On Aug. 28, the United States Securities and Exchange Commission issued a Wells notice to OpenSea, the non-fungible token (NFT) marketplace.

OpenSea CEO Devin Finzer was “shocked” when the SEC accused the exchange of being a marketplace for unregistered securities .

The announcement resulted in an uprising in the crypto community, led by Finzer’s statement that OpenSea was prepared to “stand up and fight.”

Although the Wells notice serves as a potential warning that the SEC may take enforcement action against the recipient, it does not indicate that the regulatory body will pursue legal action.

Judge orders ex-FTX exec to appear after request to vacate guilty plea

On Aug. 29, a federal judge ordered Ryan Salame, former FTX Digital Markets co-CEO, to appear before the court despite withdrawing a request to vacate a guilty plea.

In the Aug. 29 filing, Judge Lewis Kaplan of the US District Court for the Southern District of New York stated that Salame was required to appear in court on Sept. 12 as a condition of his release on bail. 

Salame was initially set to report to prison to serve a 90-month sentence from Aug. 29, but this was delayed to Oct. 13 after reporting medical complications due to a dog bite.

On Aug. 21, Salame’s legal team filed a petition for the court to vacate his guilty plea, alleging authorities agreed not to pursue an investigation into his partner, Michelle Bond. 

Salame withdrew this petition on Aug. 22 after prosecutors unsealed an indictment for campaign finance law violations.

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“Absolutely nuts” — Crypto community reacts to X suspension in Brazil

On Aug. 30, the crypto community expressed its frustration after Supreme Court justice Alexandre de Moraes followed through with his intention to shut down X’s Brazilian operations if Musk failed to appoint a legal representative by Aug. 29.

X user Scott Melker, also known as “The Wolf of All Streets” on X, informed his almost one million followers that Brazil was “absolutely nuts” for banning the social media platform.

One X user, WSBChairman, stated that “a dictator” had “illegally” banned the social media platform in the country, highlighting the $9,000 an hour fine for anyone using it.

James Check, a lead analyst on Glassnode, wondered if a “decentralized, uncensorable, scarce, digital, global monetary asset might be useful for the world right about now.”

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New Maker stablecoin lashed over “freeze function”

The decentralized finance project Maker recently rebranded to Sky, has received backlash over its upgraded stablecoin’s new so-called “freeze function.”

The new stablecoin, USDS, is supposedly set to include a function that allows the issuer to freeze the token, as noted by some online observers.

On Aug. 27, Rune Christensen, co-founder of Maker, clarified in an X post that no freeze function will be incorporated at launch.

Christensen explained that the upgrade function could allow governance to decide how to implement a freeze function in the future, a statement that caused concern for the protocol’s decentralization.

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