Blockchain

Since Judge Analisa Torres’s ruling back in July that programmatic XRP sales do not qualify as securities, the token has been on an upward trajectory in terms of growth. This time around, the XRP Ledger is close to another enormous milestone, which could spell good news for the XRP price going forward.

Accounts On XRP Ledger Near 5 Million Mark

In an interesting turn of events, the number of accounts that are present on the XRP Ledger has been rising rapidly. This has seen the metric barrel toward the 5 million total accounts milestone as it is currently sitting at an impressive 4,781,844 million accounts, according to data from XPR Ledger Services.

The site’s data also shows other impressive metrics about the blockchain such as only 1,116 accounts on the Ledger are carrying a 0 balance. This means that only 0.023% of the entire XRP holder base on the ledger is carrying a 0 balance.

Of the 100 billion total XRP supply, 58,682,136,692 (58.6%) are currently sitting in holder accounts, with 41,306,191,412 (41.3%) still held in escrow. This amount held in escrow is released periodically and was designed that way to last until the total XRP supply is exhausted.

Going further, a significant number of XRP tokens are also sitting as reserves (tokens in wallets that cannot be spent). The current Total Account Reserves came in at 47,818,440 and Total Owner Reserves is sitting at 13,608,012.

How Will It Affect The XRP Price?

The rapid rise in the number of accounts on the XRP Ledger points to an increase in interest from crypto investors. In this case, as interest rises, so will demand for the XRP token, which would, in turn, lead to a rise in the XRP price.

Analysts have also been incredibly bullish on the XRP price. In one instance, a Wells Fargo Manager forecasted that the price of the altcoin could rise as high as $500, citing Ripple capturing the cross-border payments sector by 2027.

Another interesting forecast put the XRP price at $10,000, once again, citing Ripple’s rising market share in the payments sector as a driver. A more conservative crypto analyst put the token’s price at $130 after it formed a rare triangle pattern on its chart.

Despite these very bullish predictions, the XRP price continues to struggle at this point. It is still trading well below the $0.5 resistance which has become the important level to beat. At the time of writing, it’s sitting at $0.49, recording meager gains of 0.03% on the daily chart. Although there is a more significant 5.52% gain on the weekly chart.

Data shows the Bitcoin Open Interest has shot up by $1.8 billion as the cryptocurrency’s price has broken the $27,000 level.

Bitcoin Open Interest Has Exploded During The Past Day

The “Open Interest” indicator keeps track of the total amount of Bitcoin futures contracts currently open on all derivative exchange platforms.

When the value of this metric rises, it means that the investors are opening up new positions on the market right now. Generally, the cryptocurrency becomes more likely to display volatility when this happens, as new contracts usually imply an increase in the total leverage in the sector (“leverage” naturally being the loan amount holders can opt to take against their positions).

On the other hand, the indicator going down implies that a net amount of contracts are either closing up or getting liquidated. The asset may become more calmer following such a trend.

Now, here is a chart from CoinGlass that shows the trend in the Bitcoin Open Interest over the year 2023 so far:

The above graph shows that the Bitcoin Open Interest has registered a rather sharp surge today. The main instigator behind this futures rush appears to be the surge in the cryptocurrency’s mark beyond the $27,000 level.

Before this rise, the indicator had a value of $11.04 billion, but now it has hit the $12.81 billion mark, suggesting an increase of a whopping $1.77 billion (about 16%).

This rapid growth in the Open Interest can naturally lead to the asset becoming more volatile, although it’s hard to say in what direction this volatility might appear.

If this rise has come from shorts jumping in to bet against the asset, a further rise would result in their liquidation, thus fueling the price increase even further. If, however, the contracts being opened are long, then it may not end very well for the rally.

The chart shows that the Open Interest had a similar spike back during the Grayscale rally last month, but the longs that had opened then had ended up finding liquidation, as the price had returned to lower levels.

The funding rate, which measures the periodic fee that futures traders pay each other, may provide hints about whether the new positions are shorts or longs.

As is visible in the graph, the Bitcoin funding rate is positive currently, but it hasn’t changed much with the Open Interest rise, implying that long and short positions are spread more evenly in this increase.

