The SEC's legal battle against Ripple involved coming after them on 2 fronts - first was their claim the company illegally profited by selling an unlicensed security (XRP Tokens) violating the Securities Act of 1933. The second targeted the company's co-founders Christian Larsen and Bradley Garlinghouse, saying they were the ones who made the decisions at the company, so they were charged with "aiding and abettting”.

Today, the SEC's targeting of Larsen and Garlinghouse has officially come to an end as District Judge Analisa Torres announced that the US securities regulator notified the court that it would not continue in the case and has issued a “voluntary dismissal”.

Ripple's lead lawyer Stuart Alderoty shared the news first saying;

"The SEC made a serious mistake going after Brad & Chris personally – and now, they’ve capitulated, dismissing all charges against our executives. This is not a settlement. This is a surrender by the SEC.

That’s 3 consecutive wins for Ripple including the July 13 decision ruling that as a matter of law XRP is NOT a security, the Oct 3 decision denying the SEC’s bid for an interlocutory appeal, and now this." on X.

Current CEO Brad Garlinghouse responded saying;

"In all seriousness, Chris and I (in a case involving no claims of fraud or misrepresentations) were targeted by the SEC in a ruthless attempt to personally ruin us and the company so many have worked hard to build for over a decade.

The SEC repeatedly kept its eye off the ball while secretly meeting with the likes of SBF – failing again and again to protect US consumers & businesses. How many millions of taxpayer $ were wasted?! Feels good to finally be vindicated."

FTX a Massive Blemish On An Already Troubled SEC...

The SEC's 'crack down' on crypto has targeted companies like Coinbase, Binance and Ripple - but where are the investors accusing these companies of wrongdoing? Who did Coinbase, Binance, or Ripple scam? You would think reddit and other crypto related forums would be full of these complaints, but when searching for terms that should lead to them, nothing is found.

While the SEC was busy targeting these companies, FTX was actively misusing users funds and behaving suspiciously fearless of being caught.  Ironically, it was one of the people under SEC investigation who brought the FTX issue to light - Binance CEO 'CZ'.

This means if CZ had not exposed Sam Bankman-Fried, FTX would still be freely spending their users funds, while their top 2 competitors faced SEC harassment - suspicious to say the least.

It makes you wonder - could SEC deliberately be hiding corruption by appearing ignorant and disorganized? 

The Strangest Contradiction...

The most alarming and confusing factor in the SEC's current actions has to be the fact that the SEC evaluated Coinbase just a couple years ago, when they approved the company to go public and sale shares of their stock.  This process involves a deep evaluation of the business, and obviously, if a business's main source of income was unlawful, they would not have been approved.

But they were approved. Coinbase even passed a phase where the SEC asked questions about any parts of the business they wanted clarification on, Coinbase answered them, and they were approved. 

Nothing has changed since Coinbase was worthy of SEC approval. There's no new leadership at the SEC since they deemed Coinbase's business legitimate just two years ago, Coinbase isn't offering anything now that they were not then. But seemingly out of nowhere, suddenly Coinbase is operating outside of the law. 

So SEC saying;  just because they approved a company seeking approval to go public and sell share shares on the stock market, it does not mean that company is legitimate - no one has been able to make sense of why the SEC is now undermining themselves in such an extreme way.

Next For Ripple...

While the charges against company founders are dropped, the case against the company itself is still considered ongoing.  While the SEC lost on their first attempt, the last statement from them was that they are appealing that decision.

But some say dropping the charges against the founders is a sign they may do the same with the charges against the company - because if the company is guilty, those running it would be as well - it would be odd to drop one and not the other.

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Author: Mark Pippen
London Newsroom
GlobalCryptoPress | Breaking Crypto News

The shortcut to trading like a pro... literally, EXACTLY like one. 

The concept of copy trading isn't new, most have probably heard of it or even used it on another platform, but none even a fraction of the size of Binance, making this truely feel like a completely new experience. 

We've watched the concept continually grow each year, but it's no surprise people want to mirror the strategies of successful traders, removing the stress and benefitting from their tried-and-true tactics.

However, with Binance Copy Trading finally becoming a reality, you can now the follow top traders on the largest exchange in the world, which makes it a very different experience from the smaller exchanges where you may have already tried copy trading..

