The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has remained persistent in its search for evidence that the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange uses a backdoor to access user assets on its American arm, Binance.US.
According to a report from the Wall Street Journal, attorneys for Binance.US in the exchange’s court battle with the SEC asked the US Magistrate Judge Zia Faruqui to consider stopping the agency’s investigation for potential fraud.
SEC Persistent on Binance’s Fraud Allegations
Recall that the SEC sued Binance and Binance.US in June, accusing them of several securities law violations. Among the thirteen charges were allegations of operating an unregistered national securities exchange, broker-dealer, and clearing agency, market manipulation,

The realized capitalization for bitcoin has recently witnessed significant growth and increment, indicating an improvement in the liquidity conditions of the leading digital asset.
According to a report by on-chain market analytics platform CryptoQuant, bitcoin’s growing realized cap and the rising stablecoin market cap are evidence of the influx of new capital into the crypto market.
Bitcoin’s Growing Realized Cap
The realized cap is a metric that helps estimate bitcoin’s (BTC) economic weight or actual value by considering the last price at which each asset was last moved or transacted.
CryptoQuant found that bitcoin’s realized cap is growing at its fastest pace this year as new capital continues to flow into the market. The metric just turned positive for the first time

Richard Teng, the new CEO of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, Binance, is no stranger to the world of finance. His ascent into the new position substantiates rumors that made the rounds earlier this year about him being the right fit for the job amid Binance’s regulatory woes.
According to a company blog post, Teng joined the exchange in August 2021 as the CEO of Binance Singapore, with over three decades of experience in finance and the regulatory space.
Facts About Binance’s New CEO
Before joining Binance, Teng was the chief executive of the Financial Services Regulatory Authority at Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM), the chief regulatory officer of the Singapore Exchange, and director of corporate finance at the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS).
The

The crypto space is constantly evolving, with new ideas and projects emerging now and then. The steady growth is attracting more people and, in turn, giving top names in the industry more influence.
Crypto tax software firm CoinLedger has compiled a list of the most popular personalities in the digital asset industry using their respective social media followings as a yardstick. The names were obtained from a list of the 30 most influential people in the crypto sector in 2023.
The Most Popular Personalities in Crypto
According to a CoinLedger report seen by CryptoPotato, Changpeng Zhao (CZ), the founder and CEO of the world’s largest crypto exchange, Binance, is the most popular personality in the industry. CZ has a combined social media following of nine million on X and

Despite unfavorable economic conditions and the persistent bear market, institutional cryptocurrency adoption has been on the rise. Investors have remained resilient and expressed optimism and strong sentiment about crypto’s role in the future of financial settlements.
A recent survey conducted by leading U.S. crypto exchange Coinbase found that 64% of institutional investors currently investing in crypto intend to increase their allocations for digital assets in the next three years. None of the respondents expect their allocations to decrease within the same time frame.
Institutional Crypto Adoption on the Rise
The Coinbase survey was conducted from October 19 to November 6, 2023, with participation from 250 decision makers across hedge funds, venture capital firms,

Leading U.S. crypto exchange Coinbase has launched a new protocol for on-chain payments. The new open-source Onchain Payment Protocol is an update to Coinbase’s Commerce product.
According to a blog post, the new protocol will simplify and standardize on-chain payments for currencies available on Base, Polygon, and other Ethereum Virtual Machine networks, offering volatility-free payments and low transaction fees.
Coinbase’s New Protocol for On-Chain Payments
Coinbase revealed that the new protocol aims to solve common crypto transaction issues merchants and customers face. The update will unify on-chain payments, ensuring clarity, reliability, and a consistent experience for all users, notwithstanding their platform or wallet choices.
“At Coinbase we believe that on-chain

