U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission

Jim Grant, author of Grant's Interest Rate Observer, first hinted last week that not all is well when it comes to the world's biggest hedge fund, Ray Dalio's $160 billion Bridgewater (of which one half is the world's biggest risk-parity juggernaut). Speaking to Bloomberg last week, Grant said he was "bearish" on Bridgewater because founder Dalio has become "less focused on investing, while the firm lacks transparency and has produced lackluster returns."

That didn't take long.

After issuing a ruling in July that officially declared that the tokens sold during initial coin offerings must be registered as securities - a ruling that many hoped would lend a badly needed veneer of legitimacy to the shady ICO market - the SEC is following through with what we imagine will be the first of many civil actions against ICOs and the individuals who launch them.

Over two years ago, on an otherwise uneventful Thursday in May 2015, shares of Avon Products suddenly jumped 20% leaving investors stunned. The catalyst was quickly discovered: a filing recently uploaded to Edgar, the SEC’s public filings database and purportedly from London-based “PTG Capital”, claimed that the "private-equity" firm was bidding to take Avon private. Upon closer inspection, investors noticed a series of glaring, suspicious errors. For one, the document was riddled the spelling mistakes – the firm’s own name, consisting of a three-letter acronym – was repeatedly misspelled.

In the first two weeks of August, shares of publicly-traded bitcoin firm First Bitcoin Capital, exploded almost 800% higher on dramatic volume as cryptocurrency headlines began to hit the mainstream.

This surge in interest appears to have got the attention of The SEC, who just halted trading of the Canadian firm.

One of Wall Street’s first bitcoin analysts believes the chances that the SEC will approve the first bitcoin exchange-trade fund by the end of 2018 have improved substantially since the agency rejected two proposed funds back in March.

“Things have changed. My odds of Bitcoin ETF approval within 18 months are WAY up,” said the analyst, Spencer Bogart, formerly of investment bank Needham & Co., in a tweet.