This past week brought some interesting developments in the world of cryptocurrency and beyond. Here are some highlights from the news:
Trump meme coins, including the MAGA (TRUMP) coin, saw significant growth following an incident where former President Donald Trump was injured at a political rally. The market cap of the TRUMP coin surged by more than 14.7% in just 24 hours and continued to rise, reaching $8.32 per unit.
In regulatory news, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) closed its investigation into Paxos, a probe that had been ongoing for over a year. This decision means that there will be no enforcement action taken against the issuance of BUSD, a stablecoin created in collaboration with Binance.
On the international front, the German government made headlines by selling off its entire Bitcoin holdings. This move followed weeks of sustained selloffs, with the Federal Criminal Police Office of Germany (BKA) offloading 50,000 BTC that had been confiscated from Movie2k.to in 2013.
Meanwhile, spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) saw a renewed interest from investors after a period of daily net outflows. In a single day, these products saw $310 million in net inflows, the largest in over a month. Throughout the week, they attracted a total of $1.04 billion in net capital inflows, signaling a positive trend for the market.
In legal news, BitMEX, a major crypto derivatives platform, pleaded guilty to violations of the Bank Secrecy Act. This came after U.S. authorities charged the exchange and its executives for violating anti-money laundering provisions in 2020. While the executives had already pleaded guilty and paid fines, the exchange itself finally admitted to the violations after four years of legal proceedings.
Lastly, the U.S. House of Representatives failed to override a veto from the Biden administration on a bill that aimed to repeal SAB 121. This bill would have limited the SEC’s oversight on crypto custody, but the veto was upheld, maintaining the status quo in regulatory oversight.
Overall, it was a week filled with significant developments in the cryptocurrency world, regulatory landscape, and legal sphere. These stories highlight the dynamic and rapidly evolving nature of the crypto industry and its interactions with the broader financial and regulatory environment.