Crypto startup investment company Republic has selected Avalanche as the blockchain to launch its native token, the Republic Note, as part of its mission to democratize private market investing.
According to an announcement seen by CryptoPotato, Republic chose Avalanche for the launch due to the network’s scale, speed, and customizability, with intentions to expand its footprint to a subnetwork next year.
Republic Picks Avalanche for Token Launch
The Republic Note has accumulated over $30 million in pre-sales from thousands of individual and institutional investors. The soon-to-be-launched token will aid the distribution of profits generated from Republic’s portfolio of over 750 private assets to holders in stablecoins.
Launched in 2016, Republic has created a global

The New York State Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) has published a set of new rules guiding the listing and delisting of digital assets to ensure the activities of crypto firms protect investors from financial harm.
According to an official post from the department, the new guidance is effective immediately and will replace older standards issued in 2020. All virtual asset firms are expected to incorporate the latest standards into their coin listing and delisting policies by December 8.
NYDFS Publishes New Guidance on Crypto Assets
The NYDFS released proposed updates to the former guidance to the public for comments in September. During the comment period, the agency received submissions from several crypto entities, advisory firms, industry groups, and the

A United States judge has concluded the dismissal of a class action lawsuit against stablecoin issuer Tether and its affiliate crypto exchange Bitfinex, two years after the plaintiff made a move against the firms.
According to a blog post, Chief Judge Laura Taylor Swain of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York denied Shawn Dolifka’s motion for leave to amend the class suit. Dolifka has now chosen not to appeal the judge’s decision.
The Class Suit
Dolifka filed a class suit against Tether in October 2021, accusing the company of misleading customers regarding the attributes of its stablecoin, USDT, and creating a scheme to induce users to purchase the crypto asset.
With Matthew Anderson, Dolifka accused Tether of falsely representing USDT reserves,

One year after crypto exchange FTX collapsed, a group of ex-executives at the firm has teamed up to launch a new but similar platform, aiming to fix the issues that led to the company’s implosion.
According to a report from the Wall Street Journal, former FTX general counsel Can Sun and ex-employees Armani Ferrante and Claire Zhang have unveiled the Backpack Exchange. Zhang is Ferrante’s wife and Sun’s ex-deputy.
Ex-FTX Execs Launch New Exchange
Sun founded Trek Labs, a Dubai-based startup that received an operational license from the Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority of the United Arab Emirates last month. Ferrante serves as the CEO of Trek’s holding company in the British Virgin Islands and also runs Backpack, a platform that designs and operates crypto wallets, while

Tether, the issuer of the world’s largest stablecoin USDT, is planning to launch five new projects in 2024, further expanding its reach beyond stablecoin issuance.
Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino hinted at the new projects in a recent tweet, saying the company is “quite close” to adding “another extremely powerful piece of the puzzle” to its ecosystem.
Tether CTO Hints at 5 “Mind-Blowing” Projects for 2024
According to Ardoino, a couple of these upcoming projects are designed to disrupt some well-known Web2 centralized services.

We’re quite close to add another extremely powerful piece of the puzzle for @Tether_to ecosystem.
Total of 5 mind-blowing projects (and counting) for 2024.Couple of these could obliterate some popular Web2 centralized services for good.
Pure Real World

Bitcoin miner Marathon Digital has continued its international expansion by launching a 27-megawatt Bitcoin mining project powered by renewable hydro energy near Paraguay’s Itaipu Dam.
According to a press release, Marathon Digital launched the project in partnership with Penguin Infrastructure Holding, which aims to transform energy into human potential in Paraguay. The project’s first miners are already on site and are being prepared for installation and energization.
Commenting on the new feat, Marathon’s chairman and CEO, Fred Thiel, said: “After proving that we can successfully deploy internationally with our project in Abu Dhabi, we are continuing to expand into new markets with excess or stranded energy. This project is our second international deployment and marks

