Top Stories of The Week
Coinbase files legal motion over Gensler, SEC missing text messages
Coinbase is escalating its dispute with US regulators over past communications involving former Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chair Gary Gensler.
Coinbase filed a legal motion on Thursday requesting a hearing to address the SEC Office of the Inspector General’s investigation, which found that the agency deleted nearly one year’s worth of text messages from Gensler and other senior officials in “avoidable” errors.
The exchange said the SEC should explain why it did not conduct a full search of agency records, including text messages from Gensler and senior SEC officials, when it requested the messages in several Freedom of Information Act filings from 2023 and 2024.
According to the motion, Coinbase wants the court to compel the SEC to search and produce all responsive communications originally requested, including all messages and documents from Gensler and the agency regarding Ethereum’s shift to proof-of-stake consensus.
Bitcoin in consolidation as treasuries eye altcoins: Novogratz
Bitcoin has likely been trading sideways as corporations have focused on stacking altcoins lately, though there could be an upswing coming later in the year, says Mike Novogratz, CEO of asset manager Galaxy Digital.
“Bitcoin’s at a consolidation right now. Partly because you’re seeing a lot of these treasury companies in other coins take their shot,” said Novogratz during an episode of CNBC’s Squawk Box on Thursday.
Blockchain tech firm BitMine Immersion Technologies has been leading the pack among altcoin treasury firms, recently buying $200 million Ether and growing its stockpile to over $9 billion in ETH.
US court to hear arguments for Sam Bankman-Fried’s appeal on Nov. 4
Former FTX CEO Sam “SBF” Bankman-Fried, serving a 25-year sentence after his conviction on seven felony counts, will take the next step in his appeals process with a hearing scheduled for November.
According to a Wednesday notice in the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, Bankman-Fried’s appeals case has been calendared for arguments on Nov. 4. The court proceeding will mark the first significant movement in the former CEO’s criminal case since his transfer from a New York City facility in March to one in California.
The hearing in the Second Circuit had been expected since Bankman-Fried’s lawyers filed a notice of appeal in April 2024 over his 2023 conviction and 25-year sentence.
Bankman-Fried’s legal team argued in his appeal filed in September 2024 that the former CEO was “never presumed innocent,” also claiming that prosecutors presented a “false narrative” of FTX user funds as permanently lost.
Goldman Sachs CEO doubts 50 basis point cut is ‘on the cards’
Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon has shot down the notion that the US Federal Reserve will cut interest rates by 50 basis points in September, just days after Standard Chartered Bank made the aggressive forecast.
“Whether or not we have a 50 basis cut, I don’t think that’s probably on the cards,” Solomon said during an interview with CNBC on Wednesday.
While CME FedWatch Tool data shows just 7.8% of market participants expect such a move at the Sept. 17 Fed meeting, Standard Chartered Bank recently raised its forecast to that level, citing August’s weaker-than-expected jobs report, according to a Reuters report on Monday.
Pseudonymous crypto trader Mister Crypto said in an X post on Wednesday, “If that happens, crypto will explode through previous ATHs.”
Prospective CFTC chair releases private texts with Winklevoss twins, hours before IPO
Brian Quintenz, US President Donald Trump’s pick to chair the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), has made public several texts between himself and Gemini co-founders Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, suggesting reasons why the brothers may have attempted to interfere with his nomination to the agency.
In a Wednesday X post, Quintenz said he had released the texts over concerns that Trump “might have been misled” by the Gemini co-founders. The chain appeared to show Tyler Winklevoss sending Quintenz information on Gemini’s civil case with the CFTC, settled with a $5 million fine in January.
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