Market Update - October 11th 2024
Takeaways
HBO documentary seeks to unveil Satoshi Nakamoto’s identity: HBO released a documentary, “Money Electric: The Bitcoin Mystery,” on Tuesday that suggests an early Bitcoin developer named Peter Todd invented the cryptocurrency.
Crypto.com has filed a lawsuit against the SEC after receiving a Wells notice, claiming the agency has overextended its authority: The lawsuit challenges the SEC's stance that most cryptocurrencies are securities and the agency's regulatory practices.
Bitcoin's price pulled back this week: The US Department of Labor announced that inflation rose 2.4% year-over-year in September, slightly above analyst expectations. Crypto reacted negatively to the news, with bitcoin dropping back below $60,000.
US spot bitcoin ETFs saw $18.66 million in net outflows on Tuesday, led by Fidelity’s FBTC, which recorded $48.82 million in withdrawals: BlackRock’s IBIT was the only ETF to see inflows, with $39.57 million entering the fund.
The head of Hong Kong’s Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) says the body plans to approve more crypto exchanges before the end of 2024: The news comes after the regulator received criticism for implementing a strict approach to licensing.
New HBO Documentary Suggests Peter Todd is Bitcoin’s Founder
An HBO documentary, “Money Electric: The Bitcoin Mystery,” released Tuesday hints that early Bitcoin developer Peter Todd is the cryptocurrency’s founder and man behind the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto. In a clip late in the documentary, Todd denied he is the founder of Bitcoin and continued to deny it in a subsequent interview with Coindesk and other media outlets.
The film provided minimal concrete evidence that Todd created Bitcoin, but focused instead on his technical skills, his love of cryptography, and his relationship with Adam Back, the Blockstream CEO and investor of Hashcash. "Money Electric" director Cullen Hoback also pointed to a 2010 forum post from Satoshi Nakamoto in which Todd responded, arguing that Todd had forgotten to switch his accounts and his post was a continuation of Satoshi’s original post.
"This is going to be very funny when you put this into the documentary and a bunch of bitcoiners watch it," Todd said in the documentary clip while standing alongside Back. "I suspect a lot of them will be very happy if you go this route because it's yet another example of journalists really missing the point in a way that's very funny."
This is not the first time Hoback has made a documentary film about trying to uncover the identity of a secretive figure. For his 2021 HBO documentary “Q: Into the Storm,” Hoback spent three years attempting to find the creator of Qanon.
Crypto.com Sues SEC After Receiving Wells Notice
Crypto.com has officially sued the SEC after the company received a Wells notice from the regulatory agency, which typically precedes enforcement actions. The platform said the SEC's continued regulatory enforcement against crypto companies forced them into taking legal action.
According to Crypto.com, the SEC is unjustly expanding its jurisdiction over digital assets by labeling most cryptocurrencies as securities. The lawsuit is part of a broader industry pushback against the SEC's regulatory approach, which many crypto companies claim is outdated and unsuitable for digital assets.
The platform is far from the first to take such legal action; Coinbase and Consensys have also previously sued the SEC, similarly challenging the agency’s stance on categorizing cryptocurrencies as securities. The SEC has reiterated the need for crypto exchanges to register with the agency, while firms argue that current regulations are impractical for the digital asset sector.
