Crypto Market Overview February 14th | Dex-Trade
CFTC and SEC vs. SBF Cases Postponed Until October
Manhattan District Judge Kevin Castel granted a motion by U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Damian Williams to delay the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) civil cases against Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) because of their similarities to the Justice Department case. Civil proceedings are suspended until October 2023, when the official investigation into the causes of the collapse of the FTX crypto exchange will be completed. Notably, the trials are suspended “without prejudice,” which means that cases can be resumed immediately after the completion of criminal proceedings by the Ministry of Justice. Williams argued that all three cases would likely depend on the same evidence being presented against SBF. Thus, the lawsuit initiated by the Justice Department in October will have a “significant impact” on these civil cases. He also suggested that not postponing parallel civil cases against SBF could give him an unfair advantage in the DOJ litigation, as the FTX founder had the tools to “improperly obtain impeachment material regarding the government’s witnesses, circumvent the criminal discovery rules, and improperly tailor his defense in the criminal case.”
Kathy Wood Buys COIN as Prices Fall
Ark Invest founder and CEO, Cathy Wood, appears to remain bullish on crypto exchange Coinbase, whose share price is down nearly 85% from its all-time high of $348.98 on November 12, 2021. Last Friday, Ark Invest invested in Coinbase for the fourth time and acquired $9.2 million worth of native shares of the COIN trading platform. It is noteworthy that a three-month-old Bloomberg report states that Ark Invest managed to earn about $56 million on Coinbase shares in November 2022 alone. In the latest round, Cathy Wood's company acquired 162,325 COIN. In two previous purchases, on January 5 and 12, Ark Invest accumulated $5.8 million and $3.3 million worth of Coinbase shares, respectively, and in December the company invested $11.9 million in COIN. The first major purchase of Coinbase shares was initiated by Ark Invest on January 5, in the afternoon. That day, COIN shares closed down 11% at $33.53. And the very next day, January 6, they hit a historic low of $31.95. The next purchase of COIN took place on January 12 and was carried out at a price of $43.79. Curiously, in early February, ARK Invest analysts published their official BTC price prediction for 2030. It is based on 3 main scenarios: in the case of a bear market, Bitcoin will cost $258,500, analysts estimated the base rate at $682,800, and in the most optimistic case, if bulls dominate the market by 2030, the price of crypto gold will be $1.48 million.
Brian Armstrong Talks With Authorities About Cryptocurrency
Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong is in Washington D.C. talking to officials about crypto and the wave of regulatory crackdown the industry is currently facing. In his latest tweet, Armstrong said that he was in the capital of the country and openly invited to discuss the terms of cryptocurrency regulation: “I’m in Washington D.C. and had a meeting canceled. Will be at the Dirksen Senate Office building snack bar for the next hour or so, if anyone wants to come chat about crypto and how we get crypto legislation + regulatory clarity this year.” Just a few hours later, Armstrong wrote the following tweet, in which he said that he had a series of conversations with officials involved in the regulation of cryptocurrencies. Armstrong's trip to Washington comes after U.S.-based cryptocurrency exchange Kraken was forced to remove its staking service from its U.S. marketplace and pay a $30 million fine to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Recall that yesterday Armstrong once again reminded that staking at Coinbase has nothing in common with securities. But it seems that he never managed to get through to the head of the SEC, Henry Gensler.
