First Mover Americas: SEC Subpoenas PayPal About USD Stablecoin

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PayPal (PYPL) received a subpoena from the U.S. SEC requesting documentation about its USD stablecoin on Wednesday, the global payments giant said in a filing. In August, the firm announced it was entering the cryptocurrency market with the U.S. dollar-pegged stablecoin, PayPal USD. "On Nov. 1, 2023, we received a subpoena from the U.S. SEC Division of Enforcement relating to PayPal USD stablecoin. The subpoena requests the production of documents. We are cooperating with the SEC in connection with this request," PayPal revealed in its quarterly earnings report.

An updated bankruptcy plan filed by crypto lender Genesis last week represents a significant change of plans, the U.S. government said in a filing on Wednesday. The lender is now seeking to liquidate its assets rather than reorganize them. The apparent U-turn by Genesis – made after the crypto lender and its parent company Digital Currency Group (DCG) were sued by the New York Attorney General (NYAG) – could add extra delays to the wind-up process, the filing by U.S. Trustee William Harrington said. DCG is also CoinDesk’s parent company.

One of the most famous sayings on Wall Street is that a bull market tends to stay in motion unless an external force acts upon it. Bitcoin (BTC) has historically lived up to the adage modeled along Sir Isaac Newton’s third law of motion and could do so again, rising as high as $56,000 by the end of the year, according to crypto services provider Matrixport. “If bitcoin is up at least +100% by this time of the year, then there is a +71% chance or five in seven that bitcoin would finish the year higher with average year-end rallies of +65%," Markus Thielen, head of research and strategy at Matrixport, said in a note to clients on Thursday. “As bitcoin tends to reach its peak by December 18th, we could call the six to seven weeks from early November to mid-December Bitcoin’s Santa Claus Rally.”

- Omkar Godbole