It remains to be seen where the cryptocurrency goes in the coming few days and if the Open Interest surge will play any role.

BTC Price

Bitcoin had surged to $27,400 earlier in the day but has since retraced back to $27,200.

The crypto market is finally seeing some green during today’s trading session, with the Bitcoin price rising above $27,000 for the first time since late August. Similar to that occasion, the cryptocurrency stands at a crossroads, but bulls should remain cautious, new data suggests.

As of this writing, the Bitcoin price trades at $27,200 with a 3% profit in the last 24 hours. Over the previous week, the cryptocurrency experienced a 9% gain, with the rest of the top 10 by market cap displaying similar price action but lagging BTC.

Bitcoin Price Fractal Spells Doom For Bulls

Pseudonym trader Rekt Capital has been closely monitoring a Bitcoin price fractal, forecasting a re-test below $20,000 for the cryptocurrency. The operation believes that BTC formed a double-top price pattern.

This technical indicator predicts downside pressure for the Bitcoin price. However, the spike in selling pressure seen in the chart may take some time to gain strength.

If the Bitcoin fractal above holds accurate, and if the cryptocurrency completes the double top, there is a high chance of a brief relief rally. In this scenario, the price of BTC could continue on its current trajectory and hit the $28,500 to $29,000 levels before declining into critical support.

The fractal could be invalidated if bulls can push the price of Bitcoin above $31,000 and into yearly highs, Rekt Capital believes. Other bullish scenarios in the long term involved a weekly close above the resistance created at around $29,000 and for $19,000 to hold as support in case of further downside.

No Liquidity, No BTC Rally

Additional data from crypto analytics firm TheKingFisher indicates that the current Bitcoin price rally could lose steam. As the chart below shows, upside liquidity for the current price action is limited.

On the contrary, big liquidity pools are sitting on the downside, waiting for big BTC traders to push prices into those levels. In the short term, $26,700 is a potential critical support in a spike in selling pressure.

Cover image from Unsplash, chart from Tradingview

On-chain data shows a Bitcoin indicator has continued to retest the bear-bull transition point recently, but is yet to obtain a break.

Bitcoin Short-Term Holder SOPR Is Retesting The Break-Even Level

As pointed out by an analyst in a CryptoQuant post, the short-term holders have continued to sell at a loss recently. The relevant indicator here is the “Spent Output Profit Ratio” (SOPR), which tells us whether the average investor in the Bitcoin market is selling at a profit or at a loss right now.

When the value of this metric is greater than 1, it means that the overall market is realizing more profits than losses with their selling currently. On the other hand, values under the threshold suggest the dominance of loss-taking in the sector.

The SOPR being exactly equal to 1 implies that the total amount of profits being realized by the investors are exactly canceling out the losses, and thus, the average holder can be thought to be just breaking even on their sales.

Now, here is a chart that shows the trend in the Bitcoin SOPR over the last couple of years:

As displayed in the bottom graph in the image, the Bitcoin ASOPR has been consolidating around the 1 mark recently. The ‘A’ in front of SOPR here refers to “Adjusted,” since the indicator has been adjusted to filter out the sales of coins that were sold within one hour of their previous sales.

From the graph, it’s visible that the Bitcoin ASOPR has constantly remained slightly inside the loss region recently as it has been retesting the break-even mark from below. This means that the average holder can be assumed to be selling at a slight loss right now.

The indicator has made many attempts to break into the profit territory, but it hasn’t found any success so far. Historically, the ASOPR has been inside the red zone during bearish periods, while it has been in the green region during bullish periods.

An indicator that displays this relationship even more closely is the short-term holder SOPR. The “short-term holders” (STHs) here refer to investors who have been holding their coins for less than 155 days.

As is visible in the graph, whenever the Bitcoin SOPR for these investors has entered inside the profit zone, the price has experienced some uptrend. Much like the metric’s value for the overall market, though, the STH SOPR has also been inside the red zone recently, with these holders in fact registering more losses than the rest of the sector.

