Crypto Market Overview February 23rd | Dex-Trade
Kim Kardashian and Floyd Mayweather Dispute Crypto Fraud Lawsuit
Kim Kardashian, along with boxer Floyd Mayweather and other celebrities, are battling a second lawsuit involving accusations that they were actively involved in a “pump and dump”promo scam involving the EthereumMax (EMAX) token. The lawsuit was filed in December 2022 and, according to the defendants, the new allegations advance “the same basic theory” that the court had previously dismissed. Recall that the past case against a group of celebrities who participated in the EMAX promo was based on allegations that advertising with their participation did not properly warn potential investors about the risks associated with the project. Last time, the court ruled in favor of the defendants, concluding that tokens have no intrinsic value of value other than what the market is willing to pay for. Now the group of defendants wrote a motion in which they recalled that: “The Court otherwise dismissed the prior complaint in full due to fundamental flaws. The addition of new claims, Defendants, and over 100 pages of largely irrelevant allegations does not cure the defects.” However, Kardashian has already been fined $1.26 million once for advertising EthereumMax on social media, having reached a consensus with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). By the way, the regulator recently issued a warning to celebrities and reminded them that they should indicate what royalties they receive for promoting crypto projects.
Crypto Is Now in a “Despair Phase”: Brian Armstrong’s Opinion
On Wednesday, Coinbase CEO, Brian Armstrong, released the crypto exchange's annual earnings report and also spoke about the fact that the industry is going through one of the toughest periods, and its trading floor is experiencing serious problems due to the ongoing bear market. “The narrative in crypto tends to flip every two years. It’s either irrational exuberance or despair. Neither one is true at any given time, but we’re in one of those despair phases right now.” — Armstrong said. Coinbase’s report to shareholders for the fourth quarter and all of 2022 shows that the largest crypto exchange in the US lost $2.64 billion during this period, while in 2021 the trading platform had a net profit of $3.62 billion. But despite the grim numbers, Armstrong says the current environment could even be beneficial for crypto companies. Including for Coinbase. Specifically, Armstrong said that beyond the noise and negativity, there are some really good things happening in the crypto space. For example, development opportunities for developers in work environments like Coinbase are constantly scaling. The price of bitcoin in January 2023 increased by 80% compared to the average price in 2020, and this has already led to a doubling of the number of employed crypto engineers. Thus, Armstrong, of course, expects Coinbase to turn a profit, but only in the long term.
"Behind Closed Doors": Kristin Smith for Transparent Regulation
In an interview with Bloomberg, Blockchain Association CEO Christine Smith opined that the United States Congress should take control of cryptocurrency legislation and make it a more “open process.” Even though regulators are now “moving very quickly,” Smith said, progress in legislation is happening “behind closed doors,” suggesting that more industry participation in an “open process” is critical at this point in time. which the Congress will also participate. Smith believes that the problem with regulators who are in the process of developing legislation to enforce regulation is due to “very specific facts and circumstances.” That is, the current and planned legislation can be considered precedent rather than general for all industry participants. She explained that Congress is currently in a difficult position as many Washington DC officials who were close to former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Freed feel “burned” and “betrayed” by the collapse of a major trading floor in November last year. This is probably why regulators are now actively taking up staking and are trying to “tighten the nuts” for stablecoins in order to divert attention from their own fiasco.
