The focus was on Bitcoin spot-ETFs, XRP and Ripple, the WSJ article, and the SEC, with the Sam Bankman-Fried verdict making headlines on Friday.
BTC-spot ETFs continued to be a center of attention, with increasingly positive forecasts suggesting a potential approval in November.
XRP and Ripple grabbed the spotlight in the global cryptocurrency market news.
After deliberating for four hours, the jury declared Sam Bankman-Fried guilty on all charges.
News regarding BTC-spot ETFs persisted in supporting speculation about the SEC's potential approval of a spot ETF. Encouragingly, there were indications of progress, with more companies submitting amendments. It is likely that these filings are a result of discussions with the SEC.
VanEck submitted an amendment for the VanEck Bitcoin Trust ETF, expressing intentions to employ BTC for the Fund's initial capital rather than fiat. Similarly, Valkyrie also submitted an amendment, passing the responsibility to the SEC to advance the review process. Despite hitting a new 2023 high of $36,024 on Thursday, BTC showed a modest 0.26% increase throughout Monday to Friday. SEC Encounters Legal Setbacks
The SEC faced a challenging week, with a second US court accusing the agency of acting in an arbitrary and capricious manner. Additionally, a report from the US Government Accountability Office (GAO) alleged that the SEC violated the law by targeting cryptocurrencies. Behind the scenes, there are indications of potential settlement discussions between the SEC and Ripple. Judge Analisa Torres has provided the two parties until November 9 to propose a briefing schedule for the remaining charges in the SEC versus Ripple case.
Ripple and XRP continued to dominate headlines during the week. On Thursday, the Dubai Financial Services Authority (DFSA) approved XRP under its virtual assets regime. This approval enables licensed firms within the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) to utilize XRP in their virtual asset services. XRP became only the fourth cryptocurrency to receive such approval, joining BTC, ETH, and LTC. In conjunction with this, Ripple announced a partnership with the National Bank of Georgia (NBG) for a pilot central bank digital currency (CBDC) project named Digital Lari, utilizing the Ripple CBDC platform. During the week, XRP observed a 10.38% increase, reaching $0.6138.
On Thursday, November 2, 2023, a jury found Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) guilty on all counts, including conspiracy, money laundering, securities fraud, and wire fraud. The jury took only four hours to deliberate before reaching this verdict. Future actions regarding SBF's legal matters must be communicated to the court by February 1, with a potential trial in March 2024. Sentencing for the initial trial is slated for March 28, 2024, and it is expected that SBF will contest the verdicts.
The WSJ article detailing illicit finance and Hamas's alleged accumulation of millions of dollars via crypto remained a prevalent subject of discussion. A senator shared statistics relating to illicit financing, revealing that illicit financing from crypto represented $20 billion, compared to a total of $2.9 trillion in illicit financing.
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