Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren, known by many as an outspoken cryptocurrency skeptic in the United States government, criticized outages at exchanges and high transaction fees during periods of price volatility. In a Tuesday hearing of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs with Securities and Exchange Commission chair Gary Gensler, Warren claimed the crypto industry had fallen short on providing solutions for financial inclusion in the United States. She mentioned the price drops among cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) last week, saying “$400 billion in market value disappeared” while many users reported problems accessing major exchanges like Coinbase. Warren hinted that investing in decentralized finance, or DeFi, projects was “pretty risky” given the fact many have not registered with the SEC and aren’t necessarily within its regulatory umbrella. In addition, she highlighted some of the high transaction fees during periods of volatility — in this case, on Sept. 7, when the BTC price fell from $52,920 to an intraday low of $42,843.

Bitcoin billionaires Tim Draper and the Winklevoss twins have backed a start-up dubbed “Colossal” that is aiming to resurrect woolly mammoths as part of the effort to fight climate change. The “de-extinction” focused bioscience firm closed a $15 million funding round on Sept.13, which was led by Legendary Pictures founder Thomas Tull. The round also included participation from Peter Diamandis of Bold Capital, Jim Breyer of Breyer Capital and Tony Robbins, the famous “self-help guru” with a net worth of around $500 million.

According to data from eth.btc.com，ethereum network's hashrate is667,383.94 GH/s，mining difficulty is8,880.64T. ETH's price ：$ 3,408.26 Avg Gas Price：185.00Gwei Pending Txs ：138851

The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has charged three of Chinese billionaire Guo Wengui’s companies over an initial coin offering (ICO) and initial public offering (IPO) that fetched around $487 million combined. The infamous Wengui, also known as Miles Kwok or Miles Guo, is an exiled Chinese businessman who currently resides in New York. Wengui is known for his controversial political takes and his ties to Donald Trump confidant, Steve Bannon. The SEC submitted a cease and desist order on Sept. 13, with the documents showing that Guo’s companies have agreed to pay a settlement with the SEC within 14 days.

Institutional traders have flocked to Solana (SOL) as demand for Ether (ETH) and Bitcoin (BTC) exposure has flattened, with SOL investment products representing a whopping 86.6% of total weekly inflows crypto investment products last week. According to the Sept. 14 issue of CoinShares’ Digital Asset Fund Flows Weekly, Solana (SOL) investment products saw inflows of $49.4 million between Sept. 6 and Sept.10. The combined total inflows for crypto investment products equated to $57 million for the week, with SOL seeing a 275% week-over-week increase to represent 86.6% of total inflow. The surging inflows to Solana products coincided with the price of SOL gaining 36% over the same period. The report concluded:

Business intelligence outfit and corporate Bitcoin (BTC) whale MicroStrategy has increased its BTC ownership with the additional purchase announced on Monday. MicroStrategy CEO Michael Saylor announced the purchase of 5,050 BTC for about $242.9 million at an average of $48,099 per coin. In a Form 8-K filing with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission published on Monday, MicroStrategy stated that it had added 8,957 BTC to its corporate Bitcoin treasury in Q3 2021.

Brevan Howard, a United Kingdom-based hedge fund, plans to "significantly expand" its cryptocurrency and digital assets, according to a new report from Reuters. Chief Executive Aron Landy, who has been at Brevan's helm since its co-founder and long-time crypto backer Alan Howard stepped down in 2019, has stated that the firm has a "commitment to rapidly expanding its platform and offerings in cryptocurrencies and digital assets."  Brevan's strategy going forward with crypto is two-pronged. The firm is launching a new business division, "BH Digital," to manage its crypto and digital assets, and has also hired CMT Digital Chief Executive Colleen Sullivan to lead private and venture investments in crypto.

