The Breakdown First Five - Tuesday September 26, 2023

Welcome back to The Breakdown First Five — the 5 most interesting and/or important stories in bitcoin, crypto, and markets to start your day

5. SEC Objects to Celsius Plan

The SEC is attempting to put the brakes on the Celsius bankruptcy plan. 98% of creditors voted for the plan to go ahead which involves a $2B crypto distribution and a new company to manage Bitcoin mining and Ethereum staking. The plan is expected to result in a 67%-85%. The SEC have raised objections to Coinbase’s involvement as a distribution agent, claiming they are likely to also provide unregistered brokerage services as part of the agreement

4. Saylor Still Buying

Microstrategy purchased an additional 5,445 bitcoins for approximately $147M. The latest tranche had an average price of $27,053. The firm now holds 158,245 bitcoins worth around $4.1B. Their average buy price is now $29,582. Microstrategy acquired $361M in bitcoin over two purchases in June and August. Unlike an ETF, Michael Saylor owns 24% of Microstrategy, leading to growing concerns about the concentration of his personal bitcoin wealth.

3. Bitwise ETF Update

Bitwise have updated their Bitcoin ETF proposal with 40 pages of supporting research to refute the SEC’s misapprehensions. Bitwise are largely trying to demonstrate that the futures markets lead price discovery and can represent a “regulated market of significant size." During 2019, Bitwise produced a similar research paper to uncover the true state of Bitcoin markets and attempt to shed light on market manipulation issues.

2. Tether Redemption Problems in Singapore

Tether has reportedly refused redemptions for some companies in Singapore. Cake DeFi co-founder Julian Hosp shared an email explaining what he called modified terms of service. Apparently Tether is taking issue with the protocol being owned by a Singapore corporate entity. The restriction comes weeks after a major money laundering crackdown in the nation. Tether CTO Paolo Ardoino claimed there was no material change in terms since 2020.

1. HTX Hacked

A hacker has stolen $8M worth of ETH from HTX, formerly known as Huobi. Justin Sun disclosed the Sunday night incident and claimed the exchange had already made customers whole. HTX said they have identified the hacker and offered a $400,000 white hat reward and a job if the crypto was returned. Sun downplayed the theft as a “relatively small sum”, claiming it was around two weeks of revenue for HTX. That’s now four crypto hacks last weekend.

Thanks for reading -NLW