SEC Chairman's Personal Vendetta Against Binance

GM Readers!📪 It's BitDegree Insider, and here's what's hot.

⭐️Today's selection:

• 🧂Is Gary Gensler… Salty?
• 🎭The SEC Drama Continues
• 🧩️Thursday Quiz
• 👌Selected Meme of The Day
• 📰Bite-Sized News

IS GARY GENSLER… SALTY?

Gary Gensler, The SEC Chairman, is really… invested into whatever he does nowadays. But, it turns out, things could have been very different!

According to new documents in the case, SEC Chairman Gary Gensler could well have ended up on the 'other side of the barricades.'

In 2019, he nearly became an advisor for the exchange on legal matters, while he was still lecturing and referred to cryptocurrency as a commodity.

This information was provided by lawyers from Gibson & Dunn and Latham & Watkins.

They claim that Gary Gensler repeatedly offered his services in conversations with both the exchange's top management and CZ personally.

Later that same month, in March 2019, he managed to arrange a meeting with CZ in Japan over lunch.

Gensler and Zhao kept in touch for some time, and the future SEC chairman even conducted an interview with him.

In addition to the lawsuit of June 6, the regulator characterized Changpeng Zhao as a 'foreigner' with a tendency towards 'geographical elusiveness.'

The SEC also continues to insist that CZ enriched himself using the clients' platform funds.

Recall that in March of this year, we covered a WSJ publication that spoke about Gensler's close ties with Binance.

The article does not specify when exactly the negotiations took place.

It's possible that Gensler initially declined the position, then changed his mind, or he initially applied for the vacancy himself, was rejected, and then no longer agreed, for example, due to hurt pride.

If that's the case… Then a personal vendetta of this sort would kinda explain his fury towards everything crypto-related.

And that's not all, when it comes to CZ. Here's a piece of news:

The U.S. District Court issued a subpoena to Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao just two days after the SEC filed a lawsuit against the exchange.

FUD? Nah, CZ is calm:

TL;DR: SEC Chairman Gary Gensler's involvement with a cryptocurrency exchange and his potential position as an advisor on legal matters have come to light in new case documents. In 2019, he nearly became an advisor for the exchange on legal matters.

THE SEC DRAMA CONTINUES

Coinbase will not delist tokens. That's the response of the exchange to the ongoing legal drama.

Cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase will continue to operate its cryptocurrency staking service, despite lawsuits against this program and several other of its proposals filed by state and federal regulators, said Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong.

Are they playing with fire? Teasing a lion? Well, they're not alone.

The Sandbox responds to SEC's claims about the SAND token.

Sebastien Borget, co-founder and COO of The Sandbox, commented on the latest cryptocurrency market news, specifically noting that the SAND token is on the SEC's "black" list.

Despite regulatory challenges, Borget emphasized the importance of the American market for The Sandbox, with approximately one-third of its metaverse users being residents of the country.

The businessman highlighted the project's key mission of creating a decentralized gaming world where customers can truly own their assets and modify game content.

Despite being a concept at this stage, they are determined to continue development and are prepared to stand against the SEC for the sake of their token, especially since one-third of their user base is from the US.

Well, there's quite a lot of confusion when it comes to SEC and their statements about various tokens.

Let's untangle it.

What if we told you that we've found a list of all the tokens that the SEC has recognized as securities?

Currently, there are 61 tokens on the list, with 13 of them being tokenized stocks.

Given the ongoing regulatory activity, it is likely that the list will expand.

It is important to note that there is no official document regarding this list; these tokens were considered securities in lawsuits against companies.

So, things may change, and they may change very soon.

Let's sum up this mess and how it has affected the exchanges.

The CEX trading volume statistics reveal a lot. They've fallen into a four-year low.

In May, the trading volume in both the spot and cryptocurrency derivatives markets experienced a 15.7% decrease, marking the second consecutive month of decline.

This decline can be attributed to overall regulation, the development of DeFi, and the FTX case in November.

One of the latest statistics is particularly noteworthy!

Let's dissect the report that includes figures as of the end of May, before the lawsuits were filed against Binance and Coinbase.

Apparently, the decline in June will be even more noticeable...

In addition to the May data at the beginning of this point, a similar situation was observed in April.

Then, the total trading volume on major platforms halved to $500 billion.

Of all the major exchanges, Binance suffered the most.

In May, the company lost part of its market share, which shrank to 43% (a peak from February — 57%).

This is largely explained by the fact that the platform cancelled zero-commission trading pairs at the end of March.

So… As you can see. Fire is definitely burning, and there's a lot of collateral damage.

TL;DR: Coinbase refuses to delist tokens despite facing legal challenges, while The Sandbox stands against the SEC's claims about the SAND token. In the midst of regulatory confusion, a list of 61 tokens recognized as securities has been found, indicating potential expansion. CEX trading volume is at a 4-year low.

THURSDAY QUIZ

Let's go with a real brain-scratcher this time. This one's gonna be a tougher one.

Here's a mini hint:

a balloon''' becomes just a ball.

3 quotation marks at the end of the image signal that the 3 last letters of the word will have to be omitted.

So, in the picture, you'll see 4 quotation marks. You'll know what to do:)

Hint #2. The answer is… a recent trend. Something that we wrote about many, many times.

Good luck!

What's the answer to the puzzle below? What kind of word is hidden beneath the code?

SELECTED MEME OF THE DAY

BITE-SIZED NEWS

• UK's FCA Unveils Rigorous Crypto Ad Regulations and Referral Bonus Prohibition. The introduction of a mandatory "cooling-off period" for new investors
• Post-FTX Bankruptcy, SEC Ramps Up Crypto Enforcement Actions by 183%. The dramatic rise was recorded within six months after the collapse of FTX.
• Major Social Platforms Under EU Scrutiny Over Crypto Advertising Practices. Apparently, they played a significant role in promoting potentially misleading cryptocurrency content.