Friday, August 18th. As the week comes to an end we can focus on the highlights of the crypto industry over the past few days.
Binance.US files for protective order against SEC
Binance’s U.S. subsidiaries have filed a motion in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to block SEC’s demands on the renowned exchange, Reuter reports.
The petitioners stated that the regulator’s information requirements were “over broad” and “unduly burdensome.”
BAM Management and BAM Trading, their US-based operational company, both said in the lawsuit that the Binance team had already provided the necessary data to the agency.
The motion seeks to limit the SEC to four depositions from BAM employees and to strike the ones from BAM’s CEO and CFO.
“The SEC has still yet to identify any evidence suggesting that customer assets were misused or dissipated in any way,” the filing said.
Back on June 5, the agency sued Binance and its CEO Changpeng Zhao. The Commission made 13 charges, including the sale of unregistered securities. The next day, the regulator sent a request to freeze the digital assets of the exchange’s US department.
Starting June 9, Binance.US users were no longer able to deposit dollars, sparking sales from those looking to withdraw their funds in fiat. Amid this situation, a discount in BTC/USD pair was formed on the platform – the figure reached roughly $2200 (7.3%).
Stellar invests in MoneyGram
The Stellar Development Foundation (SDF), a non-profit organization, has made a strategic investment in MoneyGram, a money transfer platform.
Such a move follows a two-year partnership between the two organizations geared towards implementing crypto payments and launching the cash-to-digital asset swap and vice versa.
As per SDF head Denelle Dixon’s announcement, the deal will result in the non-profit organization becoming a minority investor in the payment company. SDF emphasized that the source of the investment were their own funds rather than the early-stage project support fund resources.
SDF CEO and Executive Director Denelle Dixon added that the company will get seated MoneyGram’s board of directors. It will help develop the digital business of the money transfer service by “exploring blockchain technology”.
Let us recall that last October MoneyGram made Bitcoin, Ethereum and Litecoin trading and storage options available to US users via its mobile app.
Previously, the Stellar Development Foundation team launched a $100 mln fund to incentivize developers for creating products and utilities using a smart contract platform called Soroban.
Inflows into crypto funds return
From Aug. 5 to Aug. 11, inflows into crypto investment products totaled $28.5 million, compared to outflows of $107 million a week earlier, CoinShares reports.
Downward dynamic has been observed for three consecutive weeks.
Analysts attributed the change in trend to the reduced chance of the Fed hiking the key rate at its September meeting after the inflation data.
The vast majority of the inflow was due to investments in bitcoin funds ($27 mln). Compared to March’s record outflow of $111 mln, they partially offset it in the previous week.
At the entities that allow you to open a short position on the first-ever cryptocurrency, downward dynamic resumed – as customers took away $2.7 million after a zero variation in the previous reporting period.
Ethereum funds reported an influx totaling $2.5 million compared to an outflow of $5.9 million in the prior week.
Other altcoin-based products saw positive momentum, ranging from $0.1 million in LTC to $0.7 million in Uniswap.
The surge in XRP-related products revenue continues for the sixteenth week straight. Their AUM has grown 127% starting this year.
As you may remember, Blockstream CEO Adam Back predicted pre-halving BTC’s skyrocketing to $100,000.
Previously, Bloomberg analyst James Seyffarth upped the odds of approval for a digital gold-based exchange-traded fund, Bitcoin ETF, to 65%.
Ledger & PayPal team up
Hardware wallet maker Ledger unveiled a PayPal integration allowing U.S. users to purchase crypto using the payment platform’s account.
In compliance with applicable laws in the United States, Ledger Live users will be able to perform transactions with no identification if they have previously used PayPal, the statement said.
As for new customers, KYC verification is required.
“Ledger is committed to simplifying the world of crypto, and PayPal is committed to making the movement of money as simple, secure, and affordable as possible,” added CEO Pascal Gauthier.
BTC, ETH, BCH and LTC will be the first to be available on the platform.
On August 7, the company revealed the launch of Ethereum-based and dollar-pegged stablecoin PYUSD. Paxos, a blockchain infrastructure company, turned out to be the issuer of the coin.
The asset has provoked controversy among crypto community. Some felt that PYUSD encouraged mass adoption of digital assets, while others pointed to its possible centralized nature.
PayPal later unveiled the launch of a cryptohub for selected users. What it will be is a digital asset storage and interaction service within their platform’s account.