News Updates October 03, 2022
1. First Mover Asia: Bitcoin Climbs Back Past $19.5K Amid Fresh Hopes for a Fed Retreat; Binance's Failed Plan to Boost the Price of Luna Classic
The largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization and ether both spent much of Monday in the green. Binance's plan to burn a small amount of LUNC’s bloated supply failed to have a lasting impact on the hyperinflated token.
Catch the latest episodes of CoinDesk TV for insightful interviews with crypto industry leaders and analysis. And sign up for First Mover, our daily newsletter putting the latest moves in crypto markets in context. Crypto investors who have appreciated bad, economic news more than good in recent months were feeling chipper on Monday as the latest manufacturing indicators arrived cooler than expected.
Bitcoin was recently trading over $19,550, up more than 2% over the past 24 hours, amid a surprising monthly decline in the Institute for Supply Management's manufacturing index, which measures factory activity. The drop didn't send asset prices soaring, but it offered faint hope that the economy was slowing meaningfully, inflation would soon be waning, and the U.S. central bank would be able to ratchet back its recent monetary hawkishness. Markets have been desperate for signs of improvement in the inflation battle that Federal Reserve officials see as key to long-range economic stability.
Ether was recently changing hands at just above $1,300, up roughly 3% from a day earlier, same time. Most other major altcoins in market value were trading higher with ATOM and MATIC both rising more than 5%. The CoinDesk Market Index (CMI), a broad-based market index that measures performance across a basket of cryptocurrencies, increased by over 2.5%. Crypto prices, which have tracked equities for much of the year, continued the trend with the tech-focused Nasdaq, S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) jumping 2.3%, 2.6% and 2.7%, respectively. The increases followed a September of almost unbroken declines as investors continued to fret about rising prices and the prospect of a harsh recession.
2. UK Shuts Down Temporary Crypto Company Licensing Program
The time it takes to register a firm depends on the quality of the information provided to the Financial Conduct Authority, the regulator told CoinDesk.
“If a firm is able to satisfy us that it meets the conditions for registration, we will register them,” the FCA said in an email to CoinDesk. “It’s a two-way street, so the time it takes to register a firm, and whether they’re registered at all, depends on the quality of the information provided to us. Thirty-eight firms have successfully done so.”
In April, the U.K. government said that it wanted to turn the country into a global crypto hub, and the government’s commitment was reiterated by new Prime Minister Liz Truss’ government. The same month, the FCA said it had been critical of crypto and wanted to move forward with a balanced approach. Since then, it has hosted several “crypto sprints” to hear from the digital-asset industry. But despite the regulator's efforts to support the crypto industry, only five companies have managed to register since April.
3. SEC Chair Gensler Says Law For Crypto Is Clear, Most Tokens are Securities.
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is well-known for its practice of enforcement regulation actions in the cryptocurrency industry. These actions persist because the American Congress has difficulty categorically classifying crypto tokens as either securities or commodities.
Certain renowned media personalities have been contacted by crypto projects to promote their newly-launched assets in the past. SEC Chair Gensler noted that most of these tokens are, in fact, securities, implying that they can be regulated using securities laws.
“The law is clear on this. I believe, based on the facts and circumstances, most of these tokens are securities. When a group of entrepreneurs is raising money from the public, and they’re anticipating a profit, they need disclosure.” Gensler said.
4. Japanese prime minister says gov't investment in digital transformation will include Metaverse, NFTs
According to Fumio Kishida, the government of Japan's investment in digital transformation included issuing NFTs to local authorities using digital solutions.
Fumio Kishida the prime minister of Japan since 2021, has said the government will be making efforts to promote Web3 services, including those dealing with nonfungible tokens, or NFTs, and the Metaverse.
In an Oct. 3 speech before Japan’s National Diet, Kishida said the government’s investment in the country’s digital transformation already included issuing NFTs to local authorities using digital technology to solve challenges in their respective jurisdictions. He also hinted at digitizing national identity cards. In addition, the prime minister said the cabinet would “promote efforts to expand the use of Web 3.0 services that utilize the metaverse and NFTs.”
Kishida said Japan’s technological investments would extend to developing and producing semiconductors as part of a joint effort with the United States and work on reform regulations related to the technology sector. The current prime minister, who took office in October 2021, followed former Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, who suggested he was in favor of taxing Bitcoin (BTC) transactions in Japan.
5. The Philippines’ Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has issued a warning against Lodi Coins, a digital asset project that promised investors 10x gains.
The SEC flagged the public offering of Lodi Coins by Lodi Technologies Inc., claiming that the company violated securities laws by offering unregistered securities.
“Lodi Coins is not registered as a virtual asset service provider with the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP). Lodi Technologies also did not have the corresponding certificate of authority from the central bank as a money service business (MSB), as required under the BSP guidelines for virtual asset providers,” the notice stated.
