Bitcoin (BTC) Price Tumbles Below $59K Amid Inflation Worry, SEC Lawsuit

In mid-afternoon U.S. trading, bitcoin (BTC) was lower by about 4% over the past 24 hours. At $59,000, the price has returned to levels not seen since the U.S. Federal Reserve unexpectedly slashed its benchmark interest rate by 50 basis points in mid-September. Altcoins outperformed somewhat, with the broad-based crypto benchmark CoinDesk 20 Index declining just under 3% during the same period. Ether (ETH) dropped 3.5%, while only decentralized exchange Uniswaps’s token (UNI) had positive return during the day on news about the platform’s own layer-2 plans. Source

SEC Sues Crypto Market Maker Cumberland DRW

As one example, the SEC alleged, Cumberland promoted ATOM through, “An email sent to counterparties on February 20, 2023 stated: ‘At the moment, one of the smaller gainers in the sector, outside of ETH and EOS, has been ATOM. ATOM is up ‘only’ 53% YTD, despite strong fundamentals and a healthy developer community; it’s a name where we expect to see a catchup rally if crypto remain buoyant.’” Source

Ripple Plans ‘Cross-Appeal’ in SEC Case to Preserve Its Arguments

“I don’t think that folks who are paying attention should be much distracted by these efforts to create confusion, because I think the judge got it right, and I think they should welcome the opportunity for the court of appeals to roll on this issue and finally, bring the clarity that we need,” Alderoty said about the appeals court taking up the case – though, he added, the U.S. “really needs a policy solution” from legislators rather than court rulings. Source

Crypto Exchange OKX Goes Live in United Arab Emirates (UAE), Targeting TradFi Institutions, Retail Investors

The opening, nine months after OKX Middle East Fintech FZE was granted full regulatory approval by the Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (VARA), will allow one of the four biggest cryptocurrency exchanges by volume to offer local residents access to a market without involving a broker who buys liquidity from outside the UAE, usually at a higher price, adding time and friction, said Rifad Mahasneh, the exchange’s general manager for the Middle East. Source

Heather ‘Razzlekhan’ Morgan Should Spend 18 Months in Prison, Prosecutors Tell Court

In addition to requesting jail time for Morgan, prosecutors have asked the court to order her to “return the cryptocurrencies seized by the government directly from the Bitfinex Hack Wallet – including approximately 94,643.29837084 BTC, 117,376.52651940 Bitcoin Cash (BCH), 117,376.58178024 Bitcoin Satoshi Vision (BSV), and 118,102.03258447 in Bitcoin Gold (BTG) valued at more than $6 billion at current prices – as in-kind restitution to Bitfinex.” Source

Ethena (ENA) Picks BlackRock’s BUIDL, Mountain, Superstate and Sky’s USDS for Tokenized RWA Investment

The decision comes after Ethena laid out plans in July to invest its Reserve Fund in RWA-backed products. Some 25 issuers applied for allocation, and the final selection was made by the Ethena Risk Committee, consisting of five voting members of DeFi risk and advisory firms: Gauntlet, Block Analitica, Steakhouse, Llama Risk and Blockworks Advisory, with the Ethena Foundation as a non-voting member. Source

The U.S. Fell Behind in Crypto. It Cannot Afford to Fall Behind in AI

The U.S.’s rise and fall with crypto is a cautionary tale that sets the scene for what could be to come in AI. In early crypto days, the U.S. was the promise land with a plethora of startups and investment funding flowing into the space creating room for innovation, growth and mass adoption. In recent years, this has slowed down due to a lack of regulation and policy. The SEC started bringing in lawsuits and regulatory policies based on pre-crypto laws – essentially trying to fit a round peg into…