Ava Labs, a crypto startup and the leading developer of the Avalanche blockchain has laid off 12% of its workforce amid the persistent bear market.
The company’s founder and CEO, Emir Gün Sirer, confirmed the job cuts on X, stating that the move would allow the management to reallocate resources to the growth of the firm and the expansion of the Avalanche ecosystem.
Ava Labs Slashes Headcount
“Bear markets are difficult to navigate,” said Sirer, adding that Ava Labs is lucky to have significant resources at its disposal. With the exit of some team members, those funds would be channeled toward the advancement of Avalanche.
“We are no longer a 12 person startup, but we strive to capture the speed and energy of a small, nimble team…I am deeply thankful to everyone who

John Deaton, prominent crypto lawyer and founder of Crypto Law, has once again shared his opinion on the ongoing lawsuit between Ripple Labs and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
According to a tweet, the pro-XRP lawyer believes that a settlement of $20 million or less in the lawsuit between the crypto company and the U.S. regulator is a 99.9% legal victory for the former.
A 99.9% Legal Victory
Deaton stated that people who argued that the SEC got a 50-50 victory in its case against Ripple were wrong because it was more like 90-10 in Ripple’s favor.
The crypto lawyer’s comment was triggered by a tweet from Ripple’s chief legal officer, Stuart Alderoty, highlighting another legal loss for the SEC. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit ruled in

On-chain data shows that the Solana network has surpassed the layer-2 Ethereum-based scalability blockchain Polygon in daily decentralized exchange (DEX) trading volume.
According to charts on the digital assets data platform Artemis XYZ, Solana currently has a daily DEX trading volume of $240.47 million, while Polygon sits at $137.49 million.
Solana Flips Polygon In Daily DEX Volume
Last week, Polygon had a whopping $247.45 million in daily DEX trading volume, compared to Solana’s $135.37 million. However, the latter has overtaken the former within nine days, seemingly switching places and reaching for new heights.
Solana and its native asset, SOL, have witnessed significant growth within the past few months. The proof-of-stake blockchain has seen increasing interest from

Cryptocurrency exchange Bitfinex has released a report relaying its belief that the digital asset market may be in the early stages of a bull run.
According to the latest edition of the Bitfinex Alpha report, several dynamics like bitcoin’s (BTC) ascent to the $35,000 price range and increasing institutional interest in the leading digital asset show that the market is gearing up for a bull phase.
Bitcoin’s Surge and Large Liquidations
Bitcoin’s surge to the $35,000 range on October 23 was followed by a chain of mass liquidations. A staggering $275 million worth of short trades were wiped out on the same day and $153 million the day after. Bitfinex found that the number of liquidations was the largest seen by the market since January 2023, just like the price attained had

Research by blockchain security firm Hacken has found that most of the crypto projects rug-pulled in the third quarter of 2023 had no audit reports.
According to the Q3 2023 Security Insights report, only 12 out of 78 examined rug pulls conducted and reported audits.
Most Rugpulled Projects Are Not Audited
An independent third-party audit offers a detailed review of a token, identifies the project’s vulnerabilities, and alerts investors. Hacken noted that rug pulls are one of the simplest scams to prevent, as investors can understand their anatomy by taking note of certain patterns. One of them is the presence or absence of an audit.
Although an independent third-party audit may validate a project’s authenticity, it does not guarantee protection from a sudden withdrawal of

The top 10 centralized crypto exchanges (CEXs) recorded a spot trading volume of $1.12 trillion in Q3 2023, indicating a significant plunge from the Q2 total of $1.42 trillion.
According to the CoinGecko 2023 Q3 Crypto Industry Report, the third quarter spot trading volume for the top 10 CEXs represented a 20.1% decrease from Q2. Analysts called the quarter a turbulent one for crypto exchanges.
CEX Spot Trading Volume Plunged in Q3
Among the top CEXs, Binance – the world’s largest – witnessed a significant drop in its market share. The exchange’s share fell to a yearly low of 44% in September from a yearly high of 66% in February. Analysts attributed the decline to pressure from several regulators and the platform’s exit from multiple markets, as well as the departure of