Bitcoin mining and power generation company Greenidge is set to complete a merger with customer and technical support solutions provider Support.com to become the latest publicly listed mining firm.  Once the merger transaction is complete, Support.com Inc. will become a wholly-owned subsidiary of Greenidge Generation Holdings Inc. The new entity’s Class A shares will trade under the ticker GREE. According to a Sept. 13 announcement published by the SEC, the merger is expected to become effective by market close the following day. The merger, settled as a stock-for-stock transaction, will see each share in Support.com Inc. automatically converted into the right for its bearer to receive 0.115 Class A Greenidge shares. Greenidge CEO, Jeff Kirt, stated:

Amid massive growth of the stablecoin market, the United States Treasury Department has reportedly discussed potential regulation for private stablecoins. The Treasury conducted several meetings last week to examine the risks of stablecoins for users, markets or the financial system as well as to learn about their benefits and consider potential regulation, Reuters reported on Sept 10. “The Treasury Department is meeting with a broad range of stakeholders, including consumer advocates, members of Congress and market participants,” Treasury spokesman John Rizzo said.

Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives have proposed tax initiatives to fund a $3.5 trillion spending package which could potentially affect crypto users.  According to a document released by the House Committee on Ways and Means on Monday, the proposal would increase the tax rate on long-term capital gains from the existing 20% to 25% for “certain high income individuals.” A surtax of 3.8% on net investment income would seemingly apply to the proposed changes, bringing the U.S. capital gains and dividends tax rate to 28.8% for wealthy crypto users. In addition, the tax plan would add digital assets to the “wash sale” rules, which prohibit investors from claiming capital gains deductions on certain assets repurchased within 30 days of a sale, "previously applicable to stock and other securities." Existing tax laws under the IRS consider cryptocurrencies as property in wash sales — which some crypto users have been able to use to avoid capital gains — while the proposal from U.S. lawmakers would close this loophole.

As the Income Tax Department of India reportedly considers taxing crypto traders and crypto exchanges soon, experts believe investors should rest assured. According to ET Now’s report, the tax department, which operates under India’s Ministry of Finance, has signaled interest to tax crypto earnings through trade and exchanges. However, the sources claim that the move will not entitle cryptocurrencies to a valid asset class position. Speaking to Cointelegraph, Indian entrepreneur Nischal Shetty, CEO of WazirX crypto exchange, said that getting clarity on crypto-related Goods and Services Tax (GST) will help in identifying the asset class of cryptocurrencies:

Marvel and DC seem to be breaking away from the established tradition of allowing creators and artists to sell original prints of published works due to their reported plans for entry into the nonfungible token (NFT) space. According to Bloomberg, the two comic book staples have barred artists from selling NFTs of the characters they create for the company. Both Marvel and DC reportedly have designs on leveraging their vast collection of comic book art in the expanding NFT scene, potentially a new market for selling collectibles.

The price of Litecoin (LTC) rose to more than $237 earlier on Monday following erroneous reports from major news outlets that United States retailer Walmart would be introducing a payment option for the cryptocurrency on all of its e-commerce websites. CNBC, Reuters, Decrypt and others reported on Monday that Walmart planned to have a “Pay with Litecoin Option” for its retail websites starting on Oct. 1 as part of a partnership with the Litecoin Foundation, the organization financing and promoting adoption of the Litecoin ecosystem. The reports seemed to spawn from a single press release through distribution service GlobeNewsWire. The release claimed that Walmart chose to adopt LTC for payments based on its “cheaper and faster” features and the token having “no central authority.” However, according to CNBC, a Walmart spokesperson confirmed the press release was “not authentic” roughly an hour after the initial report broke. The Litecoin Foundation's director of marketing, Jay Milla, also told Cointelegraph the announcement did not come from the foundation.

OKLink and TokenPocket reached strategic cooperation on crypto-asset security. OKLink will provide service of precise address health detection for TokenPocket users. Users can query the relevant data and risk information of any address through the entry of TokenPocket wallet to protect the security of their crypto assets. In the future, both parties will also make security risk alerts for dangerous domain names and carry out deeper cooperation in the ecological construction of the security of on-chain crypto assets.

