US SEC sues Silvergate for fraud; Nvidia may be sued by French regulators

Headline

▌US SEC sues Silvergate Bank for securities fraud

The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) sued the regional Silvergate Bank in a federal court, accusing it of securities fraud.

▌Nvidia may be sued by French regulators for suspected antitrust behavior

According to people familiar with the matter, the French antitrust regulator is preparing to accuse Nvidia of suspected anti-competitive behavior, making it the first law enforcement agency to do so. Last September, France raided the graphics card industry, and sources said the target of the raid was Nvidia. After the release of the generative artificial intelligence application ChatGPT at the end of last year, market demand for chips from the world's largest artificial intelligence and computer graphics chip maker increased significantly, triggering regulatory scrutiny on both sides of the Atlantic.

Market

As of press time, according to Coingecko data:

BTC's latest transaction price is $62857.07, with a daily increase or decrease of +0.3%;

ETH's latest transaction price is $3441.59, with a daily increase or decrease of +0.2%;

BNB's latest transaction price is $576.83, with a daily increase or decrease of -0.8%；

SOL's latest transaction price is 146.61 US dollars, with a daily increase or decrease of +0.1%；

DOGE's latest transaction price is 0.1235 US dollars, with a daily increase or decrease of -0.6%；

XPR's latest transaction price is 0.4758 US dollars, with a daily increase or decrease of +0.3%。

Policy

▌Silvergate will pay $63 million to settle with the SEC, the Federal Reserve and California regulators

Silvergate Capital Corp., the parent company of the crypto-friendly bank Silvergate Bank, has agreed to pay $63 million to settle with the SEC, the Federal Reserve and the California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation (DFPI).

The regulator accused it of failing to maintain an adequate anti-money laundering program and making misleading disclosures about the effectiveness of the program. It also accused Silvergate and its former CFO of misleading investors about expected securities sales losses after the collapse of the cryptocurrency exchange FTX.

Silvergate was fined $43 million by the Federal Reserve and $20 million by California regulators, who also pointed out that the bank had deficiencies in tracking internal transactions. The SEC also fined it $50 million, but it is not expected to increase the total fine. The SEC said any fines owed by Silvergate could be offset by the amount it pays to banking regulators, and the settlement is subject to court approval.

▌The SEC has confirmed receipt of the 19b-4 application for the Hashdex Nasdaq Crypto Index US ETF

Documents posted on the X platform by Nate Geraci, president of The ETF Store, show that the SEC has confirmed receipt of the 19b-4 application for the Hashdex Nasdaq Crypto Index US ETF, which will hold both spot BTC and ETH.

▌Paxos receives approval from the Monetary Authority of Singapore to issue stablecoins

Paxos, a blockchain and tokenized infrastructure platform, announced that it has received full approval from the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) for its Singapore entity, Paxos Digital Singapore Pte. Ltd., to provide digital payment token services as a primary payment institution. The approval enables Paxos to issue stablecoins under MAS’ upcoming stablecoin framework. In addition, DBS will become Paxos’ main banking partner for cash management and stablecoin reserve custody. DBS is Southeast Asia’s largest bank by assets. Paxos said it has received approval to issue stablecoins in the United States, the United Arab Emirates and Singapore. ▌ U.S. Democrats consider nominating Biden early to eliminate talk of replacing presidential candidates within the party U.S. Democrats are considering nominating Biden early to eliminate talk of replacing presidential candidates within the party. Biden’s nomination date could be July 21, when the Democratic National Convention’s Qualification Review Committee will hold an online meeting, according to people familiar with the matter who asked not to be named. The committee will meet to finalize procedures before the Democratic National Convention in Chicago on August 19.

Blockchain Applications

▌National Blockchain Center takes the lead in building a new model for sharing artificial intelligence corpus

Reporters learned from the National Blockchain Center on July 1: Recently, Xinhua News Agency National Key Laboratory, People's Daily Online, Chinese Academy of Sciences Documentation and Information Center, Beijing Radio and Television Station, Higher Education Press, Capital Library, Central Audiovisual Education Museum Press, Wanfang Data, China National Knowledge Infrastructure and other key corpus data units announced that they would jointly establish a high-value corpus trusted and secure circulation ecosystem with the National Blockchain Technology Innovation Center. Using cutting-edge information technologies such as blockchain and privacy computing, large-scale model corpus resources across the country will form a sustainable and self-growing data supply ecosystem in the privacy and security protection and circulation value-added incentives, enabling the field of artificial intelligence large models to accelerate high-quality development.

▌Fantom's third Sonic governance proposal passed

Fantom Foundation announced on the X platform that the third Sonic governance proposal was passed, involving ecosystem grants, new token destruction mechanisms, and innovative programs such as Sonic Spark and Sonic University. It is reported that in the next six years, the Sonic Foundation will allocate a portion of tokens as operating funds for Sonic Labs to manage dApps, BD partnerships, and growing network growth between existing and new user communities.