Currently, the indicator is once again sitting at the break-even mark. This retest could be one to watch for, as if a break is found, a bullish trend could follow, much like it did during the instances during the past few months.

BTC Price

Bitcoin has observed a sharp surge in the past day as its price has now crossed the $27,000 level.

Ethereum-based Layer 2 network “Base” has put on an impressive performance yet again, with its Total Value Locked (TVL) coming close to one of the most notable blockchains.

Coinbase’s BASE Has Outperformed Solana

Coinbase’s layer 2 blockchain network, Base, has seen an upward trajectory movement since it was introduced to the public, outperforming some of the notable blockchains in the crypto market. The network is now drawing close to Solana in terms of TVL, indicating remarkable growth within the network.

Data from DeFiLlama shows that the blockchain network now sits a little above $407 million in TVL, while Solana sits a little above $650 million in TVL. The uptick in Base’s TVL is due to the significant number of users and developers currently settling on Base for their decentralized applications (dApps) and other financial protocols. 

The blockchain network also managed to surpass Solana in terms of transaction volume and number of unique addresses. In the past two months, the blockchain network has experienced an immense increase in transaction volume and number of unique addresses more than that of Solana. Data from IntoTheBlock shows an impressive increase of 1.88 million daily transactions on September 16, 2023.

Base’s immense increase in transaction volume and number of unique addresses can be traced back to the growing user base of Base’s Friend.tech, a social platform that allows users to buy and sell shares in public figures.

“In just 2 months, Coinbase’s Base L2 has skyrocketed, topping the charts in transactions and unique addresses. Much of this growth is fueled by the new social app, FriendTech,” IntoTheBlock stated on X.

Base operates as a layer 2 network on Ethereum that came about due to the combined effort from Coinbase and Optimism. Incubated by Coinbase, Base was created to provide its users with a faster transaction process, improved scalability, and lower gas fees.

Currently, Base surpassing Solana in transaction volume, and the number of unique addresses is one of the most impressive achievements of the blockchain network, due to Solana being one of the most notable blockchains in the crypto ecosystem known for its speed and scalability.

During the first week of its mainnet launch, the blockchain network also surpassed Cardano in terms of TVL, transaction speed, and number of successful transactions. The blockchain saw more successful transactions in one week than Cardano’s successful transactions in one month.

Social App Friend.tech Attributed To Base’s Achievements

You can’t rule out Friend.tech when talking about Base’s achievement in the crypto market. The social app is well-known among users and investors and has become an eminent topic of discussion in the community.

During its official launch on August 10, 2023, the invite-only social app recorded over 4,400 ETH ($8.1 million) in trading volume in just 24 hours after its launch. The social app has also reportedly accumulated more than 130,000 daily users since its release. Base also saw a surge in Transactions Per Second (TPS) as more investors engaged in the social app.

The Bitcoin price is sustaining its bullish momentum from the previous day. Today, it surpassed the $27,000 threshold, a level not seen since August 31. Notably, BTC recorded its first green weekly closing candle in five weeks yesterday. As of press time, the Bitcoin price has reached an intra-day high of $27,267.

Why Is Bitcoin Price Up Today?

One major indicator that has captured analysts’ attention is the rapid increase in Open Interest. DaanCrypto, a noted figure in the crypto space, commented on the Open Interest of Bitcoin: “Bitcoin Open Interest has been ramping up like crazy these past few hours. Up +$850M in hours.” According to him, this can be an issue if spot bid disappears which could cause for a full retrace similar to before.

“This would then be due to underwater positions that entered near the top. If spot bid remains then these positions are obviously fine. Open Interest is now back to post Grayscale pump levels,” Daan stated, further noting the resilience in the spot premium at the moment, “Longs are comfy as long as spot bid is present.”

Maartuun, the community manager at CryptoQuant Netherlands, also highlights the rapid surge in Open Interest: “Fasten your seat belts. The Open Interest goes bonkers on this break-out attempt. It has increased by $600 million (7%).”

