Over the weekend the price of Bitcoin topped $80,000 for the first time ever, in an extended rally that saw it hit a new all-time high of $82,406 before receding slightly to $82,100 at the time of writing.

Collapsed cryptocurrency exchange FTX has filed a lawsuit against Binance and its former CEO Changpeng Zhao as it looks to recover nearly $1.8 billion it alleges were fraudulently transferred by Sam Bankman-Fried.

The company behind the Ethereum Name Service (ENS), a system that translates cryptocurrency wallet addresses into human-readable names, is set to launch its own layer-2 network, Namechain.

Top stories in the Crypto Roundup today:

• Bitcoin Price Hits $82,400 All-Time High
• FTX Sues Binance and its Former CEO CZ Seeking $1.8 Billion
• Ethereum Name Service to Launch Own Layer-2 Network

Bitcoin Price Hits $82,400 All-Time High

Over the weekend the price of Bitcoin topped $80,000 for the first time ever, in an extended rally that saw it hit a new all-time high of $82,406 before receding slightly to $82,100 at the time of writing.

Other cryptocurrencies followed Bitcoin’s price surge, with Ethereum’s Ether having risen 27% over the past week, and Solana moving up 28.5% over the same period. Binance’s BNB rose 10.6%, while XRP moved up 14.5%.

Some altcoins saw more pronounced rallies, with Dogecoin surging 87.5%, and Cardano moving up 75.6%. The crypto market rally started after Republican candidate Donald Trump won the U.S. presidency, given his pro-crypto stance. Monthly price charts show the pronounced rise started after the elections.

During his presidential campaign, Trump said there’s never been anything like Bitcoin, calling it a miracle of cooperation and human achievement, suggesting it will one day surpass the market capitalization of gold.

Trump said he plans for every remaining BTC to be mined in the United States, to make the country the “Bitcoin superpower of the world.” He also pledged to fire current Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chair Gary Gensler, who has led a crackdown on the industry.

While Bitcoin was already deemed a safe asset as the SEC does not consider it a security, other cryptocurrencies could gain significantly from the cryptocurrency-friendly regulatory environment Trump has vowed to bring.

FTX Sues Binance and its Former CEO CZ Seeking $1.8 Billion

Collapsed cryptocurrency exchange FTX has filed a lawsuit against Binance and its former CEO Changpeng Zhao as it looks to recover nearly $1.8 billion it alleges were fraudulently transferred by Sam Bankman-Fried.

The lawsuit, filed in the bankruptcy court of Delaware, alleges thatFTX's co-founder, who is currently imprisoned, used a mix of FTX's own FTT token and Binance-branded coins BNB and BUSD to buy back stakes in FTX's international and U.S. entities in July 2021.

In total, Bankman-Fried paid $1.76 billion at the time as part of the share repurchase deal. However, FTX claims the exchange and its sister company, Alameda Research, "may have been insolvent from inception" and certainly by early 2021.

As a result, the lawsuit argues that Bankman-Fried used FTX's own funds to pay for the repurchase, making the deal fraudulent.

FTX further accuses Zhao, Binance's CEO, of posting "false, misleading, and fraudulent tweets" shortly before FTX's collapse which were “maliciously calculated to destroy his rival.”

The lawsuit specifically points to a November 6, 2022 tweet where Zhao announced Binance's intention to sell its FTT holdings, leading to a surge in withdrawals from FTX and ultimately contributing to its downfall.

This lawsuit is one of many filed by FTX in the wake of its bankruptcy. Other defendants include former investors, affiliates, and clients, ranging from prominent figures like Anthony Scaramucci to crypto exchange Crypto.com and even political groups like FWD.US, co-founded by Mark Zuckerberg.

Ethereum Name Service to Launch Own Layer-2 Network

The company behind the Ethereum Name Service (ENS), a system that translates cryptocurrency wallet addresses into human-readable names, is set to launch its own layer-2 network, Namechain.

ENS Labs, the company behind ENS, announced the project on Monday, with an expected launch by the end of 2025. Namechain will utilize zero-knowledge rollups, a technology gaining traction in the blockchain world for its ability to significantly reduce transaction costs and processing times.

In a press release, ENS Labs noted that the technology “allows Namechain to process and execute transactions off of the main Ethereum network while still inheriting the full security of Ethereum, but at a fraction of the cost.”

The announcement follows a proposal by ENS Labs in May to migrate the project's registry system to a layer-2 network. ENSv2, the broader project encompassing the migration and the new network, will involve a complete overhaul of the ENS protocol.

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