Government overreach and sensible regulation

TON had a rough week. Pavel Duriv, the founder and CEO of Telegram was arrested in France, and TON suffered two outages, the first of which lasted six hours. Toncoin, the native token for the TON blockchain, fell in response to each of these events, but is only down about 2.5% in the last seven days. One silver lining of what appears to be flagrant government overreach was said to me by my co-hosts on Token Narratives, a podcast I do with Bitcoin.com CEO Corbin Fraser and Marketing Lead Graham Stone. They said that perhaps this will spur Telegram to make encryption enabled by default, and look into decentralizing onto the TON blockchain in some capacity.

In other news, WebX was in Tokyo this week. Along with crypto native companies like BitFlyer and Unikura, there were many major traditional Japanese businesses introducing crypto products, such NTT Digital, SBI, and Nomura. Setting aside questions about the strictness of Japan's crypto regulation, the fact that a clear framework exists has allowed crypto-related businesses to take root. As an American, I am jealous of the clear regulation and the fact that the Japanese government is not actively antagonistic to the sector. Still, many people from crypto native projects I talked to were not impressed, saying Japan still lags far behind Singapore and Dubai.

America's tenor with crypto could change suddenly depending on the outcome of the U.S. presidential election. Would it be too little too late, or could the U.S. make up lost ground, turning into the "crypto capital of the planet?"

-David Sencil

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In the news

Telegram CEO Pavel Durov arrested in France: TON price plummets

Pavel Durov, founder and CEO of Telegram, has reportedly been arrested at Le Bourget airport in France under a search warrant issued by the French judicial police.

The arrest follows accusations that Telegram facilitates crimes like drug trafficking and fraud due to its anonymity features.

Coinbase CEO predicts payments will be crypto's next big boom

Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong reflects on the past decade of the cryptocurrency industry, highlighting his initial expectation that payments would be the primary application for crypto.

Instead, trading became the dominant force. Looking ahead, Armstrong remains optimistic about the future of crypto payments.

SEC issues Wells notice to Opensea, concerning NFTs on marketplaces
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has issued a Wells notice to Opensea, signaling potential enforcement action against the NFT marketplace.

Opensea's CEO criticized the SEC's move, claiming it could negatively impact innovation and creators' livelihoods.

Peter Schiff warns of looming US dollar crisis and economic collapse
Economist and gold advocate Peter Schiff has cautioned about the U.S. dollar index falling substantially, "triggering a U.S. dollar crisis, crashing the economy, and sending consumer prices and long-term interest rates soaring."

Schiff further warned of higher inflation and stagflation, impacting consumer prices and interest rates.

Finder's experts forecast potential surge in XRP price
Financial comparison platform Finder has updated its XRP price prediction for 2024 based on input from a panel of fintech experts.

The panel's average prediction for XRP is $0.66 this year, with the forecast suggesting it could rise to $1.05 by the end of 2025 and reach $2.49 by 2030, driven by its role in cross-border payments and strategic partnerships.