Interestingly, Coinglass data reveals that as of press time, short liquidations for BTC remain modest, with just about $20 million in shorts being liquidated. At press time, OI skyrocketed further, up almost $1 billion (from $11.04 to $12.03 billion).

Renowned analyst @52kskew emphasized the trading behavior on Binance: “Majority chasing shorts aggressively from what I can see so far. Binance Open Interest: Binance perp OI starting to moon again with minimal price difference ~ big move brewing. OI up and insignificant change in perp delta (positions opening into price). Takers still aggressively selling into price, bulls want to see constant limit chasing on the bid here. $26.7K pivotal price for direction.”

Ali Martinez, another analyst, pointed towards Bitcoin’s 3-day chart and noted a buy signal by the TD Sequential yesterday. “A boost in $BTC buying pressure might drive prices to the channel’s mid or upper boundary – targeting $28,000 or $31,000. Still, watch the TD Risk Line at $24,500. It’s the key invalidation point.”

From macro perspective, renowned analyst Ted (@tedtalksmacro) indicated a correlation between USD liquidity and Bitcoin price movements: “If you can track/forecast USD liquidity, you’ll have a solid idea of where price is headed.” He went on to highlight a divergence between the rise in USD liquidity and the previous stagnation of BTC, emphasizing the recent shift which might be driven by returning liquidity.

Monthly Close Will Be Crucial

As NewsBTC reported, September is historically one of the worst months of the year for the Bitcoin price. However, this year could be different if BTC continues its trend of the last few days.

Rekt Capital highlighted the potential significance of the upcoming monthly candle close for Bitcoin in a recent tweet, stating: “The upcoming Monthly Candle Close will be pivotal.” According to the analyst, Bitcoin often produces long upward wicks when it transforms old Monthly supports into new resistances.

In simple terms, an upward wick on a candlestick chart indicates price levels where Bitcoin traded during a period but didn’t close. A long wick suggests a strong rejection from those higher price levels. This could mean that while buyers tried to push the price up during the month, by the close, sellers had brought it back down, leaving a long ‘wick’ on the candlestick.

Rekt Capital suggests that these wicks can extend up to +8% beyond the candle body. The analyst notes that if the monthly candle close produces an upside wick of +7% beyond the ~$27,100 level, it could mean the price might go beyond the weekly lower high.

This could be a positive sign if the monthly close remains above $27,100, indicating it as a support level. However, if the price closes the month below $27,100 after reaching higher levels, it may confirm $27,100 as a new resistance, hinting that the recent price movement might be just a temporary upward rally.

At press time, BTC stood at $27,241.

Solana (SOL) has been making positive noise recently with a surge in its price. However, one crypto strategist known as Altcoin Sherpa on the social media platform X, believes that the euphoria may be short-lived. 

Despite last week’s notable rally, Altcoin Sherpa argues that Solana is still trapped in a downtrend, casting doubts on the sustainability of its current momentum.

Altcoin Sherpa points out a critical resistance level at approximately $19.50 that Solana must overcome to change its trajectory. The crypto analyst highlights a concerning pattern: Solana has been consistently forming lower highs since reaching its 2023 peak of $32.30 back in July. This pattern suggests that each attempted rally has been met with increasing selling pressure, raising questions about the strength of the recent recovery.

Altcoin Sherpa advises caution for those considering entering the market, stating:

“It’s nice to see some recovery, but every rally in the last few weeks has resulted in just a lower high. Regardless, if you’re in it for an investment, it can’t be bad to accumulate sub-$20.”

Currently, Solana is trading at $19.12, according to CoinGecko, showing a modest 1.1% gain in the last 24 hours and a seven-day rally of 4.5%.

Solana Support Hinges On FTX Liquidation

In the event that SOL’s latest rally loses steam, Altcoin Sherpa identifies the $14 level as a potential support zone. However, he underscores a crucial factor that could influence Solana’s fate in the short term—the imminent liquidation of a massive Solana stash held by the troubled crypto exchange FTX, amounting to a staggering $1.16 billion. The outcome of this liquidation could significantly impact Solana’s price stability.

