Hodler’s Digest, Dec. 24-30 – Cointelegraph Magazine

Top Stories This Week

US judge sides with SEC in Terraform Labs case over unregistered securities

A United States federal judge has ruled in favor of the Securities and Exchange Commission on claims that Terraform Labs and its former CEO, Do Kwon, offered and sold two unregistered securities. The court granted summary judgment in favor of the SEC, which alleged that Terraform Labs and Kwon offered and sold LUNA, TerraUSD and Mirror as unregistered securities. The court cited a previous comment from Kwon, stating that LUNA holders simply need to “[s]it back and watch [him] kick ass,” to conclude LUNA satisfied the Howey test.

Grayscale refiles Bitcoin ETF application as Barry Silbert departs

Crypto asset manager Grayscale lodged an amended S-3 filing with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission on the same day Barry Silbert — the CEO of Grayscale’s parent company, Digital Currency Group — announced his resignation from Grayscale’s board of directors. Some crypto market commentators speculate that Silbert’s departure could significantly increase the odds that Grayscale will successfully convert its Grayscale Bitcoin Trust into a spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund. The asset manager is currently awaiting a decision on this from the Securities and Exchange Commission.

China calls for crackdown on Tether stablecoin over illegal forex trading

China’s Supreme People’s Procuratorate — the highest national agency responsible for legal prosecution in mainland China — has warned the public against using Tether as an intermediary to trade yuan with other fiat currencies. The agency issued a statement urging local officials to implement stricter measures against Tether stablecoin use in cross-border foreign exchange transactions, claiming using Tether as a medium of exchange between the local and foreign currencies is illegal.

Vitalik Buterin wants to ‘make Ethereum cypherpunk again’

Ethereum needs to reignite the “cypherpunk” revolution that was first envisioned for the blockchain in its early days, says Vitalik Buterin, one of the network’s founders. According to a Dec. 28 blog post from Buterin, Ethereum was initially envisioned as a “public decentralized shared hard drive” that could leverage peer-to-peer messaging and decentralized file storage, but the vision began to fade in 2017 with the turn toward financialization on Ethereum. Decentralization, open participation, censorship resistance and credible neutrality are among the “cypherpunk” values Buterin wants to see firmly return in Ethereum’s future.

ARK sells remainder of GBTC holdings, invests $100M in Bitcoin ETF

Cathie Wood-led institutional asset management firm ARK Invest liquidated its entire remaining Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) holdings worth $200 million on Dec. 28. The investment firm used half of the money, about $100 million, from the sale of GBTC to invest in Bitcoin Futures ETF Bito. ARK Invest started off-loading GBTC shares in October when the Bitcoin price first hit $34,000. Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas said this latest investment shift by Ark has made it the second-largest Bito holder.

Winners and Losers

At the end of the week, Bitcoin (BTC) is at $41,826, Ether (ETH) at $2,295 and XRP at $0.61. The total market cap is at $1.64 trillion, according to CoinMarketCap.

Among the biggest 100 cryptocurrencies, the top three altcoin gainers of the week are Bitcoin SV (BSV) at 89.86%, Sei (SEI) at 59.32% and Mina (MINA) at 48.28%. 

The top three altcoin losers of the week are Bonk (BONK) at -22.09%, FTX Token (FTT) at -16.66% and WEMIX (WEMIX) at -15.48%.

For more info on crypto prices, make sure to read Cointelegraph’s market analysis.

Most Memorable Quotations

“The result [of spot Bitcoin ETFs] could be the creation of millions of unbacked Bitcoin. […] The very antithesis of Satoshi’s original vision.”

Josef Tětek, Bitcoin analyst at Trezor

“Ordinals, while disproportionately affecting the fee market, are a tiny part of the overall Bitcoin economy and pose no threat of meaningfully displacing Bitcoin on its own network.”

Andrew Poelstra, director of research at Blockstream

“Money is not the kind of thing you want to hold. […] This is what keeps the global poor poor.”

