The third week of October has been exciting for the blockchain and cryptocurrency world. Perhaps the biggest news is that Telegram responded to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), which obtained an emergency injunction against the firm last week to prevent it from distributing its gram tokens. On Wednesday, Telegram argued its upcoming gram token is not a security, and the SEC should not be able to force the firm to produce documents or witnesses about its blockchain project. Telegram's filing claims that the SEC's emergency action runs counter to longstanding Supreme Court precedent, the agency's own views relating to other cryptocurrencies, and common sense. In the filing, Telegram asked the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York to deny the SEC's injunction request, including the SEC's demand for Telegram to produce documents and witnesses. It is unclear if Telegram's request will be successful.
Here is the rest of the week in review:
Circle Financial is spinning out crypto exchange Poloniex from its parent firm, the two firms announced Friday. Circle first acquired Poloniex in February 2018 for $400 million. According to blog posts, Poloniex will now become Polo Digital Assets, Ltd., an "independent international company" backed by an unnamed Asian investment firm. Poloniex said it has a multiyear plan to spend more than $100 million to develop and expand the trading platform and reduce fees to zero. Circle cofounders Jeremy Allaire and Sean Neville wrote that the fintech firm plans to focus on growing its USDC stablecoin and its crowdfunding platform SeedInvest. They also imagined a long-term path for transforming Poloniex into a marketplace for "tokens which represent everything of value," including physical goods, real estate, and even creative products.
Fidelity Digital Asset Services is now fully rolling out its crypto custody and trading services to all qualified investors, expanding from the limited trial users in the platform's final test stage, according to a Financial Times interview. Fidelity Investments chief executive Abby Johnson said the firm started adding clients in the first quarter and is now engaged in a full rollout of its custody and trading services for digital assets. In February Fidelity's platform was being tested by a small number of clients including hedge funds, family offices, and financial advisors. Fidelity, a $2.8 trillion asset manager, is one of the first established traditional financial institutions to offer digital asset custody services as other peers are still watching to see how the crypto industry develops.
Crypto prices dipped slightly to $221.5 billion this week. For the majors, EOS, Ethereum (ETH), and Litecoin (LTC) posted the worst losses, while Bitcoin SV (BSV), Ripple (XRP), and Stellar (XLM) had decent single-digit gains. In the top 100, the biggest losers were RIF Token (RIF), down 26%, LUNA (LUNA), down 25%, and V Systems (YSYS), down 20%. The biggest gainers were Chiliz (CHZ), up a whopping 93%, Tierion (TNT), up 46%, and ABBC Coin (ABBC), up 34%. Next week traders will watch for more volatility after a period without large swings.
The author owns a small amount of BTC and LTC.