Copy Trading on Binance is Different than All Other Exchanges...

First, the best traders (the ones you actually want to copy) typically use Binance. When it comes to true professional traders, who trade crypto as their full-time job - odds are they're doing it on Binance. 

The second reason (and a big reason why so many pro traders use Binance) is liquidity. Because of the platform's popularity, trading volume is high, sellers typically find buyers fast, and visa versa.  Most aren't aware of just how massive Binance is - their daily trading volume has recently been around $6 billion per day.  The #2 exchange is Coinbase, which has about 10% of that.

While liquidity is an important factor regardless of what method you're using to trade, it's especially important when you're doing anything that automates your trades, weather that be using a trading bot or copy trading.  You don't want to see it wasting a lot of time just trying to get in or out of trades. 

Not Just for Beginners...

Obviously someone just getting in to crypto would benefit the most from copy trading, I know I wish this existed when I was a newbie.

But experienced traders also know there's too many coins, and too many hours in a day to catch every profitable trade. 

Deciding who to copy isn't a roll of the dice, you get access to trader stats and can see a breakdown of their performance based on the last 7 days, 30 days, or 90 days. 

Take a deep look in to lead trader's stats before copying them.

Now pro-traders basically have a new partner in their business, one who's just there to make savvy investments, or quickly adjust your sails as the market winds shift - together conquering the often stormy seas of crypto trading.

If You Don't Profit, They Don't Either...

The lead traders you copy are rewarded by getting a 10% cut of whatever profits they earn you - so they're motivated to make the best trades possible, otherwise, they don't earn anything either.

A quick tip for selecting the right people to copy - click on the user name from the main list of lead traders (shown in the screen shot above) this will bring you to that users profile.  From there, toggle between the options of viewing their history for 7 days, 30 days, and 90 days.  Someone may have had a good week, but then you discover that over 30 days their followers actually took a loss.

We recommend using this method to find the best lead traders to copy and only following those who are profitable in all 3 time frames. There's so many choices, there's no reason not to.

Or Let People Copy YOU...

Are you so good at predicting the market, people will want to follow your lead? Seasoned traders get the chance to make a name for themselves and earn some extra income by applying to become a 'lead trader'

Lead Traders will earn 10% profits from the earnings of Copy Traders that follow them. To illustrate, if a Copy Trader accrues a total profit of $50

How To Start Copy Trading on Binance in 5 Minutes...

If you're a Binance user there's just two quick steps to begin by creating your free account and linking your Binance account to TraderWagon, no API keys needed. Unlike bots that work on Binance, they are actual partners so copy trading is seamlessly implemented.

Setup is quick and easy, you can be up and running in 5 minutes!

It's all done without your funds ever leaving your own wallet.  At no point is your personal info or wallet info shown to another trader, and you are still the only one able to withdraw funds.

"Regarding any speculation as to whether this is a move against a competitor, it is not" said Binance CEO 'CZ' on Twitter, while confirming "recent revelations that have come to light" are behind a decision to sell-off $2.1 billion USD worth of FTT, the native token of rival exchange FTX.

Binance first obtained the tokens last year, as part of their payment from a pre-planned exit from investment in FTX equity.

Can't Have it Both Ways...

CZ first attempts to include the FTT sell-off as part of everyday 'business-as-usual' saying:

"Liquidating our FTT is just post-exit risk management, learning from LUNA."

That sounds like he's saying it's a purely strategic move, like the reasoning behind it could be something as simple as not believing the bear market has hit bottom - until in his next sentence where he immediately makes it clear - there's more to this story.

"We gave support before, but we won't pretend to make love after divorce. We are not against anyone. But we won't support people who lobby against other industry players behind their backs. Onwards."

FTX is accused as a company, or perhaps CEO Sam Bankman-Fried himself of doing something behind the scenes, with at least the goal of hurting a competing crypto company...

At least that seems to be the accusation CZ, the Binance CEO, is making, although vaguely, and because of their mention of LUNA (which famously crashed, then crashed the market, and never recovered) and FTT together - the FTX CEO has been trying to assure customers that their token has none of the same risk factors (and from what we can see, that's true).

