The Daily: SEC charges NovaTech, Ethereum whale continues ETH deposit spree, Marathon Digital to buy more bitcoin

Company Intelligence•August 12, 2024, 4:16PM EDT
The Daily: SEC charges NovaTech, Ethereum whale continues ETH deposit spree, Marathon Digital to buy more bitcoin
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Quick Take

  • SEC charges NovaTech with allegedly operating a pyramid scheme that raised $650 million in crypto
  • Harris takes lead over Trump on Polymarket’s $572 million prediction market for next U.S. president
  • Ethereum ICO whale continues $154 million month-long ether deposit spree to OKX
  • The following is adapted from The Block’s newsletter, The Daily, which comes out on weekday afternoons.
 
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Happy Monday! In today's Daily, we look at the SEC charging NovaTech for an alleged crypto fraud totaling $650 million, Harris overtaking Trump on Polymarket, an Ethereum whale's depositing spree and more.
 
Let's get started.

SEC charges NovaTech for alleged fraud

The SEC has charged NovaTech Ltd. founders Cynthia and Eddy Petion with operating a $650 million cryptocurrency pyramid scheme.
  • The scheme allegedly affected over 200,000 investors worldwide, with a significant impact on the Haitian-American community.
  • The Petions and their promoters falsely claimed to invest funds in crypto and forex markets but primarily used new investments to pay off existing investors.
  • The SEC's complaint targets not only the Petions but also several promoters who helped solicit victims for the fraudulent scheme.
  • NovaTech collapsed in May 2023, leaving most investors unable to withdraw their funds.
  • One promoter, Martin Zizi, has agreed to a partial settlement without admitting or denying the allegations.

Harris overtakes Trump on Polymarket

Kamala Harris's odds of winning the upcoming U.S. presidential election have risen to 52% on Polymarket, surpassing Donald Trump's 46%.
  • The U.S. election is the largest prediction market on Polymarket, with a current volume of over $572 million.
  • Harris’s team is engaging with the crypto industry, while Trump has consistently expressed support for bitcoin.
  • Grassroots organization Crypto4Harris is organizing a town hall with industry leaders to support Harris's candidacy and promote a nuanced crypto policy.

Ethereum whale continues ETH deposit spree

A major Ethereum ICO participant deposited 5,000 ether, worth about $13.2 million, to the OKX exchange today.
  • This deposit is part of a series of transfers totaling 48,500 ether, worth $154 million, to OKX in the past month.
  • The address still holds 15,600 ether, valued at approximately $41.8 million.
  • Despite low ether burn rates and rising network inflation, inflows into ether products have surged, driven by newly listed spot ether ETFs in the U.S.

Marathon Digital to buy more bitcoin

Marathon Digital Holdings plans to offer $250 million in convertible senior notes to institutional buyers, with proceeds intended for acquiring more bitcoin and general corporate purposes.
  • The offering is contingent on market conditions and is not guaranteed to proceed as planned.
  • The unsecured notes will bear interest semi-annually, with maturity set for Sept. 1, 2031, unless repurchased earlier.
  • This announcement follows Marathon's Q2 2024 net loss of $199.7 million and a recent purchase of $100 million worth of bitcoin, bringing its holdings to over 20,000 bitcoin.

Ion Protocol raises $4.8 million

Ion Protocol raised an additional $4.8 million, bringing its total funding to $7 million, to develop Nucleus, a native yield primitive for rollups and appchains.
  • Nucleus aims to provide default yield on bridged assets across various networks, addressing the opportunity cost of lost staking yields in Ethereum rollup solutions.
  • The yield is sourced from securing infrastructure products like bridges and oracles, with revenue passed to networks, apps and users to enhance ecosystem monetization.

In the next 24 hours

The U.S. releases the Producer Price Index (PPI)

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