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Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) started the weekend with slightly higher prices than seven days ago.

The worlds biggest cryptocurrency currently trades for $25,815, which is an increase of about 0.6% over the week, while its closest runner-up grew 0.8% to change hands at $1,630.

Many other leading cryptocurrencies have also posted similar small gains. There are no substantial changes to the price of any of the top thirty cryptocurrencies by market capitalization from last weekend, except Stellar (XLM).

XLM holders saw their stash grow 10% over the week, and the token now trades for $0.124846. The rally appears to have been caused by a tweet from the Stellar team, posted on Saturday, that says, Something cool is dropping in 10 days.

After the slow news cycles of the last fortnight, this week saw a return to the usual slew of adoption announcements, although any indication of political breakthroughs for crypto over in Washington was pretty thin on the ground.

On Monday, the London Stock Exchange Group announced that it is using blockchain technology to build an exchange offering tokenized versions of traditional financial assets. LSEG is currently in talks with multiple regulatory bodies about it, including the UK government and HM Treasury.

That day, European Central Bank executive board member Fabio Panetta took aim at stablecoins issued by private companies like PayPal, which launched its own dollar-pegged PayPal USD (PYUSD) last month.

Speaking at the European Parliaments Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs meeting on Monday, Panetta said his main criticism of PYUSD and similar coins is that private providers of payment services, including PayPal, have no incentive to limit the take-up of their stablecoins or the range of services they provide. Quite the opposite: their objective is to expand their customer base and gain market share.

On the other hand, Panetta thinks the proposed European central bank digital currency (CBDC), the digital euro, would pay due attention to orderly adjustments in the financial sector while offering payment service providers a platform for innovations with pan-euro area reach, he said.

On Tuesday, top-five South Korean financial conglomerate Hana Financial Group announced a partnership between its KEB Hana Bank and crypto custodian BitGo for late 2024.

The new deal ties a major domestic financial player to the crypto industry, although KEB Hana Bank has already taken steps into blockchain when it opened a digital branch in metaverse platform The Sandbox.

Crypto-friendly payments giant Visa said on Tuesday that it has now expanded its settlement options to include USDC on the Solana blockchain. The company also announced that it was working with merchant acquirers Worldpay and Nuvei to allow them to settle using USDC instead of fiat.

On Wednesday, The Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB)recognized by the SEC as the designated accounting standard setter for public companiesvoted unanimously to change how companies disclose crypto holdings in order to give greater transparency to the trade. The new rules take effect in 2025.

Two global financial regulators, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the G20s risk watchdog, the Financial Stability Board (FSB), on Thursday released a white paper outlining their plans for coordinated action to ensure that there is a comprehensive policy and regulatory response for crypto-assets [as it] is necessary to address the risks of crypto-assets to macroeconomic and financial stability.

While the papers authors acknowledge that crypto doesnt currently pose a risk to the financial system, they argue that widespread adoption would undermine the effectiveness of monetary policy.

The paper recommends constituencies safeguard monetary sovereignty and strengthen monetary policy frameworks, guard against excessive capital flow volatility and adopt unambiguous tax treatment of crypto-assets to protect themselves from risks.

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This Week in Coins: Green CandlesBut Barelyfor Bitcoin and Ethereum as Global Adoption Grows - Decrypt

Home Journal Cathie Wood Says Bitcoin Price Will Go Parabolic With the Rise of AI

As technological advancements are shaping the future at an unprecedented pace, two particular innovations stand out: Bitcoin and Artificial Intelligence (AI). Renowned investor Cathie D. Wood recently weighed in on the subject, suggesting that the convergence of these technologies is not just powerful, but poised for explosive growth.

Woods assertion that Bitcoin will go parabolic is rooted in the cryptocurrencys inherent scarcity. Unlike traditional fiat currencies, which can be printed ad infinitum, Bitcoin has a fixed supply of 21 million coins. This scarcity mimics the properties of precious metals like gold, but with the added benefits of being digital, divisible, and easily transferable. As demand for Bitcoin increases, especially in the face of inflationary pressures and geopolitical instability, its value is expected to skyrocketthus the prediction of a parabolic trajectory.

