US lawmaker asks Congress to treat Binance exec in Nigeria as a ‘hostage’

July 11, 2024 Coin Telegraph

Former OpenAI employee quit to avoid ‘working for the Titanic of AI’

July 11, 2024 Coin Telegraph

Bitcoin price struggles as investors expect Fed interest rate cuts — Why?

July 11, 2024 Coin Telegraph

Coin Telegraph

Bitcoin price is stuck in a downtrend even though investors are betting on Fed interest rate cuts. What gives?

The United States Consumer Price Index (CPI) rose by 3% year-over-year in June, slightly below the market consensus of 3.1%. Analysts claim that this CPI release was bullish for Bitcoin, but traders are questioning why its price remains below $58,000. Three factors could possibly explain investors’ lack of enthusiasm.

According to trader, YouTuber and analyst Daan Crypto, Bitcoin’s (BTC) weakness can be attributed to scalpers and market makers trying to liquidate leveraged longs. However, the trend favors “continuation higher,” meaning BTC should bounce back to $60,000 in the near term. Essentially, if the US central bank cuts interest rates, incentives for fixed-income investments are reduced, and some of this money will seek higher returns elsewhere.

Chris Larkin, managing director of trading and investing at E-Trade, told CNBC that the Federal Reserve is “one step closer to a September rate cut,” especially after real average hourly earnings for workers slowed 3.9% from the prior year, according to a Bureau of Labor Statistics report. Additionally, the labor force participation rate slightly increased to 62.6% in June from 62.5% in May. According to CNN, slowing wages is a strong incentive for the Fed to begin cutting interest rates.

Judge has ‘strong views’ about Coinbase inquiry into Gensler’s private msgs

July 11, 2024 Coin Telegraph

Coin Telegraph

Judge Katherine Polk Failla said she would hear from SEC and Coinbase lawyers on July 15 whether SEC Chair Gary Gensler’s private communications on crypto were fair game.

A federal judge overseeing the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) case against Coinbase suggested that the cryptocurrency exchange may be unable to inquire into Gary Gensler’s private communications before he led the commission.

In a July 11 hearing in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York, Coinbase lawyers argued they should be able to view data on Gensler’s personal devices after the SEC provided no explicit assurances on his communications with market makers. The SEC’s legal team asked Judge Katherine Polk Failla to quash the subpoena into Gensler’s personal communications, as the chair was “not a fact witness” and “not an expert witness on the law” in the Coinbase case.

“We’re unable to get information from the SEC,” said Coinbase lawyers, according to reporting from Inner City Press. “The time period before, we included because we tried to engage with Mr. Gensler and the SEC, but they’ve refused to say he didn’t use his personal device to communicate about crypto.”

Bahamians didn’t want CBDCs — So now they’re being forced to use them

July 11, 2024 Coin Telegraph

bahamas

Regulators in the Bahamas are sick of their citizens' reluctance to adopt a CBDC, so they're forcing commercial banks to get on board.

The Bahamian government will soon start forcing commercial banks to distribute its central bank digital currency (CBDC). Known locally as the Sand Dollar, the CBDC accounts for less than 0.41 percent of the currency in circulation and the Central Bank of The Bahamas reported that the CBDC has been used less and less as time goes on. Facing similar circumstances, any private business would likely be preparing to go out of business. The central bank, however, seems to have other plans in mind.

After an interview with Central Bank of the Bahamas Governor John Rolle, Reuters reporters Elizabeth Howcroft and Marc Jones described Rolle’s stance, writing, “With [CBDC] take-up still limited, carrot was turning into stick and commercial banks were now being told of regulations that will effectively force them to distribute [the CBDC].”

In other words, the central bank rolled out a CBDC, but people were not interested. In an early attempt to spur adoption, the central bank offered a "carrot" in the form of rebates given in return for topping up CBDC wallets and spending the CBDC in stores. Yet, it still was not enough to spur mass adoption. Therefore, the government is setting the carrots aside and pulling out the stick of regulation to force banks to distribute the CBDC.

Stop piling into leveraged Bitcoin ETFs — Consider this instead

July 11, 2024 Coin Telegraph

Coinbase launches unified onchain monitoring through new wallet app

July 11, 2024 Coin Telegraph

House fails to override Biden’s veto on nullifying SEC crypto rule

July 11, 2024 Coin Telegraph

Banks

Though the resolution overturning an SEC rule on banks handling crypto passed in the House in May, the legislation required at least 288 members to override President Biden’s veto.

The US House of Representatives could not gather enough support to override President Joe Biden’s veto of a resolution affecting a Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) rule on banks recording cryptocurrency as a liability on their balance sheets.

In a July 11 vote, 228 House members voted to override President Biden’s veto of H.J.Res. 109, overturning SEC Staff Accounting Bulletin (SAB) No. 121 — 60 votes short of the two-thirds majority required. The failed vote suggested that the veto would likely stand, and US banks would be limited from serving as crypto custodians for their customers, barring future legislation.

“It did not have to be this way,” said Representative Patrick McHenry on July 10 before a potential vote. “On digital assets, on the regulation of digital assets, on the functioning of a new asset class that a substantial number of Americans and the world are using [...] The Biden administration has been given every opportunity to work with this Congress on digital asset policy and to come to a reasonable resolution on digital asset policy.”

How GoMining is revolutionizing Bitcoin mining through NFTs

July 11, 2024 Coin Telegraph

Ethereum ETF inflows could hit $10B, sending ETH to new highs — analyst

July 11, 2024 Coin Telegraph

Coin Telegraph

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