The United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit has ruled in favor of self-proclaimed Bitcoin creator Craig Wright in his legal dispute with Ira Kleiman over rights to bitcoin (BTC) worth billions of dollars.
According to an official document, the Appeal Court ruled that the district court’s verdict would stand as there is no proof it relied on an erroneous legal standard and that there would be no new trial for the case.
Wright’s Bitcoin Ownership Dispute
In 2018, Kleiman sued Wright, seeking ownership of 50% of 1.1 million BTC mined in the early days of the cryptocurrency. Kleiman claimed his deceased brother, Dave Kleiman, was in a partnership with Wright when the bitcoins were produced and deserved access to some of the assets.
Within three years after the

Gabbani, a hotel company based in Lugano, Switzerland, has unveiled an initiative to mine Bitcoin using excess energy from its food production facility. The new project is set to solidify Lugano’s status as the leading European blockchain hub.
According to an official announcement by stablecoin issuing company Tether, Gabbani will install a Bitcoin mining system in its food production facility to harness excess energy as electricity costs in Europe continue to rise.
Food Production Energy for Bitcoin Mining
Besides utilizing excess energy from food production, Gabbani is also announcing the launch of “The Banettone,” a product that will support Lugano’s Plan B project. Plan B is a joint initiative created by Lugano and Tether to leverage Bitcoin technology as the

The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has exceeded its mid-October deadline to refute Grayscale’s court win for the approval of a spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF).
The financial agency will not appeal in court regarding the decision, Reuters reported on October 13th, citing a source familiar with the matter.
SEC vs. Grayscale
The legal tussle between the American regulator and the asset management firm dates back to last year. Grayscale applied with the SEC, requesting the conversion of its flagship product, Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC), into a spot Bitcoin ETF. The conversion intention is part of the investment company’s plan to convert its major Trust products into ETFs.
Receiving a green light on the application would allow Grayscale to

Zero-transfer phishing scams have continued to plague the crypto space, with bad actors siphoning millions of digital assets from unsuspecting victims.
Blockchain analytics platform Bitrace revealed that the damage scale for zero-transfer phishing scams has increased significantly, with market participants losing more than 451 million Tether (USDT) on the Tron network.
Investors Lose $451M USDT to Phishing on Tron
Zero-transfer phishing is a new scamming technique that allows attackers to target a victim’s transaction history by confirming zero-value transactions from the user’s wallet. They do not need the user’s private key; the attackers have to send transactions of zero value, and their addresses would appear in the user’s transaction history.
Scammers often use

Avalanche-based social app Stars Arena has recovered almost all the assets it lost during a recent security breach.
According to an official update from the Stars Arena team, the hacker agreed to return the stolen $2.9 million in AVAX tokens for a 10% bounty and 1,000 AVAX lost in a bridge.
Stars Arena Recovers Lost Assets
CryptoPotato reported last week that Stars Arena lost its total value locked (TVL) via a security breach in its smart contract. Before the theft, hackers had attempted to exploit the platform but managed to escape with $2,000.
After the first exploit, the Stars Arena team claimed they had patched the issue, seeking to dispel the “coordinated FUD” that had engulfed the crypto community. The team noted that they were “at war” with the attackers as they

Cryptocurrency trading platform WOO Network revealed intentions to buy back its shares from the bankrupt crypto hedge fund Three Arrows Capital (3AC) to clear the uncertainty that has clouded its business due to the company’s collapse.
According to an official announcement, WOO has agreed with 3AC liquidator Teneo to repurchase the shares and tokens at a discount, cutting the remaining link with the failed hedge fund and its creditors.
WOO Network to Buy Back Shares From 3AC
Three Arrows Capital purchased the shares and tokens during WOO’s Series A funding round in November 2021. At the time, 3AC was the trading platform’s largest investor.
While the total value of the shares and tokens to be bought back remain undisclosed, it is known that 3AC purchased equity in WOO

