Decentral Block Post

Debt Box and other defendants in a United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) lawsuit want the case tossed after a court found the agency lied to secure a temporary restraining order against them.

“The SEC got this case wrong. Badly wrong,” lawyers for Digital Licensing, which does business as Debt Box, told Judge Robert Shelby of the U.S. District Court for the District of Utah in a Dec. 4 motion to dismiss. “The SEC should not be allowed to continue to spin a false narrative to avoid dismissal.”

The SEC won a temporary restraining order to freeze Debt Box assets on Aug. 3, claiming the firm would remove evidence and secretly transfer assets overseas if they were notified the order would be imposed on them.

The agency accused the firm of perpetrating a $50 million fraudulent crypto scheme. Debt Box sold software mining licenses tied to real-world assets, which the SEC claimed were unregistered securities. The defendants refute this claim.

“Not only are such allegations false, but they also fail to meet the basic pleading standards,” it wrote in its latest motion.

The total market capitalization of the cryptocurrency market surged past $1.55 trillion on Dec. 5, driven by remarkable weekly gains of 14.5% for Bitcoin (BTC) and 11% for Ether (ETH). Notably, this milestone, marking the highest level in 19 months, propelled Bitcoin to become the world’s ninth-largest tradable asset, surpassing Meta’s $814 billion capitalization.

Despite the recent bullish momentum, analysts have observed that retail demand remains relatively stagnant. Some attribute this to the ripple effects of an inflationary environment and decreased interest in credit, given that interest rates continue to hover above 5.25%. While analyst Rajat Soni’s post may have dramatized the situation, the underlying, in essence, holds true.

Numerous United States economic indicators have surged to record highs, including wages, salaries and household net worth. However, analyst Ed Yardeni suggested that the “Santa Claus rally” might have already occurred earlier this year, with the S&P 500 gaining 8.9% in November.

This rise reflected diminishing inflationary pressures and robust employment data. Yet, investors remain cautious, with approximately $6 trillion in “dry powder” parked in money market funds, waiting on the sidelines.

With no dependable indicator to track retail participation in cryptocurrencies, a comprehensive data set is necessary for making conclusions, beyond relying solely on Google Trends and crypto-related app download rankings. To determine if retail traders have missed out on the rally, it’s essential that the indicators align across various sources.

Bitcoin (BTC) clipped $44,000 later on Dec. 5 as the Wall Street trading session delivered more snap BTC price gains.

Bitcoin applies more pressure to bears

Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView followed a fresh round of upside for Bitcoin as it outpaced altcoins to reach $44,011 on Bitstamp.

Taking week-to-date gains to 10%, this marked its highest levels since early April 2022 and represented a key challenge to significant resistance.

As noted by popular trader and analyst Rekt Capital, $44,000 constitutes the high point of a range that has occurred several times since early 2021.

“Bitcoin has successfully revisited the Range High resistance at ~$43900,” he continued in subsequent commentary on X (formerly Twitter).

Bitcoin (BTC) returned above $42,000 on Dec. 5 as analysis remained suspicious of market manipulation.

Analysis: New Bitcoin bids are not “organic”

Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView showed a BTC price rebound taking BTC/USD to highs of $42,498 on Bitstamp.

These beat the 19-month peak set the day prior, with retracements being short-lived amid a general atmosphere of excitement throughout crypto.

As Bitcoin continued to reclaim ground lost in mid-2022, however, warnings over the rally’s sustainability continued to flow in. These centered on the behavior of large-volume traders, also known as whales.

In a dedicated thread about the phenomenon on X (formerly Twitter), trading resource Material Indicators explained that from order book liquidity cues, it appeared that these traders could be deliberately coordinating higher prices in order to sell into an uptrend with minimal slippage.