The Daily: Nigeria drops charges against Binance exec, Buterin hits back against Saylor's comments on regulated bitcoin custody and more

Happy Wednesday! In today's newsletter, Nigeria drops money laundering charges against Binance executive Tigran Gambaryan, Vitalik Buterin hits back against Michael Saylor's comments on regulated bitcoin custody, Bernstein says its $200,000 bitcoin price target for 2025 is "conservative" and more.

Let's get started.

Nigeria drops charges against Binance exec

Nigeria has dropped money laundering charges against Binance's Head of Financial Compliance and former Special Agent for the U.S. IRS, Tigran Gambaryan, who has been detained in the country since February.

• A lawyer representing the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) announced the charges were dropped at the Federal High Court in Abuja on Wednesday morning, Business Insider Africa reported.
• The Nigerian government will continue prosecuting Binance on the money laundering charges without Gambaryan, along with separate charges of tax evasion.
• The decision comes less than two weeks after Gambaryan was denied bail on medical grounds.
  Gambaryan's family has protested his detention throughout the ordeal, arguing he was never a decision-maker at Binance and is "entirely innocent."
• Gambaryan's wife Yuki also repeatedly called for the U.S. to intervene in the case and bring her husband home, citing medical issues and standard practices that should have led to his release.
• The Binance executive's health deteriorated significantly during his detention, suffering a herniated disc, pneumonia, malaria and tonsillitis.
• Binance CEO Richard Teng condemned Gambaryan's treatment after a video of him in a visibly distressed state entering court in September spread online.
• The Nigerian government had previously described the allegations of Gambaryan's poor healthcare as "false."

Vitalik Buterin calls Michael Saylor's comments on regulated bitcoin custody 'insane'

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin hit back at MicroStrategy founder Michael Saylor's controversial comments on regulated bitcoin custody concerns being mostly from "paranoid crypto-anarchists."

• During a recent interview with the NZ Herald's Madison Reidy, Saylor advocated holding bitcoin through regulated entities like BlackRock, Fidelity, JPMorgan and State Street, suggesting it was safer compared to unregulated, private entities, which might be more prone to government crackdowns.
• "I'll happily say that I think Michael Saylor's comments are batshit insane," Buterin posted to X on Wednesday. "He seems to be explicitly arguing for a regulatory capture approach to protecting crypto. There's plenty of precedent for how this strategy can fail, and for me it's not what crypto is about."
• Bitcoin self-custody advocates, including Casa CTO Jameson Lopp, warned that trusting third-party custodians threatens decentralization and long-term network security.

Bernstein says its $200,000 bitcoin price target for 2025 is 'conservative'

Analysts at research and brokerage firm Bernstein said their current $200,000 bitcoin price prediction for the end of 2025 is "conservative," urging skeptics to look again at the foremost cryptocurrency.

• "Bitcoin is going to $200,000 this cycle (2025 end)," digital assets lead Gautam Chhugani wrote in a message to clients on Wednesday. "We are being conservative."
• Bernstein argues that bitcoin's limited supply, paired with U.S. debt reaching $35 trillion, strengthens its value as a "store of value" asset, similar to gold.
• For investors not interested in taking a bitcoin position directly, the analysts suggested alternative indirect exposure via shares in public companies like MicroStrategy, Robinhood, Riot Platforms and CleanSpark.

Arbitrum-based crypto derivatives trading protocol Variational raises $10.3 million

Variational, an Arbitrum-based crypto derivatives protocol, has raised $10.3 million in seed funding co-led by Bain Capital Crypto and Peak XV Partners, with participation from Coinbase Ventures, Dragonfly Capital, North Island Ventures and Hack VC, among others.

• The seed round was structured as a priced equity round with 1:1 standard token warrants, Variational co-founder and CEO Lucas Schuermann told The Block, declining to comment on its valuation.
• The project, co-founded by former Genesis Global Trading executives, initially operated as a proprietary market maker before pivoting to a DeFi protocol and launching its testnet.
• Variational's invite-only mainnet is set to launch by the end of 2024, with a public mainnet and token launch expected in early 2025.

Tesla's 11,509 BTC remains intact despite mass movement last week, Arkham says

Tesla still holds 11,509 BTC, worth around $760 million, with the electric vehicle giant's bitcoin movements last week labeled as "wallet rotations" by onchain analytics platform Arkham.

• The transfers were the first since Tesla sold off a majority of its bitcoin in 2022, leading some to speculate that it was preparing to sell its remaining holdings while others suggested it had sent the funds to a crypto custodian to secure a loan against the bitcoin.
• Tesla is currently the fourth-largest public corporate holder of bitcoin, behind MicroStrategy, MARA and Riot Platforms.
• The firm is holding its third-quarter earnings call at 5:30 p.m. ET on Wednesday.

In the next 24 hours

• The latest U.S. jobless claims figures are released at 8:30 a.m. ET on Thursday.
• Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey will speak at 11:20 a.m. and 3:45 p.m.
• Cosmoverse 2024 continues in Dubai.

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