It should be noted that the situation in the cryptocurrency industry today is ambiguous. First of all, trading volumes with cryptocurrencies over the past 24 hours stood at $12.53 billion, which is quite close to a yearly low. Here’s the relevant chart for clarity from The Block.

A study by Kaiko analysts confirms this. They note that trading volumes on Binance have sagged by more than 30 percent since the beginning of the year. At the same time, traders from Japan led the growth in activity.

However, it was not without the positives, too. As noted by experts, now the accumulation of bitcoins is actively engaged long-term investors – that is, those who keep coins without movement for at least a year. Today, the number of BTC at their disposal has reached 14.46 million units, which is a record figure. Just as importantly, this amount has increased by 300 thousand bitcoins since April 12, 2023.

What the Securities Commission is not liked for

In a recent press release, Grayscale representatives confirmed that the SEC had indeed asked the company to withdraw its application, advising it instead to register the organisation under the Investment Company Act of 1940.

However, in order to obtain such status, Filecoin Trust would need to be classified as an organisation that is primarily engaged in investing in securities. On top of this, the Commission has openly stated that FIL is supposedly a security. Accordingly, the token passes the Howey test, a special set of requirements by which a security is defined.


Recall that the current chairman of the US Securities and Exchange Commission, Gary Gensler, has also previously openly referred to all cryptocurrencies other than Bitcoin as securities. The exception for BTC here is created because the first cryptocurrency was launched by an anonymous developer known under the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto. In addition, he did not conduct a pre-sale stage of coins to raise additional capital.

However, during a hearing before the House Financial Services Committee in April, Gensler somehow became unsure of his own position. Moreover, he failed to pronounce which category - securities or commodities - Etherium belonged to, after which he was offered dismissal. Read more about this discussion in a separate piece.


According to CryptoPotato sources, one of the main attributes of a security is an investment in a company on the expectation of its returns. But the main application of FIL is to pay for data storage services. This factor alone is enough to cross a token out of the securities category, experts believe.

Again, the US regulator views cryptocurrencies in the context of the Securities Act of 1933. Of course, this is far from a good idea, because the world was very different back then, and decentralized assets did not even smell close.

The management of Grayscale is also convinced of the Commission’s error, so the company is ready to challenge the regulator’s statement. Will it succeed? Probably not. Grayscale left a note in a press release that the company will still have to comply with the regulator’s request if the Commission “fails to be persuaded”.

In theory, the company could go to court to try to prove its case. But legal services in a supposedly protracted case are not cheap. Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse, whose company has been in litigation with the SEC since December 2020, recently told NFC Times that the entire dispute with the regulator is expected to cost the XRP token issuer about $200 million. Obviously, not all cryptocurrency giants are willing to shell out that kind of money for the chance to be right. The current bear market in cryptocurrencies is also contributing to this.

Meanwhile, the Australian branch of major cryptocurrency exchange Binance has announced that it can no longer process Australian dollar transactions using PayID. Representatives of Binance Australia said there were problems with the payment system and noted that they were already looking for alternatives for local customers. Accordingly, the local bank is clearly reluctant to engage with the trading platform.

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At the moment, Binance users from Australia can buy and sell crypto by withdrawing money from their bank cards. The local P2P platform is also running as usual.

The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) is also inspecting Binance Australia’s crypto derivatives operations. The inspection began after the crypto-exchange misclassified 500 users as “wholesale investors”, leading to their derivatives positions being closed. Still, such a thing is prohibited by local law for individual traders.


We believe that this approach by regulators and banks can hardly be called constructive - at least because they were not previously embarrassed by the operation of relevant crypto projects and platforms. Obviously, government agencies should focus their efforts on developing rules for the digital asset sector rather than causing problems for them. This will benefit both the reputation of the jurisdiction and the local economy.