| Bitcoin | $43,864 | 7 day: +34.5% | | Ethereum | $1,743 | 7 day: +18.5% | | All crypto | $1.39T | 7 day: +30.8% | | Bitcoin dominance | 63% | 7 day: +0.9% | Prices as of 2:30 p.m. EST
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Binance has withdrawn its defamation lawsuit against Forbes over the magazine's October 2020 investigation. The article at stake was Forbes' investigation into a document that described an alleged plan to distract U.S. regulators. The exchange did not explain why it withdrew the case. A judge approved Binance's voluntary dismissal without prejudice, meaning that Binance could launch another lawsuit on the same grounds in the future. Context: - The document, named "Tai-Chi," was a slide presentation that described a plan to help the world's largest crypto exchange avoid U.S. regulatory hurdles, using a U.S-based legal entity (Binance.US) to do business in the country.
- Binance's CEO Changpeng Zhao declined to comment on the legal proceeding.
- Binance sued Forbes in November 2020, personally naming two writers as defendants. It argued that Forbes' October article contained various errors and should not have relied on the leaked, unverified document.
- A Binance spokesperson told Coindesk at the time that its lawsuit "doesn't represent any threats to the reporting of Binance."
- The two writers, Jason Brett and Michael del Castillo, noted that daily transactions at Binance.US totaled less than $20M, "perhaps just enough to be a distraction to regulators," versus Binance.com's billions worth of daily transactions.
Gone for now: - Coindesk reporters found public documents indicating that Binance Holdings filed for dismissal of its defamation suit against Forbes Media LLC and its two Forbes reporters.
- A judge of the U.S. District Court District of New Jersey approved the dismissal on Feb. 4.
- One of the attorneys representing Binance Holdings is Charles Harder, known for representing Hulk Hogan and winning his case against the Gawker website, resulting in Gawker's bankruptcy.
- According to Matthew Hutchison, Forbes Chief Communications Officer, the business publication stands by its reporting.
Coindesk 
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 Apple Pay Availability Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) could launch a system using a bitcoin wallet and support cryptocurrencies, according to a new report by RBC Capital Markets. - A team of analysts at RBC Capital Markets, part of Canada's sizeable Royal Bank of Canada, shared an equity research report on Feb. 8. The report suggested that the $2.3T iPhone manufacturer Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) could offer a mechanism to support cryptocurrencies.
- The report also cited the tech giant's access to top-notch software and secure ecosystems as a solution to crypto's problems like KYC/AML laws.
- Analysts at RBC Capital Markets also mentioned that Apple's infrastructure — especially its Wallet app — could provide a "closed yet secure" system with instant access to buyers and sellers of crypto, all while preventing illicit activities.
- RBC analyst Mitch Steves stated that Jack Dorsey's payments company Square (NASDAQ:SQ) makes approximately $1.6B each quarter in bitcoin-related revenue from an active install base of just 30M — a fraction of Apple's customers.
- Since Apple's install base is around 1.5B, the number of people who would transact crypto if allowed is about 6.6x larger than Square.
- The report surfaced on the same day as Elon Musk disclosed Tesla's (NASDAQ:TSLA) January purchase of $1.5B of bitcoin with plans to accept it as a form of payment for its vehicles.
- The report highlights the advantages of Apple's ability to discourage the U.S. government from banning bitcoin in the future.
Coindesk
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 Bank of Korea Governor Lee Ju-yeol The Bank of Korea shared results of its 2020 research into legal matters concerning a central bank digital currency (CBDC). The central bank concludes that CBDCs are fiat. This decision provides the Bank of Korea with the legal basis to apply interest rates to future CBDC issuances. Pending certain currency legislation, a Bank of Korea CBDC could be freely interchanged with cash with the same legal status. More: - Coindesk Korea summarized the central bank's 2020 research, which is clear that a CBDC will require substantial regulatory changes throughout the monetary system to accommodate the new form of fiat.
- External researchers, led by professors at Seoul National and Hanyang universities, explored the legal issues surrounding the concept of a functional CBDC issued by South Korea.
- The research results were published by the central bank on Feb. 8, 2021, concluding that a CBDC, sharing the same legal status to that of cash, would follow similar currency laws.
- The study found that as the sovereign monetary authority, the Bank of Korea can develop a CBDC issuance within the existing South Korean legal framework.
- Researchers observed that the Bank of Korea reserves the right to issue currencies such as notes and coins under the Bank of Korea Act, which may be amended to issue a digital currency.
- The research clarified that a sovereign CBDC should be classified as a currency, not property.
Coindesk
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 Acting Chair of the SEC, Allison Herren Lee The SEC has increased the number of enforcement supervisors who may authorize new investigations from two to 36. During the Trump administration, the agency withdrew that authority from most of its enforcement supervisors, allowing only two officials to approve new probes. Now, 36 senior officials at the agency may authorize subpoenas of companies and individuals. More investigations coming: - "Returning this authority to the division's experienced senior officers, who have a proven track record of executing it prudently, helps to ensure that investigative staff can work effectively to protect investors in an era when the pace of fraud – like the pace of markets themselves – is ever more rapid," Acting Chair of the SEC, Allison Herren Lee, said in a statement published today.
- New SEC investigations fell every year during the Trump administration, from 1,063 in 2016 to 827 in 2019.
- The number of completed SEC enforcement actions fell from 548 in 2016 to 405 in 2020.
- Lee continued, "This will empower senior officers to exercise the delegated authority of the Commission to authorize staff to subpoena documents and take sworn testimony. This delegation of authority will enable investigative staff to act more swiftly to detect and stop ongoing frauds, preserve assets, and protect vulnerable investors."
Wall Street Journal
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- Leaders in the G7 (Group of 7 countries) have announced that Friday's meeting in the U.K. will include discussions on CBDCs, which will likely lead to the drafting of a global framework by the financial regulators.
- The Miller Value Fund, run by the former Chairman and CIO of Legg Mason Capital Management, Bill Miller, has filed documentation with the SEC stating, "the Fund may seek investment exposure to bitcoin [of up to 15% of its assets at time of investment] indirectly by investing in the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (OTCQX:GBTC)."
- Mexico's Ricardo Salinas Pliego, a member of the 2020 Forbes Billionaires List (ranked 106th, with a fortune totaling $11.4B), has taken inspiration from fellow billionaire Elon Musk to add "#bitcoin" to his Twitter profile, which now reads "Empresario Mexicano #bitcoin" (Mexican Entrepreneur #bitcoin). Pliego is no stranger to bitcoin — he previously recommended Saidedean Ammous' book "The Bitcoin Standard" to his Twitter followers.
- Sam Bankman-Fried's ("SBF") Hong Kong-based digital currency exchange FTX is donating another $10M to charity. SBF was the billionaire donor to Joe Biden's presidential campaign that founded an exchange with close ties to BitMEX, and advertised U.S. election wagering and "tokenized shares" of U.S. companies to offshore investors.
- Billionaire technology investor Mark Cuban, who previously said that he would "rather have bananas than bitcoin," now says that given the choice, he would prefer Dogecoin (DOGE) to a lottery ticket.
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 |  | Curated by Associated Press fanboy, eye-strained news terminal watcher, and bitcoin follower since $1, Aaron Wise. Temporarily listening to news squawk boxes in Florida while awaiting the construction of cryptopia. |  | | Editor | Charlotte Hayes-Clemens is an editor and writer based in Vancouver. She has dabbled in both the fiction and non-fiction world, having worked at HarperCollins Publishers and more recently as a writing coach for new and self-published authors. Proper semi-colon usage is her hill to die on. | |
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