News Updates November 26, 2022
1. 179K Bitcoin Left Exchanges In last 30 Days; Time To Buy The Dip?
Bitcoin price has seen a decline of around 20% in the last 30 days. BTC dominace has aslo been affected by it. The global digital asset market is trading under spiked selling pressure as the volatility increases. The world’s largest cryptocurrency, Bitcoin price has dropped by over 20% over the past 30 days. However, this price action has opened the gates for investors to buy the dip.
Bitcoin price down; Buy the dip?
According to glassnode data, Bitcoin Exchange Outflow has hit the all time high (ATH). A total of 179,250 Bitcoin have left from crypto exchanges on a net basis over the last 30 days. This suggests that the market is approaching its bottom now.
Data suggests that Bitcoin’s number of exchange deposits (7d MA) has gone on to hit 2 year low of 1,735.12.
As per reports, BTC flowing out of exchanges at a rate of over 172k per month. This has surpassed the previous high set after June 2022 sell off. However, the total confirmed transactions also saw an uptrend over the last two weeks. Glassnode reported that accounts holding more than 1 Bitcoin reached it ATH of 951,823.
2. SEC chair’s crypto oversight strategy in question as ecosystems collapse
Congressman Tom Emmer showed concerns about the oversight strategy implemented by Gary Gensler, the chair of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for the crypto ecosystem.
While regulations are often aimed at protecting citizens from bad actors, the effectiveness of crypto regulations in the United States is in question owing to the colossal fall of major exchanges and ecosystems over the past year — FTX, Celsius, Voyager and Terra.
Emmer has been vocal against Gensler’s “indiscriminate and inconsistent approach” toward crypto oversight. On March 16, the Congressman revealed being approached by numerous crypto and blockchain firms that believed Gensler’s reporting requests to be overburdensome and stifling innovation.
3. SBF Political Donations Can Be Reclaimed As ‘Fraudulent Transfers’
The onus is now on the political donations for Midterm elections made by Sam Bankman-Fried, just days before the FTX collapse happened.
Sam Bankman-Fried News: While experts predict that SBF could likely face jail term over misuse of crypto funds, the onus is now on his political donations. In the first week of November and days before the FTX collapse, Sam Bankman-Fried made headlines for his donations in the U.S. Midterm Election 2022. In fact, reports suggested that SBF was the largest donor from crypto industry and third largest contributor overall.
4. 8 U.S. House Members Attempted to Stop SEC’s Inquiry Into FTX Activities.
The congress members claimed that SEC’s inquiries in the crypto community could kill American innovations.
According to a recent report by prominent media outlet, The American Prospect, a bipartisan group of congress members tried to slow down the Securities and Exchange Commission’s information requests to various cryptocurrency exchanges, including FTX, in March.
A total of eight U.S. congress members – four Republicans and four Democrats – had in a March letter questioned the SEC’s authority to inquire about cryptocurrency-related projects.
The eight United States house members, referred to as the “Blockchain Eight” by the Prospect, include Tom Emmer (R-MN), Ted Budd (R-NC), Byron Donalds (R-FL), Warren Davidson (R-OH), Jake Auchincloss (D-MA), Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ), Ritchie Torres (D-NY), and Darren Soto (D-FL).
FTX’s Campaign Donations to House Members
Per the report, FTX employees made campaign donations to five out of the eight house members, ranging from $2,900 to $11,600. Rep Budd also received $500K in campaign donations from a super PAC established by FTX co-CEO Ryan Salame.
Furthermore, the National Republican Congressional Committee (NCRC), the campaign unit of House Republicans headed by Rep Emmer, received huge donations worth $5.5 million from FTX and its associates. These campaign donations contributed to helping Republicans win the majority offices in 2022, the Prospect noted.
5. Canada crypto regulation: Bitcoin ETFs, strict licensing and a digital dollar
The first and the last major attempt to encourage a comprehensive crypto framework was buried in the House of Commons on Nov. 23.
In October, Toronto-based Coinsquare became the first crypto trading business to get dealer registration from the Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada (IIROC). That means a lot as now Coinsquare investors’ funds enjoy the security of the Canadian Investment Protection Fund in the event of insolvency, while the exchange is required to report its financial standing regularly.
This news reminds us about the peculiarities of Canadian regulation of crypto. While the country still holds a rather tight process of licensing the virtual asset providers, it outpaces the neighboring United States in its experiments with crypto exchange-traded funds (ETFs), pension funds’ investments and central bank digital currency (CBDC) efforts.
An era of restricted dealers
Coinsquare, which happens to be Canada’s longest-operating crypto asset trading platform, benefits from its new legal status as none of its competitors can currently boast the same legal footing. By publishing time, all other local players must have the status of a “restricted dealer,” signaling that they’ve made their registration bid and now await IIROC’s decision.
The Guidance for Crypto-Asset Trading Platforms was introduced by IIROC and the Canadian Securities Administrators (CSA) in 2021. It requires crypto businesses dealing with security tokens or crypto contracts to register as “investment dealers” or “regulated marketplaces.”
All local companies have been given a two-year transitory period, during which they should start the registration process and, in some cases, obtain the “restricted dealer” temporary registration.
The list of “restricted dealers” that have been granted a two-year relief period to operate amid the ongoing registration process is rather short and includes mainly local companies, such as Coinberry, BitBuy, Netcoins, Virgo CX and others. These companies still enjoy a right to facilitate buying, selling and holding of crypto assets, but what lies ahead of them is the stringent compliance procedure necessary to continue their operations after 2023. For example, Coinsquare had to obtain an insurance policy that includes an endorsement of losses of crypto assets and fund a trust account maintained at a Canadian bank.
