van Schusterson

🚨SCOOP: The @SECGov and @Consensys have reached an agreement in principle to end the agency’s lawsuit against the blockchain software company, according to people with direct knowledge of the matter. The dismissal is subject to approval by the commission and an announcement by Wall Street’s top cop is expected soon. The SEC sued Consensys last June as part of a wave of enforcement actions brought against the sector by Biden’s SEC Chair Gary Gensler. The agency charged Consensys with securities law violations for allegedly operating as an unregistered broker, claiming its staking service MetaMask was a conduit for the unregistered offering and sales of securities. “We were committed to fighting this suit until the bitter end but welcome this outcome,” Consensys founder and CEO @ethereumJoseph said in a statement. Under Gensler, the SEC took the position that staking as a service (where a third-party platform stakes crypto tokens on behalf of users) could be considered securities. As I’ve reported, the Trump SEC is taking a fresh look at the issue and has already held a handful of meetings with industry players to learn more about the different kinds of staking and how they fit into securities laws. “We appreciate the SEC’s new leadership and the pro-innovation, pro-investor path they are taking,” Lubin continued. “We will remain deeply engaged with public and private policymakers going forward.” The dismissal agreement with Consensys comes as the Trump SEC under acting GOP chair @MarkUyedaUS is rapidly rolling back enforcement actions and investigations into crypto firms, making good on the crypto-friendly president’s campaign pledge to end his predecessor’s war on crypto. Last week, the agency’s Enforcement Division reached an agreement with the U.S.’s largest crypto exchange @coinbase to dismiss ongoing litigation in a Manhattan district court over alleged securities violations. The division has also closed active investigations into @RobinhoodApp’s crypto unit, Winklevoss-owned @Gemini exchange, decentralized exchange @Uniswap and NFT platform @opensea. The SEC has yet to reach agreements in three other high-profile lawsuits from the Gensler days — blockchain payments firm @Ripple, which has been in the courts for nearly four years, and exchanges @binance and @krakenfx. However, many in crypto legal and policy circles believe those cases will be resolved in the near future.

#Bitcoin is in the middle of the bull cycle. Its market cap is growing faster than its realized cap, a trend that typically lasts around two years. If this pattern continues, the bull cycle might end by April 2025.