VanEck eyes $350 Solana price, Tornado Cash dev to face criminal trial: Finance Redefined
2024-09-28

Optimism is returning for crypto investors and altcoin holders after asset management giant VanEck predicted that Solana’s price could top $330, driven by the blockchain’s scalability and throughput.
But in a worrying development for decentralized finance (DeFi) and privacy-preserving technologies, Tornado Cash co-founder Roman Storm will face a criminal trial for developing the code of the non-custodial cryptocurrency mixer after a judge denied his motion to dismiss the case.
Solana may hit $330 and reach 50% of ETH market cap — VanEck research
A Sept. 25 report from VanEck predicts that Solana SOLUSD could reach $330 and balloon to 50% of Ether’s ETHUSD current market capitalization driven primarily by Solana’s superior speed and transaction processing metrics.
The report cited Solana’s throughput, which can process thousands of transactions per second (TPS) and is 3,000% higher than Ethereum’s TPS. Solana’s daily active user count is 1,300% higher than Ethereum’s and transaction fees are nearly 5 million percent cheaper on the Solana network.
Solana’s advantage in speed and cost efficiency gives it a significant leg-up on Ethereum for payments and remittances, the report’s authors argued. Stablecoins, in particular, were noted as major drivers of decentralized finance activity that could leverage Solana’s superior processing metrics to pass on cost savings to users.
Tornado Cash’s Roman Storm case moves to trial as judge denies dismissal
Roman Storm, a developer and co-founder of Tornado Cash, will face criminal trial over his creation of the crypto-mixing platform after a judge denied his motion to dismiss a United States government case.
In a Sept. 26 telephone conference, New York district court judge Katherine Polk Failla denied Storm’s bid to toss three federal charges brought by the Justice Department, saying government prosecutors had lodged plausible allegations against him.
Storm and fellow co-founder Roman Semenov were charged in August 2023 with conspiracy to commit money laundering, conspiracy to commit sanctions violations and conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money-transmitting business.
SEC Chair Gensler plugs changes to exchange definition that worries crypto 
The United States Securities and Exchange Commission will continue to pursue changes to the definition of “exchange” and alternative trading systems, its Chair Gary Gensler told attendees of the US Treasury Market Conference on Sept. 26.
Gensler was speaking about issues that affect the efficiency and resilience of the US Treasury bond market, but that proposal has been heavily criticized in the digital asset space.
Defining dealers to include more market players
One of the measures the SEC has taken to buttress the Treasury market was a change to the definition of a “dealer” that was meant to clarify the role of market participants such as principal-trading firms, which might use algorithmic and high-frequency trading strategies.
The changes, proposed in 2022, were criticized at the time by pro-crypto politicians for the spillover effect they would have on digital asset trading. Nonetheless, they were adopted in February.
Coinbase chief legal officer responds to cbBTC service terms fears
Coinbase chief legal officer Paul Grewal responded to recent fear, uncertainty, and doubt surrounding the user terms of service for Coinbase’s newly launched cbBTC Wrapped Bitcoin product — confirming that Coinbase would fully reimburse clients in the event the exchange loses the underlying Bitcoin (BTC).
The clarification came after one individual highlighted what they believed to be a troubling provision within the cbBTC user agreement — claiming that Coinbase would not reimburse customers the full amount of Bitcoin lost due to malicious activity or unforeseen events but would instead give clients a “proportional share of whatever BTC is left.”
In a statement to Cointelegraph’s Alex O’Donnell, the Coinbase chief legal officer verified that the policy limits the exchange’s liabilities from external losses arising from complex trades and leveraged positions clients may enter.
Despite WazirX, Q3 crypto hack and scam losses fell to $413 million YOY
Losses from crypto hacks and scams declined by 40% year-over-year in the third quarter of 2024, falling to just $413 million, according to a Sept. 26 report from blockchain security platform Immunefi.
In the previous year, third-quarter losses were $685 million. Quarterly losses also declined by approximately 28% when compared to the second quarter of the current year.
Despite the good news, Q3 did witness some spectacular crypto hacks and exploits. 
According to the report, the largest hack of the quarter was against the WazirX crypto exchange, which resulted in a loss of $235 million, while the second largest was the $52 million BingX hack. Together, these hacks accounted for more than 69% of the total losses for the quarter.
DeFi market overview
According to data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView, the majority of the 100 largest cryptocurrencies by market cap ended the week in the green.
Of the top 100, popular memecoin Shiba Inu (SHIB) rose over 34% as the week’s biggest gainer, followed by the Sei (SEI) token, up over 32% on the weekly chart.
Thanks for reading our summary of this week’s most impactful DeFi developments. Join us next Friday for more stories, insights and education regarding this dynamically advancing space.