Any comparison of FTT with LUNA is a bit unfair...

There's no reason for CZ to bring back memories of the LUNA disaster when mentioning FTT - none of LUNA's risk factors can be applied to FTT.

"A competitor is trying to go after us with false rumors. FTX is fine. Assets are fine" said CEO Sam Bankman-Fried his first public response.

However - Binance CEO CZ has proven to be a level-headed voice of reason in the industry, and seems to have a reasonable outlook on the 'big picture' of cryptos future - so if he's accusing FTX or their CEO of crossing a line, it's probably true. 

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Author: Oliver Redding
Seattle Newsdesk  / Breaking Crypto News

Why did Elon Musk's purchase of Twitter include $500 million from Binance, the biggest cryptocurrency exchange in the world?

The exchange platform's creator and CEO, Changpeng Zhao, well known by his alias CZ, explained the decision today.

CZ gave three reasons for why Binance was backing Musk's Twitter campaign...

First, to support international freedom of expression. That is exactly how he sees the social network. He said, "That is something incredibly significant."

Second, Binance likes supporting "excellent entrepreneurs." The CEO of Binance believes that Elon Musk, the founder of firms like Tesla and SpaceX, is a fantastic businessman.

Third, the potential for Twitter to develop into a "super app". Musk himself had previously made a comment about this. Zhao likens WeChat, a Chinese platform that combines a social network, a commerce site, and a way to make payments, to Twitter.

“We want to help bring Twitter to Web3 and help solve problems like charging for subscriptions. Something that could be done very easily globally using cryptocurrencies as a means of payment.” Changpeng Zhao, CEO of Binance added.

CZ rushed in as soon as Musk announced his desire to buy the social network, making little effort to keep their $500 million contribution to the buyout a secret.

---------------
Author: Oliver Redding
Seattle Newsdesk  / Breaking Crypto News

The website "HaveIBeenPwned" was first to reveal the leak, and say the hack happened 10 days before the knowledge became public.

"While the list of data we have reviewed comprises only email addresses (no passwords), we found a correlation with our subscriber database. We have not found any evidence of data breaches from our servers." Coinmarketcap said in a statement.

Which Brings Up A Real Possibility - CoinMarketCap Was Never Hacked...

The other possibility is that hackers used other stolen databases that contain e-mail addresses and passwords, and software that allows them to load that database of emails/passwords into it, and instruct it to try to login to sites to see if people used the same e-mail/password combination elsewhere. Using proxy servers these programs can try thousands of accounts per hour. 

So they could have had this software try all those e-mails/passwords on coinmarketcap, the software would then create a new list of everyone from the first hacked database, who also has a coinmarketcap account.

So Why Was Everyone Calling It A Hack?

The list of users e-mail addresses hit the underground marketplaces, being sold as a databases of CoinMarketCap user e-mails, it initially appeared as CoinMarketCap was the source of the data.

While freshly hacked databases are most valuable, people who buy those databases then create these sub-databases to resell. 

For example, an online store with 50,000 users gets hacked, someone buys that database, then tries the e-mail addresses and passwords on Netflix.  Out of those 50,000 users they could now create a list of "500 valid Netflix accounts" for sale.

This is Why 'Never re-use your password on multiple sites' Is Not Something to be Ignored...

If just 1 site you use gets hacked - you're now hacked on every site you use - what information could someone with access to every site you've signed up for get?

So, if you do re-use passwords on multiple sites, the time to change that is RIGHT NOW.  

If you're thinking 'but there's no way I can remember 20 passwords!' try this trick - put the first 1 or 2 letters of the website at the beginning or end of the password.  So if your password was 'CryptoK1NG' and you made an account on CoinMarketCap it would be 'CoCryptoK1NG', on GlobalCryptoPress it would now be 'GlCryptoK1NG', etc.

Remember, they use software to see if you use the same password somewhere else - they don't actually look at the list themselves. It only takes a tiny change to make you fully secure against this method of account cracking.

Warning To Anyone on This E-Mail List: Scams Are Coming...

If your e-mail address is part of this list - it's time to get paranoid. People buying the e-mails are doing it for one purpose - to scam those on it.

So be on the lookout for suspicious emails, especially ones that would require you to give private keys to a wallet or login info to any crypto exchanges you may use. 

