Bitcoin-friendly Javier Milei wins Argentina’s presidential election; dYdX founder claims planned attack on exchange via YFI; SEC delays decisions on ETF applications!
Bitcoin-friendly Javier Milei wins Argentina’s presidential election
Argentina’s bitcoin BTC friend Javier Milei won the country’s presidential run-off election on 19th November, beating rival Sergio Massa.
According to Bloomberg data, Milei won more than 55% of the vote, with around 3 million more votes.
Milei will be sworn in on 10 December after the results are announced.
Argentina’s long-running inflation crisis has become a hot topic in the South American country, with the Argentine peso recording an annual inflation rate of over 140% in the last 12 months.
Milei criticised the country’s central bank, describing it as a scam and “a mechanism by which politicians cheat good people with inflationary taxes”.
He described Bitcoin as a movement to “return to the private sector, the original creator of money”.
However, he did not signal his intention to make Bitcoin legal tender in the country.
Massa’s views on money, banking and the cryptocurrency sector appear to be the opposite of Milei’s.
In October, he pledged to launch a central bank digital currency (CBDC) if elected in order to “solve” Argentina’s long-running inflation crisis.
dYdX founder claims planned attack on exchange via YFI
Decentralized exchange dYdX was forced to use its insurance fund to cover $9 million in user liquidations on 17 November. According to dYdX founder Antonio Juliano, the losses were caused by a planned attack on the exchange.
According to the dYdX team’s report, the v3 insurance fund was used “to fill gaps in the liquidation processes in the YFI market”. Yearn.Finance (YFI) token saw a 43% drop on November 17, after rising 170% in the previous weeks. The sudden price drop caused a rug-pull concern within the crypto community.
The attack targeted long positions in YFI tokens on the exchange, causing the liquidation of positions worth about $ 38 million. Juliano believes that the trading losses affecting dYdX, as well as the sharp drop in YFI, are due to market manipulation:
“This was quite clearly a planned attack on dYdX. This plan included manipulation of YFI. We are investigating together with several partners and will be transparent about what we discover.”
According to Juliano, there is still $13.5 million in the v3 insurance fund, and users’ funds were not affected.
“While no user funds have been affected, we will scrutinise our risk parameters in detail and, if necessary, make appropriate changes to both v3 and potentially the dYdX Chain.”
After what happened, $ 300 million evaporated from YFI’s market value. Some users have suggested that 50 per cent of the YFI token supply is located in 10 wallets controlled by developers.
SEC delays decisions on ETF applications
The US Securities and Exchange Commission announced that it postponed its decision on three ETF applications.
The regulator, which first postponed the application for Hashdex’s “Hashdex Nasdaq Ethereum ETF” to 1 January 2024, announced that it postponed two spot Bitcoin ETF applications by making decisions in line with the expectations of the markets.
The SEC postponed Global X’s spot Bitcoin ETF application. The regulator’s deadline for this application seemed to be 21 November.
Bloomberg ETF analyst James Seyffart stated that the decision on Global X’s application will most likely take place at the end of December.
The ETF application, which is certain to be postponed today, was the spot Bitcoin ETF application made by Franklin. The deadline for the regulator to make a decision on Franklin’s application was 17 November. The SEC, acting in line with expectations, announced that it postponed its decision on this application.
The community is still hopeful
The SEC’s postponement of ETF decisions does not seem to have caused a negativity in the crypto community. The majority of analysts are pointing to January 2024 for potential ETF approval.
In a recent X post, Seyffart stated that there is a 90 percent chance that the SEC will approve a spot Bitcoin ETF by 10 January 2024.
Grayscale’s winning the lawsuit against the SEC for GBTC is seen as one of the most important reasons why the crypto community is so hopeful.
