The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is facing criticism for its recent enforcement actions against the decentralized crypto exchange Uniswap, which seem to deviate from its own historical guidelines.
Adam Cochran of Cinneamhain Ventures has pointed out these inconsistencies, drawing from multiple precedents in SEC’s own archives.
Historically, the SEC has issued “No-Action Letters” indicating a more flexible interpretation of what constitutes an exchange.
Notable instances include 1986, 1991, and 1997 when entities seeking to establish electronic systems for routing and matching trades were not classified as exchanges.
“But the SEC concluded that because the execution was on a separate system that matching, routing, communicating and ordering as a ‘computer service system’ did not meet the holistic definition of ‘an exchange,'” Cochran explained, referencing the SEC’s past decisions.
Further, Cochran highlighted instances in 1989 and 1990 when the SEC differentiated front-end interfaces from exchanges.
“The SEC guidance found that because these interfaces, even though they profited from bringing together buyers and sellers to exchange explicit securities the fact that the settlement and payment happened elsewhere meant these interfaces were not exchanges,” Cochran elaborated.
In 1998, the SEC appeared to settle this issue definitively in its No-Action Letter LEXIS 18 by deciding it would no longer entertain requests for such clarifications.
Cochran’s review also included guidance from 1979, 1996, and 1999 which asserted that merely connecting buyers and sellers does not an exchange make, emphasizing that “The exchange needed to involve the legal transfer of the assets and/or finances.
So even though a buyer on Uniswap may commit to a purchase, by signing a transaction with their private key the Uniswap Labs frontend, isn’t what’s settling it.”
Additionally, Cochran mentioned a 1998 SEC finding that an electronic system serving as a primary listing location for unlisted common stocks does not qualify as an exchange if it does not clear and settle transactions.
“In this case, the commission found that once again, so long as their informational interface was no clearing and settling these transactions, then just because it was the primary listing location of an asset, it was not somehow more of an exchange.”
Despite this backdrop, Uniswap Labs has been under the SEC’s lens since 2021, culminating in a Wells notice on April 10, indicating potential enforcement.
Uniswap Labs has defended its position by asserting that it merely developed the front-end portal of the app, distinct from the Uniswap protocol—a self-executing code made public.
Cochran supports this view, clarifying, “In fact, we know these elements are distinct, because you can execute trades on the smart contract through other interfaces (like Etherscan or swap aggregators), or even directly through a node.”
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The cryptocurrency market has observed a significant movement of Shiba Inu (SHIB) tokens recently, with 765 billion tokens transferred among major holders within the last day.
Notably, a large portion of these tokens has been directed towards trading platforms like Coinbase.
This trend suggests that the holders might be preparing to sell their holdings. Such a scenario could potentially lead to an increased selling pressure on SHIB, negatively impacting its market price during a delicate period for the token.
An analysis of transaction histories reveals transfers ranging from 45 billion to 123 billion SHIB tokens to prominent trading apps and platforms.
These large movements highlight the significant interest and activity surrounding SHIB at this time.
From a technical analysis standpoint, the SHIB/USDT trading pair displays a forming triangle pattern on the TradingView chart.
This pattern indicates a narrowing price range, characterized by higher lows and lower highs, suggesting an impending breakout.
This situation can be likened to a “coiled spring,” poised to release in either an upward or downward direction, depending on market forces.
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Moreover, Shiba Inu’s Shibarium has seen a dramatic 1,182% increase in a key metric, signaling a potential spike in activity or interest in the token.
The chart identifies critical price levels to watch: a resistance point at approximately $0.000029 and a support level near $0.000019.
Currently, SHIB trades above these key moving averages, which could be a favorable sign for investors.
If the market trend leans towards selling, SHIB might approach the lower support level.
Conversely, a breakout above the triangle could propel the token to new highs, testing its resistance levels.
The increased activity by whales and large traders has made the SHIB market notably volatile, which could either precede a prolonged recovery or indicate a bullish reversal for the cryptocurrency.