Coinbase’s Ethereum layer-2 protocol, Base, has recorded a significant rise in its total value locked (TVL) once again, hitting $558 million this time.
According to data from Ethereum layer-2 analytics platform L2Beat, Base’s TVL surged by more than 25% in the past seven days, surpassing Matter Labs’ zero-knowledge (zk) rollup tech-powered scaling solution, zkSync Era, for the second time.
Base’s TVL Hits $558M
Since Base’s launch two months ago, the network has seen tremendous growth and development, hitting several milestones. The current surge in TVL is attributed to the re-minting of native USD Coin (USDC) on the network, bringing the chain’s stash to 159 million USDC.
Last month, USDC issuing company Circle announced it would launch the stablecoin on Base and Optimism

Charles Hoskinson, the founder of the Cardano blockchain, has slammed the mainstream media and everyone who is trying to paint the wrongdoings of Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF), the indicted founder and former CEO of the bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange FTX, as mistakes, thereby making him look like a good man.
In a recent post on X, Hoskinson said it seemed “extraordinary” to him that SBF, who he tagged the “Bernie Madoff of my generation,” was getting a free pass from the media because he has “the right friends.” He insisted that such development was evidence that things had gotten “profoundly corrupt.”
SBF Getting a Free Pass by The Media
The Cardano founder argued that a review of an SBF autobiography written by American author and financial journalist Michael Lewis revealed

Elliptic analysts had predicted that the amount laundered through DEXs, bridges, and coin swaps would rise to $6.5 billion by the end of 2023 and $10.5 billion by 2025.
Blockchain analytics platform Elliptic has found through recent on-chain analysis that criminals, including the notorious North Korean hacking group Lazarus, have laundered approximately $7 billion of illicit cryptocurrencies through decentralized exchanges (DEXs), cross-chain bridges, and coin swap services.
According to a press release, the second edition of the State of Cross-chain Crime report revealed that sanctioned entities and terrorists now hold more than 80 crypto assets across over 26 blockchains.
$7B in Crypto Laundered Through DEXs
In the first and previous edition of The State of Cross-chain

A Q3 2023 on-chain report by crypto market intelligence firm IntoTheBlock revealed that addresses holding at least 0.1% of bitcoin’s (BTC) supply saw strong net inflows throughout the year’s third quarter.
IntoTheBlock said these addresses recorded a single-day inflow of $600 million despite BTC plunging to $25,000, showing they are quietly bullish.
Strong Net Inflows in Q3
Following the single-day inflow of $600 million in BTC, the same category of wallets experienced three other spikes of more than $400 million in net inflows, indicating a quiet build-up of strong interest.
Notably, these substantial net inflows took place while centralized exchanges saw outflows. IntoTheBlock believes the wallets belong to organic buyers and are not just addresses from centralized

With the global cryptocurrency market struggling with the bears seemingly in control, stablecoins are also facing a tough time.
Over the past 18 months, the stablecoin market capitalization has experienced a consecutive decline in valuation, Binance’s research division revealed.
Stablecoin Market Cap Drops to $123.8B
Citing on-chain analysis on the blockchain price tracking platform DeFiLlama, Binance Research explained that the past month saw an adverse record, setting the stablecoin market cap at $123.8 billion, the lowest since September 2021.
Despite the downtrends that have enveloped the global stablecoin market, two popular assets from this cohort – Tether (USDT) and DAI – have charted mild increases.
Keeping its leading position with a 67.2% lion’s share, the USDT

The prosecution and defense teams in the criminal trial against Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF), the indicted founder and former CEO of the bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange FTX, seem to be hinged on the testimony of Caroline Ellison, the former CEO of FTX’s sister trading firm Alameda Research.
According to a Bloomberg report, both parties are seeking to prepare the jury for Ellison’s testimony, as she is considered one of the few people who know the truth about SBF due to her on-and-off romantic relationship with him.
SBF and Ellison’s History
The 28-year-old former Alameda CEO first met SBF at Wall Street trading firm Jane Street Capital. While Ellison was a Stanford-educated mathematician who did not stand out at the firm, she left with SBF to start Alameda in 2017.
Ellison