ACT

Texas court rules SEC's expanded definition of "dealer" is illegal, impacting the crypto finance sector

ChainCatcher news, a Texas court has ordered the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to repeal a controversial rule that broadly redefined the term "Dealer," a move that has impacted both cryptocurrency-focused financial firms and traditional financial companies.Judge Reed O'Connor found that the rule was passed in February by a 3 to 2 vote, exceeding the statutory authority of the SEC. Traditionally, a dealer refers to an entity that buys and sells securities for itself rather than for others. The SEC expanded the definition in an attempt to include any entity capable of providing market liquidity, particularly in the U.S. Treasury market.In a footnote of the original proposal draft, it was explicitly stated that those "engaged in the trading of crypto securities" must comply with securities laws, register with the SEC, and join industry-supported self-regulatory organizations. Initially, participants in the crypto industry objected to the rule. The expanded interpretation effectively eliminated the distinction between "trader" and "dealer" in traditional understanding.The Texas Blockchain Association and the Crypto Freedom Alliance filed a lawsuit against the securities regulator in April (the month the rule officially took effect), claiming that the rule's intervention in the crypto space was excessive and conflicted with existing laws regulating securities dealers, which have been in place for 90 years.

The transfer volume on the Solana chain recently reached a historic high of $318 billion, but most of the activity is driven by bots

ChainCatcher news, according to Cointelegraph, the Solana blockchain recently reached a record high in on-chain transaction volume, but market intelligence firm Glassnode claims that most of the activity is driven by bots. Glassnode pointed out in an X post on November 19 that Solana's transaction volume hit a historical high of $318 billion on November 16, nearly three times the total market cap of SOL ($112.5 billion). The total number of active addresses on Solana has surged to 22 million.However, Glassnode noted that the average transaction volume and median transaction volume declined during the same period. This raised questions about the authenticity of Solana's metrics, as organic growth should be accompanied by similar increases in average levels. To explain this phenomenon, Glassnode stated, "This pattern of network activity inflation may indicate bot-driven activity, which historically has led to similar trends for Solana." The increase in activity may be the reason for the recent rise in fees and network revenue.Data from DefiLlama shows that on November 20, Solana's daily revenue reached a historical high of nearly $6 million, with network participants paying $7.63 million in transaction fees. Supplementary data from Blockworks Research indicates that on November 19, Solana's Real Economic Value (REV) reached a historical high of $26 million.

The former director of the Technology Supervision Department of the China Securities Regulatory Commission, Yao Qian, has been expelled from the Party and dismissed from public office, involving transactions related to virtual currencies and other power-for-money exchanges

According to ChainCatcher news, on the website of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection and National Supervisory Commission, Yao Qian, former director of the Science and Technology Supervision Bureau of the China Securities Regulatory Commission and former director of the Information Center, has been expelled from the Party and public office due to serious violations of discipline and law. Investigations show that Yao Qian used regulatory power to seek benefits for specific technology service providers, involving money-for-power transactions related to virtual currencies, and illegally accepted huge amounts of property.In addition, he also violated the spirit of the Central Eight Provisions by improperly accepting valuable items, accepting banquets, and engaging in irregular operations in employee recruitment and investment shares. After research and decision by the Party Committee of the China Securities Regulatory Commission and relevant disciplinary inspection and supervision departments, Yao Qian has been subjected to serious penalties, and issues involving suspected criminal activities have been transferred to the procuratorial organs for legal review and prosecution.Previous report indicated that Yao Qian was suspected of serious violations of discipline and law, and had previously undergone disciplinary review by the disciplinary inspection team stationed at the China Securities Regulatory Commission and supervisory investigation by the Shantou Municipal Supervisory Committee in Guangdong Province.It is reported that Yao Qian was the first director of the Digital Currency Research Department of the People's Bank of China (CBDC) and was named one of the most influential figures in the blockchain field by Coindesk in 2017. He has published multiple research articles on blockchain technology, digital currency, and Web 3.0, and co-authored the book "Web 3.0: Changes and Challenges of the Next Generation Internet."
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