Bitcoin’s Inflated Numbers | Crypto Flexes Political Muscles

DTCC BLOCKCHAIN FUTURE RESTS WITH LIKES OF JPMORGAN, STATE STREET

Depository Trust & Clearing has a blockchain settlement project up and running, but whether it will go beyond a pilot program for equities is up to big banks like JPMorgan Chase and State Street. DTCC, which processes more than 2 quadrillion individual assets a year, is dominated by custodian banks that are looking to manage their costs and reduce risks, and they may be developing their own alternatives. The DTCC system could help reduce settlement times from the current two days. ”    

BIG POLITICAL DONATION IN TINY VERMONT SHOWS GROWING CRYPTO CLOUT  

A $1.1 million political donation from a 26-year-old executive at FTX illustrates the power of the crypto currency industry over sectors of society far removed from finance and technology. Engineer Nishad Singh gave the money to a political action committee in support of the successful Democratic primary campaign of Becca Balint for Vermont’s sole seat in the U.S. House of Representatives. FTX employees have made more than 300 political donations in the past two years, ranging from $250 up to millions of dollars.

Source: Forbes Digital Assets, powered by Nomics.  Prices as of 4:00 p.m. on September 1, 2022.

CRYPTO LAWYER’S TWO-FRONT BATTLE

Kyle Roche, a lawyer specializing in crypto issues, is fighting a two-front battle as client Ava Labs seeks to distance itself from the attorney and a Norwegian investor says he should be disbarred after leaked videos focused attention on his legal tactics. Videos of Roche and Christen Ager-Hanssen apparently discussing an investment opportunity in a litigation-financing product during two meetings in London in January surfaced Monday on a website called Crypto Leaks, which alleged that the lawyer and Ava Labs were involved in a secret pact to undermine the latter’s blockchain rivals via U.S. court actions. Roche and Emin Gun Sirer, Ava’s CEO, denied in separate Medium posts that they or their companies had done anything wrong. However, following the release of the videos, Roche decided to withdraw from his firm’s class-action practice, including cases already brought against Tether, Bitfinex, the Tron Foundation and HDR Global trading.

FORMER MICROSTRATEGY CEO SUED OVER ALLEGED TAX FRAUD

The District of Columbia sued analytics firm MicroStrategy and its former billionaire cofounder Michael Saylor on Wednesday, alleging Saylor and the company colluded to hide taxable income from the district—accusations both MicroStrategy and Saylor denied. Attorney General Karl Racine said Saylor has resided in the nation’s capital for over a decade but has never paid any income taxes, claiming Saylor “legally owes” tax payments on “hundreds of millions of dollars” of income. Saylor denied the accusations in a statement to Forbes, saying he resides in Florida, and he looks forward to a “fair resolution in the courts.” In a separate statement, MicroStrategy pledged to “defend aggressively” against what it described as “false” allegations, calling the issue a “personal tax matter” and denying that the company conspired with Saylor.

MORE THAN HALF OF BITCOIN’S TRADING VOLUME IS LIKELY BOGUS

Bitcoin is crypto’s gateway drug. According to New York Digital Investment Group, an estimated 46 million adult Americans already own the asset, and an increasing number of institutional investors and corporations are warming to it. But can you trust what your crypto exchange or e-brokerage reports about trading in the most important digital currency? A new Forbes analysis of 157 crypto exchanges finds that 51% of all reported trading volume, approximately $128 billion, is likely fake or non-economic. To learn more about our research and methodology, read this cover story by our Director of Data and Analytics Javier Paz.

BLOCKCHAIN 50 SPOTLIGHT

Twitter: Crypto’s town square, where Elon Musk shamelessly pumps canine coins and where millions of tiny traders try to send their latest purchases to the moon in 280 characters or less. There were 220 million tweets about NFTs in 2021 and an additional 60 million in January 2022 alone. And just because crypto-obsessed Jack Dorsey, stepped down as CEO in November to devote all his time to Block doesn’t mean corporate Twitter is forsaking its claim to the decentralized future. Twitter is doubling down on creator tools, like tipping other tweeters with bitcoin and letting users display their NFT collections as profile pictures—for a fee.  

ELSEWHERE

Potential Ethereum Hard Fork Token ETHPOW May Trade At 1.5% Of Ether's Price, Futures Suggest [CoinDesk]

A16z Crypto's 'Can't Be Evil' Licenses Aim To Fix NFT Copyright Confusion [The Block]

U.S. Sought Records On Binance CEO For Crypto Money Laundering Probe [Reuters]  

Nina Bambysheva
Reporter
Forbes Money & Markets

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