News Updates September 02, 2022

1. SEC Seeking Narrow Escape Over Crypto Regulation?

The U.S Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is trying to set out clarity over Crypto regulations by filing lawsuits against firms. In this bid, the SEC is seeking to score a win in the Virginia federal court over its ex official conflicts with digital assets.

 *SEC asks for an early win* 

The SEC has asked the court to give them an early win in a records dispute over crucial official documents. It is expected that those memos might reveal the former official had a dispute of interest with oversight of cryptocurrency.

According to Law360’s report, the SEC mentioned that it has already submitted the required documents. However, these are the memos that can only be provided lawfully. The commission argued that any kind of redaction of docs is completely justified.

It added that its search process doesn’t need to be perfect as it is designed just to find relevant records. Meanwhile, the SEC in a memorandum supporting summary judgment highlighted that its searches leaned on the language used by the plaintiff.

2. Bitcoin (BTC) Shows Slight Hope as It Lingers Around 20K!

Bitcoin (BTC) is undoubtedly the king of cryptocurrencies, and its huge market capitalization is valued at $384,246,202,756. The sharp decline and uptrend in the short term have recently increased, which can be associated with the larger volatility in the world’s financial condition.

BTC on longer candlestick charts showcases a halt in declining value, and this consolidation can ultimately result in a positive movement. Still, the outlook is consolidated in the short term, and more volatility can be expected to create havoc for sellers in the short term.

Bitcoin has once again entered into a narrow consolidation zone, where buyers and sellers are having difficulty deciding the further price momentum of BTC. Despite trading dangerously closer to its support level of $17800, BTC has shown the ability to overcome the selling pressure and move towards the upper band. Read our BTC predictions to know whether the sellers will overtake buyers or not.

The price action of Bitcoin candlesticks showcases strong buying at lower levels; the positive outcome of September 1, 2022, has provided some confidence in dictating a trending price action. The immediate resistance level of $20,800 has developed, while the immediate support level has developed near $19,540.

On daily candlestick charts, BTC is close to creating a bullish crossover that could push the value of this token further up. The 50 EMA is trending near $22,000, while the 100 EMA is at $24,456. The strong resistance developed at $25,100 will require some more persuasion to breach.

RSI during this short term is indicating a lack of buying rallies and buying sentiment despite Bitcoin trading close to $20,000. A larger buying action can be expected to develop once BTC manages to surpass the 50 EMA curve.

3. Bitcoin (BTC) Triple-Bottom Formation Could Be the Catalyst for a Big Move Up

confines of a short-term resistance level, Bitcoin (BTC) has yet to validate the breakout with a significant upward move.

Bitcoin had been decreasing beneath a descending resistance line since Aug. 15. The line caused several rejections, with the most recent being on Aug. 26, which led to a local low of $19,520 on Aug. 28. 

During the two most recent lows, the six-hour RSI generated a significant amount of bullish divergence. The divergence was the catalyst for a small upward move that allowed BTC to break out above the line on Sept. 2. However, despite the breakout, Bitcoin has not yet initiated any kind of significant upward move and the RSI is still below 50. 

If an upward movement follows, the closest resistance area would be found at $21,700. This target is the 0.382 Fib retracement resistance level. 

 *BTC wave count analysis*

The most likely wave count suggests that Bitcoin has completed a five-wave downward pattern since the Aug. 15 high. If this is true, then the price has now begun an A-B-C corrective structure that is likely to take it towards the $21,700-$21,800 resistance area.

4. Hong Kong hosts Digital Asset Series seminars for mass literacy

Hong Kong is hosting the Digital Asset Series (DAS) educational seminars, which started in August to continue into November this year.

* The free educational seminars will be delivered by industry experts, legal professionals, regulators and scholars from the finance-technology (fintech) sector, according to a press release. 

* The initiative intends to educate the general public about the evolving landscape of digital assets.

* The seminars will cover topics including investment strategies, asset management, security tokens, Web 3.0, metaverse, non-fungible tokens (NFTs), regulatory issues, stablecoins, central bank digital currencies (CBDC), decentralized finance (DeFi) and cryptocurrencies. 

• The Tokenized Assets & Digital Securities Awards (TADS) is sponsoring this year’s Digital Asset Series.

5. Trust in crypto remains strong despite bear market: Bitstamp survey

Despite the downward market, global trust in cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin remains mostly unshakable, with countries like the U.S. showing more trust in crypto in Q2.

The ongoing cryptocurrency winter has had little to no impact on global trust in crypto, this was the conclusion reached new study commissioned by Bitstamp exchange.

Despite the downward market, global trust in cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin (BTC) remains mostly unshakable, Bitstamp said in its latest Crypto Pulse report. The study is based on a survey conducted by an independent research firm and involves 28,000 retail and institutional investors in 23 countries, Bitstamp said.

The survey suggests that the percentage of global retail investors who find crypto trustworthy has slightly dropped from 61% in Q1 to 65% in Q2 2022. The survey signaled a similar trend among institutional investors as 67% of respondents deemed crypto trustworthy in Q2 versus 70% in Q1.

