Week in review: Bitcoin near $40,000 as Binance’s new CEO pledges transformation

The price of the leading cryptocurrency hit a yearly high, the new Binance CEO Richard Teng pledged to transform the crypto exchange, Changpeng Zhao was barred from leaving the United States pending sentencing, and other developments from the week.

Bitcoin nears the $40,000 mark

On Friday, December 1, the price of the leading cryptocurrency hit a yearly high, briefly surpassing the mark of $38,800. On Sunday, December 3, it neared the $40,000 level, but failed to break through the psychological barrier.

At the time of writing, Bitcoin was trading at about $39,500.

Most top-10 cryptocurrencies by market cap ended the week in the green. The biggest movers were Solana (+9.9%) and Dogecoin (+8.2%).

The total market capitalization of the crypto market stood at $1.55 trillion. Bitcoin’s dominance index was 53.3%.

Binance’s new CEO pledges to transform the crypto exchange

Binance will adopt a traditional corporate structure and begin disclosure. These plans were outlined by its new CEO Richard Teng.

He compared the platform, which is six years old, to a child about to start primary school. In his words, Binance is to evolve from an unruly tech startup into a conventional financial company.

The executive acknowledged that the organisation had made a number of missteps in its growth phase, but stressed that it had learned from them. He said the statements in the settlement do not include allegations of misappropriation of client funds. Teng pointed to his years of experience in safeguarding users’ assets.

The new head of the exchange noted the trust placed in him by CZ, with whom they have worked since 2021, and by the entire team. He added that his regulatory experience in Abu Dhabi and Singapore would help lead the company in the future.

Teng answered affirmatively when asked whether Binance would adopt a traditional corporate structure under his leadership. He clarified that the latter would entail a board of directors, a headquarters, and financial transparency.

Changpeng Zhao barred from leaving the United States until sentencing

The U.S. court did not permit Changpeng Zhao (CZ) to return to the UAE pending the Justice Department’s motion, which seeks to bar the former Binance chief from leaving the country due to flight-risk concerns.

Judge Richard A. Jones kept in force the ruling by his colleague Bryan Czuchida, which allowed CZ to return to his family in Dubai. He limited that possibility pending the aforementioned motion by the U.S. government.

Zhao also left the chairmanship of the board of the U.S. Binance.US platform. According to the statement, CZ delegated his votes to a trusted representative and retained in the company “a purely economic interest”.

What to talk about with friends?

• A solo miner mined a Bitcoin block.
• The payer of a $3.1 million fee for a Bitcoin transaction said there had been a hacker attack.
• An unknown address accumulated 12,070 BTC.
• The President of Colombia became a Bitcoin holder.

SEC launches comment collection on spot Bitcoin ETF

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) began soliciting public comments on spot Bitcoin-ETFs. Lawyer Scott Johnson saw in this a signal that the regulator is prepared to approve all filings for the instrument by January 10, 2024.

The SEC took this step after delaying decisions on proposals from Hashdex and Franklin Templeton. The latter’s representatives took the agency’s wishes into account and have already updated their filing.

The agency explained the initiative by aiming to assess whether the product meets the requirement to prevent fraudulent and manipulative practices and to protect investors.

“The collection of comments does not indicate that the Commission has reached any conclusions on any of the issues touched upon. Rather, the SEC … encourages interested parties to submit views on the proposed rule changes,” the document states.

Comments on both applications must be submitted within 21 days, after which the agency will have two weeks for counterarguments.

Lawsuit filed against Cristiano Ronaldo over Binance promotion

A group of plaintiffs filed a lawsuit against football star Cristiano Ronaldo, alleging losses arising from the athlete’s promotion of the cryptocurrency exchange Binance.

According to court papers filed in the United States, Ronaldo “promoted, aided and/or actively participated in the offer and sale of unregistered securities in coordination with the trading platform”.

Binance entered into a long-standing partnership with the footballer in mid-2022 to launch a series NFT. At least three of his collections are listed on the exchange.

The complaint alleges that users who signed up for Ronaldo’s NFTs are more likely to use the platform for other purposes.

Furthermore, the athlete could have known of Binance’s alleged wrongdoing, as he possesses “investment experience and substantial resources to attract external advisers,” the plaintiffs claim.

The document also quotes SEC recommendations on disclosing payments received for promoting cryptocurrencies, which Ronaldo did not do.

Also on ForkLog:

• MicroStrategy added Bitcoin worth $593 million.
• Binance announced the delisting date for the stablecoin BUSD.
• Bitcoin skeptic Charles Munger has died.
• Forbes disclosed the location of Bitcoin mines in Bhutan.

CoinGecko reports 75% of GameFi projects have closed

Since GameFi emerged five years ago, around 2,127 of 2,817 projects in this space have failed, about 75.5%. The figures are from CoinGecko’s report.

After CryptoKitties’ success in late 2017, P2E-games became popular in the crypto community. As a result, in 2018, 422 Web3 games were launched, of which 307 failed.

Development and interest in GameFi slowed during the bear market of 2019–2020. Over this period only 244 projects were released, and the share of failed startups exceeded 94%.

In 2021, amid the bull market, the lowest rate of Web3-game abandonments was recorded at 45%. In 2022 the number of abandoned GameFi projects surpassed the number launched—742 versus 693, respectively.

What else to read?

This week we explained what Real World Assets are and what IPFS looks like today.

In the traditional digest we gathered the week’s main cybersecurity events.

The decentralised finance sector continues to attract heightened attention from crypto investors. ForkLog has gathered the most important events and news of recent weeks in the digest.