In today’s edition of the weekly recap: the U.S. SEC filed an appeal notice in the Ripple case; tensions in the Middle East escalated after Iran fired missiles at Israel; amid the Middle Eastern tensions, market uncertainties arose; HBO claimed they have uncovered the true identity of Satoshi Nakamoto.

SEC looks to appeal Ripple case ruling

• Last week, the U.S. SEC filed a notice to appeal the judgment delivered by Judge Analisa Torres in the Ripple lawsuit.
• The SEC has not yet filed its appeal brief, so details on the part of the judgment it wants to appeal remain unclear. However, this move could drag the case further for another year or two, according to legal experts.
• XRP (XRP) collapsed 9% after the SEC’s appeal notice.
• Notably, before this, Bitwise had already filed with the SEC to launch an XRP ETF. 

Middle Eastern tensions

• Meanwhile, following the assassination of Hamas and Hezbollah leaders by Israel, Iran responded with a direct missile attack targeted at Israel on Oct. 1. 
• The Biden administration discussed a potential reprisal attack from Israel on Iran’s oil facilities. This fueled tensions of an escalation of the conflict in the Middle East, which could impact risk assets, including cryptocurrencies. 

Bitcoin fluctuates amid market uncertainties

• Bitcoin (BTC) and the rest of the crypto market began October bearish despite prevalent “Uptober” chants. 
• BTC collapsed nearly 4% on Oct. 1 to retest the $60K support region. In response, the altcoin market slumped 4.48% from $929 billion to $887 billion. 
• Interestingly, BTC and the rest of the market recovered slightly on Oct. 4 following two days of consolidation. 
• Outflows from spot Bitcoin ETFs exacerbated the bearish pressure. These products saw $242.6 million in net outflows on Oct. 1, and two more days of negative flows before recovery on Oct. 4.

Satoshi’s identity

• Last week, HBO teased the release of a documentary that would allegedly reveal the identity of Bitcoin’s anonymous founder, Satoshi Nakamoto.
• Prediction platform Polymarket opened a market allowing users to bet on who the documentary would identify as Satoshi.
• Most of the voters opted for Len Sassaman, an American information privacy advocate who died by suicide in 2011.

Coinbase to delist USDT

• Reports confirmed that Coinbase is on the verge of delisting stablecoins that do not comply with the recently enacted MiCA regulations, including USDT.
• This development will only impact Coinbase users in the EU, where MiCA maintains jurisdiction.