SEC Enforcement Director Gurbir Grewal Resigns After Three Years

The Breakdown First Five - Thursday, September 3, 2024

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. BofA Outage

Bank of America suffered a major outage yesterday. Many customers were locked out of online banking altogether. Others were able to log in to find their balances at zero, a heart attack inducing moment. There’s points to be made about the protection of critical internet infrastructure, but Bitcoin’s simply thought this was an accurate portrayal of the state of the fiat system. 

4. DPRK Widespread

New investigative reporting has revealed just how deeply North Korean hackers have infiltrated into the crypto industry. According to the report more than a dozen crypto firms said they had inadvertently hired DPRK hackers onto their teams. One developer said the volume of resumes is “greater than 50% across the entire crypto industry.” The article walked through a story of fake passports, spoofed locations and a deeply entrenched problem.

3. Kashi Launching

An appellate court has ruled against the CFTC, giving Kalshi the green light to immediately launch political prediction markets. The court found there was no risk the public will “suffer irreparable injury.” Further, it suggested that concerns of market manipulation could be addressed with individual prosecutions, rather than a blanket ban. Political prediction markets are now legal in the United States. 

2. Ripple Appeal Filed

The SEC have filed their appeal in the Ripple case. The decision had found that XRP tokens are not securities when traded in the secondary market, an untenable precedent for the agency which made this appeal likely from the start. The filing is simply a notice of intent, so no details are given aside from an SEC statement that they believe the decision “conflicts with decades of Supreme Court precedent and securities laws.” 

1.  SEC Enforcement Chief Out

SEC Enforcement Director Gurbir Grewal has resigned after three years in the job. The agency praised Grewal for his work, including over 100 crypto enforcement actions. This is the third senior departure from the SEC so far this year. Some were convinced this was a sign the Gensler agenda is collapsing under political pressure, while others believed it was simply another case of a senior bureaucrat exiting through the revolving door.