In summary, the market dynamics of Shiba Inu are at a critical juncture, with significant token movements and technical patterns suggesting possible future price movements.
Investors and market watchers are advised to keep a close eye on these developments, as they could dictate the short-term trajectory of SHIB’s value.
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Dubai’s cryptocurrency sector is witnessing significant transformations, with new efforts aimed at supporting smaller players who are currently weighed down by heavy regulatory costs.
Matthew White, the CEO of Dubai’s Virtual Asset Regulatory Authority (VARA), spoke about these challenges and the authority’s plans to address them during the Paris Blockchain Week.
White revealed that VARA is actively seeking ways to improve the regulatory framework for cryptocurrencies, acknowledging the existing system’s imperfections and the disproportionate impact on smaller entities.
He expressed a commitment to making adjustments that would benefit all market participants.
“It’s not perfect. There’s a number of things I’m looking at, at the moment, to try and make the regime fit for everybody. One of those is figuring out a way to deal with the costs of compliance for smaller entities,” White stated during a panel discussion.
The process of becoming regulated is notably expensive, which poses a significant barrier for many smaller companies in the crypto space.
This has prompted VARA to explore innovative solutions to alleviate these financial burdens. White proposed a model where larger, more established players could support smaller entities.
“The cost of compliance is borne by the larger systemic players, and this allows the smaller players to come into the ecosystem, be regulated, but also not have to suffer the same sort of level of costs of compliance that we’ve got,” he explained.
This initiative is part of VARA’s broader strategy to foster innovation while ensuring robust regulatory oversight.
White highlighted the dynamic nature of the cryptocurrency market and the regulatory challenges it presents, emphasizing the authority’s ongoing efforts to keep pace with the industry’s rapid development.
“It moves so quickly.
“We don’t pretend to know everything as a regulator,” he remarked, underlining the complexity and fast-evolving landscape of digital assets.
These discussions and plans come after significant leadership changes within VARA.
White took over the role of CEO from Henson Orser as part of a broader strategy to enhance the regulatory body’s operations in anticipation of scaling up to full market activities.
His appointment on November 16 was timed closely with tightened regulations in the UAE, including new fines and sanctions aimed at unlicensed virtual asset service providers (VASPs), introduced in joint guidance issued on November 8.
This alignment indicates a clear push towards stricter compliance and oversight in the UAE’s virtual asset sector.
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Tim Draper, a prominent venture capitalist, predicts a significant increase in Bitcoin’s value in 2024, driven by several key factors including spot exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and the upcoming Bitcoin halving event.
During the Paris Blockchain Week, Draper spoke to Cointelegraph about his optimistic forecast for the cryptocurrency, suggesting a potential rise to $250,000 by year-end.
“If I had to predict, maybe we could see $250,000 by the end of the year; I mean, it’s looking pretty good,” he remarked, reflecting on his earlier 2022 price prediction.
The introduction of spot Bitcoin ETFs in the United States has significantly rejuvenated interest and capital inflows into Bitcoin.
These ETFs have made it easier for investors interested in Bitcoin but reluctant to hold it in self-custody, providing a safer and more familiar investment route through traditional financial institutions like Fidelity or JPMorgan.
Draper emphasized the protective role of Bitcoin against fiat currency devaluation: “I think that it gives people an opportunity to buy some Bitcoin and hold on to it so that they can take care of themselves when there’s a run on the dollar or the euro.”
He also noted Bitcoin’s increasing attractiveness as it becomes more commonly used for purchases and its finite supply, which contrasts sharply with the inflationary nature of fiat currencies.
“I don’t really need to hold on to any fiat currency that decreases in value over time because of political whims or government spending, or politicians that just decide they’re going to spend more money and inflate your money,” he stated, asserting Bitcoin’s security against inflation and economic instability.
Furthermore, Draper highlighted the anticipated impact of the fourth Bitcoin halving scheduled for April 20, which will reduce the supply while demand is expected to rise, naturally driving up the cryptocurrency’s price.
