Last week’s biggest crypto news with a special bonus deal inside.
Crypto Espresso – Weekly Crypto News At Your Fingertips!
May 2, 2023
Crypto Espresso – Weekly Crypto News At Your Fingertips!
May 2, 2023
Top Crypto News Stories Last Week:
Last week in the crypto world we saw Standard Chartered putting up a bold Bitcoin prediction, Coinbase suing the SEC over a lack of regulatory clarity, and the Bitcoin Legal Defense Fund tackling its first case 🧑⚖️
Standard Chartered Predicts $100,000 in 2024
British bank Standard Chartered raised a few eyebrows last week when one of its analysts, Geoff Kendrick, claimed that not only is the crypto winter over but that the macro headwinds will help drive Bitcoin to $100,000 in 2024.
This isn’t the first time the bank has joined the predictions game, suggesting long-term targets for Bitcoin and Ethereum of $175,000 and $35,000 respectively in 2021. Historical data suggests that while Bitcoin may certainly enjoy a positive 2024, $100,000 might be a stretch so early into the new cycle.
In his analysis, Kendrick talked up Bitcoin’s fundamentals as a reason why it will continue to be a desirable asset in the years to come:
“The current stress in the traditional banking sector is highly conducive to BTC outperformance – and validates the original premise for Bitcoin as a decentralised, trustless and scarce digital asset. Given these advantages, we think BTC’s share of total digital assets market cap could move into the 50-60% range in the next few months (from around 45% currently).”
He then added that Bitcoin has the potential “to reach the USD 100,000 level by end-2024, as we believe the much-touted ‘crypto winter’ is finally over.” While the latter statement may indeed be true, history tells us that 2025 is more likely to be the year in which Bitcoin might hit this millionaire-making milestone.
Bitcoin undergoes a ‘halving’ every four years, where the mining reward is cut in two. In the past, Bitcoin has been in recovery mode when this event has taken place (2016 and 2020 are the last two examples), spending the halving year slowly accumulating before the rocket ship truly takes off some 18 months later. Given that the next halving is likely to be around February 2024 this would mean all eyes would be on mid-2025 as the point where $100,000 might be on the table.
However, with the global economy the most fragile it has been since the concept of Bitcoin was unleashed onto the world in 2008, even this could be optimistic; Bitcoin enjoys a very particular financial climate of a weak dollar and strong stock market, which is a far cry from what we’re currently experiencing.
Coinbase Sues the SEC
Coinbase last week took the biggest step yet towards obtaining clarity over regulation in the crypto space when it filed a lawsuit against the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) demanding that it publicize its response to a petition it filed back in July 2022 which asked the agency to “propose and adopt rules to govern the regulation of securities that are offered and traded via digitally native methods.” The crypto regulatory landscape is famously unclear and following SEC Chair Gary Gensler’s inability to clear up the issue during his much-maligned appearance earlier this month before the House Financial Services Committee, Coinbase has decided to go nuclear.
Coinbase has been the target of the SEC’s ire on more than one occasion since Gensler came to power in 2021, with the authority killing its lending platform prior to launch and suing it over its Ethereum staking platform. The irony of this targeted crackdown is that the U.S. government uses Coinbase to sell the bitcoin it obtains through court seizures and police action, a fact that has not gone unnoticed in crypto circles.
Coinbase’s legal officer Paul Grewal penned a blog post last week outlining its demands, which stem from a petition the company filed with the SEC last year requesting that “the Commission propose and adopt rules to govern the regulation of securities that are offered and traded via digitally native methods, including potential rules to identify which digital assets are securities.”
The petition added that “The U.S. does not currently have a functioning market in digital asset securities due to the lack of a clear and workable regulatory regime,” which Gensler merely reinforced with his Committee appearance two weeks ago when he failed to back up the accusations made in SEC actions against crypto exchanges.
Grewal said that Coinbase is not demanding that the SEC provide a ruleset, it is simply asking for a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ on whether it will or not, after which it can take action. This action may include a further legal challenge should the agency refuse to provide the clarity Coinbase is demanding.
Bitcoin Legal Defense Fund Takes First Case
The Bitcoin Legal Defense Fund, a non-profit group that supports Bitcoin developers in legal matters regarding their work, has taken its first case. The fund was first mooted by Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey last year and last week it helped pay for its first act: a motion in its battle over fiduciary duties with Satoshi Nakamoto pretender Craig Wright. The fund is supporting a number of lone developers who otherwise couldn’t have afforded to fight their case, allowing them to come together, consolidate their arguments and hire high-quality legal counsel to tackle Wright and his potentially damaging demands.
Dorsey said in January 2022 that a fund was needed to help Bitcoin developers, most of whom are volunteers, because “litigation and continued threats are having their intended effect; individual defendants have chosen to capitulate in the absence of legal support.” Dorsey developed the fund alongside Alex Morcos, co-founder of Chaincode Labs, and Martin White, head of Litigation at Dorsey’s company Block, and last week it paid for its first motion on behalf of the group of developers targeted by Wright over their alleged responsibilities.
Wright sued the group of 15 developers in 2021, arguing that because they control the Bitcoin network they are responsible for the coins held by users. Therefore, if some coins get stolen, the developers should find a way to return them. To test this, Wright is using an alleged theft of 80,000 bitcoins from him in 2020, although his ownership and the theft itself are highly disputed. The case was initially thrown out by the UK High Court but Wright won on appeal. It is due to be heard late this year or early next. The Bitcoin Legal Defense fund will also be needed to fight another lawsuit filed by Wright against a second group of developers over an alleged breach of copyright, with some unlucky enough to feature twice.
The fund is essential due to the fact that Wright is being bankrolled by billionaire online casino mogul Calvin Ayre, and without it the defendants would have no choice but to fold rather than fight.
Trending stories:
- SkyBridge Capital founder Anthony Scaramucci last week rebuffed claims that Binance torpedoed FTX by pulling out of a takeover deal in November 2022, saying that the blame lies with Sam Bankman-Fried.
- The Bitcoin whitepaper has been removed from the MacOS operating system after it was discovered hidden away earlier this month.
- Binance has pulled out of its deal to buy Voyager Digital after its takeover was stayed last week by the bankruptcy court following a CFTC lawsuit.
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