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Trump Names Former SEC Commissioner Paul Atkins as His Pick for Chair of the Agency

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President-elect Donald Trump named Patomak Global Partners founder and CEO Paul Atkins as his pick to head up the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday.

Atkins, who co-chairs the Digital Chamber’s Token Alliance and is an adviser to Reserve, previously served as a commissioner at the agency under former President George W. Bush between 2002 and 2008.

The former regulator visited Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s Florida resort, earlier this week but was initially reluctant to take on the role, CoinDesk reported Tuesday.

In his announcement, Trump called Atkins a «proven leader.»

«He believes in the promise of robust, innovative capital markets that are responsive to the needs of Investors, & that provide capital to make our Economy the best in the World,» he said on his social media platform Truth Social. «He also recognizes that digital assets & other innovations are crucial to Making America Greater than Ever Before.»

Unlike some of Trump’s other picks which seemed designed as aggressive efforts to shake up their departments, Atkins is an old-guard figure in the U.S. securities world. He’s unlikely to tear apart the agency he previously served as a commissioner and has stayed connected to in his consulting work. His firm employs several former officials from the SEC and Commodity Futures Trading Commission.

He will succeed outgoing SEC Chair Gary Gensler, who previously announced he’d resign at noon on Jan. 20, when Trump is sworn into office as the U.S.’s 47th president.

Under Gensler, the regulator has taken on a number of enforcement actions against crypto companies, including several premised on the idea that some crypto exchanges are simultaneously operating as unlicensed exchanges, clearinghouses and brokers. In doing so, Gensler drew the ire of much of the crypto industry.

It remains to be seen how Atkins may view these cases.

Jesse Hamilton contributed reporting.

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Judge Overturns Convictions in Mango Markets Exploiter’s Crypto Fraud Case

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A U.S. judge has overturned the fraud and market manipulation convictions of Avraham Eisenberg, the crypto trader accused of draining $110 million from the now-defunct decentralized finance protocol Mango Markets.

On Friday, U.S. District Judge Arun Subramanian ruled that prosecutors failed to prove Eisenberg made false representations to the platform.

He also moved to acquit Eisenberg of wire fraud charges. The investor manipulated the price of Mango’s native token MNGO with massive trades by more than 1,000% in 20 minutes before getting the protocol to allow him to borrow and withdraw $110 million in various cryptocurrencies, backed by the inflated collateral.

Eisenberg’s defense argued that the platform, which operated through smart contracts, allowed anyone to transact freely and that he simply exploited a vulnerability. The judge agreed, stating that Mango’s permissionless structure meant that there “was insufficient evidence of falsity” from prosecutors regarding Eisenberg’s representation to Mango Markets.

Eisenberg was arrested in December 2022, and while this case collapsed, he is still currently serving a four-year sentence handed out after he pleaded guilty to the possession of child sexual abuse material.

“From the beginning, we said this case was fatally flawed,” his attorney Brian Klein of Waymaker LLP said. “We are very pleased for Avi that the judge granted our motion and dismissed the case.”

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Swiss watchmaker Franck Muller Unveils Limited Edition Solana Watch

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If you’ve ever wanted to have your Solana wallet on your wrist while flexing your wealth, Swiss watchmaker Franck Muller is making that a reality.

The watch market is stepping into the Web3 ecosystem with a Solana-inspired, limited-edition series of watches that contain an embedded unique QR code to directly link to the user’s Solana address.

The company’s Solana-inspired watch collection is limited to 1,111 units that will set buyers back 20,000 Swiss francs (around $24,300).

While the watches feature a unique design that could appeal to Solana ecosystem participants, their launch comes at a time when, unfortunately, flaunting crypto-related wealth is becoming risky.

The cryptocurrency industry has seen dozens of physical attacks just this year, with a notable case seeing the daughter and grandson of Pierre Noizat, CEO of crypto platform Paymium, being targeted in a daytime attempted kidnapping. The attack was filmed and shared on social media.

While that kidnapping attempt failed, an earlier one in the same city saw the father of a crypto millionaire get abducted. Police managed to rescue the man, but not before his finger was severed.

Earlier this year, the co-founder of hardware wallet maker Ledger, David Balland, along with his wife, was abducted from his home and saw similar treatment. The couple was later rescued by authorities, and a ransom that had been paid out was seized.

There have been many other similar attacks in recent months.

Franck Muller is pitching the collection as a «phygital» (physical-digital) symbol of identity and ownership in the crypto age. While the watch is certainly a piece of crypto mythos, it may be a collectible that investors may not want to show off.

Read more: ‘Major Wake-Up Call’: How $400M Coinbase Breach Exposes Crypto’s Dark Side

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A Small Food Firm Buys 21 bitcoin, Jumping on BTC Treasury Trend, Shares Fall Anyways

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DDC Enterprise (DDC), an Asian food company, has announced the acquisition of 21 BTC as part of a long-term plan to incorporate the cryptocurrency into its corporate treasury.

The company, led by founder and CEO Norma Chu, exchanged 254,333 class A ordinary shares for BTC, in a transaction valued at roughly $2.28 million, according to a press release.

The move positions DDC among a growing cohort of public companies using BTC as a treasury asset. Two more purchases totaling 79 BTC are expected in the coming days, bringing the company’s initial holdings to 100 BTC.

In a shareholder letter issued last week, Chu outlined plans to accumulate up to 500 BTC within six months and aim for 5,000 BTC in three years.

While companies adopting bitcoin as a strategic treasury asset often see major price rises, DDC saw the opposite. The company’s shares dropped more than 12% on Friday’s trading session, while the S&P 500 dropped 0.6% and the tech-heavy Nasdaq fell 1%.

DigiAsia (FAAS), for example, saw its share prices surge more than 90% in a single trading session after announcing a $100 million BTC treasury plan earlier this month.

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