Coinbase, the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the United States, is planning to raise $1.5 billion via a debt offering, the company officially announced Monday. The Nasdaq-listed crypto exchange is looking to use the capital raised to further grow the company’s balance sheet for general corporate purposes as well as potential investments and acquisitions of other companies, products or technology, Coinbase said. The closing of the offering is subject to market and other conditions, the firm noted. The new raise specifically aims to offer a $1.5-billion aggregate principal amount of the company’s senior notes due 2028 and 2031, which will be fully guaranteed by Coinbase Inc., a wholly-owned Coinbase subsidiary acting as its holding company. The interest rate, redemption provisions and other terms of the raise are subject to negotiations between the firm and initial purchasers.

Gary Gensler, chair of the United States Securities and Exchange Commission, is once again urging crypto projects with securities to register with the regulatory body to ensure that investors are protected. In a prepared statement for his testimony at the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs scheduled for Sept. 14, Gensler said the Securities and Exchange Commission, or SEC, was working with the Commodities Futures Trading Commission for investor protection in crypto markets. In addition, he hopes to develop a policy framework by working with the Federal Reserve, Department of Treasury, Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, and President Joe Biden’s Working Group on Financial Markets. “I’ve suggested that [crypto] platforms and projects come in and talk to us,” said the SEC chair. “Many platforms have dozens or hundreds of tokens on them. While each token’s legal status depends on its own facts and circumstances, the probability is quite remote that, with 50, 100, or 1,000 tokens, any given platform has zero securities.”

The deadline for South Korean crypto exchanges to meet new compliance requirements is looming fast, with all operators expected to submit requests for an official license with the Financial Services Commission (FSC) no later than Sept. 24. Industry actors and representatives for smaller exchanges have contested the new requirements for much of the past year.  The crux has been the obligation that all exchanges show evidence that they are operating using real-name accounts at South Korean banks. The FSC has justified by arguing that there is a high demand from customers for more protection for their assets held at smaller crypto platforms. Yet South Korea’s banks have, for the most part, refused to engage in any risk assessment process for applicant exchanges, except for the country’s top four trading platforms. 

The Ethereum Foundation (EF) and Ethereum Name Service (ENS) are backing a proposed system for secure sign-in using Ethereum from decentralized identity software firm Spruce. Spruce’s system was selected after EF and ENS submitted a Request for Proposals in July encouraging developers and software firms to propose a sign-in package using Oauth — an open standard for access delegation. A Sept. 13 announcement states that the firm aims to give users control of their own online identities, offering an alternative to handing over one’s personal data to the likes of Google, Apple, and Facebook.

NFT company Recur has seen its valuation swell to $333 million after concluding a successful investment round endorsed by billionaire Steve Cohen’s family office.  The Series A raised $50 million, mainly through contributions from the Cohen-backed investment platform Digital, according to a statement. Some of Recur’s previous investors include Hashed, Gemini, CMT Digital, JST Capital and Delphi Ventures. The investment will be used to bootstrap the company’s go-to-market strategy, which includes hiring over 150 people, developing new brand experiences and launching a new NFT platform called NFTU.com. As Cointelegraph reported, Recur raised $5 million in March to address some of the biggest challenges within the NFT market, including how artists get paid.

Australian digital asset manager Monochrome has concluded a $1.8 million Series A fundraiser led by some of crypto’s most influential entrepreneurs, underscoring the growing potential of institutional-grade crypto-asset solutions.  The cash injection will be used by Monochrome to develop new products specializing in Bitcoin (BTC) and other digital assets, the company said. The Series A was co-led by Litecoin creator Charlie Lee, Blockstream chief strategy officer Samson Mow, former Binance CFO Wei Zhou and Kain Warwick, the founder of Blueshyft and DeFi protocol Synthetix. Following the raise, Monochrome’s total valuation was estimated to be worth roughly $15 million. Monochrome was launched earlier this year by Jeff Yew, the former chief executive of Binance Australia, to provide an institutional onramp to cryptocurrency investing. The company is perhaps best known for the Monochrome Bitcoin Fund, a capital growth vehicle for wholesale investors. The fund targets a near 100% allocation to physical Bitcoin, which is custodied by U.S. trust company BitGo Trust.