Trump meme coins spike, SEC drops BUSD probe, Germany empties BTC stash, ETFs recover | Weekly Recap

Among this past week’s top stories: The cryptocurrency market reacted after a gunman opened fire at a political rally, injuring former President Donald Trump; regulators dropped an investigation into Paxos; Germany emptied its Bitcoin (BTC) stash; and spot BTC exchange-traded funds (ETFs) recorded a recovery in net inflows.

Trump meme coins boast double-digit growth

• The MAGA (TRUMP) coin’s market cap surged more than 14.7% over 24 hours. At the time of writing, it’s up over 30% and trading at $8.32 per unit.

• Other meme coins inspired by Ex-President Donald Trump surged after the presumptive GOP nominee was wounded by a gunshot at a rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday, July 13.

SEC drops BUSD probe

• The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) recently closed its investigation into Paxos, a probe the agency initiated over a year ago.

• Paxos confirmed July 9 that the securities regulator disclosed it has no plans to pursue any enforcement action against the issuance of BUSD in collaboration with the world’s largest exchange Binance.

German government sells Bitcoin

• The German government emptied its Bitcoin holdings after weeks of sustained selloffs. 

• Three weeks ago, The Federal Criminal Police Office of Germany (BKA) started offloading 50,000 BTC it confiscated from Movie2k.to in 2013, compounding the selling pressure on Bitcoin. With multiple sales nearly every day, this selloff campaign ended last week. 

Spot BTC ETFs see renewal of interest

• Spot Bitcoin ETFs also witnessed renewed interest following a period of persistent daily net outflows. On July 12, these products saw $310 million in net inflows, marking the largest in over a month.

• Overall, they commanded a whopping $1.04 billion in net capital inflows throughout last week, recording five consecutive days of positive intraday flows. 

BitMEX pleads guilty to BSA violations 

• Last week, leading crypto derivatives platform BitMEX pleaded guilty to violations of the Bank Secrecy Act, according to a disclosure from the U.S. Justice Department on July 10.

• The plea came after U.S. authorities charged the exchange and its executives for flouting AML provisions in 2020. While its executives pleaded guilty earlier and paid fines of $10 million each, the exchange’s plea comes four years into the case.

US House fails to override Biden’s SAB121 veto

• Also, the U.S. House of Reps was unable to override a veto from the Biden administration on a bill seeking to repeal SAB 121, a move that could have limited the SEC’s oversight on crypto custody.