The website mentioned earlier, HaveIBeenPwned allows you to put in your email address and see if you were included in the CMC email list.

-----------
Author: Ross Davis 
E-Mail: Ross@GlobalCryptoPress.com Twitter:@RossFM
San Francisco Newsroom / Breaking Crypto News

 

Last Friday Binance US lost their CEO after just 3 months. Prior to taking the role with Binance, he served as acting comptroller in the Trump administration.

Brian Brooks gave as the reason for his departure disagreements over strategic direction.

And the 2nd former regulator to leave a top crypto firm in recent days...

Brett Redfearn has resigned as Coinbase's head of capital markets after just four months in the job.

Redfearn, a former Securities and Exchange Commission official, was the SEC's director of the trading and markets division prior to joining Coinbase.

According to sources familiar with the matter, Redfearn's departure was triggered by Coinbase's shift in focus away from digital asset securities.

A spokesperson from Coinbase confirms the story and says the Redfearn left to pursue other goals, but on positive terms.

 Bitcoin is quickly approaching new record highs, and Catherine Coley, CEO of Binance.US shares what she's observed, and what she believes is driving the price upwards during the current rally. 

Video Courtesy of Bloomberg

I figured today's announcement of Binance's new lending platform would at least have fans, and investors of their native token BNB acting bullish.

Reason being - part of the announcement includes a pretty generous interest rate of 15% for BNB holders who participate, and allow Binance to loan their coins out for use in margin trading (I've seen some confused people asking today - and no, you don't risk losing them)

All signs pointed to a big day for BNB ahead, bring on the green...

Ahead of the announcement Binance's CEO 'CZ' was teasing his followers that a big announcement was coming today, so finding out was one of the first things on my list to things to do when I woke up this morning.  There it was...

"Earn Crypto While You Sleep" his tweet read.

Guessing the returns offered wouldn't be higher than 12%, I read the announcement and see it's actually 15%, impressive.

So my next thought was to see the bump this surely gave BNB.


While the response on Twitter was positive, the BNB chart for today wasn't...

BNB has already has a pretty unique track record of over-performing, having launched at possibly the worst time possible - Mid 2017 when Bitcoin was trading around $2500, still crippled following the big crash.  It's up 9000% since then.

So all this is worth at least 5.00% gains today, right?

Nope, hours later BNB is still just lingering around in the red, at time of publishing -1.22%


Sometimes, the market just makes no sense...

That's really my only point today.  Because when I saw 'big announcement coming' I considered loading up on BNB. 

When I read the announcement I was kicking myself for not doing it.

It turns out, I avoided a (small) loss... this crypto stuff is wild.

------- 
Author: Adam Lee 
Asia News Desk

Just announced by Crypto.com is the addition of the BNB token to their interest earning platform, making them the first to offer interest payments for Binance's native token.

Existing users will find instructions when they log into the app as previously you may have been using the ERC20 version of BNB, but along with today's news comes full support of BNB on the Binance blockchain (BEP2). 

If you have the ERC20 version stored in your Crypto wallet they will soon be automatically converted (1:1) to the 'real' BNB as well.

New Users Get Some Extra Incentives...

If you're just joining Crypto now to earn interest on your BNB, as an added bonus if they sign up through an VIP invite link (yes that is one) you'll get an additional $20 worth of Crypto's native token as well.

Only requirements here is to leave $100 worth of BNB there to earn interest for at least 3 months.

Transfer with care...

To begin you'll need to store your BNB with them - so a friendly reminder to make sure you specify the destination tag/memo shown to you within the Crypto App > BNB > Deposit page when making BNB (BEP2) deposits.

To Start Out, Create Your Free Account Here.

------- 
Author: Adam Lee 
Asia News Desk

Like clockwork, the usual suspects have published their sensationalized stories about this week's security breach at Binance.  Back with the same recycled, predictable, click-bait we've become accustomed to.  So predictable, that late last night I tweeted in anticipation of these articles coming, and woke up today proven right.

The summary of these stories go something like "TOLD YOU SO! Cryptocurrency is scary money made by hackers and used by criminals - so it shouldn't be a surprise when you hear $40 million was stolen from a cryptocurrency exchange." 