“Considering that in Q1 we were entering a crypto winter, these numbers are inspiring and speak in favor of the industry’s resilience,” Bitstamp analysts noted.

The crypto trust percentage has varied from country to country, with the United States seeing the single biggest increase in trust, from 61% in Q1 to 73% in Q2, according to the report. In contrast, Canada was the only country that saw trust in cryptocurrency dip below 50% in Q2. Trust in crypto also remained high in countries like Brazil, Chile and Mexico, with trust percentage accounting for 77%, 69% and 70%, respectively.

“We can see that crypto has, for the most part, maintained the trust of many investors and institutions across the world during a difficult time for the sector,” Bitstamp said. In the meantime, some fluctuations in trust in certain countries are certainly to be expected, the firm noted, adding:

Bitstamp CEO JB Graftieaux added that the crypto winter will provide an opportunity for both retail and institutional investors to build for the future.

 *62% of wallets did not sell Bitcoin for a year amid the bear market: Data*

As previously reported by Cointelegraph, the current bear crypto market is associated with an ongoing crisis of cryptocurrency lending, with major lenders like Celsius halting withdrawals amid liquidity issues in June. The crypto winter is also largely linked to issues of algorithmic stablecoins after the TerraUSD Classic (USTC) stablecoin lost its United States dollar peg in May.

6. Australian CBDC Research Project Could Provide Crypto Clarity, Legal Expert Says

A research project spearheaded by Australia’s government, financial institutions and universities is a significant step for the country in determining the potential of a central bank digital currency (CBDC), according to a Sydney-based attorney specializing in digital law.
“This has been a really important move towards seeing what a CBDC can do,” said Michael Bacina, partner at law firm Piper Alderman, on CoinDesk TV’s “First Mover” Thursday.

The research project, which began this month, involves the Reserve Bank of Australia and the Digital Finance Cooperative Research Center (DFCRC), made up of 25 prominent institutions. The goal of the project is to explore the economic impact of a CBDC's use-cases in the country and how digital assets such as bitcoin (BTC) should be regulated.
“Now we have banks [that] are coming out being incredibly bullish about decentralization,” Bacina said.

Bacina noted that crypto was not part of the agenda for the new Labor Party (ALB) government of Prime Minister Anthony Albanese unlike the pro-crypto stance of the previous government of the Liberal Party’s Scott Morrison. The Albanese government is most likely playing “a significant amount of catchup,” Bacina said.

Right now, we are looking into the efficiencies and the automation that comes from bringing in that kind of tokenization,” Bacina said.

7. Armenia aims to position itself as a Bitcoin mining hub

The post-Soviet republic took a friendly stance on crypto, but heavily relies on foreign energy.

At the end of August, a digital platform called ECOS Free Economic Zone delivered good news from a country that rarely sparks on the global crypto map — Armenia. ECOS reported adding 60 megawatts (MW) of capacity to its power plant-based facility, operating since 2018. 

Situated at one of the hydroelectric plants on the Hrazdan river, the mining facility gets its electricity supply directly from the high-voltage grid and uses the site’s infrastructure to power containers. The platform’s representatives noted that ECOS could expand to an additional 200MW of clean electricity. For comparison, the Berlin Geothermal plant in El Salvador gives away 1.5MW of the 102MW it produces to crypto miners, while the Greenidge Generation near the shore of Seneca Lake in the State of New York should have produced about 44MW.

Given the controversial developments with crypto mining regulation in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) region — countries of the former Soviet Union — perhaps it is high time to assess the industrial potential of this post-Soviet republic, towering 1,850 meters above sea level.

8. Thailand SEC to apply strict guidelines for crypto ads

Cryptocurrency-related adverts in Thailand will have to meet strict rules as the Securities and Exchange Commission looks to emulate foreign standards.

 *Thailand’s Securities and Exchange*

Commission (SEC) will implement stringent advertising rules for cryptocurrency firms operating in the country by October 2022.

The Thai SEC informed cryptocurrency-related businesses operating in the country via email that adverts concerning digital currencies must have clear investment warnings to consumers on Sep. 1. The statement was later posted on the SEC website.

The SEC regulator has instituted the new standards for cryptocurrency-related adverts in response to a number of marketing campaigns that have neglected to include investment risk warnings.

The SEC regulator has instituted the new standards for cryptocurrency-related adverts in response to a number of marketing campaigns that have neglected to include investment risk warnings.

The new standards will require adverts to refrain from featuring false, misleading or exaggerated claims and include investment risks warnings. The correspondence from the SEC also calls for balanced advertising, which would entail including potential positive and negative factors of the products or services being promoted.

Firms will have to limit advertising directly promoting cryptocurrency to "official channels" like their own websites and will be required to hand over details of adverts and spending, including the use of social media influencers and bloggers and their terms, to the SEC.

 *Strict Thai crypto regulation causes SCB to delay Bitkub acquisition* 

August 2022 was a busy month for the Thai SEC as it granted licenses to four new cryptocurrency-related businesses. The regulator also put Bitkub under the microscope, fining the firm's chief technology officer Samret Wajanasathian for the alleged insider trading of its KUB token ahead of a lucrative investment deal with Thailand's Siam Commercial Bank.