2024-08-22 09:01

Salame's counsel argued in a filing that the government resumed investigating his domestic partner, ADAM CEO Michelle Bond, despite despite assurances that the investigation would cease if he cooperated. Former FTX executive Ryan Salame is arguing in a court filing that the government is not keeping its part of a deal. The deal involved ceasing an investigation into possible campaign finance violations by Michelle Bond, Salame's domestic partner. Attorneys for Ryan Salame, the former FTX executive sentenced to 7.5 years in prison, are asking a court to enforce a plea deal between Salame and the government, according to a recent court filing. Salame made a deal that would have the government stop its investigation into his partner, once Republican congressional candidate and now fintech think tank CEO Michelle Bond, or have the government vacate his conviction. Bond is under investigation by Manhattan federal prosecutors over allegations of campaign finance violations related to contributions made by Salame and others to her 2022 congressional campaign. Salame pled guilty to campaign finance violations in September 2023, CoinDesk reported at the time. In May, Salame was sentenced to 7.5 years in prison for the campaign finance violations as well as running an unlicensed money transmitting business – charges that resulted from his role as one of the organizers of FTX's fiat-to-crypto payment rails. Now Salame's attorneys argue that his plea was improperly induced by promises from prosecutors to protect Bond, the mother of his child, from further legal scrutiny. "Yet despite Salame’s cooperation," Salame's attorneys argue in the filing, "The Government failed to honor its implied commitment not to pursue the campaign-finance charges against Bond." The filing states that federal prosecutors "used the plea negotiations to threaten Salame’s domestic partner and the mother of his child, Michelle Bond," and that the government conveyed it "would discontinue investigating Bond if Salame pleaded guilty." Salame’s attorneys are now requesting that the court either enforce the government’s initial promise to drop the investigation into Bond or vacate Salame’s conviction altogether. "Salame is entitled to hold the Government to its assurance by either withdrawing his plea or obtaining an order directing specific performance," the document argues. Publicly, Salame remains defiant, posting on X that he hopes his court filing "encourages more people to be honest and tell the truth and expose un-American tactics." "I hope it helps at least one person in the future; the justice system is fragile but so important," he continued. https://www.coindesk.com/policy/2024/08/22/former-ftx-executive-ryan-salame-claims-government-backtracked-on-plea-deal-filing/

2024-08-22 05:47

The pending signal, if confirmed, would imply a challenging time ahead, according to analysis by Fairlead Strategies. Bitcoin's monthly stochastic is teasing an "overbought downturn," indicating a weakening of bullish momentum, according to Fairlead Strategies. Other indicators like the MACD also suggest the same. Since November 2022, bitcoin's (BTC) price has surged nearly 300% from lows around $15,470. This remarkable uptrend is now challenged by a looming "stochastics overbought downturn" signal, according to technical analysis by Fairlead Strategies. Stochastics is a momentum oscillator technical analysts and traders use to compare a security's going market rate to a range of prices over a certain period, typically 14 days, weeks, or months. The indicator fluctuates between 0 to 100, with readings above 80 indicating an overbought condition. An "overbought downturn" has the oscillator moving down from the overbought territory above 80, signaling a weakening of the uptrend and potential for price declines. Bitcoin's 14-month stochastic has crossed below 80. The overbought downturn will be confirmed if the situation persists through the end of August. "The monthly chart of bitcoin shows a pending overbought downturn in the monthly stochastics. If confirmed at month-end, it would be a negative catalyst, suggesting the trading range marked the end to the cyclical uptrend from the 2022 low," analysts at Fairlead Strategies said in a note shared with CoinDesk Wednesday. Bitcoin's uptrend has stalled since March, with bulls repeatedly failing to establish a foothold above $70,000, as represented by the trendline resistance on the monthly chart. The pending overbought downturn on the stochastic indicator is accompanied by shallower bars on the MACD histogram and a flat Ichimoku cloud (the blue shaded area), a sign of a "challenging environment going forward," according to Fairlead Strategies. The MACD histogram is widely used to gauge trend strength and changes. Crossovers above and below the zero line represent bullish and bearish trend changes and the height of the bars indicate the strength of the move. The Ichimoku cloud is also a momentum indicator. Bitcoin changed hands at $60,660 at press time, according to CoinDesk data. https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2024/08/22/bitcoins-uptrend-threatened-by-looming-stochastics-signal-fairlead-strategies/

