TRIAL COMING: A judge has ruled that the U.S. Department of Justice has enough evidence to bring a case against ethereum developer Virgil Griffith. Griffith was arrested on charges of conspiracy to assist North Korea evade sanctions, when delivering a presentation on cryptocurrency. Meanwhile, an Italian citizen who attended the cryptocurrency conference at which Griffith spoke says the charges against the developer are overblown. Full stories here and here
SNAPPED UP: Binance has acquired DappReview, an evaluation platform that offers data-driven research and advertising services to decentralized applications (dapps). The acquisition of the Beijing-based firm will help the world's leading exchange by volume develop its existing dapps, said Viktor Radchenko, founder at Binance's Trust Wallet. Full story
ZCHAT? Canadian nonprofit Open Privacy is working on a zcash-fueled messaging app called Cwtch with more decentralization than Telegram or Signal. A donation from the Zcash Foundation of roughly $40,000 will fund research on the payment aspects of the system and hire a designer. Full story
‘DAD’ MOVES ON: Former Commodity Futures Trading Commission Chairman J. Christopher Giancarlo is joining the Willkie Farr & Gallagher law firm as senior counsel. Known to most of the cryptocurrency world as "Crypto Dad," Giancarlo will work on public policy positions, including advocating for the creation of a blockchain-based digital dollar, in addition to his work with the law firm's clients. Full story
BLOCKCHAIN BLOCKADE: China's “Great Firewall,” used by the government to regulate access to foreign internet sites, has blocked one of the most popular sources of ethereum blockchain data. As of Tuesday, etherscan.io, one of the longest-running and most widely used ethereum block explorers, was inaccessible from IP addresses inside mainland China, based on tests performed locally. Full story
CROSS COMING: Bitcoin’s 50- and 100-week moving averages look set to produce a bullish crossover next week. Back in 2016, the same cross marked the start of a long-term bull market, though we’ll have to wait and see if history will repeat itself. More immediately, prices look likely to rise to key trendline resistance at $7,600. A break above that would expose the recent high of $7,870. Full story
WALLET MOVE: Following an intrusion of South Korea-based Upbit that drained $51 million worth of ether from customer accounts, 10,000 of the ill-gotten ETH ($1.5 million) are on the move to an unknown wallet. CoinDesk’s Adam Levine and Brad Keoun follow up on the story in today’s Market Update podcast. Listen here
Sanctions evasion?