The watchdog claims that Lodi Technologies has been offering the token through Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and other social media platforms. Investment packages in the token’s initial coin offering (ICO) ranged from $200 to over $8,500. The issuers told investors that they stood to make 10x in profits after the ICO.
To evade regulatory scrutiny, Lodi Technologies marketed Lodi Coins as utility tokens, telling investors that this exempted them from being labeled as securities.
However, the regulator pointed out that this didn’t influence its decision in the slightest. Citing a decision made by its United States counterpart, the Gary Gensler-led SEC, the watchdog stated, “Securities law may apply to various activities, including distributed ledger technology, depending on particular facts and circumstances, without regard to the form of the organization or technology used to effectuate a particular offer or sale.”
In this particular case, Lodi Coins were deemed a security because investors pooled their money into a common enterprise and were led to expect profits primarily from the efforts of others.
6. Fiji FIU Warns Citizens About New Cryptocurrency Scam.
Home Stock Market News Scam and Fraud Alert Fiji FIU Warns Citizens About New Cryptocurrency Scam
Fiji FIU Warns Citizens About New Cryptocurrency Scam
The Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) in Fiji has issued a warning to citizens of the country about a cryptocurrency scam that is being touted as a project which has the backing of the government. According to the watchdog, the advert has been posted across several social media platforms including Viber bearing the official logo of a certain government agency.
Additionally, the advert also includes a picture of a staff member of the said government agency.
Two phone numbers were also included for further enquires, one is a local number while the other is a foreign number. The advert encourages citizens to buy Bitcoin (BTC), and foreign exchange and also get involved in binary trading using their mobile wallets or bank transfers.
The Director of the Fiji FIU Razim Buksh said “these advertisements are fake.” Buksh urges Fijians to be vigilant and watchful not to fall victim to the scam. He believes that the perpetrators could launch their attack in several forms. Therefore, Fijians should be mindful of offers that they receive on social media for investment, employment, and loans.
Fijians to Receive Authorization
In effect, all citizens who intend to engage in any offshore investment including digital assets trading must request permission from the Reserve Bank of Fiji before embarking on such a project. Buksh says any unauthorized citizen who eventually gets involved will be violating the Exchange Control Act. For now, the offshore investment facility has been suspended till further notice.
“Members of the public are advised that only Fijian currency issued by the Reserve Bank of Fiji is legal tender in Fiji. There are currently no authorized virtual assets service providers in Fiji. Transactions involving foreign currency will be conducted through commercial banks, authorized foreign exchange dealers, and money changers in Fiji,” Buksh said.
7. XRP Scammers Hijack Account of Famous Spanish Musician.
The official Twitter account of famous Spanish vocalist Bertín Osborne has been hijacked in order to promote an XRP scam with Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse. The account, which has more than 162,000 followers, started retweeting a bunch of tweets related to Ripple in order to fool unsuspecting social media users. Fraudsters started spamming replies with links to a fake XRP giveaway scam that has been making the rounds on Twitter for quite a while. This is one of the most popular verified Twitter accounts that XRP scammers have managed to hack to date.
8. HOW SATOSHI NAKAMOTO AND BITCOIN MIRROR THE UNITED STATES’ FOUNDING PRINCIPLES.
The governance and origins of Bitcoin closely resemble those presented in the founding documents of the United States.
Most of this discussion so far has been theoretical. A lot of it has been about the nature of humanity and how that should be considered when devising governance schemes. What I’d like to do though is to try and tie this into cryptocurrency as it is presently thought about and implemented (or should be), and I’d like to touch on this in two respects.
Comparing Bitcoin to the United State’s system of government is not a new idea, but I think it bears repeating in the context of the philosophy that gave birth to that system as outlined above.
First are the remarkable number of parallels between the contexts in which they came about. Neither was the first attempt at a radically different view of human liberty (non-governmental, digital currencies had been worked on for decades prior to the advent of Bitcoin) and thus reflect many decades of work, research and thought. Both were launched in response to what their respective creators viewed as overreaches of the prevailing systems they would later seek to subvert and both came about in adversarial circumstances such that every contingency had to be taken into account in order to assure their respective survivals.
The Declaration of Independence was an airing of grievances against the crown and a declaration of intention of the colonies for self-governance. Similarly, in Satoshi’s original white paper, the inadequacy of our legacy payment systems are laid out and a proposal for rectification put forward.
Just as the Constitution and Bill of Rights were the realizations of the vision put forward in the Declaration, so too was the open-source reference implementation of Bitcoin the realization of the ideas from the white paper by Nakamoto. In another parallel, neither remained in their original form with both subject to needed change.