2024-08-21 23:00

Sen. Cynthia Lummis said the window is closing, but it's not shut yet. TETON VILLAGE, WY. — The window for crypto legislation in 2024 is narrowing, but there is still a path toward getting something passed this year, Sen. Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.) said Wednesday. While neither she nor Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.), who also spoke at the SALT Wyoming Symposium hosted ahead of the Federal Reserve's annual Jackson Hole meeting, delved into the specifics of any particular bill, she referenced work in the Senate Agriculture Committee. Lummis and Scott also appealed to voters during the brief SALT appearance, saying Republicans are more aligned with crypto interests than Democrats. (Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has loudly endorsed crypto this election cycle. While Kamala Harris, the Democratic candidate, hasn't directly addressed the issue, Bloomberg on Wednesday reported that she's signaled a friendlier stance toward digital assets.) Scott, the lead Republican on the Senate Banking Committee, has not said much about crypto during his tenure as the committee's ranking member. However, he introduced himself to crypto crowds with Lummis at the BTC Nashville conference last month, where he echoed popular talking points in the crypto community, including calling for more lenient regulators and saying he'd support crypto-friendly legislation. If control of the Senate flips to Republicans, Scott will become the chair. On Wednesday, he floated the possibility of creating a subcommittee focused on digital assets if he takes on that role. "Wouldn't it be cool if we had a subcommittee on the Banking Committee that focuses on the industry, so that we bring more light to the conversation, more hearings on the industry, so that we get things done faster," he said. "We go further, faster in a shorter period of time, because we have the kind of motivation and momentum that leads to having bills on the floor marked up." Both Lummis and Scott referred to current committee Chair Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) as lawmakers who were creating "headwinds" in their pursuit of crypto legislation. "The only way we're going to get anything done this year is if it comes through the Senate Agriculture Committee in the form of Commodity Futures Trading Commission [legislation]," Lummis said. Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), the Senate Majority Leader, vowed to move crypto legislation through the Senate and have it signed into law by the end of the year during an appearance at a "Crypto4Harris" event last week. She described a hypothetical scenario in which the Senate Agriculture Committee could vote a bill out of committee, and it would become "a Christmas tree, as we call it." In this scenario, Lummis said she could see stablecoin provisions tacked on to the Agriculture Committee bill, using the Howey Test as a base for helping define stablecoins. "Chuck Schumer gets to have his SAFER Banking bill, and all of a sudden you come up with a very broad financial services bill, and then it's got enough flow to pass," Lummis said. "And so that's a scenario that actually could play out after the election. The challenge is going to be having enough legislative days to pull something like that off." Scott concurred, saying it was unlikely that any bill could work through the Senate Banking Committee this year. "The motivation and the incentives are there. Two pieces of the incentives that are really important, [House Financial Services Committee Patrick] McHenry [in] financial services, [Senate Agriculture Committee Chair Debbie] Stabenow [are both retiring members," he said. "Schumer wants to give Stabenow a swan song, which could be this legislation. So you have the forces on both sides of the aisle in a bicameral way, working to get something done so that their legacy includes legislation that will be incredibly beneficial, not only to the industry, but in my opinion, to the American consumer." Election considerations Scott predicted that there is a good chance for Republicans to hold 52 or 53 seats in the 100-member U.S. Senate after the 2024 election, noting that West Virginia's Joe Manchin (I-W.V.) was not running for reelection and pointing to close races in Ohio and Montana. "It's not about being better politically. It's really about self-interest. Americans vote on typically popular issues, and then community issues," Scott said, pointing to former President Trump's comments at BTC Nashville as a focus on these issues. Lummis took a shot at Vice President Harris during the panel, saying "there is no indication" that she would be "good to this industry." Harris' campaign has yet to present any crypto-specific plans, only beginning to roll out policy initiatives last week. Earlier on Wednesday, Harris campaign adviser Brian Nelson, a former senior Treasury official, said Harris wants to grow the crypto industry, without delving into specifics. Lummis said this is a stark contrast to the Republican party platform, saying Trump had written a platform pitch that did include digital assets. The 2024 election is the friendliest one for Republicans over the next six years, Lummis said, referring to the number of seats up for grabs in red-leaning states. Republicans will be more on defense than Democrats in the next two elections (2026 and 2028), she said. "So the best math for Republicans is this one. If we had a Republican president, Republican House and Senate for two years, we can move mountains. We could be significant. We can take the lead in this industry and others and move the needle in a positive direction that fosters innovation," she said. "If we miss this opportunity, we don't have the same opportunity for a long time." https://www.coindesk.com/policy/2024/08/21/top-republican-retains-hope-us-crypto-legislation-can-get-done-this-year/

