OpenAI’s Sam Altman ousted, BlackRock and Fidelity seek Ether ETF, and more: Hodler’s Digest, Nov. 12-18

This week's featured stories

Sam Altman ousted from OpenAI, CTO Mira Murati named interim CEO

ChatGPT OpenAI Developer Ousted founder Sam Altman from his position as CEO on November 17. Chief Technology Officer Mira Murati now serves as interim CEO. According to a blog post, the board of directors engaged in a "deliberative review process," which resulted in the conclusion that Altman "was not consistently candid in his communications with the board, which hindered his ability to exercise his responsibilities." Shortly after, OpenAI co-founder and president Greg Brockman. revealed his departure from the organization.

BlackRock Files Form S-1 for Ether Spot ETF with SEC

BlackRock, the world's largest asset manager, officially applied for a spot Ether exchange-traded fund (ETF) before the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on November 15. The ETF, called iShares Ethereum Trust, aims to "broadly reflect the price performance of Ether," according to the S-1 filing with the SEC. The iShares brand is associated with BlackRock's ETF products. BlackRock's move comes nearly a week after it registered the iShares Ethereum Trust with the Delaware Division of Corporations and nearly six months after it filed its Bitcoin Spot ETF application. Following BlackRock's presentation, asset manager Fidelity also sought the green light for its own Ether ETF.

Australia to impose capital gains tax on wrapped cryptocurrency tokens

The Australian Tax Office (ATO) has issued guidance on capital gains tax (CGT) regarding decentralized finance and the wrapping of crypto tokens for individuals, confirming that Australians are responsible for capital gains taxes when wrapping and unwrapping tokens. The transfer of cryptoassets to an address that the sender does not control or already has a balance will be considered a taxable CGT event, the ATO said in its statement. The CGT event will be triggered depending on whether the individual recorded a capital gain or loss. A similar approach has been considered for taxing liquidity pool users and providers and DeFi interest and rewards. Additionally, wrapping and unwrapping tokens will also be subject to the triggering of a CGT event.

FTX Foundation employee fights for $275,000 bonus promised by SBF

An employee of FTX's charity wing hired by Sam Bankman-Fried is trying to collect $275,000, the remainder of his claimed salary bonus for 2022. Ross Rheingans-Yoo's lawyers argued in a court filing that FTX only paid $375,000 of his $650,000 bonus. They claim the remaining funds were owed when the crypto exchange filed for bankruptcy in November 2022. The fate of Rheingans-Yoo's bonus will be determined by a Delaware bankruptcy judge overseeing FTX's Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

WisdomTree Amends Form S-1 Spot Bitcoin ETF Filing as Crypto Awaits SEC Decisions

WisdomTree Filed Amended Form S-1 Spot Bitcoin ETF prospectus filed with the US SEC on November 16. The update comes a few months after WisdomTree resubmitted its Bitcoin Spot ETF application in June 2023, proposing a rule change for listing and trading WisdomTree Bitcoin Trust shares. The amended prospectus mentions that the WisdomTree Bitcoin Trust ETF will trade under the symbol BTCW, and Coinbase Custody Trust will act as custodian and hold all Bitcoin in the trust on its behalf.

Winners and losers

At the end of the week, Bitcoin (btc) I sat down $36,419Ether (ETH) in $1,946 and XRP in $0.61. The total market capitalization is $1.38 billion, according to CoinMarketCap.

Among the 100 largest cryptocurrencies, the three altcoins with the biggest gains of the week are Celestia (AIT) at 103.39%, year.finances (for your information) at 88.04% and THORChain (RUNE) at 54.38%.

Top three altcoin losers of the week are Gas (GAS) -64.85%, FTX token (FTT) at -35.17% and Neo (NEO) at -20.27%.

To learn more about cryptocurrency prices, be sure to read Cointelegraph Market Analysis.

Most memorable quotes

"Education and utility-based projects where there is real utility to their use is how we can engage regulators."