On the other side of the spectrum is AI, a technology that Wood describes as having infinity in its potential applications and impact. From healthcare and transportation to finance and entertainment, AIs capabilities are virtually limitless. Unlike Bitcoin, which is constrained by its fixed supply, AI thrives on the abundance of data and computational power. The more data it ingests, the smarter it becomes, leading to a virtuous cycle of improvement and application.

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Both Bitcoin and AI are said to be entering the steep part of the S-curve, a term used to describe the phase in a technologys lifecycle where adoption accelerates rapidly, leading to exponential growth. For Bitcoin, this could mean mass adoption as a store of value or even a medium of exchange. For AI, it could signify a leap from narrow applications to more generalized, transformative uses.

What makes Woods observation particularly compelling is the idea that these technologies will not evolve in isolation. The convergence of Bitcoin and AI could lead to groundbreaking applications. Imagine AI algorithms optimized to perform high-frequency trading of Bitcoin, or decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) powered by AI making collective investment decisions in real-time.

CaptainAltcoin's writers and guest post authors may or may not have a vested interest in any of the mentioned projects and businesses. None of the content on CaptainAltcoin is investment advice nor is it a replacement for advice from a certified financial planner. The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of CaptainAltcoin.com

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Cathie Wood Says Bitcoin Price Will Go 'Parabolic' With the Rise of AI - Captain Altcoin

On September 8, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) issued a severe penalty against Jacob Orvidas for running a fraudulent Bitcoin trading pool.

An order charged Orvidas with falsely promising huge profits to solicit over $2 million from at least four investors.

According to the CFTC, Orvidas misrepresented his trading abilities and claimed the funds would be protected. However, he lost nearly all the money trading Bitcoin (BTC).

The CFTC claims Orvidas covered up losses with fake account statements before lying about why he couldnt pay out earnings or return investments.

Hence, the order requires Orvidas to pay back over $2 million in restitution along with a record $500,000 civil penalty for violating commodity trading laws. He is also banned from registering or trading commodities for ten years and must cease all fraudulent activities.

Protecting ordinary people has always been at the heart of the CFTCs digital-asset enforcement program, said Director of Enforcement Ian McGinley in a statement.

While digital-asset cases are often complex, this Bitcoin case is a straight-up fraud: simple and old as time. We will continue to deploy every weapon in our arsenal to fight fraud in all our markets.

According to the findings, from about October 2017 to July 2020, Orvidas falsely claimed trading expertise to solicit participants for his Bitcoin pool, promising huge profits and security for their money.

For example, he told one participant another client turned $100,000 in bitcoin into $2.7 million. He claimed, Crypto trading is a jokeits like printing money.

In reality, Orvidas lost almost all the pools funds through trading. A reminder that the crypto markets can be a fickle beast.

The commodities regular has been busy on the crypto front, too. Earlier this week, the CFTC announced a consent order against Mirror Trading International (MTI), which conducted a fraudulent commodity pool.

That action resolved a case that has been called South Africas largest-ever pyramid scheme. MTI and its CEO, Cornelius Johannes Steynberg, were found guilty of multiple frauds and ordered to pay a record $1.7 billion in restitution.

The scam involved over 23,000 victims and collected more than 29,421 BTC.

The civil monetary penalty against Steynberg stands as the largest ever handed out by the CFTC.

In adherence to the Trust Project guidelines, BeInCrypto is committed to unbiased, transparent reporting. This news article aims to provide accurate, timely information. However, readers are advised to verify facts independently and consult with a professional before making any decisions based on this content.

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CFTC Hits Fraudulent Bitcoin Pool Operator With $2.5 Million Fine - BeInCrypto

Blockchain analytics platform Arkham Intelligence claims to have identified the addresses of the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust. The trust consists of more than 1,750 addresses holding a total of over $16 billion worth of Bitcoin (BTC), according to a Sept. 6 thread on X (formerly Twitter). Arkham claimed that Grayscale is the 2nd largest BTC entity globally.

The Grayscale Bitcoin Trust holds over $16 billion in BTC. Its issuer, Grayscale, is currently battling with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission as it attempts to transformthe trust into an exchange-traded fund.

Members of the Bitcoin community have long speculated about where Grayscale keeps its huge stockpile of BTC. Grayscale has so far refused to provide the addresses of its wallets, citing security concerns. Some X users have criticized Grayscale for not releasing the addresses, accusing it of carrying less Bitcoin than it claims.