“If you’re an investor in the stock market, they say don’t bet against the Fed [U.S. Federal Reserve]. If you’re a Bitcoin buyer, don’t bet against the halving. It changes everything.
The supply shrinks, the demand increases and the price goes up. That’s natural economics — supply and demand,” he explained.
Draper’s views also include a broader financial strategy, suggesting that a small, single-digit percentage investment in Bitcoin could serve as a hedge against potential bank failures and the decline of sovereign currencies, enhancing financial stability for investors amidst global economic uncertainty.
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Hundreds of Australian investors have lost over 160 million Australian dollars ($104 million) following the collapse of three cryptocurrency mining companies, NGS Crypto Pty Ltd, NGS Digital Pty Ltd, and NGS Group Ltd (collectively known as the “NGS companies”).
This financial debacle unfolded as these entities entered into liquidation.
The Australian Security and Investments Commission (ASIC) has initiated civil proceedings against the NGS companies and their directors, Brett Mendham, Ryan Brown, and Mark Ten Caten.
These companies are alleged to have enticed local investors to set up self-managed superannuation funds (SMSFs), which were then converted into cryptocurrency investments in blockchain mining packages promising fixed-rate returns.
ASIC claims that around 450 investors had invested approximately 62 million AUD ($40 million) with these companies, which lacked the requisite Australian financial services license.
The commission’s concerns over the possible loss of digital assets led to the Federal Court’s decision to appoint liquidators for handling the NGS companies’ digital currency holdings.
Additionally, Brett Mendham has been prohibited from leaving Australia.
The regulator has also taken steps to prevent the NGS companies from offering financial services in the country without the necessary authorization.
ASIC Chair Joe Longo emphasized the risks of investing SMSFs in cryptocurrency and affirmed the agency’s dedication to regulating crypto products to safeguard investors.
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In a related development, other Australian cryptocurrency entities such as DCA Capital, Digital Commodity Assets Pty Ltd, and the Digital Commodity Assets Fund are undergoing liquidation and face federal court proceedings due to concerns about mismanagement and regulatory non-compliance.
KordaMentha, the liquidator for these companies, has identified debts totaling 100 million AUD ($65 million) owed to 100 investors.
Furthermore, the federal court has frozen assets of DCA Capital’s director, Ashod Balanian, valued at 55 million AUD ($36 million), and he has been ordered to surrender his passport.
The increased scrutiny from ASIC in recent months reflects a broader regulatory focus.
On March 21, ASIC Commissioner Alan Kirkland pointed out the need to address the “regulatory trilemma” which includes balancing consumer protection, market integrity, and the promotion of financial innovation.
As Australia approaches a significant “inflection point” in cryptocurrency demand, the market continues to evolve.
Although local institutional demand remains subdued, the potential for growth in stablecoins and favorable policy adjustments suggest a burgeoning interest in crypto within the nation.
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Tech entrepreneur Elon Musk is currently seeking to secure up to $4 billion in funding for his new artificial intelligence (AI) startup, xAI, which developed the AI chatbot known as Grok.
To facilitate this, Musk is offering selected investors the opportunity to join funding rounds via special purpose vehicles (SPVs), as stated in a recent email circulated among potential contributors.
SPVs are investment tools that allow various investors, including venture capital firms and individual investors, to pool resources into a single entity.
Although this method provides an organized way to invest, it comes with initial fees of up to 5% in addition to management fees and interest, as reported.
Musk’s fundraising target ranges between $3 billion and $4 billion, aiming for a post-deal company valuation of $18 billion.
The email elaborated that the funds are expected to be raised “in the next 2–3 weeks on a first-come, first-served basis.”
Founded by Musk in March 2023, xAI was officially launched in July of the same year and is based in the San Francisco Bay Area.
The company’s mission is ambitiously described as “understanding the true nature of the universe.”
Its first product, the X-linked chatbot Grok, was released in November, boasting capabilities surpassing those of OpenAI’s ChatGPT, according to the firm.
In addition to Musk’s renowned success with Tesla, the email to investors highlighted the AI model’s training on data sourced from Musk’s X microblogging network as a potential selling point.
