Here comes Friday, December 22nd. As the week elapses, we can focus on the industry highlights over the past few days.
SEC takes raincheck on Ethereum ETFs
As early as December 18, the Securities and Exchange Commission postponed its final ruling on Ethereum-based exchange-traded funds regarding several companies. At first, applications for the Hashdex Nasdaq Ethereum ETF and the Grayscale Ethereum Futures ETF were delayed. The SEC has launched an investigation seeking additional information from the public concerning the listing of investment products, according to the papers.
The decision on VanEck’s spot Ethereum-ETF as well as on the joint ARK Invest and 21Shares instrument have also been put on ice. As per Bloomberg expert James Seyffarth, the ruling was unsurprising. The deadline for a judgment is now scheduled for May 2024. Prior to that, the SEC also rolled back a decision on Hashdex’s application to launch a spot ETF and Ethereum futures to January 1, 2024.
In November, BlackRock filed an application to list a spot Ethereum ETF. That same month, CoinShares highlighted asset managers’ interest in Ether. Standard Chartered’s head Crypto Research Jeffrey Kendrick later anticipated Ethereum’s price would skyrocket to $8,000 by late 2026.
Binance to pay $2.7B in fine to CFTC
The U.S. Federal Court has approved an agreement between Binance and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). Within the scope of this agreement, the renowned CEX gave the thumbs-up to discharge a $1.35 billion civil penalty and refund the same amount in “ill-gotten transaction fees.”
Binance and its now-former CEO Changpeng Zhao pleaded guilty to violating the Commodity Exchange Act. The ex-CEO consented to pay a personal fine totaling $150 million.
Under Zhao’s leadership, Binance had actively solicited customers from the United States, including trading firms that executed derivatives transactions directly on the platform, according to the court’s move. In breach of its own terms of use, the exchange has allowed at least two prime brokers to open sub-accounts without going through KYC procedures.
Both Zhao and Binance were also found to have deliberately ignored U.S. regulatory requirements and helped customers avoid scrutiny.
After the CFTC lawsuit was filed, the defendants terminated the accounts of the trading firms at issue.
The court ordered Binance to further certify KYC programs and implement corporate governance, including an independent board of directors as well as set up compliance and audit committees.
As per separate order by Judge Manish S. Shah, Binance’s former Chief Compliance Officer Samuel Lim is to face a $1.5 million fine.
Back in November, Binance and Zhao settled U.S. Department of Justice money laundering lawsuits, opting to pay $4.3 billion and $50 million, respectively. As a reminder, the SEC’s lawsuit against Binance and its former CEO is still pending.
7RCC applies to launch a Bitcoin ETF
A small crypto asset manager 7RCC has filed a request with the SEC to create an ETF based on the alpha cryptocurrency and carbon credit futures.
The following is noted on the Form S-1 document:
“The Index aims to track the financial performance of investing in a portfolio with 80% allocation to bitcoin and a 20% allocation to Carbon Credit Futures. The purpose of the Index is to obtain exposure to the crypto asset class via bitcoin with an environmentally responsible approach by offsetting carbon emissions.”
It is expected that Gemini will serve as the custodian of this exchange-traded fund. The submission also points out that the new financial instrument will offer investors the opportunity to “diversify portfolio” by balancing the innovative characteristics of bitcoin with the progressive field of carbon credit futures.
Previously, James Seyffarth, the abovementioned analyst, expressed the opinion that the SEC will massively approve applications for Bitcoin ETFs in January.
Trezor now supports SOL and SPL
Trezor, a hardware wallet maker, has expanded its list of compatible cryptocurrencies by including Solana and SPL tokens.
The new features are available in the Model T and Safe 3 devices, which are priced at $179 and $79, respectively. On its official website, the company notes that these gadgets support more than 8,000 different assets.
SPL is a separate token standard used on the Solana blockchain, akin to ERC-20 for Ethereum.
The integration of Solana into such mainstream hardware wallets arrived during a period of tremendous growth for this crypto. As of this writing, its value is around $84, which recently pushed it past XRP in terms of market cap.
Between October and December, there has been a 250% increase in interest around Solana, as measured by search volume on Google.
Let us remind you that Trezor had previously introduced new devices in October: the Trezor Safe 3, focused exclusively on bitcoin, as well as Trezor Keep Metal, a seed-phrase backup device.