The biggest crypto news and ideas of the day |
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OG Finally Sells 2010 Bitcoin |
A bitcoin (BTC) whale moved 2,000 BTC, worth $178 million, to Coinbase after holding their stash since 2010, Mempool data shows. The user first received BTC in 2010, when the asset was worth just $0.06 per coin and had a market cap of around $250,000. Trading volume at the time rarely topped $60,000 per day. Inflows to an exchange typically suggest that the BTC will be liquidated. The transfer follows a trend of dormant bitcoin wallets becoming active in light of the recent market-wide price surge after Donald Trump's U.S. election win earlier this month. Glassnode shows a recent uptick in wallets that have been inactive for more than five years, with the figure reaching a two-month high. Bitcoin is currently trading at $88,532 after cooling off from a rally that saw it set a record high of $93,214 on Wednesday. This is not the first time older wallets have woken up as bitcoin started to hit new all-time highs this year. There have been at least two instances this year where millions of BTC from a period of late 2009 to 2011 called the "Satoshi Era" were moved from dormant wallets. Whether those bitcoin were sold is hard to gauge, but not impossible given the massive profits the users could reap at current prices. The trend of more of the older wallets that held bitcoin from its early days coming out of the woodwork could continue, as they might be able to bag massive profits at current price levels. Such moves could limit any additional price upside, even though some traders are still optimistic that bitcoin could reach $100,000—a key psychological level of resistance—by year-end. However, Chainalysis estimated that between 3-4 million BTC has been “lost forever” due to irretrievable private keys, meaning some of these "OG" wallets may never be able to cash out. |
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XRP zoomed 17% in the past 24 hours to beat gains in bitcoin {{BTC}] and majors, as shifting U.S. regulatory climate supported growth in tokens previously hampered by the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) actions. XRP traded above 82 cents in early Asian trading hours Friday, extending 7-day gains to 50% as it reached levels last seen in June 2023. The jump came as 18 U.S. states filed to sue the SEC and commissioners, including chairman Gary Gensler, accusing them of unconstitutional overreach of the crypto industry. The speculative optimism among traders is that a crypto-friendly Trump administration could benefit tokens linked to U.S.-based companies, such as Ripple Labs (related to XRP) and Uniswap (UNI), as the firms are more involved in boosting value for token holders. Meanwhile, BTC and majors slid as much as 4% amid profit-taking in late U.S. hours Thursday, an expected market reaction following several days of growth. The drop was catalyzed as Fed chair Jerome Powell delivered hawkish comments in his latest speech, dampening hopes of swifter rate cuts. "The economy is not sending any signals that we need to be in a hurry to lower rates," said Powell in prepared remarks at a Dallas conference. "The strength we are currently seeing in the economy gives us the ability to approach our decisions carefully." |
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Trump Names Clayton to DOJ Branch |
President-elect Donald Trump said former Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Jay Clayton would be his U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, heading up the state's Department of Justice branch. Clayton, who has advised a number of crypto firms since leaving the SEC in December 2020, oversaw the production of the SEC's DAO Report, which claimed jurisdiction over a broad swath of the crypto industry, and famously once said he believed most initial coin offerings were securities, a view later echoed by his successor, current SEC Chair Gary Gensler. "[Clayton] is a highly respected business leader, counsel and public servant," Trump said. One of Clayton's final actions at the SEC was to sign off on its lawsuit against Ripple Labs. The case is currently winding its way through the federal appellate court system, after a judge ruled last year that the company had not violated federal securities laws in making XRP available to retail traders through exchanges. He's currently a senior policy advisor at the law firm Sullivan and Cromwell, alongside his various advisory roles. He did not immediately return a request for comment. |
Razzlekhan Husband Sentenced |
Ilya Lichtenstein was sentenced to five years in prison for his role in the theft of approximately 120,000 bitcoin (BTC) from crypto exchange Bitfinex, the U.S. Department of Justice has announced on Thursday. The 35-year-old hacked the network in 2016, using “advanced hacking tools and techniques.” Once inside the network, Lichtenstein fraudulently authorized more than 2,000 transactions transferring 119,754 bitcoin from Bitfinex to his own wallet. He then took steps to cover his tracks by deleting from Bitfinex’s network access credentials and other log files that could have revealed his conduct to law enforcement. Following the hack, Lichtenstein and his wife, Heather Morgan laundered the stolen funds. Morgan, also known by her rapper moniker “Razzlekhan,” will be sentenced on Nov. 18. Prosecutors have recommended she serve 18 months. According to court documents, the couple managed to laundered 25,111 bitcoin – 21% of the total pile Lichtenstein stole from Bitfinex – using a web of Eastern European bank accounts and bitcoin mixing services to hide the origin of the funds. Prosecutors described the methods as “the most complicated money laundering techniques [IRS agents] had seen to date.” |
The Takeaway: Crypto Won and Won |
By Aubrey Strobel Trump has been avowedly pro-Bitcoin and pro-crypto for a minute now. In fact, he’s more of a degen than many of us, having launched his own DeFi protocol, World Liberty Financial. The official Republican platform is explicitly pro-crypto, and Trump himself has made specific commitments to the industry, like freeing Ross Ulbricht, ending SEC Chair Gary Gensler’s reign, letting Bitcoin miners mine, ending Chokepoint 2.0, and having the government hold on to all seized BTC. People are policy, and Trump surrounds himself with an orange-pilled group. VP-elect JD Vance owns Bitcoin, and has a long track of engagement with crypto, even authoring a market structure bill as a senator. Vivek Ramaswamy, the new co-lead of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), has been a crypto bull for some time. Trump’s transition team co-chair Howard Lutnick is a bitcoin and stablecoin megabull (his company Cantor Fitzgerald custodies for Tether). Musk himself, who is becoming a right-side Soros of sorts, has dabbled in crypto for years. By all accounts, Jared Kushner, Trump’s sons Don and Eric, and Barron are all crypto curious at least. RFK Jr, who may yet find a role in Trump’s cabinet, is beloved in the Bitcoin community. Trump’s rumored Treasury secretary nominee, Scott Bessent, openly supports crypto and Bitcoin. And Tulsi Gabbard, newly minted head of National Intelligence, owned ETH and LTC all the way back in 2018. Even those who suspect that Trump is merely paying lip service to crypto must admit he has surrounded himself with people who have invested in the industry’s future. The election was also a spectacular success for the crypto lobby. On November 8, Bloomberg reported that FairShake, the industry’s largest Super PAC, prevailed in 48 of 48 races in which it backed a candidate (FairShake backed both Democrats and Republicans). Coinbase’s Stand With Crypto aggregator claims that 273 pro-crypto and 122 anti-crypto Representatives were elected this cycle. On the Senate side, they list 19 pro-crypto and 12 anti-crypto candidates elected. Most notably in the Senate, the crypto lobby threw an avalanche of cash at Bernie Moreno to help him unseat Democrat Senator Sherrod Brown in Ohio. Brown was the chair of the Senate Banking Committee and a staunch opponent of crypto. Moreno, by contrast, is a crypto entrepreneur himself. In Montana, Republican Tim Sheehy ("A" grade on Stand with Crypto) defeated Senator Jon Tester ("D" grade on Stand with Crypto). Read the whole thing |
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