DC Court's Stunning Rebuke of SEC

Plus a secret in filing against Binance

Author

Nathaniel Whittemore
August 30, 2023

The Breakdown First Five - Wednesday August 30 2023

Welcome back to The Breakdown First Five — the 5 most interesting and/or important stories in bitcoin, crypto, and markets to start your day.

5. Tether’s New Secret Bank

Bloomberg has once again blown up Tether’s spot. The first rule of Tether is don’t talk about the deposit account. Someone broke that rule and now we all know that Tether is banking with Bahamas-based Britannia Bank. The private bank sounds reputable at first glance, but their principal is currently being indicted for bribery in Puerto Rico.

4. Secret Filing

The SEC have filed 35 documents under seal in their case against Binance. The mystery set Twitter ablaze with explanations ranging from the regulator protecting an ongoing DOJ investigation to ensuring the safety of witnesses. The more mundane explanation was that this is simply an attempt to push discovery forward using material that shouldn’t be in the public domain. Either way we’re unlikely to know exactly what was filed for some time.

3. Jump out at Robinhood

The relationship between Robinhood and Jump Trading has reportedly ended. Jump has been the principal market maker for Robinhood since they launched crypto trading in 2018. Earlier in the year Jump was rumored to be backing off US-based crypto due to increased regulatory scrutiny. Robinhood have also been confirmed as the owner of the third largest Bitcoin wallet in existence, which says a lot about how popular the platform was for hodlers during the bull run.

2. X for Crypto?

X (the platform formerly known as Twitter) has obtained its seventh money transmitter license. The state of Rhode Island has given the platform permission to take deposits and transmit funds. This license would also permit X to operate a crypto exchange or payments service. X has been accumulating licenses for months, but this one led to widespread speculation that Elon Musk is planning a crypto play. X has made no indication that is a near-term focus.

1. Grayscale Wins

The court ruling we’ve all been waiting for was finally released. The SEC must review Grayscale’s application to convert GBTC into an ETF. The order tore the SEC’s reasoning to shreds on every level and found that the agency had indeed been “arbitrary and capricious” in their decision making. Despite reporting, this doesn’t automatically approve the ETF but it still derails Chairman Gensler’s anti-crypto agenda.

Thanks for reading -NLW