• Altcoin Season Is Coming, Technical Analysis Suggests
A bullish inverse head-and-shoulders price pattern is building in the combined market capitalization of altcoins.
A potential completion of the pattern would signal “alt season,” or outperformance of alternative cryptocurrencies relative to bitcoin and ether (ETH), according to technical analysis by Josh Olszewicz, a crypto trader and former researcher at Valkyrie Investments. Olszewicz analyzed the charts of altcoins, excluding ether and prominent stablecoins.
• SEC announces $24M settlement for case against Bittrex and its former CEO
The United States Securities and Exchange Commission has announced an agreement with crypto trading platform Bittrex and co-founder and former CEO William Shihara for operating an unregistered exchange.
In an Aug. 10 notice, the SEC said Bittrex and Bittrex Global agreed to pay $14.4 million in disgorgement (therepayment of ill-gotten gains), $4 million in prejudgment interest, and $5.6 million in civil penalties to settle the legal dispute with the federal regulator. The agreement is still subject to court approval.
• Interest rates should stay around 5% for longer — even as inflation falls, top economist Jim O’Neill says
Veteran economist Jim O’Neill says central banks will need to keep interest rates up around 5% across major economies for longer than the market expects, even as inflation subsides.
The U.S. Federal Reserve is broadly expected to hold interest rates steady at its next policy meeting in September, but market pricing suggests that the central bank will begin cutting in 2024, according to the CME Group’s FedWatch tool.
“I don’t quite get this view that rates have to automatically start coming back down again in order to have a permanently more balanced world, in my view, economically. We should be keeping rates around the 5% area in most of the developed world, because they should have some sort of positive relation to the level of inflation if we want it to be permanently stable.”
• SEC to seek appeal and stay in Ripple Labs court case
The United States Securities and Exchange Commission is moving to appeal a July court decision from its lawsuit against Ripple Labs, which had ruled the sale of XRP is not a security when sold to retail investors.
In an Aug. 9 letter to Judge Analisa Torres — the presiding judge in the case — the SEC said it believed her decision warrants a fresh look by an appellate court.
It asked Judge Torres to put the case on hold during the appeal, saying there are multiple other pending court cases that could be affected depending on the appeal’s outcome. The SEC is currently in a legal battle with a number of crypto firms, including Binance and Coinbase, over alleged securities violations.
• BlackRock insiders say Bitcoin ETF is likely 6 months away: Novogratz
The United States’ first spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) could be approved sometime before February, according to Galaxy Digital CEO Mike Novogratz, citing sources at BlackRock and Invesco.
“It’s a big, big deal. It’s a big deal because both our contacts, from the Invesco side and from the BlackRock side, get you to think that this is a question of when, not if — that the outside window is probably six months,” Novogratz told shareholders during Galaxy’s Aug. 8 Q2 earnings call, where the digital asset company reported a $46 million net loss.
“This is probably […] four to six months if you had to put a ‘pin the tail on the donkey’ on it, that the SEC is going to approve a Bitcoin ETF.”
• PayPal to roll out Cryptocurrencies Hub for select users
Payments giant PayPal, which recently launched the dollar-backed stablecoin PayPal USD (PYUSD), updated its terms and conditions to introduce Cryptocurrencies Hub — a feature that allows users to hold and interact with Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies in their PayPal account.
The latest PayPal terms and conditions detail the prerequisites for crypto users interested in using the platform for cryptocurrencies. According to the company, the Cryptocurrencies Hub service will allow for the sale and purchase of crypto. In addition, it will facilitate the payment for purchases via PayPal using the money stored after the sale of cryptocurrencies.
Concluding Notes:
- Altcoin Season
- Bittrex to pay $24M
- Interest rates should stay around 5% for longer
- SEC to seek appeal and stay in Ripple Labs court case
- Bitcoin ETF is likely 6 months away
- PayPal to roll out Cryptocurrencies Hub
