Bitcoin up 22% vs crypto stocks; Russia blocks OKX; US, EU set to discuss crypto regulation

The biggest news in the cryptoverse for Oct. 5 includes SEC opposing third parties seeking to defend Ripple, Do Kwon describing news of a $40 million crypto freeze as falsehood, and SWIFT showing CBDCs, tokenized assets can be integrated into the global financial system.

CryptoSlate Top Stories

SEC opposes third parties seeking to prove utility of Ripple blockchain

Two firms I-Remit and Tapjets had filed a motion seeking to submit their amicus briefing to prove the utility of XRP beyond speculation.

The SEC opposed the motion on the grounds that the court’s prior order prohibits third parties from interfering in the case. The commission also alleged that Ripple may have influenced the proposed evidence.

Do Kwon deems news of $40M crypto freeze a ‘falsehood’

Reports emerged earlier today that South Korean prosecutors have frozen around $40 million linked to Do Kwon from crypto exchanges, KuCoin and OKX.

Do Kwon described the news as “spreading falsehood” claiming that he does not have any account with KuCoin and OKX.

GMX DEX spikes 35% as Binance, FTX announce listing

Leading crypto exchanges Binance and FTX opened trading for the native token of decentralized exchange GMX (GMX) on Oct. 5.

Following the listing announcement and bullish reaction from the community, GMX spiked 35%, reaching a new high of $54.11, before retracing to $48.7 as of press time.

Russia blocks crypto exchange OKX without disclosing reason

Russian authority has reportedly blacklisted crypto exchange OKX’s IP address (okx.com) for allegedly violating article 15.3 of the federal law, which may be related to extremist activities.

Similar to Binance’s IP ban in June 2021, OKX may move to file a lawsuit against Russia’s internet censorship agency to know the exact reason and possibly get the ban lifted.

Bitcoin briefly trades above $20k as traders ape into futures

Bullish sentiment seems to be returning to the market as leverage traders push BTC futures trading volume to an all-time high.

Traders used  USD/stablecoins as leverage in the futures open contracts to pump BTC price above the $20,000 mark, however, it was rejected around the $20,400 level.

Bitcoin outperforms traditional crypto stocks in 2022 by up to 22%

Despite shedding off over 56% of its gain since January 2022, Bitcoin has outperformed crypto-related stocks.

Coinbase stocks are down 76%, Block is down 62% and MicroStrategy stocks have lost up to 58%. Overall, traditional crypto stocks have underperformed by over 74% and lost about three times more than the S&P500 year-to-date.

Nexo co-founders address recent cease and desist orders from US state regulators

Regulators in California had earlier filed a cease and desist order against Nexus over its Earn Interest Products.

Nexo co-founders Trenchev and Kalin Metodiev during an AMA session said the company was complying with the regulators, it has placed required restrictions on its earn offerings to protect users’ funds.

Addressing rumors of insolvency, the co-founders said that “insolvency, and bankruptcy are nowhere in Nexo’s reality.”

US consumer protection watchdog warns crypto could pose risk to financial stability

Given the growing popularity of crypto assets, the Financial Stability Oversight Council (FSOC) has released a report detailing how crypto could negatively impact legacy markets.

The FSOC highlighted excessive leverage, high speculation, risky business profiles of crypto firms, and blockchain vulnerabilities as possible crypto threats that could undermine global financial stability.

Japan to invest in metaverse, NFTs to drive implementation of Web3 services

Since resuming office in 2021, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has spearheaded Japan’s investment in web3 initiatives.

Kishida has announced that Japan will expand its investments into the metaverse and issue NFTs to encourage local authorities to solve jurisdictional issues using web3 technologies.

SWIFT shows CBDCs, tokenized assets can be integrated into global financial system

Global financial messaging provider SWIFT performed two experiments to prove that CBDC and tokenized assets could be seamlessly integrated into the existing financial system.

SWIFT developed an infrastructure that successfully facilitated CBDC-to-CBDC and fiat-to-CBDC transactions.

The platform also provided an interoperability system for different tokenization platforms to create, transfer and redeem tokenized assets.

Web3 ecosystem lost over $428M to hacks, scams in Q3 – Immunefi

Immunefi’s latest crypto losses report revealed that the web3 ecosystem lost over $428.7 million to 39 exploits in the third quarter of 2022.

The much-lauded Nomad  Bridge and Wintermute hacks account for 79.85% ($350 million) of all losses reviewed over the period.

Approximately $93.8 million, representing 4% of total losses were recovered by the affected projects.

DeFiYield REKT list reveals 18% decrease in lost DeFi funds during September totaling $170M

According to REXT database, the DeFi ecosystem has lost over $60 billion across 1,195 events, with $2.4 billion recovered so far in 2022.

About $170 million was lost in September alone, representing an 18% decrease from the previous month. The Wintermute hack accounted for $160 million, while $977,550 was lost to the profanity vanity address exploit.

Research Highlight

Bitcoin mining pool Poolin in distress following liquidity crisis

Worsening liquidity issues caused Bitcoin mining pool Poolin to suspend withdrawals, trades, and transfers since Sept. 6.

The withdrawal freeze forces many miners to leave the pool causing its hash rate share to fall to 4% and its revenue to drop from 120 BTC to 36 BTC, as of press time.

News from around the Cryptoverse

Loftis used bitcoin to buy bread in El Salvador

U.S. state treasurer Curtis Loftis Jr. during a visit to El Salvador used Bitcoin to buy flatbread upon the street vendor’s request, the Charleston City Paper reported.

Loftis said he found it interesting to see that many Salvadorans turn to Bitcoin to power their small businesses.

EU to discuss crypto rules with US

The European Union is set to discuss crypto regulation extensively with U.S. officials during the IMF meeting being held next week, Bloomberg reported. 

According to EU commissioner McGuinness, the EU and the U.S. can collaborate to lead the way for international regulation of the crypto industry.

Crypto Market

Bitcoin (BTC) rallied in the early hours of the day but retraced by -1.22% to trade at $20,052, as of press time. Ethereum (ETH) decreased by -0.82% and traded at $1,348 over the same period.

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