The SEC delays its decision on Ethereum ETFs, Binance’s settlement with the CFTC is approved and Sam Bankman-Fried loses again in court.
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has delayed its decision on several Ethereum exchange-traded funds (ETFs) to May 2024. The agency said it was instituting proceedings that involve gathering further public input around whether or not the ETFs should be listed. The decision affects proposals from Hashdex, Grayscale, VanEck, ARK Invest and 21Shares. Despite the SEC having approved Ethereum futures ETFs in the past, the agency has yet to approve a spot or mixed-type product. A final decision is expected in May 2024.
A United States court has entered an order against crypto exchange Binance and its former CEO, Changpeng CZ Zhao, that will see Binance pay $2.7 billion and CZ pay $150 million to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). The agency sued the executive and his exchange on March 27 for evading federal law and operating an illegal derivatives exchange. The approved settlement marks the conclusion of a long-running case against CZ and Binance by the CFTC. CZ agreed to step down from his role at the helm of Binance as part of a wider settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice, the Treasury Department and the CFTC.
Judge Lewis Kaplan has denied former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Frieds request for a four- to six-week adjournment of his sentencing hearing. The request was made on Dec. 20 and would have delayed his pre-sentencing interview, as well as the sentencing hearing currently scheduled for March 28, 2024. The request was made by attorney Mark Cohen of Cohen & Gresser, claiming the defense needs more time to prepare for the pre-sentencing interview. In addition, disclosures for the pre-sentence investigation report are scheduled for Jan. 5, 2024, and Feb. 2, 2024, but the government has not yet announced whether it will proceed with a second trial on the severed charges against Bankman-Fried.
Read more
Source: https://cointelegraph.com/magazine/sec-delays-ether-etfs-binance-settlement-approved-and-another-court-loss-for-sbf-hodlers-digest-dec-17-23/