Cryptocurrency

▌GameStop shareholders withdraw securities fraud lawsuit against Keith Gill

A lawsuit accusing the Internet celebrity stock "leader" Keith Gill of participating in a "pump and dump" plan involving GameStop Corp. stock was withdrawn a few days after being filed. In a proposed class action lawsuit filed in federal court in Brooklyn, New York, GameStop shareholder Martin Radev sued Gill for securities fraud, claiming that Gill attempted to manipulate the stock for his own benefit. In a court filing late Monday afternoon, Radev said he voluntarily withdrew the lawsuit. It is unclear why Radev dropped the lawsuit, and his lawyer did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The withdrawal is without prejudice, meaning he can file the lawsuit again.

▌Bitcoin hashrate drops to December 2022 levels

According to data and analyst views from CryptoQuant, Bitcoin hashrate has fallen to its lowest level since the FTX crash in December 2022, currently at -7.6%, suggesting that Bitcoin prices may have bottomed. Other indicators such as exchange reserves and miner position indexes also show low selling pressure, supporting the view that the market is at a bottom.  

Capriole founder Charles Edwards noted that the Bitcoin hashrate band indicator sent a buy signal. Market analyst Will Woo believes that the market will not reach new highs before weak miners shut down operations. Miner withdrawals fell 90% after halving, further reducing selling pressure. Cantor Fitzgerald warned that after the halving in 2024, 11 mining companies such as Marathon Digital may face the risk of unprofitability due to high costs and low rewards. Bloomberg ETF analyst: GBTC and EETH returned 62% and 44% in the first half of the year, respectively. Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas wrote on the X platform that although the "new" 9 Bitcoin ETFs attracted all the attention (and capital inflows) in the first half of the year, they did not perform as well as GBTC (ranked first overall due to a sharp discount in early January) and EETH, which returned 62% and 44%, respectively.

▌Analysis: Coinbase Premium Index Shows Bitcoin Price Could Have Bottom

According to data from CryptoQuant, Bitcoin’s premium on Coinbase has fallen to its most negative level since the FTX crash. David Lawant of FalconX noted that such negative readings often occur at local bottoms in prices and foreshadow subsequent gains.

The Coinbase Premium Index, which measures the difference in Bitcoin prices between Coinbase and Binance, recently fell to -0.19. This suggests weak demand and increased selling pressure from U.S. investors, driven in part by ETF outflows and government sales of seized assets through Coinbase. However, such readings often foreshadow price bottoms, such as in November 2022 when BTC prices rose more than 50% in the months following the bottom.

▌Coinbase Chief Policy Officer: Cryptocurrency PAC's support focuses on the U.S. Congress

Coinbase Chief Policy Officer Faryar Shirzad said that the cryptocurrency PAC's support focuses on the U.S. Congress.

▌Barstool Sports Founder: The only cryptocurrency people should participate in is Bitcoin

The founder of media giant Barstool Sports said, "The only cryptocurrency people should participate in is Bitcoin, only Bitcoin."

Important Economic Dynamics

▌The probability of the Fed keeping interest rates unchanged in August is 91.2%

According to CME's "Fed Watch": The probability of the Fed keeping interest rates unchanged in August is 91.2%, and the probability of a 25 basis point rate cut is 8.8%. The probability of the Fed keeping interest rates unchanged by September is 34.7%, the probability of a cumulative 25 basis point rate cut is 59.9%, and the probability of a cumulative 50 basis point rate cut is 5.4%.

▌ECB Governing Council Member: The ECB may cut interest rates twice more this year

ECB Governing Council member Simkus said that if the economy develops as officials predict, the assumption that the ECB will cut interest rates twice more in 2024 may prove to be correct. "If the data develops as expected, the expectation of two more rate cuts this year is in line with my own thinking," he said in an interview. He said officials should be ready to act at any meeting, not just the quarterly meeting when new economic forecasts are presented, and should be able to act if they agree at other meetings that a rate cut is necessary. He also said: "I think the case for a rate cut in July no longer exists."

Golden Encyclopedia

▌What is Delegated Proof of Stake (DPoS)?

DPoS is an evolution of the Proof of Stake (PoS) consensus mechanism designed to provide enhanced scalability, efficiency and democratic governance. Daniel Larimer proposed the DPoS concept in 2014 as an enhancement of the traditional PoS consensus mechanism, aiming to improve efficiency and scalability. Larimer first shared his vision in a Bitcointalk forum post, which led to the actual implementation of DPoS and the launch of BitShares in 2015.

Disclaimer: As a blockchain information platform, Golden Finance publishes articles for information reference only and is not intended as actual investment advice. Please establish the correct investment concept and be sure to increase risk awareness.