SEC Dials up Pressure on Pump & Dumps
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced that it has filed a subpoena enforcement action against St. James Holding and Trust Investment Company and its trustee, Jeffrey James. It is explained that the regulator has initiated an investigation against potential pump-and-dump scheme “in the stock of Cherubim Interests, Inc., among other penny-stock companies.”
"Based on its ongoing, nonpublic investigation, the SEC has reason to believe that to 'pump' its stock price, Cherubim issued false public statements in January 2018 claiming that the company had executed a $100,000,000 financing commitment to launch an initial coin offering (ICO) for St. James Trust. After Cherubim's stock price and trading volume increased on this news, certain individuals associated with the company may have 'dumped' their overvalued Cherubim stock for significant profits," SEC explained in an official statement.
U.S. Senate Debates Merits of Crypto, Can't Decide
U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs was set to hold a hearing on the topic dubbed “Exploring the Cryptocurrency and Blockchain Ecosystem”.
At the opening, the Senior Senator Michael Dean Crapo from Idaho pointed out the main problem. “The Bitcoin has been around for a nearly a decade now”, but has gained a particular attention for the last two years, due to a “meteoric rise and subsequent fall in price” in the last years. The amount of hacker attacks and money laundering cases which involve cryptocurrencies has also risen recently. In February this year Senate Committee heard the representatives of the U.S. SEC and CFTC “to examine their oversight roles of cryptocurrency related products and their activities under their respective jurisdictions”. Since then, regulators tried to adjust and bring standards for the crypto related issues, however, some regulatory and oversights questions like pump&dump schemes or crypto price volatility still remain and raise questions among the Committee members.
South Korea Legalizing ICO in November?
During the annual audit of government actions by the National Assembly of South Korea, the head of the country's state policy coordination office, Hong Nam-ki, said that local regulators are considering legalizing the ICO. In November, the South Korean government will hold a meeting at which it will discuss allowing the implementation of ICO projects in the country.
"We are going to form the position of the government in November based on the results of the investigation at the end of October," — declared Hong Nam-ki.
Also in April, the Democratic Party of South Korea announced that it had begun to develop a regulatory framework for the legalization of the ICO with the support of legislators. Officials assumed that the ICO projects created by public organizations and research centers would be under the control of the Financial Services Commission and the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning.
All Bans in Spite: India's Crypto Industry Blossoms
A group of experts within the framework of the Ministry of Finance of India, which is tasked with proposing regulation of cryptocurrencies, recommends the creation of a Central bank digital currency (CBDC). The Quartz publication, quoting a high-ranking official aware of the discussions within the intergovernmental group, said that the group intends to propose the development of a state cryptocurrency on the blockchain, developed by order of the government. The officials also discussed the possibility of giving the cryptocurrency the name “Lakshmi” in honor of the Hindu goddess of wealth and prosperity.
Today, it also became known that Unocoin, the largest Indian cryptocurrency exchange with 1.2 million users, launches its own crypto ATMs. Images of its first digital asset operations began to appear on social networks. The news has already been confirmed by Sathvik Vishwanath, the CEO of the platform. This news came amid much less joyful crypto events in the country. Recall that the ban of the Central Bank of India on the maintenance of cryptocurrency exchanges entered into force on July 5. The Supreme Court of India refused to provide a temporary adjournment and lift the ban on the termination of the provision of services to companies of the cryptocurrency sector by regulated financial institutions and banks in the country.
What Else:
- Chainalysis reported that bitcoin’s largest holders don’t manipulate the market and stimulate volatility.
- YoBit cryptocurrency exchange has publicly stated that it will pump coins for 1 bitcoin.
- Bitfinex Cryptocurrency Exchange has suspended the ability to place deposits in US dollars and “expects the situation to normalize within a week”, The Block portal writes, citing its own sources.
- Harvard, Stanford, & MIT universities invest in cryptocurrency funds.
At 21:00 (GMT+1) total cryptocurrency market capitalization stands at $201.6 billion
Bitcoin (Bitcoin) $6303 (-4.35%)
Ethereum (ETH/USD) $197 (-12.10%)
XRP (XRP/USD) $0.40 (-12.53%)
Bitcoin Cash (Bitcoin.Cash) $446 (-13.07%)
EOS (EOS/USD) $5.30 (-9.86%)
0x (+6.87%) showed the best growth in the top-100
Market Dynamics
The trading volume of cryptocurrencies for 24 hours reached $16,7 billion (+5 billion per day)
Mining Profitability
BTC $2.2 for 10 TH/s ↘️
ETH $0.17 for 10 MH/s ⏸
BCH $0.18 for 1 TH/s ↘️
LTC $2.95 for 1 GH/s ↘️
DASH $0.07 for 1 GH/s ↘️
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