WhiteboardCrypto Newsletter - Oct 7

Welcome back to this week's edition of our WhiteboardCrypto Newsletter!

SBF Trial Begins

As much as we want to avoid talking about FTX and SBF, it is necessary to let everyone know that Sam Bankman-Fried’s trial has begun. He is facing up to life in prison if found guilty on all charges. We aren’t going to go into all the details because it’s frankly too much to cover here, and it’s still too early in the trial to have any sense of an outcome. But Unchained Crypto is doing a short daily recap of the trial if you’re interested.

Learn more here.

SEC v Ripple continues

Remember how the SEC wanted XRP, Ripple Lab’s token, to be a security? Over the summer, a court ruled that it was not. The SEC appealed this ruling. The appeal was rejected this week on the grounds that they could not sufficiently show that XRP is a security. This isn’t the end of the case, though. Basically, this appeal was for July’s specific ruling, not about the case as a whole, which is set to conclude in April. After the case is closed, the SEC will likely try to appeal the whole thing.

Learn more here.

ETH price action… surprising?

Usually, having a new big thing in crypto makes “price go up”. But this week, we saw the opposite. Everyone has been waiting on ether futures ETFs to be launched, but when they were launched, not as many people bought into them as people had hoped, and so ETH prices fell. So, if you’re looking at the charts this week, that’s why it’s gone down so much. Lesson of the story? Markets are unpredictable.

Learn more here.

US House Speaker drama lands us a crypto-friendly Speaker

While the internals of US politics is not important to everyone in the world, this particular move could have big impacts. In case you’re unaware, the Speaker of the House is one half of the government (you can learn more about the US gov. here). The House can’t make many decisions that relate to crypto on its own, but the Speaker holds power that other positions might not. Anyway, the (temporary) new Speaker, Rep. Patrick McHenry, is crypto-friendly, which could make for some interesting regulations because so many crypto bills are waiting on the House to vote on them.

Learn more here.

OpenSea makes it easier for creators to create

The leading NFT marketplace on Ethereum (and other chains) has had a lot of controversy this year. But something it just came out with called OpenSea Studio is meant to make it easier for people to launch NFT projects, even if they don’t know how to code themselves. This could be a major unlock for artists trying to expand into the crypto space without having to rely on potential scammers offering to help.

Learn more here.

Thanks for reading and I hope you learned something!

- Theodore