A search for Grayscale Bitcoin Trust within Arkham on Sept. 9 revealed the following five addresses:

The first three addresses hold roughly $51 million worth of Bitcoin in total, according to Arkham. The last two hold no funds but do show transactions coming from other Grayscale Bitcoin Trust addresses, including 1L8k2SD9sdTTzdDxA19QdobLbUyKyV2RVi and 1CS1M4oVbcFnZjZ5hU5bk6vLi2Q5VSsmpX. Arkham does not provide a full list of addresses for the Grayscale entity, but it does label each Grayscale address clearly as part of the transaction history of each wallet.

Related: Vivek Ramaswamy: Grayscale win clears a path for Bitcoin innovation

Grayscales entity page on Arkham shows it is carrying 627,779,000 BTC valued at over $16 billion.

This is similar to the amount claimed on Grayscales website, implying that it does have enough Bitcoin to satisfy withdrawals.

Arkham has often come under criticism for revealing private information about blockchain users, as some X users have labeled it a snitch-to-earn platform. However, the platforms CEO has argued the company is only trying to even the playing field between big institutions and smaller players who would otherwise lack information.

More here:

Grayscale Bitcoin Trust's alleged wallet addresses released by ... - Cointelegraph

Australian fintech firm Block Earner is charging ahead with plans to launch a crypto-backed loans product, despite staring down an upcoming court date with the financial regulator for allegedly offering financial products without a license.

The new crypto loan product allows Australian crypto investors to use crypto as collateral to borrow cash. Similarly, a Colorado-based lending platform called SALT offers crypto-backed loans to U.S. clients. The major cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase once offered a similar service to its U.S. customers but shuttered it in May this year.

The initial rollout from Block Earner is expected at the end of September and will initially only allow loans using Bitcoin as collateral.

Block Earner co-founder Charlie Karaboga told Cointelegraph that the new loan products have been designed in a very conservative way in a bid to fit neatly into an existing licensing model.

Karabogas firm was burned in last November when it was sued by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission for allegedly offering crypto-linked fixed-yield earning products without an Australian Financial Services (AFS) license.

At the time, Karaboga lashed out against the regulator for its lack of clarity, claiming that his firm had spent considerable time and resources building out products he believed were compliant with ASICs existing guidelines.

Like any company in the fintech ecosystem, before we launched the product we got legal opinions. We think that there was no sufficient regulation, or sufficient licenses for us to apply, Karaboga added.

However, Charlie said that the regulatory moves against Block Earner and competitor crypto company Finder were largely reactive and likely due to the collapse ofFTXin November.

We were impacted, unfortunately, most likely probably because we were more visible with our product compared to others, because they were using as an ancillary product, whereas we were using a core product.

Despite being unaffected by the fallout of FTX, in the wake of ASICs legal action, Karaboga said he closed the companys earn products and paid back all users.

The company appears to have learned its lesson. James Coombes, head of business at Block Earner, said the new launch wouldnt see the same fate as their Earn product, as it already fits within the rules of an Australian credit license.

There is a core difference, said Coombes. The Earn product there was no clear guidance on whether or not a license was required, and thats why we hold a conflicting view. Whereas this one, the clear guidance is that a license is required to provide consumer credit. So we went and got the license.

Looking forward, Karaboga said that faster regulatory progression in jurisdictions such as Singapore, Hong Kong and the United Kingdom will pressure the Australian government to catch up, or risk losing market share of crypto enterprises.

Karaboga explained that because Australia is one of the wealthiest countries by way of per-capita GDP and because Australians were early starters in the crypto industry, its citizens had become prime targets for scammers.

Ultimately, Karaboga asserted that domestic regulators are firmly pro-crypto and want to push that innovation moving forward.

This is a view that was shared by Binance Australia General Manager Ben Rose,who recently told Cointelegraph he was confidentthat Aussie regulators would side with crypto in the long term.

As recently as Sept. 6, Coinbase listed Australia as one of its primary locations for expansion outside of the U.S.

Block Earners Federal Court hearing is scheduled for November this year, with a decision to be handed down by January.

Collect this article as an NFT to preserve this moment in history and show your support for independent journalism in the crypto space.

Magazine: How to protect your crypto in a volatile market Bitcoin OGs and experts weigh in

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Aussie fintech prays for crypto clarity as it launches Bitcoin-backed ... - Cointelegraph