Today a group of crypto lobbyist sues The SEC the Philippines tells Apple and Google to remove binance from their app Stores and Adam Sullivan of cor Scientific breaks down what's next for The minor after the latest Bitcoin Having welcome to cnbc's crypto world I'm TAA mckel cryptocurrencies holding Study this morning with Bitcoin hovering Right around $66,500 ether meanwhile Rising to 3225 and Unis swap trading at About $8 let's talk about the top stories a Group of crypto lobbyists is suing the SEC over an update to its rules Regarding dealers back in February the Agency adopted rules that added Significant Market participants to the Definition of dealers which falls under The purview of the regulator well on Tuesday the crypto Freedom Alliance of Texas and the blockchain association Filed suit against the SEC and chairman Gary gendler in federal court saying the Agency's newly EXP a definition of a Dealer goes too far they argue it could Encompass people participating in Digital assets that don't engage in Conduct that resembles dealing now we Reached out to the SEC about this Lawsuit and a spokesperson said the Commission undertakes rule making Consistent with its authorities and laws Governing the administrative process and
Will vigorously defend the final dealer Rules in court at the same time two Lawyers with the SEC have reportedly Resigned after a federal judge Sanctioned the regulator for gross abuse Of power in a crypto lawsuit we reached Out to the SEC about this story too and A spokesperson said the agency doesn't Comment on Personnel matters next Venezuelan Oil Company pdvsa reportedly Wants to use tether to skirt us Sanctions according to Reuters as the Biden Administration reinstates a Venezuelan oil ban the company is Looking to the largest stable coin by Market cap tether to minimize risk of Freezing accounts last week the Country's oil Minister Pedro tea told Reuters that digital currencies might be The preferred method of payment for some Oil contracts tether told CNBC that it Respects the sanctions list and is Committed to freezing sanctioned Addresses we also reached out to the Department of Treasury but didn't hear Back right away yesterday the Department Of Justice unsealed an unrelated Indictment charging individuals from the Venezuelan run Oil Company alleging Evasion of us sanctions in 2019 and Finally the Philippines Securities and Exchange Commission is ordering for the Removal of binance from App Stores the Regulator announced it sent notices to
Both Google and apple requesting the Removal of the crypto trading app the Requests emphasize the believed threat Binance poses to Filipino investors and That it operates in the country as an Unregistered Securities broker CNBC Reached out to binance Apple and Google But didn't immediately hear back the Regulator warned of blocking binance Back in November the same month The Exchange reached a Monumental settlement With the US doj that included the Resignation of founder and then CEO Chang Pang Xiao all right for our main story we're Still watching crypto markets and miners After the fourth having for the network Last Friday I spoke with Adam Sullivan CEO of core scientific about how the Publicly traded minor prepared for this Latest having event and what's next for The Company well thank you so much for Joining us we just had bitcoin's forth Having and it came just months after Your company exited bankruptcy relisted On the NASDAQ and then just recently Announced an expansion of your facility In Denton Texas what is your strategy After this most recent having and is the Expansion in Texas part of that strategy In the face of smaller block rewards Yeah so Bitcoin creates abundant energy By its very nature and so what we looked
To do and the approach that we took from The very beginning was to find lowcost Stranded energy in locations that were Also viable for other use cases you know What what you saw with our expansion Inent in Texas is that you know we not Only believe that urot and the Texas Market more broadly is a very strong Market not only for Bitcoin mining but Also for potentially other use cases as Well so we're definitely focused on Continuing to build out our Bitcoin Mining footprint over the course of the Next few years but we're also going to Look to continue to expand to other Business lines as a way to monetize our Asset base in the best way possible we Saw Bitcoin transaction fees surge Immediately after the having and then They came right back down just as Quickly are you hopeful that transaction Fees will continue to climb and Supplement that lost mining Revenue Especially with things like ordinals and What could drive that since you know Last year we saw that big spike another Similar Spike recently um and it's not Just that big spike and then it Continues so what could start to bring That Trend back yeah I mean what we're Seeing right now is the runes really in The PO having world has been almost 50% Of the transactions that occur directly After the having obviously supporting
Bitcoin miners you know Bitcoin miners We we love to see transaction fees Higher on the nwor and so from our Perspective we're very supportive of any Projects that are developing directly on On the layer one and are transacting Actually on bitcoin so from our Perspective we obviously applaud the the Runes launch and I think going forward It's something that we can't expect to See right we can't expect to see Transaction fees stay this high for an Extended period of time when you look Back throughout the course of of the Bitcoin Network you know you see blips Maybe they last as long as a month in Terms of higher transaction fees but Transaction will come back down and That's going to have a major effect on The Bitcoin Network because what we've Seen is profitability stay high enough Where not many machines have actually Come offline and so we expect to see Over the course of the next you know one To two months we'll start to see that Normalize as transaction fees start to Come back down and then the Profitability also comes down with it And that's going to remove a lot of the Older generation equipment and some Higher power cost sites from actually Being able to participate in the Network uh crypto world's McKenzie Sigalos reported on miners potentially
Turning to AI to brace for SL revenue From mining is that something core would Consider given the Boom in AI right now Absolutely uh you know what we like to Do is maximize the value of our asset Base our asset base has access to low Cost and a lot of megawatts at each of Our sites um so all of our sites are Really ideal for also hosting HPC from The perspective of there many of our Locations are located next to Major Metropolitan markets meaning they'll Have low latency which is a requirement As part of HPC and Ai and so we Announced our first deal uh earlier this Year uh with with cor weave and we're Going to continue to explore any way That we can maximize the value of our Assets today that looks like it's AI as The demand for AI is extraordinarily Strong but we're going to continue to Evaluate more opportunities down the Road in any way that we can maximize the Value of our asset base what are the Plans for for specifically this year as You look to continue your comeback in 2024 yeah our comeback has been strong Uh we emerged earlier this year uh and We're continuing to grow you know we Announced our first expansion of 72 Megawatts you know just extending our Infrastructure lead on the industry and We're going to continue to refresh our Machines over the course of 2024 to not
Only increase our ex aash exposure but Also increase our margin profile so it's About protecting our existing asset base And Bitcoin has been been a very Profitable Enterprise for us uh over the Course of the past seven years since we Entered this industry and as part of This we're also adding on you know kind Of a secondary component to this which Is continuing to evaluate our asset base And that's why you know we've been we've Been talking a lot publicly about you Know we're evaluating different Potential contracts on the AI side Because it's tremendous value it brings Stable free cash flow to an industry Right now where Bitcoin miners are faced With high volatility and so figuring Ways to make our revenue streams our Free cash flow streams much more stable And much more easily to project you know Five years 10 years down the road you Know that's going to add value to the Base of our business right now which is Bitcoin mining turning to bitcoin itself What is your outlook for the asset this Year more broadly the big Catalyst seem To be here already we've had the spot ETFs we've had the having so what's next And what what are you tracking when you Watch the price of Bitcoin yeah I think The big question is whether the ETFs for The launching pad for allowing Bitcoin To Rally post hav or whether we saw that
Rally preh hav you know there's still Some Catalyst on the horizon when you Look back at previous havs the time Period at which Bitcoin rallied post Having has elongated over time and so You'd expect to see that most likely in Kind of the six to n month time period Just based on looking at that Trend Elongating over time and then we also Have some other cus as well such as the Hong Kong ETF which I think will provide Some Tailwinds to bitcoin price over the Course of 2024 okay that's all for crypto world Today we'll be back again tomorrow and We'll see you then [Music]
