The Breakdown First Five - Tuesday November 7, 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. Coinbase Done with Satoshi’s Vision

Coinbase have decided to turn away from Satoshi’s Vision, Bitcoin SV that is. The exchange will end support for the Craig Wright founded Bitcoin fork on January 9 and have told users still holding the coin to remove it from the platform by then. Multiple exchanges have delisted the token citing multiple 51% attacks in 2021. Others were simply disgusted by Wright’s behavior. CZ ordered the coin to be delisted from Binance in 2019 after calling Wright a fraud. 

4. FTX 2.0 Bidding

The fabled FTX 2.0 restart is inching closer to reality on confirmation that bidding has been narrowed down to three candidates. Proof collective and the Fahrenheit consortium are rumored to be in the running to relaunch the exchange. The platform sale is anticipated to be completed by mid-December but regulatory and compliance issues could still present roadblocks. 

3. Hong Kong ETFs

Hong Kong regulators are considering allowing spot crypto ETFs for retail investors. Citing strong demand, the regulators are looking at yet another major rules change to increase access to crypto. The head regulator said they were “happy to give it a try as long as new risks are addressed.” The move comes months after spot-crypto trading was allowed in Hong Kong. 

2. Laser Eyes

A small number of Bored Ape holders have attended hospital to treat temporary blindness and searing eye pain after Apefest in Hong Kong. Early reports suggested the harm was caused by on-stage UV lighting and lasers. It now seems that the venue featured unsafe germicidal UV lamps to light BAYC themed decoration. Yuga Labs claimed that fewer than 1% of attendees were harmed.

1. SEC Can’t Hire HODLers

The SEC is struggling to hire crypto experts because they won’t divest of their digital assets. After ethics rules were changed in July of last year, government employees were prohibited from owning crypto if they work on crypto regulations. According to an OIG report this has left the SEC with a lack of qualified candidates to fill crypto enforcement and regulatory roles. Turns out crypto lawyers won’t sell to land a gig with the regulator.

Thanks for reading -NLW