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BitcoinBTC and cryptocurrencies have been buffeted by surprise headwinds over the last few weeks (with a leak suggesting Elon Musk could be about to cause crypto price chaos).

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The bitcoin price, now trading at almost double its late 2022 price, has swung wildly in the build-up to what could be an explosive September, dragging the price of ethereum, BNBBNB, XRPXRP, cardano, dogecoin and solana with it.

Now, the bitcoin and crypto market is on alert after the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filed a secret, sealed motion in its case against Binance that includes more than 35 exhibitswith one respected crypto investigator predicting September will be "crazy."

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"Filing any court document under seal is a rare move by the SEC," John Reed Stark, the SEC's former office of internet enforcement chief, posted to X (Twitter). "The SEC is a civil (not a criminal) enforcement agency; thus, in stark contrast to criminal prosecutorial filings, SEC motions (and enforcement actions) are typically filed openly and free for everyone to read."

Earlier this year, the SEC shocked the bitcoin and crypto world when it sued first Binance, the world's largest crypto exchange, and then Coinbase, the largest U.S.-focused crypto exchange. The SEC accused Binance of violating federal securities laws by selling unregistered securities to the public through its BNB cryptocurrency and the BUSDBUSD Binance-branded, dollar-pegged stablecoin.

Stark suggested the SEC, led by chair Gary Gensler, could be either trying to avoid interfering with a criminal investigation or could be worried an unsealed motion could put a witness at risk.

"Under any circumstance, that this SEC seal-seeking filing is unusual, odd and uncommon cannot be overstated," Stark wrote. In my almost 20 years ... I cant recall ever seeking to file a motion or any other court document under seal."

Usually, the "SEC wants its messages heard loud and clear to deter future securities violations," Stark added, with the sealed motion sparking wild speculation the agency is about to drop a bombshell on the crypto market.

Reacting to the filing, investigative YouTuber Stephen Findeisen, better known as Coffeezilla, posted to X: "September is going to be crazy."

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The secret motion comes as the bitcoin and crypto market is already on tenterhooks waiting for the SEC to make an "approve," "deny," or "delay" decision on at least five spot bitcoin ETF bids in early September from asset managers that look after a combined $15.5 trillion.

Following crypto asset manager Greyscale's legal victory over the SEC this week, in which a judge called on the SEC to explain why it had blocked Greyscale from converting its Greyscale Bitcoin Trust into a fully-fledged spot bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF), expectations have soared that a spot bitcoin ETF approval could be imminent.

I am a journalist with significant experience covering technology, finance, economics, and business around the world. As the founding editor of Verdict.co.uk I reported on how technology is changing business, political trends, and the latest culture and lifestyle. I have covered the rise of bitcoin and cryptocurrency since 2012 and have charted its emergence as a niche technology into the greatest threat to the established financial system the world has ever seen and the most important new technology since the internet itself. I have worked and written for CityAM, the Financial Times, and the New Statesman, amongst others. Follow me on Twitter @billybambrough or email me on billyATbillybambrough.com.Disclosure: I occasionally hold some small amount of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.

Originally posted here:

September Is Going To Be CrazyA New Secret Binance Filing Could Be About To Rock The Bitcoin, Ethereum, BNB, XRP, Cardano, Dogecoin And Solana Price -...

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Robinhood Brings DeFi to Users, Adds 200+ Ethereum and Polygon Tokens - Crypto Briefing

Ethereum. Source: Adobe

In an effort to maintain the decentralized nature of theEthereum (ETH)network, several prominent liquid staking providers have implemented or are in the process of implementing a self-limit rule.

The rule ensures that these providers will not own more than 22% of the Ethereum staking market, which could help address concerns over the growing centralization of Ethereum staking.

Rocket Pool,StakeWise,Stader Labs,Diva Staking, andPuffer Financeare some of the staking platforms that have already committed to the self-limit, Ethereum core developer Superphiz said in a recent tweet.

"This is how our chain will be successful: Coordination above greed. Cooperation instead of winner-take-all."

The commitment to maintaining a balanced distribution of validators within the Ethereum network can be considered a positive step toward reducing the risk of centralized control.

The decision to set the self-limit at 22% was based on the requirement that 66% of validators need to agree on the state of Ethereum for finality to be achieved.

Keeping the limit below 22% ensures that at least four major entities must collude to potentially jeopardize the finalization process, which is crucial for maintaining trust and preventing transactions from being altered within the blockchain.

Superphiz initially proposed the idea in May 2022, asking staking pools to prioritize the health of the Ethereum chain over their own profits.

The largest Ethereum liquid staking provider,Lido Finance, has decided not to commit to the self-limit rule.

Back in June, the project put forward a proposal to impose a limit on Lidos maximum stake.

However, less than one half of one percent of the votes cast were in favor of the self-limit rule.

On the other hand, those holding more than 99% of Lidos governance tokens, LDO, voted for the protocol to not hold back on its growth.

Lido Finance currently dominates the Ethereum staking market, accounting for 32.4% of all staked Ether.

