Coinbase Strikes Back at the SEC and Genesis' Restructure Plan Collapses
Market Update
- Equity indices are falling today amid an action-packed week of corporate earnings. The SPY (-0.81%) is trading just above $410, while the QQQ (-1.03%) is hovering around $313. After reaching its lowest level since November 2021, the VIX (+8.53%) is beginning to rise again. Crypto is in-line with equities as BTC (-0.49%) is trading at $27,300, and ETH (-1.39%) is trying to stay above $1,800. Arbitrum has completed its distribution of ARB tokens to its ecosystem’s DAOs. Airdrop allocations are providing a large boost to projects’ value as a percentage of their market caps (see below). As a result, smaller Arbitrum tokens such as VSTA and PLS are outperforming amid a broader market selloff, rising 15.86% and 3.52%, respectively, over the last 24 hours.
Source: Twitter
- Coinbase has filed an action against the SEC to force the agency’s hand in providing answers to an outstanding petition regarding regulation of the crypto industry. The petition includes 50 different questions which are broad in scope and requests that the SEC uses its normal rulemaking process to develop a regulatory framework for the digital asset industry. Coinbase initially filed the petition in July of last year. The SEC has been uncooperative in providing answers despite actively serving Coinbase with a Wells Notice and regulating the industry via enforcement. Following Coinbase’s court action, the Administrative Procedure Act (APA) requires the SEC to respond “within a reasonable time.” It is within the SEC’s right not to answer the petition, but that would enable Coinbase to challenge the decision in Federal Court and present its case on why formal rulemaking is needed. Hopefully, Coinbase’s court action will start productive discussions and lead to a future regulatory framework.
- After declaring bankruptcy at the beginning of the year, it seemed Genesis Global and its creditors had come to a restructuring agreement in February. Nearly two months since the alleged agreement, multiple creditors have decided to walk away from the deal and have raised additional demands. As a result, Genesis has asked the court to appoint a mediator for its bankruptcy proceedings. Some have speculated on Twitter that Genesis and its parent company DCG have been acting in bad faith, using constant legal maneuvers to stall returning capital to creditors. DCG released a statement claiming they don’t understand the rationale for creditors to renege and acknowledging that mediation will likely prolong the court process for the hundreds of thousands of individual creditors.
Daily Technical Strategy
Mark L. Newton, CMT
Head of Technical Strategy
Polygon's recent deterioration has just violated the lengthy uptrend from last June's lows which will need to be recouped to help technical trends improve and provide a framework for how its rally can get back on track. Near-term, weakness in MATIC likely finds temporary support near March lows at $0.94, which could help prices stabilize and bounce into the month of May. However, it's imperative that recent April peaks near $1.20 are exceeded to have conviction that a larger rally might be in store. Momentum indicators have turned negative (Per MACD) on a weekly basis for the first time since its rally got underway last Summer. While daily gauges of momentum per RSI are now nearing oversold levels. it's critical that March lows hold and provide some stabilization. Declines that break $0.94 would postpone any rally, making MATIC more vulnerable to larger weakness down to test last December's swing lows near $0.75. At present, it's expected that some support materializes near March 2023 lows by end of week.
Daily Important Metrics
All metrics as of April 25, 2023 12:23 PM
All Funding rates are in bps
Crypto Prices
Symbol | Market Cap | Last Price | Daily Change | Year to Date | Relative to BTC YTD |
BTC | $531B | $27,408 | ↑ 0.25% | ↑ 65% | |
ETH | $219B | $1,821 | ↓ -0.91% | ↑ 52% | ↓ -14% |
ADA | $13B | $0.3821 | ↓ -1.33% | ↑ 55% | ↓ -11% |
DOGE | $11B | $0.0782 | ↓ -0.54% | ↑ 11% | ↓ -54% |
MATIC | $8.8B | $0.9555 | ↓ -3.18% | ↑ 25% | ↓ -40% |
SOL | $8.2B | $20.93 | ↓ -2.03% | ↑ 111% | ↑ 46% |
DOT | $6.8B | $5.82 | ↓ -0.98% | ↑ 34% | ↓ -32% |
LINK | $3.6B | $7.03 | ↓ -1.24% | ↑ 27% | ↓ -39% |
NEAR | $1.7B | $1.87 | ↓ -1.18% | ↑ 47% | ↓ -19% |
Exchange Traded Products (ETPs)
Symbol | Premium to Nav | Last Price | Daily Change | Year to Date | Relative to BTC YTD |
GBTC | ↓ -40% | $14.74 | ↓ -1.69% | ↑ 78% | ↑ 12% |
BITW | ↓ -56% | $10.58 | ↓ -1.03% | ↑ 97% | ↑ 32% |
ETHE | ↓ -50% | $8.80 | ↓ -1.82% | ↑ 85% | ↑ 19% |
BTCC | ↑ 0.19% | $5.03 | ↓ -0.40% | ↑ 66% | ↑ 0.56% |
News
QUICK BITS
The Block Genesis creditors reject previously agreed bankruptcy restructuring plan, DCG says A group of Genesis creditors have rejected the deal agreed in February, parent company Digital Currency Group said. The post Genesi... |
MARKET DATA
Bitcoinist Ethereum Fees Down 35% In Past Week As Network Activity Cools On-chain data shows the average Ethereum transaction fees have seen a sharp drop after hitting 11-month highs just last week. Ethereum Transfer Fees Has Decline... |
The Block Cathie Wood’s Ark Invest buys $8.6 million in Coinbase stock as crypto exchange sues SEC Ark Invest purchased shares in Coinbase Global Inc. yesterday — the same day the United States-based crypto exchange announced that it was suing the SEC. ... |
REGULATION
CoinDesk Terra Co-Founder Daniel Shin Indicted in South Korea: Bloomberg Shin was indicted with nine others as prosecutors froze $185 million in assets. |
The Block Coinbase sues the SEC for answer on rule specific to digital assets The suit aims to force the SEC to respond to a petition that the company filed aiming for a rule specific to digital assets. The po... |
PRODUCT UPDATES AND PARTNERSHIPS
Coin Telegraph Decentralized exchange GMX votes to use Chainlink low-latency oracles A Chainlink exec said the oracles will improve GMX’s security by providing a more “strong degree of tamper-resistance ... |
DAOS
The Block Arbitrum initiates token distribution to ecosystem DAOs Arbitrum has initiated the distribution of its initial token allocation to eligible DAOs within its ecosystem. The post Arbitrum ini... |
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