David Chaum, computer scientist and cryptographer

“Understanding disruptive innovation takes time. Bitcoin’s time has arrived.”

Hashdex

“If I had to make a prediction, in high-income countries like the United States, I would guess that we are 18–24 months away from significant levels of AI use by the general population.”

Bill Gates, investor and co-founder of Microsoft

“Games will start building experiences specifically around interacting with NPCs. […] You’ll find AI agents that act on your behalf.”

Yat Siu, co-founder of Animoca Brands

Prediction of the week

These 3 Bitcoin metrics say a fresh BTC price move is ‘imminent’

Bitcoin (BTC) is showing classic signs that fresh BTC price gains are near, one longtime market participant says. In a post on X (formerly Twitter), trader and popular social media commentator Matthew Hyland predicted “imminent” bullish moves. 

Bitcoin may have flagged over Christmas, dipping to lows of $41,650, per data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView — but the tide could soon change. 

For Hyland, two key BTC price indicators point the way to a short-term reversal. Coming in the form of Bollinger Bands and the relative strength index (RSI), these have provided advance notice of upside in recent months.

“Daily Bollinger Bands are back to squeezing to the level that triggered the last two moves up through $30k and $40k. With the Daily RSI at 2-month lows, & the 3-Day MACD currently crossing down with less than 3 days to negate,” Hyland wrote.

FUD of the Week

Critics yell ‘hypocrisy’ as Ordinals website suffers from DDoS spam attack

Bitcoin Ordinals’ website was hit with a distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack on Dec. 27, causing the website to time out. Critics who like to accuse inscriptions of “spamming” the Bitcoin network see it as an ironic form of justice. This was the first DDoS attack on Ordinals since its launch in January, according to its creator, Casey Rodarmor. Several critics found it amusing that the Bitcoin Ordinals website was effectively being spammed, particularly from those who view Ordinals inscriptions as doing the same on the Bitcoin network.

Bitzlato suspends withdrawals weeks after founder agrees to dissolve exchange

Just weeks after Bitzlato’s co-founder, Anatoly Legkodymov, agreed in a Brooklyn court to dissolve the crypto exchange as part of a guilty plea, the Bitzlato team announced it has to “temporarily suspend” all Bitcoin withdrawals. The firm claimed this was only a temporary measure while it prepares and goes through upcoming legal hearings regarding its users’ assets seized in France. United States Attorney Breon Peace accused the crypto exchange of being used as an “open turnstile by criminals.”

$3M of crypto stolen on Christmas Day — MS Drainer scammers fleece victims

Scammers have stolen $3 million worth of cryptocurrencies in 24 hours as they continue to use Google Ads to advertise malicious fake websites that use wallet-draining software. As reported by Cointelegraph on Dec. 21, scammers used MS Drainer to steal $59 million worth of cryptocurrency in 2023. According to Scam Sniffer, the attackers used Google Ads to trick crypto users into accessing fake versions of Web3 websites, including Zapper, Lido, Stargate, DefiLlama, Orbiter Finance and Radient. The security firm flagged fresh incidents from phishing sites associated with the same attackers’ addresses in their scam database on Dec. 25.

Top Magazine Pieces of the Week

ThankYouX hits Sotheby’s as his career *literally* blasts into space: NFT Creator

ThankYouX’s art has been fired into orbit and he has a solo exhibit at Sotheby’s. Not bad for a former obsessed grafitti artist.

10 best long reads about crypto in 2023

Ethereum co-founder Joe Lubin on the band’s break-up; John McAfee’s widow, the ethics of orange pilling kids, restaking — Best reads of 2023.

Top AI tools of 2023, weird DEI image guardrails, ‘based’ AI bots: AI Eye

DALL-E’s weird DEI guardrails for pics of white or asian nurses, AI fails to win writing competition & amazing scientific breakthroughs by AI.