Coinbase, the second-largest staking provider, holds only an 8.7% market share, according to data from Dune Analytics.

While some argue that self-limiting staking providers are not necessary for the alignment of Ethereum, others emphasize the need for a more balanced distribution of validators within the network.

Meanwhile, recentdata from Dune Analytics revealsthat over 22% of Ethereum's supply is currently staked on the network, with the total number of Ether just below 26.3 million.

The increase in staked ETH has also led to a rise in the number of validators, which has surpassed 821,600 at the time of writing.

Since late 2020, there has been a steady increase in the volume of ETH staked on the network, despite concerns raised during the Ethereum network's Shanghai upgrade, which allowed the withdrawal of staked ETH.

Notably, the growth in staked ETHhas been substantialsince early May, with over 7 million additional ETH being staked and an increase of nearly 230,000 validators.

See the original post here:

Major Ethereum Staking Providers Promise Not to Own More Than ... - Cryptonews

According to a New York judge, both Bitcoin and Ethereum, the top two cryptocurrencies by market capitalisation, can be considered commodities due to their decentralized nature.

This was ruled by the same judge dealing with the SEC vs Coinbase case, whose latest statement is guiding the public debate in reference to the exchanges alleged violation of US securities laws.

Meanwhile, a lawsuit against Uniswap and its founder Hayden Adams has been dismissed over an affair involving the decentralized protocol and the emergence of a large number of token scams.

Full details below.

The latest crypto news is about the decision of a New York court, which on Wednesday during the filing of a proposed class action against DEX Uniswap, explicitly cited that both Bitcoin and Ethereum are classified as commodities.

This was said by Judge Polk Failla, who also indirectly dealt with the SECs case against Coinbase, providing a key interpretation for upcoming legal proceedings on this issue.

Hence, the top two cryptocurrencies by market capitalisation are not comparable to financial securities, the sale of which for a broker must be preceded by an authorisation from the market supervisory authorities, but rather to commodities such as gold, platinum, oil, aluminium, palladium and many others.

The New York judges decision only sets precedents for the various lawsuits that the SEC has filed over the past three months, raising the hopes of the crypto community for the federal agencys defeat.

To tell the truth, Gary Gensler himself has never gone so far as to define either Bitcoin or Ethereum as securities, aware that neither has the characteristics to be labelled as such, but has limited himself to attacking the so-called altcoins.

The agency will now have a lot of work to do, both in view of the upcoming deadlines for the long-awaited spot ETFs for the two assets, and with regard to the accusations made by the exchanges Binance and Coinbase, which are vigorously defending themselves before the law.

As far as only Bitcoin and Ethereum are concerned, without mentioning other currencies, the issue seems quite clear, especially given that the two crypto assets have already been present for years on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME), a business centre where commodities are mainly traded.

The statements by Judge Katherine Polk Failla on the characteristics of Bitcoin and Ethereum, which classify digital currencies as commodities, came in the midst of a lawsuit filed by a group of investors against the decentralised platform Uniswap and its founder Hayden Adams.

In April 2022, a group of individuals sued Uniswap as being responsible for issuing scam tokens such as EthereumMax (EMAX), Bezoge (BEZOGE), Alphawolf Finance (AWF) and other ERC-20 tokens, at the same time violating US laws on unregistered securities.

To understand the matter, it is necessary to know that on the decentralised exchange in question, anyone can create and trade a token in a trustless manner, i.e. without anyone having to approve the transaction.

Many times, those who create a new cryptocurrency have a plan to scam the buyer by suddenly removing all liquidity on the DEX or selling large batches of tokens on the market to make a profit.

The New York court expressed its opinion on the matter by agreeing with the defence and dismissing the case before it could go to trial.

In fact, it can be read from the papers that it is not Hayden Adams and his Uniswap protocol who are the real defendants in the case, but the issuers of the scam tokens who defrauded American investors.

The decentralised nature of the protocol makes it difficult to identify these issuers, especially given the fact that there is still no regulation in place that can go against law enforcement and facilitate the recognition and arrest of those responsible for the scams.

In this regard, citing the absence of relevant regulation, the Court concluded that investors concerns are better addressed to Congress than to this Court

Stating at the same time that Bitcoin and Ethereum represent two commodities, the judge refused to extend federal securities laws to cover the alleged conduct.

The story sounds very similar to the Tornado Cash case, where users outside the owners of the open source code used the protocol for illicit purposes, laundering money through the decentralised mixer.

In that case, the founders of Tornado Cash, unlike Hayden Adams, were arrested because they were held responsible for aiding the passage of dirty money through their platform without putting in place any preventive measures, even though they were aware of the illegalities that were taking place.

The founder of Uniswap himself described the final decisions of his trial as a great victory for DeFi, forgetting, however, that similar cases were closed in a totally different way.

There is still a long way to go before there is a homogenous interpretation by the courts on cases relating to wrongdoing on decentralised open source platforms.

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Bitcoin and Ethereum classified as commodities: the final ruling of a ... - The Cryptonomist