Today in crypto, the US SEC has launched “Project Crypto,” promising to overhaul digital asset rules. In India, a CoinDCX employee was reportedly arrested after the exchange’s $44M hack. Meanwhile, Ether saw its biggest monthly gain since July 2022, driven by strong ETF inflows and treasury activity.
US SEC rolls out ‘Project Crypto’ to rewrite rules for digital assets
US Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Paul Atkins has announced “Project Crypto,” an initiative to modernize the agency for the digital finance age and establish clear regulations for digital assets in the United States.
Atkins said Project Crypto was in direct response to recommendations in a recent report by the President’s Working Group on Digital Assets.
Atkins proposed easing licensing rules to allow for multiple asset classes or instruments to be offered by brokerages under a single license, while also creating a clear market structure separating commodities, which most cryptocurrencies fall under, from securities.
Regulatory exemptions or grace periods should be afforded to early-stage crypto projects, initial coin offerings, and decentralized software to allow these projects enough room to innovate, without crushing them under the weight of litigation or fear of reprisal by the SEC, Atkins said.
Additionally, the SEC chair said crypto business shouldn’t be forced to establish decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) to avoid regulation. He also said the right to self-custody must be protected by law. Atkins wrote:
“Many of the Commission’s legacy rules and regulations do not make sense in the twenty-first century — let alone for on-chain markets. The Commission must revamp its rulebook so that regulatory moats do not hinder progress and competition, from both new entrants and incumbents, to the detriment of Main Street.”
Outfitting the SEC for internet capital markets and onchain finance has been a stated goal of the new SEC chair and a way to cement US leadership in crypto.
CoinDCX employee arrested in connection with $44 million crypto hack: Report
An employee of CoinDCX, a cryptocurrency exchange that was hacked for $44 million in mid-July, was arrested in India in connection with a security breach, according to multiple local reports.
Bengaluru City police detained CoinDCX software engineer Rahul Agarwal after hackers allegedly managed to compromise his login credentials to siphon the exchange’s assets, The Times of India reported on Thursday.
The arrest followed a complaint and internal investigation by CoinDCX operator Neblio Technologies, which determined that Agarwal’s credentials had been compromised via his work laptop, allowing unauthorized access to the company’s servers.
During questioning as his laptop was seized, Agarwal, 30, denied involvement in the crypto theft, but admitted to taking on part-time work for up to four private clients while still employed at CoinDCX.
“We urge the media and the public to avoid speculation or the circulation of unverified information, as it may impede the ongoing investigation,” a spokesperson for CoinDCX told Cointelegraph.
CoinDCX declined to confirm or deny Agarwal’s arrest to Cointelegraph, referring to an X post by CoinDCX co-founder and CEO Sumit Gupta, who told the public on Thursday that the exchange cannot engage with media amid an ongoing investigation.
“Based on our internal preliminary findings, this appears to be a sophisticated social engineering attack,” Gupta said in the post, adding that employees are often targeted in such attacks.
Ether, a “90s tech stock” ends July with biggest gain in 3 years
Ether has just clocked its best monthly return in three years, surging 56%, with one analyst calling it akin to a “90s tech stock” on the back of strong recent ETF inflows.
ETH is currently trading at $3,862, which is significantly higher than its July 1 opening of $2,468, according to CoinGecko.
This marks the first time that Ether has given a monthly return of 50% or more in a single month since July 2022, when ETH surged by 56.62%, according to CoinGlass.
Eric Balchunas, Bloomberg’s Senior ETF Analyst, attributed ETH’s recent price performance to the net inflows seen across spot Ether exchange-traded funds (ETFs).
“Ether Starting to Look Like ’90s Tech Stock as ETFs Catch Fire,” Balchunas wrote in an X post.
He further compared Ether to “fledgling tech stocks in the ’90s,” in terms of accelerating adoption and network growth, which is differentiated from the “new gold” narrative of Bitcoin.