Supporting Altcoin Sherpa’s bearish outlook is an analysis of key technical indicators. The Relative Strength Index (RSI) is indicating a decline in momentum, hinting at a potential downturn for Solana. Furthermore, the Awesome Oscillator (AO) has ventured into the negative territory, providing additional validation for the bearish sentiment.

If selling pressure continues to intensify, Solana’s price could test the psychological level of $18.00, hovering around the midline of its current trading channel. In a more dire scenario, SOL could plunge even further to reach the lower boundary of the channel at $17.29.

The quantity of long positions that have already been liquidated is 45 times that of short positions, according to the liquidation statistics provided by CoinGlass.

Potential Turning Point

However, there is a glimmer of hope for Solana investors. In the worst-case scenario, if the downtrend persists, Solana’s price could eventually find support in the demand zone, marked by the last candlestick before the remarkable July uptrend began. This area tends to attract buyers and might serve as a potential turning point for SOL’s fortunes.

While Solana’s recent rally has generated excitement, caution is advised, as technical indicators and market dynamics point towards a possible continuation of the downtrend. The crypto world remains as unpredictable as ever, and investors should carefully consider their options before diving in.

(This site’s content should not be construed as investment advice. Investing involves risk. When you invest, your capital is subject to risk).

Featured image from Adobe Stock

Oracle service provider Chainlink native token LINK has surged today as the crypto market records a significant uptick. The cryptocurrency is up by 9.02%, trading at $6.80 with a trading volume of $198 million, representing an over 179% increase in the last 24 hours.

One of the factors likely to affect LINK’s price growth in the coming days is the massive movement of tokens from the network’s wallet to exchanges. On September 16, four wallets associated with Chainlink transferred 18.75 million LINK tokens across various platforms, amounting to $119 million. 

These wallets were originally intended for holding tokens that were not yet in circulation. But recently, around 15.7 million LINK tokens (approximately $100 million) left these wallets headed straight to Binance. Furthermore, 3.05 million LINK tokens (roughly $19 million) left the wallets in a multi-signature wallet identified as 0xD50f.

Following these significant on-chain activities and potential implications, investors are eager to see how LINK price will react.

LINK Breaks Above $6.3 Resistance Level

LINK is in an uptrend, forming a bullish engulfing pattern to break above the $6.3 resistance level. Although LINK is still below its 200-day Simple Moving Average (SMA), today’s green candle has broken above the 50-day SMA, showing increased pressure from buyers. 

The buyers at the $6.1 support level have forced the crypto coin to rally after the brief retracement between September 16-17. Also, the Relative Strength Index (RSI) displays a value of 58.00, rising from the neutral zone and approaching the overbought region of 70. 

LINK has overcome the $6.3 resistance level today. Therefore, the buyers will likely sustain the rally in the coming days. Furthermore, the Moving Average Convergence/Divergence displays a strong buy signal confirmed by its green Histogram bars. 

The cryptocurrency will likely record more price gains in the coming days if the buyers continue to accumulate the tokens. However, the unlock and transfer of 21 million LINK tokens on September 16 could lead to a brief retracement in the long term when the buyers relent.

Whales Increase Holdings After Swift Test

Since August 31, when Chainlink entered into a partnership with Swift and other companies, LINK has exhibited positive market moves. The interbank communication system Swift and Chainlink, successfully transferred tokenized value across various private and public blockchains in an experiment. 

The positive development boosted investors’ confidence in buying more LINK tokens, potentially pushing the token’s value up. On September 7, Santiment noticed that Chainlink’s top-tier holders, those with 10,000-100,000 LINK tokens, were actively increasing their holdings.

The number of wallets holding 10,000 to 100,000 LINK tokens increased to 3,127, the highest since December 3, 2022. These wallets collected $9.6 million worth of LINK in just three days, 0.154% of the total supply. Additionally, Santiment’s report showed that 98 new wallets in this category were created.

On September 9, a crypto expert, Ali, revealed that these whales bought more than 4 million LINK coins, amounting to $24 million in just 10 days.

These accumulations show heightened investor interest in Chainlink and will likely drive demand, thereby increasing the token’s price in the coming days.

