Mt.Gox Creditors Denied Rumors of Bitcoin Dump – Crypto Weekly Update

This week, the total market capitalization exceeded €972 billion. The decrease at the 7-day interval is 6.53%. Bitcoin decreased by 8.33% during the week to a current value of over €19,800. Bitcoin dominance is 39.3%.

Mt.Gox Creditors Denied Rumors of Bitcoin Dump

Over the past few days, a huge number of tweets have been posted on the social network Twitter regarding the launch of a compensation process for the creditors of the Mt.Gox exchange, from which up to 840,000 bitcoins were stolen back in 2014. A multi-year process regarding compensation has led to the conclusion that the exchange will redistribute a total of 140,000 BTC among its creditors.

For many investors in the cryptocurrency market, the start of the compensation process and the release of bitcoins represent an event that can significantly affect the price of Bitcoin, as many investors will likely decide to sell their bitcoins after years of waiting.

One of the creditors of the infamous Mt.Gox exchange, Eric Wall, published a post on Twitter in which he refuted that the exchange had started the compensation process. Wall stated that all rumors about the start of redistribution are false, pointing out that the system to compensate creditors is still not yet in place, as the exchange is still building the infrastructure needed to commence the repayment.

Wall also said that at the moment, the creditors are still unable to register adresses where to send the Bitcoin payments. He believes that payments should occur in various installments, dismissing the fears that thousands of Bitcoin will be sold all at once, dumping the cryptocurrency’s price.

The rehabilitation trustee in the Mt.Gox case, Nobuaki Kobayashi, confirmed last month that the exchange was preparing to pay back its debt to creditors. In a published official document, the exchange noted that account holders will be able to receive payments in BTC or BCH (Bitcoin Cash). Source

Spot ETF Delayed Again

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has once again delayed issuing a decision regarding VanEck’s application to launch a bitcoin spot ETF fund.

Van Eck, which has more than $65 billion in assets under management, filed its latest application for a BTC spot ETF back on June 24, with the previous deadline for a decision from the SEC having expired on Saturday, August 27.

Three days before the decision deadline expired, the SEC said it was extending the deadline for a decision on VanEck’s application by another 45 days, until October 11. On that date, the regulator is expected to decide whether to approve, disapprove or initiate a proceeding regarding the rule change for the ETF. Most recently, in November 2021, the SEC denied VanEck’s previous application, citing concerns about “fraud and manipulation” in the spot BTC market.

An ETF is an investment tool that allows investors to buy shares representing the underlying asset. A Bitcoin ETF would therefore allow investors to gain exposure to Bitcoin without the hassle of buying the cryptocurrency from an exchange and storing it in a crypto wallet. Source

Ava Labs CEO Denies Allegations of Harm to Competitors

Last Friday, sensitive information regarding Ava Labs, the company behind the Avalanche blockchain project, was leaked to the public. According to documents published on Cryptoleaks, there was a secret pact between Ava Labs and the law firm Roche Freedman to attack and harm crypto organizations and projects that could in any way compete with Ava Labs and its blockchain project Avalanche. In exchange for providing services, a huge amount of Ava Labs stock was to be given to the law firm, as well as AVAX tokens worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

In addition, CryptoLeaks published a series of candid videos from an unknown source purportedly showing U.S. Attorney Kyle Roche of Roche Freedman LLP detailing his partnership and relationship with Emin Gün Sirer and Kevin Sekniqi, the respective CEO and COO of Ava Labs.

However, Ava Labs CEO Emin Gün Sirer has vehemently denied any allegations published on Cryptoleaks, stating that they are “conspiracy theory nonsense” and saying that Ava Labs would “never engage in unlawful, unethical and just plain wrong behavior.”

For example, Roche Freedman LLP was recently involved in a high-profile lawsuit against Solana Labs, Solana Foundation, and Solana co-founder Anatoly Yakovenko on July 1 2022, claiming that Solana violated U.S. Federal Security laws by offering unregistered securities to U.S. investors. In mid-July, the company sued crypto exchange Binance, alleging that the exchange illegally engaged in UST sales. In addition, Roche Freedman LLP’s filed a lawsuit in August 2021 against another competitor, Dfinity, the company behind the Internet Computer (ICP).

Whether this is true information or a mere conspiracy to harm Ava Labs and the Avalanche crypto project, however, no one can confirm or deny it with certainty. However, our experts at Fumbi will continue to monitor the situation and keep you updated. Source

Iran Wants to Use Cryptocurrencies for Imports

Iranian Minister of Industry, Mine, and Trade Reza Fatemi Amin announced on Sunday at an automotive industry exhibition in Tehran that the government had passed a comprehensive and detailed law to regulate the use of cryptocurrencies for trade.

The law, crafted between the Ministry of Industry and Iran’s central bank, will allow imports to be paid for using cryptocurrencies. The law will apply not only to Iran’s financial institutions and industry leaders but to local businesses as well.

Previously, Iran relied exclusively on the U.S. dollar and the euro for cross-border payments. The country has been subject to U.S. sanctions since 1979. However, the current sanctions are among the toughest in the world. Sanctions were significantly tightened after the country refused to halt its uranium enrichment programme in 2006. Source

Hashrate and Difficulty Rising Again

Despite the recent price drop of the cryptocurrency Bitcoin, whose price is currently hovering around the $20,000 level, there is some positive news coming out of the mining sector.

The positive news relates to the fact that both difficulty and hash rate are climbing, reflecting conviction among miners over the long-term profitability of their network participation. Difficulty, which added 9.26% at its August 31 automated readjustment, now stands at its highest ever.

According to BTC.com, the hash rate now stands at an average 221 exahashes per second (EH/s), a hair off its highest-ever recorded average reading of 223 EH/s from just before May’s Terra LUNA implosion. The resurgence in hash rates signals that more and more entities are re-entering the mining sector. This not only increases the overall security and decentralization of the network but also creates a healthy and competitive environment in the mining sector.

According to analyst Jason Deane, the annual seasonal trend of seeing a slight decline in hashrate during the summer months was seen again this year. With the slow but sure arrival of autumn, it is possible to once again see an increase in hash rate, which Deane believes will escalate further in the autumn and winter months. Source

Interesting Fact: The Whale’s Awakening

Data from the blockchain explorer on August 28-29 confirmed that the unknown whale had woken up after nearly a decade and made a transaction.

Analysts first started noticing the curiously high transaction volumes this weekend, as up to 5,000 BTC was included in a single block from August 28. This is an unusually high number that has caught the attention of analysts. Analysts found the funds were sent from a wallet that woke up after nearly 10 years.

A day later, another 5,000 BTC was sent from the same wallet. Analysis of the destination wallets has concluded that the funds were not sent to an exchange for sale. Instead, they were split among a large number of new wallets. According to an analyst from the CryptoQuant platform, the main motive behind the redistribution of bitcoins to a number of small wallets may be to protect the privacy and preserve anonymity. Source

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