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SEC Brought 56 Court Cases against Crypto, Chairman Jay Clayton to Leave by Year End

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The SEC revealed that it brought 56 cases related to blockchain projects, cryptocurrencies and digital assets since July 2017.

The current serving Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Jay Clayton is set to conclude his tenure by the end of the year. According to The New York Times, Jay Clayton’s tenure which was expected to end next year in June was filled with regulations primarily geared towards protecting investors.

The tenure of Jay Clayton also witnessed a huge clampdown on cryptocurrencies, according to a list of accomplishments published by the SEC. 

The SEC revealed that it “brought 56 cases involving ICOs, blockchain or distributed ledger technology, and/or digital assets since the July 2017 issuance of an investigative report regarding the offers and sales of digital assets.”

“Among others, cases involved efforts to defraud investors through the use of digital asset securities as well as violations of the registration provisions of the federal securities laws in the offer and sale of digital asset securities,” the agency said.

Among the notable clampdown on ICO’s includes that of the Telegram Open Network (TON), the backer of Gram Tokens. The social media giant was embroiled in a long-haul lawsuit with the SEC and eventually resulted in the firm paying $18.5 million in fines. While Clayton’s tenure is marred by a tight grip on crypto, a position that has contributed to Facebook’s Libra project not seeing the light of day, market experts have given accolades to the outgoing SEC boss.

“The guy is a moderate by nature, and that’s the way I think he has conducted himself at the SEC,” said Hal Scott, a professor at Harvard Law School. “The overall system of securities regulation has to do with disclosures, and enforcement, and making sure we don’t have insider trading and those issues. I don’t think he’s really relaxed much around that.”

Jay Clayton and His Fight with Wall Street Unicorns

Besides the fight against scams in the cryptocurrency ecosystem, Jay Clayton has also exercised the power of the law on renowned Wall Street firms including Tesla Inc (NASDAQ: TSLA), and Theranos.

The Tesla brawl with the SEC involves the Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Elon Musk. Musk posted a tweet back in 2018 saying he intends to take Tesla private. The statement which the SEC believes is not in the best interest of Tesla’s investors attracted a settlement fine of $20 million by Elon Musk following by his stepping down as the chairman of the company.

The Theranos case involving the CEO Sherlock Holmes involves the SEC accusing Ms. Holmes of lying about Theranos’s blood-testing capabilities, extracting a $500,000 settlement and barring her from serving as an executive or director of a public company for a period of 10 years.

Now that Jay Clayton is set to leave the SEC, the fate of the commission is believed to be dependent on whoever the president-elect Joe Biden appoints to head the commission. 

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Benjamin Godfrey is a blockchain enthusiast and journalists who relish writing about the real life applications of blockchain technology and innovations to drive general acceptance and worldwide integration of the emerging technology. His desires to educate people about cryptocurrencies inspires his contributions to renowned blockchain based media and sites. Benjamin Godfrey is a lover of sports and agriculture.



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RIOT Stock Registers Unprecedented Rally, Riot Blockchain Valuation Soars Above $1B

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Following the Bitcoin all-time high on Sunday, December 27, Riot Blockchain stock registered 20% gains on Monday’s trading session. The stock has already appreciated by 13x this year. Apart from BTC, investors of Bitcoin mining companies are making a bomb in the market.

Bitcoin mining giant Riot Blockchain is making all the news in the market at the moment. On Monday, December 28, Riot Blockchain Inc (NASDAQ: RIOT) stock price surged a massive 20% surging past $15.5 levels. One of the biggest milestones with the Monday rally is that the Riot Blockchain has clocked a $1 billion market cap.

The latest price rally comes as Riot Blockchain hints at going aggressively on its Bitcoin mining business. Last week, the Riot Blockchain added new S19 Pro Antimers to its bitcoin mining arsenal. The company announced the purchase of an additional 15,000 Bitcoin (BTC) mining machines from Bitmain. The recent purchase also pushes Riot’s total fleet to 37,640 Next-Generation Bitmain Antminers.

Riot said that the fresh purchase of Antminers will help the mining company to attain a 65% jump in its mining hash-rate. RIOT stock has registered an unprecedented rally this year in 2020. RIOT stock has multiplied by 13x this year registering a 1200% surge so far.