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Mario Nawfal, an entrepreneur and angel investor, has voiced his perspective on the current surge in AI investments, saying, “concerns about an AI bubble grow amid soaring valuations and high development costs.”
xAI also focuses on internal capabilities, employing AI tutors from diverse fields to generate and refine high-quality data for model training and evaluation, per information on the company’s website.
In a significant move, Musk announced in March that xAI would make its AI chatbot open-source, positioning it as a contender against the proprietary models like OpenAI’s ChatGPT.
Despite its ambitious valuation and technological advances, xAI remains relatively small, with only 10 full-time engineers and an operational range of 5,000 to 10,000 GPUs.
When Cointelegraph sought more details from xAI, the company did not provide an immediate response.
The AI chatbot market is competitive, with Grok vying against other products like OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Antropic’s Claude, Microsoft’s Copilot, Google’s Gemini, and Meta AI from the company formerly known as Facebook.
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The Shiba Inu (SHIB) cryptocurrency recently experienced significant fluctuations in its burn rate, closely aligned with changes in its market valuation.
Over the last week, there was a noticeable slowdown in the rate at which tokens were being burned, coinciding with a drop in the coin’s market price.
The volume of SHIB tokens set aside for destruction decreased substantially during this period, leading to a lower overall burn rate.
Towards the end of the current week, however, the situation dramatically reversed. The burn rate for Shiba Inu tokens sharply increased, largely due to the actions of the project’s lead developer.
According to data from Shibburn, there has been a significant increase in the number of tokens being sent to the burn address.
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In just 24 hours, an impressive 87.76 million SHIB tokens were burned, marking an increase of 48,554.74% in the burn rate compared to previous figures.
This remarkable increase in burn activity involved transactions from just two wallets.
The wallet labeled “0xb8001c3” was responsible for burning 61.9 million tokens on Wednesday.
Following closely, the “0xa9d1e0” wallet contributed an additional 25.85 million SHIB tokens to the burn.
The sharp increase in burning activity stands in stark contrast to the previous day’s activity, where only 180,375 tokens were burned, resulting in a drastic 99.59% decrease in the burn rate.
This recent surge seems to be driven by organic factors rather than deliberate efforts by the Shiba Inu team or shifts in community sentiment.
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Book of Meme (BOME) and Pepecoin (PEPE) both delivered astronomical returns to early investors.
Kitty Queen Coin (KITQUE) has burned 40% of the 5 billion tokens that were minted, by transferring all tokens in the Raydium liquidity pool to a dead wallet.
Specifically, 2 billion KITQUE tokens were burned just around three hours after the memecoin began trading today.
This comes after Kitty Queen Coin’s price has rallied 2,024% in the last three hours, with it currently trading at $0.00002478.
Despite this impressive rally, KITQUE (contract address: F6LdtNP9zThSuCwdweAGqngC9XufhDfMYjFio3mWZT9e) currently has a market cap of just $120,000, meaning it still could easily rally another 7,000%-10,000% in the coming weeks and months.
Its market cap is forecast to hit at least $2 million by the end of April, meaning investors who buy in at the current price will generate approximately 1,600% returns within a couple of weeks.
KITQUE is one of the most exciting Solana memecoins to be released this month, and it does appear to have the potential to eventually challenge coins such as Book of Meme (BOME) and Pepecoin (PEPE).
PEPE and BOME both generated massive returns for their early investors, as they surged and became mainstream.
It remains to be seen if KITQUE will be able to achieve a market cap of $100 million or over, but it certainly has plenty of potential to achieve a $5mn-$10mn market cap, so it’s not surprising that there is huge buying pressure on the token’s first day of launch.
Kitty Queen Coin is currently only available to trade on decentralized exchanges, such as Raydium and Jupiter, but it will be listed on several centralized exchanges later this month, providing another bullish catalyst which early investors will profit from.
Many investors made millions of dollars by investing in dog-themed coins like Shiba Inu (SHIB) and Dogecoin (DOGE) while their market caps were very low.
