Lido, Kraken Bank, and Jimmy Fallon

Crypto news: We bring you a roundup of what’s been happening in crypto this week. And what a week it was!

The week’s biggest news was rumors from a Bankless podcast that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) had issued decentralized liquid staking protocol Lido a Wells Notice. The rumor was later debunked, but not before Lido’s native LDO token fell 20%. A Wells Notice is a formal notice from the SEC that legal action is about to commence.

All’s Wells That Ends Wells

Bankless host David Hoffman’s guest during the week incorrectly suggested that the SEC could come after Lido. This assertion caused many holders of Lido’s LDO tokens to dump the asset, tanking its price to $2.41.

The token rebounded to $2.67 after Hoffman clarified that the protocol had not received an SEC warning. He later opined that, according to courses, at least one DeFi protocol had received a Well Notice recently. 

The agency issued a Wells notice to BUSD stablecoin issuer Paxos in mid-February, alleging that the asset is a security.

Crypto News – Socially Speaking

Kraken Banking on the Future

Kraken’s chief legal officer confirmed this week that the exchange would launch its own bank “very, very soon,” even as crypto-friendly bank Silvergate said it would begin winding down operations amid challenging market conditions and scrutiny for its involvement with collapsed crypto exchange FTX. 

Kraken’s former CEO, Jesse Powell, recently came out swinging against the SEC’s enforcement action against Kraken for offering its staking program to U.S. customers as unregistered securities.

Ethereum’s potential status security also came under the spotlight this week, with arguments for and against heating up as the SEC cracks the hammer.

Arguments for the case that Ethereum is a security include its 2017 initial coin offering, which raised capital through the sale of Ethereum to investors who expected a profit. Some are also arguing that the tokens represent network ownership, similar to company shares. Others note that the tight developer cohort responsible for maintaining and upgrading the network centralizes it too much, making ETH like security rather than a decentralized currency.

This Week in NFT Sales

Jimmy Fallon Denies Connections to Ripp Ryder

In non-fungible token (NFT) news this week, celebrity talk show host Jimmy Fallon filed to have a subpoena against him dismissed in the Yuga Labs vs. Ripps case.

Early this year, Ripps accused Yuga Labs of being a white supremacist group that launched the BAYC collection as a trolling stunt. Yuga Labs later sued Ripps of copyright infringement for copying Bored Ape Yacht Club images and minting them as NFTs on OpenSea. 

Lawyers for the talk show host assert that Fallon does not know Ripps and that any documents required by the subpoena can be obtained elsewhere.

Crypto Coin News

Crypto’s biggest gainers this week include a 9.76% increase for KAVA, the governance and staking token of the Kava blockchain.

Decentralized autonomous organization DAO Maker’s token (DAO) rose 6.8%, while decentralized lending platform Liquidity’s LQTY rose 2.9%. Ripple XRP was up 0.45% this week, while Shiba Inu’s BONE token was up one-fifth of a percent.

On the bearish side Stacks (STX) fell 32.7%, while the AI-centric SingularityNET(AGIX) token was down almost 31% this week. Mina blockchain’s MINA token tanked by 29%. ERC-20 utility token Render Network (RNDR) is down 28.77%, while DASH, the native token of its eponymous payments-focused blockchain, fell 25%.

Hedera (HBAR) Heading on Up?

Things were looking bullish for HBAR. The price has broken out of a descending resistance line and is currently validating a new support. However, what direction will it head in the light of Thursday’s exploit?

For Be[In]Crypto’s latest Bitcoin (BTC) analysis, click here.