Scenius Sync (Issue #129)

XRP To #3, US Govt. Moves $2B In BTC To CB, Appeals Ct Finds Treasury Offsides In Tornado Cash Case, Atkins Emerges As Lead for SEC Chair, Hyperliquid Airdrops $1.2B+, & Coinbase Enables Apple Pay

Scenius: The intelligence and the intuition of a whole cultural scene. The communal form of the concept of genius.

Welcome to The Scenius Sync.

Our mission with this concise publication is twofold:

1. Share the essential stories driving the crypto industry and markets.

2. Highlight innovative applications and mainstream adoption of crypto and blockchain technology.

If you find this newsletter valuable, please subscribe and share The Scenius Sync with your network 💪

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Essential News 🗞

1. US Government Moves Nearly $2 Billion in Silk Road Bitcoin to Coinbase

   • The feds on Monday moved nearly $2 billion of seized Bitcoin from shuttered dark web marketplace Silk Road to Coinbase, blockchain data shows. Arkham Intelligence flagged the transactions by the United States government. It said that the Bitcoin was from the Silk Road marketplace, and was ultimately moved to America’s biggest digital asset exchange after a brief stop at another Bitcoin wallet. Ultimately, 19,800 BTC—or $1.92 billion worth—was transferred.

2. XRP becomes world's third-largest crypto, overtakes Tether’s USDT in market cap

   • XRP has surpassed Tether’s USDT stablecoin in market capitalization, becoming the world’s third-largest cryptocurrency following bitcoin and ether.

     XRP, which is largely associated with Ripple Labs, has a market cap of $141.8 billion at the time of writing, surpassing USDT’s $134.5 billion. The price of XRP jumped 30% over the past 24 hours to $2.46, according to The Block’s price page. It has risen 364.1% in the past month. “XRP's recent strength seems to be driven by the news last week that NYDFS is close to approving Ripple's stablecoin RLUSD,” Peter Chung, head of research at Presto Research, told The Block.

3. US appeals court says Treasury 'overstepped' authority in Tornado Cash sanctions

   • A U.S. Federal Appeals court ruled on Tuesday that the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) overstepped its authority in sanctioning cryptocurrency mixer Tornado Cash, reversing a lower court decision. “We hold that Tornado Cash’s immutable smart contracts (the lines of privacy-enabling software code) are not the 'property' of a foreign national or entity, meaning (1) they cannot be blocked under IEEPA, and (2) OFAC overstepped its congressionally defined authority,” the Fifth Circuit Appeals Court three-judge panel said. The ruling noted that even with the assessment of OFAC’s broader definition of “any property,” the crypto-mixing service provider remains beyond regulatory reach, as its smart contracts are neither ownable nor traditional contracts or services.

4. Paul Atkins emerges as leading candidate for SEC chair

   • Former United States SEC Commissioner Paul Atkins has emerged as the leading candidate to chair the agency under President-elect Donald Trump’s new administration. Atkins is known for his pro-innovation stance and crypto expertise and is said to be capable of “returning the agency to the so-called ‘gold standard,’” according to an X post by financial reporter Eleanor Terrett. Atkins’ potential appointment comes amid speculation that Trump’s administration may shift cryptocurrency regulatory oversight from the SEC to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), signaling a major policy change that could significantly impact the crypto industry. Atkins becoming SEC chair after Gary Gensler resigns in January 2025 would have implications that US crypto regulations might help promote innovation, rather than hinder it.

5. ECB advances digital euro project with new progress report

   • The European Central Bank (ECB) has released the second progress report on its digital euro project, highlighting ongoing efforts to establish a unified digital payment system across the euro area. The report outlines advancements in key areas, aiming to lay the groundwork for a potential digital euro launch. The new progress report, published by the central bank on Monday, described updates to the ECB's digital euro scheme rulebook aimed at harmonizing CBDC payments across the euro area. The report also described how the bloc's central bank concluded a call for applications to select potential providers of digital euro components and related services.

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Innovation & Adoption 💡📈

1. Spot crypto exchange volume hit $2.7 trillion in November, highest since May 2021

   • Spot trade volume on global crypto exchanges reached $2.7 trillion in November, the highest level since May 2021. Bitcoin and Ethereum futures volume on exchanges also hit their highest levels since May 2021. According to data from The Block, around 36% of the monthly trade volume in November came from Binance, which processed over $986 billion. Crypto.com, Upbit, and Bybit followed, each recording a monthly volume exceeding $200 billion. A significant month-over-month increase in trading volume was observed globally across all regions.

   • In related news, Global Ethereum investment products hit $2.2 billion annual inflow record amid US ETF surge

2. Hyperliquid airdrops over $1.2 billion worth of tokens to users as HYPE crosses $4 billion FDV

   • The newly launched token of Hyperliquid, a decentralized perpetual trading platform and Layer 1 chain, has surged over 11% since its launch or token generation event earlier today, with a current price of $4.2. This price movement has driven the fully diluted valuation to about $4.2 billion. Currently, over 333 million tokens are in circulation out of a total supply of 1 billion, giving the token a market capitalization of around $1.4 billion. The total supply of the HYPE token will be capped at 1 billion tokens. After the token generation, 31.0% (or 310 million) of fully unlocked tokens were distributed to eligible community users as an airdrop.

   • More coverage here: Hyperliquid's HYPE surpasses Aave in market cap, claims nearly half of decentralized perpetual swaps volume

3. NFTs hit $562M in monthly sales volumes, recording six-month high

   • Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) have maintained their monthly sales momentum, surging by 57.8% in November as digital collectibles continue to recover.

     On Dec. 1, data company CryptoSlam showed that NFTs recorded $562 million in sales in November, a substantial increase in volume from October. CryptoSlam data also indicates that November’s monthly sales volume for NFTs is the highest since May, when digital collectibles had a $599 million sales volume.

   • More coverage on the revival of the NFT Market from Brave New Coin here.

4. Coinbase now lets you buy crypto with Apple Pay in third-party apps

   • Coinbase announced an integration with Apple Pay on Monday, allowing app makers to build the ability to buy crypto with Apple Pay directly into their apps.

     The integration is part of Coinbase Onramp, which gives app makers a way for customers to turn their traditional currencies, such as USD, into cryptocurrencies. That process has historically been difficult, requiring users to pay added fees and visit multiple websites or apps. With the integration of Apple Pay, Coinbase is continuing to push its products toward the average consumer by making crypto purchases more accessible.

5. BitGo launches dedicated retail platform to buy, sell, trade, custody and stake crypto assets

   • Digital asset infrastructure provider BitGo has launched a dedicated retail platform — providing global access to its regulated digital asset trading, staking, lending, wallet and cold and self-storage custody services for the first time. Founded in 2013, BitGo has primarily served institutional clients until now, offering services like custody, trading and settlement. It is also one of the approved firms helping to facilitate client repayments from the defunct Mt. Gox exchange, provides custody services for Ark Invest/21Shares and Valkyrie (now CoinShares) U.S. spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds and is currently the custodian of the largest Ethereum-based wrapped bitcoin asset, WBTC.