News Roundup — Crypto Industry Cheers as SEC Must Pay $1.8 Million for ‘Gross Abuse’ of Power

Major news stories this week;

1. Crypto Industry Cheers as SEC Must Pay $1.8 Million for ‘Gross Abuse’ of Power
2. Semler Scientific Adopts Bitcoin as Primary Treasury Reserve Asset, Stock Surges 37%
3. PayPal launches stablecoin on Solana as $2.6tn payments market heats up
4. Stablecoins Hit Two-Year High, USDT Leads with $111B Cap
5. Terraform Labs, Do Kwon reach a 'settlement in principle' with US SEC, according to court entry

Story Summaries;

1. The Securities and Exchange Commission has been dealt another blow in its crusade against crypto after a judge ordered the regulator to pay $1.8 million following its failed lawsuit against DEBT Box. Last year, the SEC alleged that crypto mining firm DEBT Box “lied to investors” in a “fraudulent scheme” where it raised $50 million in Bitcoin and Ethereum. Utah District Court Judge Robert Shelby ruled that the case was a dud and that the regulator would have to cough up cash to cover legal costs. The judgment came after the judge said in March that the SEC’s conduct was “a gross abuse of the power  entrusted to it by Congress.” DEBT Box declared it a “monumental victory,” its chief marketing officer Miguel Francis-Santiago telling Decrypt that it wasn’t just a victory for his company but “a win for the Web3 industry as a whole.”
2. Semler Scientific, a medical technology company, saw its shares surge 37% after announcing it has adopted bitcoin as its primary treasury reserve asset. The company purchased 581 bitcoins for about $40 million, inclusive of fees and expenses. Semler believes bitcoin is a reliable store of value, a compelling investment, and can serve as a reasonable inflation hedge and safe haven amid global instability. The move puts Semler in the same company as MicroStrategy, which began employing an aggressive bitcoin-buying strategy in 2020 and has primarily traded as a proxy for the crypto’s price since then.
3. In its long-running rivalry with Ethereum, Solana has enlisted a surprising new ally — PayPal. The online payments pioneer has agreed to add its stablecoin, PYUSD, to the Solana blockchain network, the two companies said on Wednesday. While PayPal already makes its stablecoin available on Ethereum, the development bolsters Solana’s credibility in the colossal payments processing space. The market is worth $2.6 trillion and is expected to grow to almost $5 trillion by 2029. A JPMorgan Chase report from a few years ago even concluded that new technologies and consumer behaviour may lead to $54 trillion in global payment flows.
4. In a sustained growth trajectory, the market capitalization of stablecoins has touched a two-year peak at $161 billion as of May 2022. This milestone follows eight months of consistent upward movement, marking a significant rebound since the Terra Luna financial debacle. Despite the overall market cap surge, stablecoins’ dominance has seen a modest decline to 6.07%, compared to 7% in March. This decrease mirrors the broader recovery across major cryptocurrency assets, notably after the U.S. greenlighted a spot Ethereum ETF. Amidst these shifts, Tether (USDT) has not only maintained its leading position but has also achieved a record market cap of $111 billion, accounting for 69.3% of the stablecoin market’s total value.
5. Terraform Labs and its co-founder Do Kwon have "reached a settlement in principle," with the U.S. Securities Exchange Commission, according to a court entry. A telephone conference, which was not recorded, was held on Wednesday and a previously planned oral argument set for May 29 had been canceled, according to an entry filed on Thursday. "The oral argument previously set for 5/29/2024 has been cancelled because the parties have informed the Court that they reached a settlement in principle," according to the filing. "The parties must file, by 6/12/2024, papers in support of a proposed final judgment consistent with the settlement."

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And that’s all for last week’s news! Wishing you a great week ahead!

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