Riot Blockchain has issued nearly 17 million shares since November 2020 with its total outstanding shares going to 67.5 million. It has been a phenomenal journey for Riot ever since it ventured into the Bitcoin mining business in October 2017. With valuations less than $50 million back then, Riot has grown more than 20x in size as of its latest stock price.

RIOT Stock and Shares of Other Bitcoin Mining Companies Profit from BTC Bull Run

The recent Bitcoin (BTC) price rally during Q4 2020 has also pushed the stocks of Bitcoin mining companies to new highs. Earlier on Sunday, December 28, the BTC price hit its all-time high of $28,000 in a massive bull run followed by huge institutional inflows.

Moreover, along with the BTC price rally, the Bitcoin hash-rate has jumped significantly since November 2020. Over the last two months, the BTC hash-rate has surged nearly 30% and is currently at 132 TH/s. The surge in the hash-rate suggests higher mining activity for Bitcoin.

As a result, Bitcoin mining companies have been making massive purchases of the BTC mining machines. In addition to Riot Blockchain, other giants like the Marathon Patent Group have made aggressive purchases over the last few months. Just like RIOT, the Marathon Patent Group (NASDAQ: MARA) has registered a phenomenal rally of 18% on Monday, December 28. MARA stock has multiplied investors’ wealth by 12x in 2020. It means the MARA stock has also given phenomenal 1100% returns year-to-date.

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Bhushan is a FinTech enthusiast and holds a good flair in understanding financial markets. His interest in economics and finance draw his attention towards the new emerging Blockchain Technology and Cryptocurrency markets. He is continuously in a learning process and keeps himself motivated by sharing his acquired knowledge. In free time he reads thriller fictions novels and sometimes explore his culinary skills.



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How low could XRP go? Watch these price levels next

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XRP price dropped by 30% on Dec. 29 following Coinbase’s decision to suspend trading. 

The market sentiment around XRP has become overwhelmingly negative due to the fear of more exchange delistings.

In the near term, XRP faces three key historical support levels at $0.224, $0.1743 and $0.1471.

Where will the XRP price go next?

The ongoing price trend of XRP is not cyclical nor reliant on technical analysis. It is due to investors selling XRP following the suspension of trading across major cryptocurrency exchanges.

On Dec. 29, Coinbase announced that it is suspending the XRP trading pairs on their platform. Paul Grewal, the chief legal officer at Coinbase, wrote:

“In light of the SEC’s lawsuit against Ripple Labs, Inc, we have made the decision to suspend the XRP trading pairs on our platform. Trading will move into limit only starting December 28, 2020 at 2:30 PM PST, and will be fully suspended on Tuesday, January 19, 2021 at 10 a.m. Pacific Standard Time*. We will provide additional updates, if any, through the Coinbase Support Twitter account, including if there are any changes to timing.”

As Cointelegraph previously reported, analysts anticipated Coinbase to suspend XRP trading after the United States Securities and Exchange Commission filed its complaint.

Coinbase plans to undergo an initial public offering, and it is in the firm’s best interest to remain fully compliant with the regulators in the U.S.

Considering the regulatory uncertainty around XRP, traders have emphasized that technical analysis is of less importance in the short term. Scott Melker, a cryptocurrency trader, said:

“A few people have told me that there’s oversold bullish divergence on the $XRP chart. You are doing it wrong. Charts don’t matter here. You cannot trade in a vacuum. Jesus could come down with Biggie and Tupac and put on a concert for Brad Garlinghouse and I still wouldn’t buy.”

In the foreseeable future, XRP has several major support areas it could potentially recover from. However, these are deep support levels on the weekly chart, which shows that it lacks momentum for a major rebound.

XRP/USD weekly candle price chart (Coinbase). Source: TradingView.com

The XRP price has fallen by over 60% in merely two weeks, recording one of its steepest two-week drops in history.

What happens next?

Adam Cochran, a partner at Cinneamhain Ventures, was one of the first to break the story that Coinbase had conversations about suspending XRP trading.

Cochran hinted that the SEC are probably looking into more projects and companies than people realize. He said:

“If you thought my scoop on Coinbase delisting/suspending $XRP was insightful, you’re going to love the next scoop I’m working on, this week. Looks like that SEC is far more active than we thought and sniffing around a number of projects and companies!”