They all claim repeatedly that cryptocurrency is an abnormally 'high priority target' for criminals to steal, and thus higher risk for the average person to own.

Unfortunately, substantiating that claim involves a lot of picking choosing, so much so that anyone claiming it is either willfully manipulating their readers and choosing clicks over accuracy, or legitimately ignorant and completely unqualified to be reporting on the topic at all.  I'm not trying to be mean here, but I can't even 'play devil's advocate' and think of an innocent reason to be so wrong.

For example, VOX's article, which is probably the worst of the worst. Writer Emily Stewart seems to think cryptocurrency is some pretty scary stuff, and tries to explain why you should be scared of it too.

The headline "If bitcoin is so safe, why does it keep getting hacked?" first had me thinking - perhaps the article itself would explain that Bitcoin has never been hacked, that the encryption it uses has proven to be unbreakable, and even the world's top spy agencies would feel comfortable transmitting messages using it.

Of course, I was wrong. The article continues with "...for a technology that’s supposed to be hyper secure, in practice, it’s often proven itself to be, well, not" and there's even a section titled "What makes bitcoin exchanges so hackable?".

It quickly becomes crystal clear that the author has no hands-on experience with anything cryptocurrency related, and seems to think people literally hand over their private keys to an exchange.

She even warns about the risk of giving your private key to a wallet. (What?!)

BANKS HIDE THEIR SECURITY BREACHES, CREATING A MISCONCEPTION...

My source on this isn't some conspiracy theory filled blog - both global intelligence firm IDC, and multi-billion dollar global advisory firm Gartner conducted studies that came to the same conclusion - approximately 80% of cyber-security breaches go unreported in the banking industry.

Their reason - it could lead to loss of confidence from both customers and investors.  The studies say it's not just the public they hide it from, but in order to be sure the story never gets out, that means hiding incidents from law enforcement as well.

Here we actually see another advantage of cryptocurrency - can't cover up funds moving on a public ledger! Companies in the cryptocurrency space never get the option, and have to tell their clients.

CRYPTO NOT A 'BIGGER TARGET' FOR CRIMINALS...

Remember that figure of 80% of incidents being covered up - the remaining 20% we know about makes it clear - cyber-criminals target any institution with a lot of money, and an internet connection.

The cases we do know about include malware being put onto the massive nation-wide ATM STAR Network, which somehow criminals were able to exploit twice in an 8 month period.

Networking giant Oracle experienced a breach after acquiring Micros, a POS credit card processing system used by Hilton Hotels, Adidas, Burger King to name a few - Oracle discovered malware had been 'slipped in' to the system.

Uber recently paid out $148 million to settle claims after personal information of over 50 million users were stolen, covered-up, exposed, and they were sued for it.

Even the Federal Reserve, the official reps for Fiat currency, were hacked 50+ times in a 5 year period!

Just a few examples out of hundreds, if we really only hear about it 20% of the time - you could even make the case that cryptocurrency exchanges are actually a low priority target.

FREQUENT MISUSE OF THE WORD 'HACKING' ...

It's important people understand - just because you read the word 'hacked' doesn't mean that's what happened.

In fact, the cryptocurrency industry is full of digital security experts, and exchanges are known for putting a lot of time, effort, and funding into security. More often then not, when we learn the details of how a 'security breach' was pulled off  - it usually involves no actual hacking whatsoever.

Instead, they use old tricks, such as fooling an employee into opening an e-mail that appears to be from their boss, but it isn't - it actually installs a backdoor into the system, or captures passwords as they're typed and sends them to the criminals.

These tricks can be pulled off by someone with fairly average computer skills, actual hackers call them 'script kiddies' because all they do is use malicious code somebody else made, like actors following a script. These unsophisticated methods are typically the root cause of breaches today.

THE TRUTH, PLAIN AND SIMPLE:

When it comes to cyber-crime, criminals do not "prefer cryptocurrency" - they just "include cryptocurrency" among the type of funds they're willing to go after.

It doesn't make for an exciting headline - but it really is just that simple.

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Author: Ross Davis
E-Mail: Ross@GlobalCryptoPress.com Twitter:@RossFM
San Francisco News Desk