Bitcoin traders got excited again this week while waiting for news about whether the SEC would approve plans for a spot bitcoin ETF by firms including BlackRock. On Friday it topped $30,000 for the first time since July, taking weekly gains past 10%, for no apparent reason. Then on Monday it climbed to $34,283, and on Tuesday hit up to $35,198 (its highest in 18 months) fueled by speculation that BlackRock’s ETF was about to be approved because it was listed on the website of the clearing house DTCC. It wasn’t clear how long it had been there.
But, as Reuters reported early on Wednesday, DTCC said that BlackRock’s proposed ETF was added to a clearing-house eligibility file back in August and that the move wasn’t a sign of any regulatory approval. The file just lists active and potential ETFs as standard practice, DTCC said. At the time of writing, bitcoin is back down to around $34,800, showing that even the idea of a spot bitcoin ETF being approved is enough to support the coin, never mind the fact that it has not happened yet.
Elsewhere, U.S. lawmakers have urged a crackdown on the use of cryptocurrencies by Hamas and its affiliates and the U.S. has issued new sanctions, including on a Gaza-based cryptocurrency exchange. The U.S. Treasury’s financial crime unit proposed a new rule, where financial firms would have to report information about transactions that they suspect involve crypto mixers, in a bid to combat their use by “a broad range of illicit actors, including state-affiliated cyber actors, cyber criminals, and terrorist groups.”
Cryptocurrency’s role in financing terror and funding militant groups has come under renewed scrutiny following the deadly attack in Israel by Palestinian militant group Hamas. Here’s what we know about crypto’s financing role.
In short: no one knows what proportion of such financing comes from crypto (experts reckon it’s a relatively small part), and no one knows what proportion of crypto is used for illicit finance. There are some unique crypto features that make it attractive to those wanting to move their money in secret, and whether it can be tracked depends largely on information from beyond the crypto world.
As Sam Bankman-Fried’s trial continues, we have seen testimony from FTX’s former top lawyer, Can Sun, who said that Bankman-Fried asked him to produce “legal justifications” for why it was missing $7 billion in customer funds, and jurors also got to see the profane messages Bankman-Fried sent journalists, complaining about regulators. Bankman-Fried had told one journalist that statements he’d made in favor of regulating cryptocurrency were “just PR”.
Bankman-Fried, who has pleaded not guilty, plans to testify in his own defence, his lawyer said.
