This Week on Crypto Twitter: Grayscale Wins Against SEC, SEC Delays 6 ETF Applications

Illustration by Mitchell Preffer for Decrypt

It was another relatively quiet week in the markets and over on Twitter. The biggest noise in crypto news was heard on Tuesday, when a judge told the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that its denial of crypto asset manager Grayscale’s spot Bitcoin ETF application would have to be reviewed. The Federal appeals court said the SEC failed to provide a “coherent explanation” for its denial.

Prices rallied on the news. But by the end of the month, the already slow week had ground to a halt after word broke out that the SEC had delayed verdicts on not one, not two, but six Bitcoin spot market ETF applications, including that of asset manager giant BlackRock.

The developments were followed closely on Crypto Twitter, where the community delivered a few verdicts of their own this week.

On Monday, crypto fan @0xSisyphus pointed out the high rate of redemptions for Circle’s dollar-pegged USD Coin (USDC). Circle’s stablecoin has dropped from its all-time high market cap of about $56 billion in the summer of last year to less than half of that—$26 billion—today, marking a two-year low.

Pace of USDC outflows averaging $25 to $30 million a day over the last month pic.twitter.com/zgu9VHfMV2

— Sisyphus (@0xSisyphus) August 28, 2023

Researcher Rebecca Stevens, a data analyst for The Block, shared some insight into USDC’s falling dominance on Ethereum.

3/ USDC’s supply dominance on Ethereum has slid from 45% earlier in 2023 to <33% now. Its supply has continued to fall after it depegged in Mar, falling to 24 bill. Coinbase taking an equity stake in Circle + USDC expanding to 6 new networks is all aiming to grow the stablecoin. pic.twitter.com/yFs0r5bOv3

— Rebecca Stevens (@rebeccastev) August 28, 2023

SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce once again argued against a collective decision made by her organization. Earlier this year, Peirce used strong words to condemn the SEC for proposing to change the definition of “exchange” in attempt to bring crypto exchanges under its jurisdiction.

The SEC filed and settled its first NFT enforcement action today: https://t.co/RwaMGueBZK Here’s Commissioner Uyeda’s and my dissent: https://t.co/WhLKX3Tl8X

— Hester Peirce (@HesterPeirce) August 28, 2023

British Bitcoin mining analyst Anthony Power crunched the numbers on miners’ earnings for Q2 this year.

Now that the largest #BTC Miners have released their earnings for the 2nd Qtr of 2023 let’s have a look at the numbers in more detail:

1. Total Revenues
With $CORZQ still in Chapter 11 and working out a solution with lenders they were able to achieve $126.9m in revenues. pic.twitter.com/NzlXHkHDZd

— Anthony P⭕️wer (@cazenove_uk) August 28, 2023

According to crypto-savvy lawyer Stephen Palley, a lawsuit against decentralized exchange Uniswap was thrown out by a New York judge on Tuesday.

Putative Uniswap class action dismissed by Judge Failla in SDNY. Among other things, challenges notion that software platform can be held liable for damage caused by third party misuse of software code. pic.twitter.com/8wvsXmtlrR

— Palley (@stephendpalley) August 30, 2023

The latest StarWare update prompted another note from @0xSisyphus, who observed that anyone caught in the mess is an easy contender for the industry’s most unfortunate customer this week.

StarkWare just zero’d all user balances on old wallets that didn’t upgrade to latest contracts — equivalent of having the money in your bank account disappear if you don’t get the latest software package

Thank You For Flying With StarkWare Airlines pic.twitter.com/QmzbeEya7Q

— Sisyphus (@0xSisyphus) August 30, 2023

On Wednesday, crypto-loving Republican U.S. Presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy celebrated Grayscale’s win over the SEC.

The shadow government in D.C. is out of control & the federal courts are our *only* remaining line of defense against the unlawful rogue behaviors of 3-letter government agencies. This decision is strong and clears a path to keep Bitcoin & blockchain innovation in the U.S.… https://t.co/FsykKyQEVG

— Vivek Ramaswamy (@VivekGRamaswamy) August 30, 2023

Bloomberg ETF expert James Seyffart was on the front lines as the SEC began issuing notices to say that it is delaying the delivery of its verdict on multiple ETF applications.

UPDATE: The first delay order is in. This is for @WisdomTreeFunds spot #Bitcoin ETF filing. As expected delaying for another 45 days. Expecting others to drop shortly CC @EricBalchunas pic.twitter.com/yTYvv9YHt9

— James Seyffart (@JSeyff) August 31, 2023

This included asset manager giant BlackRock:

Okay. Blackrock also delayed pic.twitter.com/Jt36btPIAC

— James Seyffart (@JSeyff) August 31, 2023

Travis Kling, the founder and Chief Investment Officer at crypto asset manager Ikigai, read a lot into the launch of a new BNB perpetual futures contract on Bitfinex.

BNB has been trading for nearly six years and @paoloardoino and the gang at @bitfinex waited until TODAY to launch a Perp on it… pic.twitter.com/knDwrM17EP

— Travis Kling (@Travis_Kling) August 31, 2023

Superphiz, a staking consultant for the Ethereum Beacon chain community, tweeted about how the network decentralizes itself through coordination.

These providers are committed (or are in the process of committing) to self-limit to <22% of Ethereum validators. This is how our chain will be successful: Coordination above greed. Cooperation instead of winner-take-all.@Rocket_Pool @stakewise_io @staderlabs @divastaking

— superphiz.eth 🦇🔊🛡️ (@superphiz) August 30, 2023

TRON founder and chief Justin Sun shared some Chinese whispers on Friday.

Just in: Chinese court news said Cryptocurrencies are considered legal property and are protected by law in China 🇨🇳

— H.E. Justin Sun 孙宇晨 (@justinsuntron) September 1, 2023

Chinese blockchain journalist Colin Wu then fleshed out the story.

An opinion article in China Court Daily pointed out that cryptocurrency has economic attributes and can be classified as property. Its exchange value exists objectively due to legal recognition and legal circulation in the global market. It is legal property in China and should…

— Wu Blockchain (@WuBlockchain) September 1, 2023

Finally, James Seyffart returned on Friday. This time, he was trying to determine why BlackRock’s delay letter wasn’t posted on the SEC’s website. Very interesting!

pic.twitter.com/PaZCeIACvk

— James Seyffart (@JSeyff) September 1, 2023

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