week are Notcoins. (no) At 27.76%, Celestia (TIA) 24.42% and SATS (1000 pieces) 23.96%. For more information on cryptocurrency prices, read Cointelegraph’s market analysis.

Most memorable quotes

“If you’re neutral, you’re basically against DeFi at this point.”

Kane WarwickFounder of Synthetix

“In addition to standing our ground, we have also pledged to donate $5 million to cover legal costs for NFT creators and developers who receive Wells notices. All creators, big or small, should be able to innovate without fear.”

Devin FingerCEO of OpenSea

“What I want most is to make (Web3) truly free for everyone to use.”

Gavin WoodFounder of Polkadot

“As we enter the final stretch of Q3, fiat liquidity conditions could not be more favorable. As crypto holders, we have the following momentum:

Arthur HayesCo-founder of BitMEX

“Bitcoin will have to retrace deep enough to convince us that the bull market is over.”

Rect Capitalpseudonymous cryptocurrency trader

Forecast for this week

$1.3 Trillion Tokenized RWA by 2030 More Likely Than $30 Trillion – Analyst

Crypto analysts are skeptical of bullish predictions that tokenized real-world assets (RWAs) could reach $30 trillion in value by 2030, suggesting that 5% of that amount is a more realistic target.

“If the current two-year CAGR (compound annual growth rate) of 121% continues, tokenized traditional assets could reach around $1.3 trillion by 2030,” Jamie Coutts, senior crypto analyst at Real Vision, wrote in an August 27 post on X.

Tokenization of assets is the process of issuing security tokens (a type of blockchain token) that represent real-world digitally tradable assets. These tokens represent everything from real estate and bonds to art and stocks.

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

Coutts believes Wall Street’s predictions are “overly optimistic,” but even his more conservative estimates, if they pan out as he believes, could have significant implications for the Web3 ecosystem.

He believes that if $1.3 trillion is in on-chain RWA, it will create a “huge flywheel effect” on other parts of the crypto ecosystem, such as non-fungible tokens (NFTs), social platforms, and gaming.

FUD of the week

China’s ‘CoinGecko’, Local Police Investigation – Report

Feixiaohao, a major Chinese cryptocurrency market data and industry news provider, is reportedly under investigation by local police.

Chinese cryptocurrency journalist Colin Wu reported on his Telegram channel, Wu Blockchain News, on August 28 that several key executives of Feixiaohao had been arrested in an ongoing investigation in Inner Mongolia, an autonomous region in northern China.

The article cited a report from a local cryptocurrency channel on WeChat that said “many core members of the Feixiaohao team” had been taken in by Inner Mongolia police for questioning.

Mt. Gox and the U.S. Government Could Force $15 Billion in Bitcoin Selloffs

Bitcoin’s depressed momentum could continue into September, as Mt. Gox and the U.S. government could exert additional selling pressure of around $15 billion.

$14.8 billion worth of Bitcoin could soon flood the market, putting even more downward pressure on prices.

The U.S. government holds more than 203,000 bitcoins worth $12.1 billion, while the shuttered cryptocurrency exchange Mt. Gox is set to distribute an additional 46,000 bitcoins worth $2.7 billion.

The reason why the altcoin season hasn’t arrived is because everyone jumped ‘straight to the point’.

As crypto traders eagerly await a potential altcoin season, one analyst claims the season will not unfold as expected as new crypto traders rush to buy the most speculative assets too quickly.

“The joke got out, everyone knew the punchline, they jumped right into it, and it wasn’t funny anymore,” Glassnode senior analyst James Check said in the Aug. 29 episode. rough agreement Podcast.

Check analyzed trader behavior during the 2021 bull market and compared it to 2024, finding that traders tried to outsell the market by buying the most hyped memecoins as quickly as possible.

In past bull markets, Mimecoin has typically surged at the end of the overall market rally, but this time around, the asset is rising at a faster rate than ever before.

“In 2021, everything that had a beautiful capital cascade from Bitcoin, Ethereum, L1, DeFi, and Monkey JPEG was a bubble,” Check explained.

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Editorial staff

Cointelegraph Magazine staff and reporters contributed to this article.