Senators Sound Alarm on Crypto ETFs!

U.S. Senators Jack Reed and Laphonza Butler raised some concerns about the potential dangers of greenlighting more crypto ETFs.

Danielle du Toit
March 15, 2024

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U.S. Senators Jack Reed and Laphonza Butler shared their concerns with the SEC regarding the potential dangers of greenlighting more crypto ETFs.

Senators Jack Reed and Laphonza Butler shared their worries with SEC Chair Gary Gensler in a letter, warning against the approval of more crypto ETFs due to risks of fraud and market manipulation, particularly for retail investors.
Their concerns arise amid the SEC's consideration of eight pending spot Ether ETF applications, which could pave the way for ETFs based on other cryptocurrencies.
Reed and Butler also urged the SEC to increase regulatory oversight of brokers and advisors related to existing Bitcoin ETFs.

Despite being under U.S. sanctions, North Korea's hacker group Lazarus is once again using Tornado Cash.

Elliptic, a blockchain analytics company, discovered that North Korea's Lazarus Group laundered $12 million in Ether through the crypto mixer Tornado Cash. The funds originate from a November hack of Justin Sun’s HTX and the Heco Bridge.
The group was responsible for a $100 million cyberattack on these platforms last year, with the stolen funds laying dormant until they started moving them on Mar. 13.
In just the past 24 hours, Lazarus has executed more than 40 transactions using Tornado Cash.

Bitcoin mining difficulty reached a new high of 83.95 trillion hashes on Mar. 14.

On Mar.14, Bitcoin's mining difficulty reached a new high of 83.95 trillion hashes, coinciding with a record Bitcoin price of $73,835.
The difficulty, which adjusts based on the number of miners to keep block times consistent, briefly surpassed 80 trillion for the first time on Feb. 15, only to slightly decrease before the latest update.
Future projections anticipate a minor rise in mining difficulty to 84.17 trillion at the next difficulty check on March 27.

Craig Wright, an Australian computer scientist who claimed to be Satoshi Nakamoto, was ruled not to be Nakamoto by a UK judge.

The Crypto Open Patent Alliance (COPA) started a lawsuit against Wright in London on Mar. 12, seeking an injunction to prevent him from claiming he created Bitcoin, accusing him of forging documents to support his claim.
The trial, which began on Feb. 5, had COPA alleging Wright concocted a fake biographical history with numerous forged documents.
Wright offered an out-of-court settlement on Jan. 24, which COPA declined.

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