Kitty Queen Coin (KITQUE), a cat-themed Solana memecoin that was launched on 12 April, is set to deliver explosive gains to early investors.
KITQUE, which currently trades on decentralized exchanges like Raydium and Jupiter, has a maximum supply of 5 billion tokens and it has a market cap of around $9,000.
Kitty Queen Coin is currently trading at $0.00000184, after rallying 58% in the one hour since it was launched.
Its market cap is forecast to rally another 5,500% in the next seven days and breach the $500,000 mark.
This would allow early investors to turn a few hundred dollars into around $20,000 – and there would be plenty more explosive upside potential after that, with listings on centralized exchanges set to cause KITQUE’s market cap to blow past the $2mn-$4mn range in the short term.
As for Kitty Queen Coin’s long-term prospects, its ability to reach a market cap of $50 million or more will be dependent on how many investors flock to the project and choose to hold their tokens, instead of taking profits after generating 50x-200x returns.
Many experienced memecoin investors, including those who generated huge profits by investing early on in Shiba Inu (SHIB) and Dogecoin (DOGE), are set to pour funds into Kitty Queen Coin (contract address: F6LdtNP9zThSuCwdweAGqngC9XufhDfMYjFio3mWZT9e).
This is because this newly launched memecoin has much more potential for further growth than SHIB and DOGE, as those tokens already have market caps in the billions of dollars.
However, SHIB and DOGE still have room to surge 100%-300% during the next 6-12 months, so they are still potentially more lucrative than other, more traditional investments.
The Floki Price Prediction has become a focal point in the cryptocurrency sphere as FLOKI’s market valuation reaches the impressive $2 billion mark.
This milestone has fueled discussions regarding potential large-scale investments in the token, which currently trades at $0.000210, having experienced a 2.52% increase within a single day.
This surge highlights its growing influence in the market.
FLOKI’s market position is further solidified by its substantial trading volume of $240.5 million, ranking it 57th on CoinMarketCap.
Its presence is bolstered by a circulating supply of over 9.5 trillion coins, despite the absence of a fixed total supply cap.
This significant market cap achievement prompts further speculation about FLOKI’s future direction and the nature of its investment landscape.
Regarding price forecasts, the critical pivot point for FLOKI stands at $0.00022, reflecting the market’s delicate balance.
Resistance levels at $0.00023, $0.00025, and $0.00028 suggest potential selling pressure points, while support levels at $0.00019, $0.00017, and $0.00015 indicate where buying might increase.
The Relative Strength Index (RSI) at 55 suggests a balanced market, neither overbought nor oversold, with the 50-day Exponential Moving Average (EMA) at $0.00021, highlighting the pivot point’s role in indicating short-term trends.
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FLOKI’s visibility on social media, especially on Reddit and Twitter, significantly affects its market perception.
The introduction of a new program by TokenFi developers, designed to quadruple the purchasing power per wallet, along with FLOKI’s listing on the M2 Exchange, are pivotal developments aimed at expanding its investor base.
The current trend for FLOKI is bearish below the $0.00022 mark, but breaking past this could signal a shift towards a bullish market.
Investors are advised to keep a close watch on these crucial price levels and market news to navigate the volatile cryptocurrency environment effectively.
Simultaneously, the anticipation around Sponge V2’s launch on exchanges is palpable, marking a critical juncture for investors to tap into pre-listing benefits.
From its initial price of $0.000025, Sponge V2 has seen a staggering 7840.59% increase to $0.001960.
The opportunity to earn a 167% staking reward with Sponge V2 is drawing to a close with its impending exchange listing.
The token’s phenomenal growth and the strong backing of over $21.5 million in staked and bridged funds reflect the community’s confidence in its potential. Sponge V2 integrates the Play-to-Earn gaming model with lucrative staking rewards, urging investors to stake their $SPONGE for $SPONGEV2, offering an attractive 40% introductory APY.
With the transition to V2 nearing completion, the urgency for investors to leverage Sponge V2’s promising trajectory before it becomes publicly traded is emphasized.
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