Naveen GuptaManaging Director of South Asia, Middle East and North Africa at Ripple

"We believe derivatives will foster additional liquidity and hedging opportunities in cryptocurrencies and will represent the next critical step in the continued growth of this market."

John Palmerpresident of Cboe Digital

“I'm very optimistic about a lot of different things happening in cryptocurrencies. […] “It will be a multi-chain world.”

Brad GarlinghouseCEO of Ripple

"The phone and the internet should not be blamed for terrorist financing, and cryptocurrencies should not be either."

french hillUnited States Representative

"I believe code is a form of speech and is protected by the First Amendment."

Vivek Ramaswamybusinessman and US presidential candidate

“The digital euro would also mean that each and every one of us could be fully monitored. […] “Whoever is against surveillance and in favor of freedom does not need a digital euro!”

Joana Cotarmember of the German Bundestag

Prediction of the week

Bitcoin Traders' BTC Price Drop Targets Now Include $30.9K Bottom

Bitcoin rolled to $36,000 on November 16, when analysis expected a deeper price drop. Having failed to establish a breakout beyond 18-month highs during the week, Bitcoin proved uninspiring to market participants, some of whom were hoping to see a fresh correction to retest lower levels.

“I would be delighted to see this latest rally complete the round trip to $35,000. I would be even happier to see a new test of $33k,” monitoring resource Material Indicators wrote in part of the day's commentary on X (formerly Twitter).

A snapshot of BTC/USDT order book liquidity showed support building at $35,000. Material Indicators co-founder Keith Alan added that Bitcoin's rising 21-day simple moving average had been serving as support in recent days.

“BTC continues to fight for the range above $36.5k,” he commented.

Popular pseudonymous trader Daan Crypto Trades also noted $35,700 and $38,000 as the main downside and upside levels to watch, respectively. Meanwhile, fellow pseudonymous trader Gaah, a contributor to on-chain analytics platform CryptoQuant, warned that a steeper correction could bring the market closer to $30,000.

FUD of the week

Cybersecurity team says up to $2.1 billion worth of cryptocurrencies stored in old wallets are at risk

Cybersecurity company Unciphered revealed a vulnerability dubbed "Randstorm," which it said affects millions of crypto wallets that were generated using web browsers between 2011 and 2015. According to the company, while working to recover a Bitcoin wallet, it discovered a potential issue for wallets generated by BitcoinJS and derived projects. . The issue could affect millions of wallets and around $2.1 billion in crypto assets, according to the cybersecurity company.

Swan Bitcoin to Terminate Accounts of Customers Using Cryptocurrency Mixing Services

Bitcoin Swan Bitcoin services platform warned its clients that it would be forced to cancel accounts It found itself interacting with the cryptocurrency mix due to the regulatory obligations of its partner banks. Customers learned of the new policy in a letter that suggests the changes are due to a proposed rule by the U.S. Financial Crimes Enforcement Network that establishes new responsibilities for firms that process bundled services transactions.

ENS developers urge Unstoppable Domains to withdraw patents or face lawsuit

Ethereum Name Service (ENS) Founder and Lead Developer Nick Johnson Urges Blockchain Domain Company Unstoppable Domains abandon a recently granted patent or face a lawsuit, according to an open letter shared on X (formerly Twitter). According to Johnson, the patent recently granted to Unstoppable is "based entirely on innovations that ENS developed and contains no novel innovations of its own." Unstoppable Domains founder Matthew Gould responded in the thread, stating that "multiple naming systems" exist.

Top magazine articles of the week

I spent a week working in virtual reality. However, it was mostly terrible...

Felix Ng, journalist at Cointelegraph magazine I spent a week working in virtual reality. It was mostly terrible... but it has some potential.

Break into Liberland: Dodge guards with inner tubes, decoys and diplomats

"Bitcoin is really one of the most fundamental parts of Liberland: 99% of our reserves are in BTC.”

No civil protection for cryptocurrencies in China, $300,000 to list coins in Hong Kong? asia express

Hong Kong exchanges expand Amid continued investor interest, Philippines to issue $180 million in tokenized bonds, China rules out civil protection for cryptocurrencies, and more!