Market Watch | Bitcoin | $10,317 | 7 day: -6.1% | | Ethereum | $329 | 7 day: -10.2% | | All crypto | $325b | 7 day: -6.6% | | Bitcoin dominance | 58.6% | 7 day: +0.1% | Prices as of 3:45 p.m. EDT
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The U.S. Dept. of Justice and the FBI announce arrests and the seizure of illicit drugs, as well as $6.5m in cash and cryptocurrencies. - The DoJ has announced the results of an operation that led to the arrests of 179 alleged drug traffickers operating through darknets.
- The 9-month operation "DisrupTor" (a wordplay on the popular darknet browser, Tor) was spearheaded by DOJ's Joint Criminal Opioid and Darknet Enforcement (JSODE).
- In collaboration with Europol, the operation led to 121 arrests in the U.S and 58 in Europe.
- DoJ's Sept. 22 statement disclosures the seizure of approximately 500kg of drugs and about $6.5m in cash and cryptocurrencies worldwide.
- The report states that several investigations related to online drug trafficking are still ongoing.
U.S. Dept. of Justice 
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A federal judge in Florida has denied Craig Wright's motion for summary judgment regarding disputed assets worth roughly $10b. The lawsuit is Kleiman et al. v. Wright in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida. The trial is scheduled for January 2021. - The lawsuit was filed by David Kleiman against Wright, who dubiously claims to be Satoshi Nakamoto. A district court judge rejected Wright's motion of summary judgment, according to a court document dated Sept. 21.
- The legal battle between the estate of Kleiman and Wright began in 2018 when Kleiman accused Wright of an illicit attempt to seize his deceased partner's bitcoins and other intellectual property.
- The outcome of this case will decide the ownership of assets worth up to $10b.
- In a 93-page decision, the judge says that all six arguments presented by Wright are insufficient and that some facts still remain in dispute. Wright's legal counsel has made a procedural mistake by not presenting a recorded statement to sufficiently support his arguments, the judge says.
Law360
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Robinhood trading app raises $660m in a funding round. Robinhood is a commission-free brokerage as well as a popular fiat onramp for cryptocurrency investors. Robinhood allows U.S. residents to purchase the following cryptocurrencies: BTC, ETH, BCH, BSV, LTC, DOGE, and ETC. - Following the Series G funding round, the total amount of capital raised by Robinhood now exceeds $2b, according to Reuters' calculation of Pitchbook's data.
- Robinhood's valuation is now $11.7b.
- D1 Capital has invested an additional $200m. Other investors include Andreessen Horowitz, Sequoia, DST Global, Ribbit Capital, and 9Yards Capital.
- Amid record-setting new account openings this year and the benefit of Economics Impact Payments, Robinhood has been called out for market exuberance and high market valuations. Robinhood launched an API that, through a website and social trend called Robintrack, has become a popular way to monitor purchases by retail investors.
* Note: The CEO of Inside, Jason Calacanis, is an investor in Robinhood. Calacanis had no involvement in the content of this story. Reuters
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 Christine Lagarde ECB President Christine Lagarde says central bank digital currencies (CDBCs) could complement, but will not be a substitute for, cash. - In a speech to the Franco-German Parliamentary Assembly regarding the future of the digital economy in Europe, ECB President Christine Lagarde discussed the impact of technological breakthroughs such as a potential digital euro.
- Lagarde mentioned that Europe needs to reap potential gains from digital technologies and remain inclusive. She said that the ECB is actively pursuing initiatives to achieve a digital economy, while exploring the potential risks of launching a digital euro.
- A panel of ECB analysts published a Sept. report on stablecoins and their implications on financial stability, monetary policy, and banking supervision. The 30-page report also notes that the term "stablecoin" causes ambiguity and needs to be revised, as they are not necessarily stable.
- Gemini has arbitrarily suspended Gemini USD (GUSD) redemptions, DAI fluctuated 27% within a single day, and Tether (USDT) fluctuated over 15% within a single day – among many other examples of stablecoins' instability.
CoinTelegraph
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 https://www.cia.gov/offices-of-cia/science-technology/cia-labs.html A new CIA research and development lab will study blockchain technology. - On Sept. 21, the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) announced a new R&D laboratory called CIA Labs, which is a chartered member of the federal laboratory consortium.
- CIA Labs will research distributed ledger technology (DLT) and other blockchain and decentralization technologies.
- CIA Labs will perform research, development, tests, and engineering challenges to help CIA officers overcome technical limitations.
- According to MIT Technology Review, the CIA is marketing its lab to inventors by offering them a chance to profit from tech patents and inventions that could arise from laboratory work.
CIA
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Quick Hits: - Popular bitcoin-ethereum bridge tBTC announces the resumption of service after shutting down in May. Project leaders claim to have completed three audits. We have previously reported on the risks of Wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC) and other bitcoin-ethereum bridges here at Inside Cryptocurrency.
- Origin Protocol, a peer-to-peer commerce project, has issued a stablecoin, Origin Dollars (OUSD). Executives advertise a feature of OUSD that automatically farms yield from DeFi projects while holding OUSD is held in an approved wallet, without the need for staking or lockup periods. There are few analyses of OUSD's risky yield farming operations.
- Bitcoin's blockchain size has crossed 300GB on Sept. 21, according to Blockchain.com information. For perspective, the current size of the bitcoin blockchain is dwarfed by an archival full node on Ethereum's network whose size equals to 5.2TB.
- Celsius, a crypto rewards-earning platform, has added PAX Gold token (PAXG).
- The Chamber of Digital Commerce is rumored to have appointed former White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney as a board member. Other Chamber members include Visa, Goldman Sachs, and SDX Digital Exchange.
- Researchers investigate the impact of whales on the price of bitcoin.
- Brands see 18.5% of e-commerce revenue from SMS marketing. See 6 top SMS campaigns here.*
*This is a sponsored post.
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 |  | Written and curated by wide-eyed bitcoin watcher since $1, Aaron Wise. Streaming headline junkie, Associated Press fanboy, eye-strained news terminal watcher, 2017 founder of Cryptocurrency Newsfeed. Temporarily based in Florida while awaiting the construction of cryptopia. |  | | Editor | Edited by Eduardo Garcia in New York. Eduardo is writing an illustrated book about climate change that will be published by Ten Speed Press, an imprint of Penguin Random House. Bylines in The New York Times, The Guardian, Slate, Scientific American, and others. In one of his previous lives, Eduardo worked as a Reuters correspondent in Latin America for nearly a decade. | |
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