In a rare lapse in technological expertise, the recently unveiled Ethereum testnet, Holesky, failed to launch after developers discovered flaws in the testnet’s design. 

Ethereum Holesky Testnet Riddled With Misconfigurations

The crypto community and Ethereum enthusiasts are presently waiting for the return of Ethereum’s Holesky testnet which was scheduled to launch on Friday, September 15. 

The Holesky testnet which was created to replace Ethereum’s Goerli testnet after its deprecation in 2024 encountered an unexpected technical hiccup on the day of its release. The release date marked a significant date in the Ethereum community’s history, commemorating the one-year anniversary of Ethereum’s Merge to a Proof of Stake (PoS) network.  

Ethereum developers have labeled the technical flaw as a “misconfiguration in the ExtraData field.” Reports reveal that the misconfiguration was identified by an Ethereum Researcher named Protolambda. 

Holesky launch update!

Due to a misconfiguration in the ExtraData field (applied to EL configs but not to CL ones), #Holesky didn’t initiate properly.

A consensus has been reached among the EF DevOps and client teams to relaunch a week from now.

— Nethermind (@NethermindEth) September 15, 2023

One of the DevOps at the Ethereum Foundation, Parithosh revealed in an X (formerly Twitter) post the details of Holesky’s launch delay and misconfigurations. Parithosh explained that the flaw was found in one of Holesky’s Genesis files, the el Genesis file. 

He stated that validators are currently working on the testnet and have succeeded in starting the chain; however, modifications on the network have not been completed so more time will be required to get the testnet back up and running ready for a relaunch. 

“We had a misconfiguration in the el genesis file and that led to the Holesky network improperly launching. Some validators manually fixed the config and were able to start the chain, but not enough for the network to finalize,” Parithosh said in the X post.

Holesky Testnet Scheduled For a Relaunch

The Holesky testnet was created to introduce a range of features and enhancements in the Ethereum ecosystem. The testnet was loaded with more than 1 billion Holesky Ether (HETH) to ensure that the network was large and strong enough to handle complex tests on upgrades and developments in the Ethereum blockchain.

Ethereum’s Holesky testnet has now been rescheduled for release in two weeks. However, no proper date has been announced regarding the relaunch. 

“It’s extremely likely that we relaunch the network with new genesis files and have the network up two weeks from now,” Ethereum developer, Parithosh stated. 

While the delay is undoubtedly disappointing to many users, developers have vowed to integrate more validation steps and better docs to make the Holesky testnet stronger and prevent future misconfigurations. 

The delay in Ethereum’s Holesky testnet has not overly affected the price of its native token, ETH. Presently Ethereum developers are working vigorously to resolve the issue as fast as possible. The Ethereum community also remains hopeful that the delay will result in a more robust and reliable testing environment that will greatly benefit the Ethereum ecosystem.

Conspiracy theory or one of the biggest scandals in crypto? The term “ETH Gate” has been on the lips of every XRP supporter in recent months and, increasingly, the broader cryptocurrency community. At the heart of this issue is the US Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) decision to classify Ethereum (ETH) as a non-security, contrasting sharply with its ongoing legal action against Ripple and the XRP token.
What is ETH Gate

“ETH Gate” refers to a theory alleging that the Ethereum Foundation and ConsenSys have fostered close relationships with key individuals within the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and other entities like JP Morgan, thereby ensuring a favorable regulatory environment for Ethereum.

One cornerstone of this theory are the Hinman emails which were released earlier this year. In these emails, Hinman, who made the landmark speech in 2018 declaring that Ethereum was not a security, interacted with Ethereum’s co-founder, Vitalik Buterin right before the speech. Hinman reportedly consulted Buterin to “understand the operational dynamics of Ethereum.”

Remarkably, Bill Hinman rejoined the law firm Simpson Thacher in 2020 after leaving the SEC. The significance? Simpson Thacher is associated with the Ethereum Enterprise Alliance. Therefore, the XRP army believes that Hinman’s decision to deliver a speech giving Ethereum a regulatory “free pass” may not have been impartial.

