What happened in crypto this week?
It’s been another busy week in crypto: Donald Trump’s World Liberty Financial (WLFI) is planning to launch a stablecoin, BlackRock’s spot Bitcoin ETF hit $30 billion in assets in 293 days, ex-FTX executive Nishad Singh avoided prison, and Immutable received a Wells notice from the SEC.
Let’s take a closer look at these and give you a recap on what happened this week in crypto.
Donald Trump’s World Liberty Financial is planning to launch a stablecoin
With the US election drawing closer, Donald Trump’s World Liberty Financial project plans on entering the crypto market by linking a stablecoin to the US dollar.
The news of this comes as the project raised $14 million in initial funding; however, despite intentions to capitalize on the growing demand for stablecoins, the project saw limited success, falling short of its $300 million token sale.
On top of that, shortly after the sale went live, the platform’s website crashed and even though 100,000 people signed up, only 6,832 unique wallets hold WLFI tokens, according to Etherscan.
With only a few days until election day, if Trump does become the US President again, he would hold significant influence over the regulatory environment surrounding stablecoins, which could be a pivotal move for the future of WLFI.
BlackRock’s spot Bitcoin ETF hit $30 billion in assets
BlackRock’s spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) has set a new record, reaching $30 billion in assets in 293 days. By doing so, it surpasses gold, which did it in 1,790 days and JPMorgan Equity Premium Income ETF ($JEPI), which did it in 1,272 days.
BlackRock holds more than 433,000 Bitcoin, valued at $30.5 billion, according to iShares data.
The milestone from BlackRock comes 10 months after the company launched its spot Bitcoin ETF in January. Then, it was reported that BlackRock had traded $7.5 million in shares within the first 10 minutes of launching.
With the combined spot Bitcoin ETFs, they now have over one million in Bitcoin holdings and could soon pass Satoshi Nakamoto’s wallet, which holds 1.1 Bitcoin.
12,000 btc a day keeps the doctor away lol. At this rate they’ll pass Satoshi in less than two weeks. Altho they can’t keep up this Joey Chestnut-level pace, can they? https://t.co/dLVNsjMlxK
— Eric Balchunas (@EricBalchunas) October 31, 2024
Ex-FTX executive Nishad Singh avoids prison
Earlier this week, Nishad Singh, the former engineering director of crypto exchange FTX, was sentenced to time served and three years of supervised release in a federal court in New York.
Judge Lewis Kaplan said, “this may have been one of the biggest crimes in American history.” Kaplan also noted that Singh’s involvement appeared limited compared to FTX’s founder Sam Bankman-Fried and former Alameda Research CEO Caroline Ellison.
Due to “substantial assistance” from Singh, his lawyers argued for a lenient sentence. Bankman-Fried was sentenced to 25 years in prison and Ellison is expected to surrender by November 7 and was sentenced to 24 months in prison.
As the crackdown on FTX executives continues, Singh is the fourth former executive to receive sentencing, with co-founder Gary Wang set to face court on November 20.
Immutable receives a Wells notice from the SEC
Blockchain gaming platform Immutable has become the latest to receive a Wells notice from the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), alleging securities laws violations.
According to Immutable, nothing was specified in the notice; however, it believes its “claims are targeting the listing and private sales of IMX in 2021.” Immutable has said they are confident that the IMX token is not a security.
Immutable said the Wells notice before the US election illustrates why the “industry is so skeptical of any attempts from this SEC to argue it is attempting to provide clarity.”
“Prior to the issuance of a Wells notice, there are often multiple months of interviews and conversations between company counsel and the SEC, so the SEC can fully understand the situation,” Immutable added. “Instead, in our very first interaction with the SEC, we were told a Wells notice would be issued to the company within the week. We then received it within hours.”
Immutable joins a list of companies in the crypto industry that have faced or are facing lawsuits against the SEC. Other crypto organizations that have received a Wells notice from the SEC include Coinbase, Crypto.com, and OpenSea.