2024-08-21 22:13

Think-tank Public Citizen found that crypto companies have contributed $119 million to crypto-friendly super PACs this election cycle. Nearly half of all corporate political contributions in the 2024 election cycle came from cryptocurrency companies, according to a Wednesday report from corporate influence watchdog Public Citizen. Public Citizen’s report, which was based on data provided by government transparency group OpenSecrets, found that, so far, 48% of corporate election spending has come from crypto companies like Ripple and Coinbase. That’s $119 million out of a total of $248 million. The vast majority of those donations have been funneled into pro-crypto super political action committees (PACs) like Fairshake, a non-partisan super PAC focused on getting crypto-friendly candidates on both sides of the aisle elected – as well as squashing the bids of crypto skeptics. According to Public Citizen’s report, $107.9 million of the $203 million raised by Fairshake has come directly from crypto companies, the rest from large donations made by deep-pocketed and prominent individuals in the tech and crypto industries including the Winklevoss twins and Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong. The author of Public Citizen’s report, research director Rick Claypool, described the crypto industry’s political spending as “unprecedented.” Crypto companies’ direct spending in the past three election cycles totals $129 million, or 15% of all known corporate contributions since 2010, the year that the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission that corporations have a First Amendment right to make unlimited donations to candidates via PACs. According to the report, only the fossil fuel industry has outspent crypto companies since 2010, donating a known $162 million to fossil fuel-friendly politicians over the past 14 years. https://www.coindesk.com/policy/2024/08/21/nearly-half-of-all-corporate-election-spending-in-2024-cycle-comes-from-crypto-companies-study-finds/

2024-08-21 21:04

Bitcoin processed $36.6 trillion in transactions last year, far more than payment network giants Mastercard and Visa combined. Franklin Templeton CEO Jenny Johnson said traditional finance is underestimating the size of bitcoin. She referenced the cryptocurrency's transaction volume, which in 2023 was twice as high as that of Mastercard and Visa combined. Johnson spoke at the Wyoming Blockchain Symposium in Jackson Hole on Tuesday. JACKSON HOLE, WYOMING — Franklin Templeton CEO Jenny Johnson, who steered the asset management giant toward the digital asset space after taking over her family's company in 2020, is shocked by how much traditional financial firms are unaware of Bitcoin's scale. In a conversation at the Wyoming Blockchain Symposium in Jackson Hole on Tuesday, Johnson said 30% of her day-to-day work is spent looking at disruptive technology, as her main focus is positioning the firm for the next generation. This includes digital assets, which Johnson believes is one of two big, obvious trends that she didn't want to miss. (The other is artificial intelligence.) "What's crazy to me is that in traditional finance, they have no idea about the amount of money and the volume [of bitcoin]," Johnson said. In 2023, the Bitcoin (BTC) blockchain processed over $36.6 trillion in transactions as the market recovered from a tough year. This is in contrast to Mastercard and Visa, the two big payment networks worldwide, which processed $9 trillion and $14.8 trillion, respectively. "There's an entire ecosystem that almost ignores what is a parallel, massive ecosystem," Johnson said. Mastercard and Visa aren't ignoring blockchain technology. Both companies have made efforts in recent years to add crypto payments to their networks. Visa in particular has run trial after trial to test out new product offerings and has partnered with several crypto-native firms, including Circle and Solana, to grow a stronger footing in the space. Mastercard is rolling out a blockchain-based debit card. Franklin Templeton, after the appointment of Johnson as the company's CEO, quickly became a leader among traditional financial asset managers. Its OnChain U.S. Government Money Market Fund (FOBXX) became the first fund to use a public blockchain to record transactions and ownership in 2021. Earlier this week, the company filed a proposal with the Securities and Exchange Commission to launch a fresh exchange-traded fund, trading under the ticker symbol EZPZ, that would expose investors to a range of digital assets. Coinbase would be the custodian for that fund. https://www.coindesk.com/business/2024/08/21/franklin-templeton-ceo-says-tradfi-underestimates-bitcoins-scale/

2024-08-21 20:30

The cryptocurrency industry has made no secret of its displeasure with the Biden administration's approach towards regulating digital assets. Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris will support policy efforts to encourage the growth of the cryptocurrency industry, one of her top campaign officials said Wednesday. “She’s going to support policies that ensure that emerging technologies and that sort of industry can continue to grow," said Brian Nelson, senior advisor for policy for the Harris campaign, speaking Wednesday during a Bloomberg roundtable at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. The growing political clout of the crypto industry is among the stories of the 2024 presidential race, with first independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and then the GOP's Donald Trump both promising highly friendly approaches towards regulation should they take office in 2025. The industry generally has been displeased with what it sees as the highly unfriendly regulatory approach of the Biden administration. "Obviously, they’ve expressed that one of the things that they need are stable rules, rules of the road," continued Nelson, suggesting a Harris administration will still be interested on putting in place safeguards for an industry that has seen a number of sizable collapses in recent years. https://www.coindesk.com/policy/2024/08/21/kamala-harris-signals-interest-in-friendlier-stance-on-crypto-bloomberg/