Speculations By XRP Army

John E Deaton, an outspoken figure in the XRP community and a keen observer of the SEC’s dealings, has painstakingly put forth allegations suggesting a deeper web of interlinked relationships that hint at possible conflicts of interest. (There are so many that it is not even possible to highlight them all in one article.) His assertions have become pivotal in the “ETH Gate” theory, and here we’ll delve deeper into these connections.

1. Joseph Lubin’s Strategic Moves: Joseph Lubin, co-founder of Ethereum and founder of ConsenSys, is at the core of Deaton’s claims. According to Deaton, within just two months of Jay Clayton’s appointment as the SEC Chairman, Lubin made a potentially strategic hire, bringing on board Patrick Berarducci from the law firm Sullivan & Cromwell. This move is seen by Deaton and many in the XRP community as more than coincidental.

Deaton has drawn attention to this connection in the past, positing that it might have provided Ethereum an inside track or at least a more favorable disposition from the SEC. Sullivan & Cromwell is also notable because Jay Clayton himself was a partner there before his stint as the SEC Chairman.

2. The Hinman-Lubin Email Exchange: Deaton frequently refers to the now-infamous email exchange between Bill Hinman and Joseph Lubin. For Deaton, this correspondence underscores a problematic level of proximity between a regulatory figure and a significant player in the crypto sphere.

The fact that Hinman reportedly emailed Lubin directly is seen by Deaton as a potential sign of collaboration or at least a peculiar level of familiarity. More so, given Hinman’s subsequent public remarks about Ethereum being a non-security, despite warnings against such pronouncements from the SEC’s Office of General Counsel.

3. Jay Clayton and One River Digital Asset Management: After his tenure at the SEC, Jay Clayton joined One River Digital Asset Management. Deaton emphasizes this move as a point of contention. One River is known for its large holdings of Bitcoin and Ethereum. Deaton hints at a potential conflict of interest, questioning if Clayton’s decisions during his time at the SEC may have been influenced by future career prospects or associations that favored Ethereum.

4. Simpson Thacher, Ethereum Enterprise Alliance, and Hinman: One of the most significant points of contention brought forth by Deaton involves Bill Hinman’s associations with the law firm Simpson Thacher. This firm played a role in the Ethereum Enterprise Alliance.

Deaton suggests that Hinman’s connection to Simpson Thacher and, by extension, the Ethereum Enterprise Alliance, could have influenced his decision to publicly declare Ethereum a non-security.

Similarly, an XRP community member known as Mr. Huber has been extremely vocal and is raising compelling questions: “ETH Gate is a conspiracy theory that the SEC tried to create a monopoly for Ethereum?” He goes on to argue that this is a concerted attempt by powerful Wall Street banks like JPMorgan to “control the global crypto market by bribing the SEC to gain a monopoly for Ethereum.”

Latest News On ETH Gate

Yesterday, John E Deaton indicated that new, potentially damning, information about ETH Gate might soon be disclosed. “I’ve always said that one day we will get the full truth. Today is one day closer,” Deaton tweeted in response to Steven Nerayoff’s lawyer, Michael Scotto, who indicated that Nerayoff is prepared to make his facts known “at a time and manner that serves the interests of justice and the people.”

Steven Nerayoff, an early adviser to Ethereum, had extortion charges against him dismissed in May this year. Deaton speculates that Nerayoff could be a significant source of insider information, possibly related to Ethereum’s regulatory free pass. “I have the map,” was Nerayoff unequivocal response to Deaton’s speculative tweets about the matter, as Bitcoinist reported today.

The “ETH Gate” controversy calls into question the impartiality of the SEC in its treatment of different cryptocurrencies. Although allegations remain unproven, the gathered evidence paints a picture of inconsistent regulatory approaches and potential conflicts of interest.

Whether these allegations hold any water remains to be seen, but they have certainly fueled a sense of urgency and scrutiny around the SEC’s policies. If the hints dropped by Steven Nerayoff and John E Deaton materialize into something substantive, ETH Gate could become a pivotal chapter in the annals of cryptocurrency regulation.

At press time, ETH traded at $1,635.