The Daily: Tornado Cash co-founder’s motion to dismiss rejected, Lummis says Republican Senate will benefit digital assets, Bitcoin ETF will see biggest inflows since July

It’s Friday! In today’s Daily, Tornado Cash co-founder Roman Storm’s motion to dismiss was denied, with Senator Lummis saying Republican control of the Senate would benefit digital assets. bitcoin BTC

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ETFs saw their biggest inflows since July.

Meanwhile, the web3 version of MMORPG Maple Story wants to leverage nostalgia to attract players, writes Danny Park.

Let’s get started.

Tornado Cash co-founder Roman Storm will face trial after a US judge denied his motion to dismiss.

A U.S. federal judge has ruled that Tornado Cash co-founder Roman Storm will face trial on money laundering charges from the DOJ after denying his motion to dismiss the case.

• While serving legitimate privacy purposes, sending funds to mixers like Tornado Cash is also a common tactic for cybercriminals to make it more difficult for law enforcement to track and recover stolen cryptocurrencies.
  Federal prosecutors, who filed the indictment in August, alleged that Storm “intentionally facilitated” the laundering of more than $1 billion in criminal proceeds by cryptocurrency mixers.
• Storm argued that the First Amendment protected his role in developing the Tornado Cash software. But Judge Katherine Polk Failla of the Southern District of New York said Code’s “functional ability” was not speech as defined in the First Amendment, CoinDesk reported.
• “The judge’s ruling refusing to dismiss the indictment (in Storm) is an assault on the freedom of software developers everywhere,” Jake Chervinsky, Variant Fund’s chief legal officer, wrote. “This will go down in history as a distortion of the law and a distortion of justice.”
• Storm and fellow co-founder Roman Semenov were charged with money laundering and conspiracy to violate regulations.
• The International Economic Emergency Powers Act could result in sentences of up to 20 years in prison for each charge, as well as up to five years in prison, including for operating an unlicensed money transfer business.
• Storm’s trial is scheduled to begin in New York on December 2 and last two weeks. Semenov, meanwhile, remains at large.

Lummis said a Republican Senate would be helpful to digital assets.

In an interview with CNBC on Friday morning, Senator Cynthia Loomis said that the transition to a Republican-controlled Senate after this year’s election would bode well for digital assets.

• In this scenario, cryptocurrency-friendly Republican Senator Tim Scott would likely replace the more cryptocurrency-sensitive Democratic Senator Sherrod Brown to chair the influential Senate Banking Committee, she said. explained.
• The senator also criticized the SEC for regulating cryptocurrencies through enforcement actions rather than clear guidance, contributing to ongoing court battles with companies like Binance and Coinbase.
• Loomis argued that Congress, not the SEC, should take the lead in regulating the cryptocurrency industry by passing legislation with clear rules.

U.S. spot Bitcoin ​ETF sees largest inflow since July

US spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded net inflows worth $365.7 million on Thursday, the largest since late July.

• This is the sixth consecutive day of inflows totaling $862.4 million, contributing to cumulative net inflows of $18.3 billion since trading began in January.
• Ark Invest’s ARKB led net inflows on Thursday with $113.8 million, followed by BlackRock’s IBIT with $93.4 million and Fidelity’s FBTC with $74 million.
• Meanwhile, the US spot Ethereum ETF returned to its $100,000 net outflow limit on Thursday. This is because negative flows from Grayscale’s high-cost conversion ETHE product continued to outweigh positive flows into other funds.

Bitcoin price surpasses $66,000 amid positive inflation data.

Bitcoin topped $66,000 on Friday morning, hitting its highest level since late July, helped by lower-than-expected inflation data.

• The Federal Reserve’s main measure of inflation, the Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) index, fell to 2.2% in August, below economists’ expectations and stoking optimism about monetary easing boosting risky assets such as cryptocurrencies.
• “Today’s lower-than-expected PCE readings reinforced dovish sentiment sparked by last week’s rate cuts, fueling optimism that inflationary pressures are cooling faster than expected,” Matt Mena, cryptocurrency research strategist at 21Shares, told The Block. .
• Mena added that favorable inflation data could lead to a retest of the Bitcoin price in the $68,000-$70,000 range, while global factors, including recent liquidity injections from China, could further support the price.

Base’s total valuation exceeded $2 billion.

The total value locked in Base, the Coinbase-incubated layer 2 Ethereum network, surpassed $2 billion for the first time, making it the second-largest bullish roll by deposits after Arbitrum.

• According to DeFiLlama data, Base’s TVL is now $2.1 billion, up from about $430 million at the start of 2024, registering an annual growth rate of 370%.
• Decentralized exchange Aerodrome was the biggest contributor to Base’s growth, generating over $1 billion in deposits, followed by Uniswap’s $220 million at Layer 2.

Looking forward to next week

• UK GDP figures are released on Monday. Eurozone CPI data is released on Tuesday. U.S. unemployment claims are released on Thursday, and U.S. nonfarm payrolls are released on Friday.
• ECB President Christine Lagarde and US Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell are scheduled to deliver speeches on Monday.
• The mainnet launches in New York on Monday.

Don’t miss The Block’s daily digest of the most impactful events happening across the digital asset ecosystem.

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