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💰 FTX creditors tap Paul Hastings LLP for representation: reports
FTX creditors will be represented by Paul Hastings LLP in the crypto exchange's high-profile bankruptcy proceedings.Paul Hastings was chosen from a pool of candidates by a nine-member committee formed last Thursday, according to The Wall Street Journal.
The ongoing bankruptcy proceedings for FTX see the company attempting to reclaim more than $1 billion spread around the world. Its founder and former CEO, Sam Bankman-Fried, was in FBI custody and extradited to the U.S. from the Bahamas on criminal charges. Caroline Ellison, the former CEO of Bankman-Fried's sister firm Alameda Research, agreed to a plea deal with the U.S. Department of Justice. FTX co-founder Gary Wang did the same.
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💰 Imprisoned Sam Bankman-Fried May Relent in Extradition Fight: Reports
The former executive's legal team is expected in Bahamanian court on Monday to waive its earlier notice, which came as bail was denied and an extradition hearing was set for February 8. The news was first reported by Reuters.
Sam Bankman-Fried faces at least eight criminal charges in the U.S., including wire fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering. The Securities and Exchange Commission separately charged him with orchestrating a scheme to defraud equity investors in FTX. Extradition of people located abroad can take many months or even years to complete, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
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💰 FTX Files to Sell Four Independently Operated Subsidiaries
FTX filed a new motion to the Bankruptcy Court of Delaware to approve bidding procedures for four of the firm’s independent solvent subsidiaries. The sale of the subsidiary businesses is an attempt to generate money to repay its creditors.
Bankrupt businesses must obtain permission from the court if the sale of assets is outside the ordinary course of business. According to the filing, FTX wants to sell Embed Technologies, LedgerX LLC, FTX Japan, and FTX Europe over the next two months. The motion is scheduled for hearing on January 11, 2023, with an objection deadline of December 29, 2022.
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📣 Magic Eden introduces discount and rewards system for marketplace users
Magic Eden announced a rewards system that allows users to receive rewards, discounts and other perks based on their activity on the platform. Magic Eden Rewards, as it's called, will officially launch on 5 p.m. EST on Dec. 14. such as a reinstated creator royalty system.
The move by Solana's biggest NFT and gaming marketplace follows other attemps to bolster user engagement on the platform, including its reinstated royalty protection system for creators and hiring a Chief Gaming Officer Chris Akhavan to scale web3 gaming sales on Magic Eden. Magic Eden CEO Jack Lu and Head of Marketing Tiffany Huang told The Block in an email.
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🇺🇸 US crypto market characterized by top-buying 'herd-like behavior,' JPMorgan finds
A new report from JPMorgan Chase & Co. concludes that the U.S. crypto market exhibits characteristics of “herd-like behavior.”.It also finds that men participate more broadly and deeply in the crypto market, as well as Asian individuals and younger individuals with higher incomes.
The majority of U.S. households were likely facing significant losses in percentage terms at cryptocurrency prices prevailing in late-2022," it adds. The report — with a sample size of almost 5 million active checking account customers — finds that the COVID-19 pandemic was the primary driver for pushing nearly 15 percent of U.S. households into the crypto market. Asian individuals and younger individuals with higher incomes.
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🟠 Binance locks withdrawals for some accounts amid what CEO calls 'just market behavior'
Abnormal price movements on Binance, the leading crypto exchange by volume, sparked an internal investigation that led to CEO Changpeng Zhao concluding the movements were "just market behavior".
Binance's official Twitter account announced the investigation at 3:10 a.m. ET. It later concluded that the odd price movements were not the result of compromised accounts or stolen API keys. The trading pairs involved included Sun Token, Ardor, Osmosis, FUNToken and Golem.
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🇯🇵 FTX Japan receives three-month extension to suspend business
Failed crypto exchange FTX's Japanese subsidiary, FTX Japan, received approval from regulators to postpone the deadline for its business suspension by three months. FTX Japan’s failure to return assets from custody to creditors.
FTX Japan addressed the extension in a blog post. The exchange noted that it is following a plan to improve its business in line with what it submitted to the Kanto Local Finance Bureau in mid-November. The reason for the deadline extension revolves around FTX Japan's failure to return assets from custody to creditors.
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⚡️ JPMorgan CEO calls crypto tokens ‘pet rocks’
JPMorgan & Chase Co. CEO Jamie Dimon called crypto “a complete sideshow” and likened the digital asset tokens to “pet rocks.”The comments came during a CNBC interview in which he also disparaged the media outlet for its extensive coverage of the crypto industry.
On the Bitcoin and altcoin market caps, Dimon referred to the former’s monetary value as representative of the whole industry. To further support his stance on the matter, Dimon turned to the purported prevalence of illicit activity within the industry, including cybercrime, exchange tokens, and tax avoidance. JPMorgan’s clients have an investment interest in the sector.
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🪙 Waves to launch DAO governance framework with token airdrop next year
The team behind Waves is set to launch a DAO governance framework called Power Protocol that will provide the tools for new or existing DAOs to manage their decentralized organizations. Waves’ Power DAO will be the first DAO to use the Power Protocol framework.
Power Protocol is a new DAO governance architecture that will launch in January 2023, the announcement stated. The Waves team says it is designed to tackle the problems associated with what's known as simple token governance. This is a framework commonly adopted by DAOs, where governance token holders have voting power that's used to make decisions within the community.
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🚨 FTX Crash Could Affect Every F1 Team, Says Mercedes’ Toto Wolff
Toto Wolff – an Austrian billionaire and CEO of the Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team – thinks the collapse of crypto exchange FTX could harm every Formula 1 organization. However, the squad suspended the agreement after FTX’s severe issues came to light in the middle of November.
Mercedes and FTX inked a sponsorship deal last year to promote the trading venue and introduce an NFT collection for fans. The F1 team initially supported its partner upon seeing its first signs of issues in November and vowed to keep the FTX logo on its cars. However, it terminated all ties with the exchange shortly before the latter’s bankruptcy protection filing. while the “deficit of eight billion dollars” shows the necessity of pertinent rules in the sector.
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📣 SCB 10X opens new web3 collaborative space in Bangkok: Exclusive
SCB 10X — the venture unit within Thailand's oldest bank group, Siam Commercial Bank (SCB) group — opened a a 10,000-square-foot web3 collaborative space in Bangkok. Called DistrictX, the space aims to incubate web3 startups and potentially create unicorns.
Called DistrictX, the space consists of two areas — hacker house and exponential hub — SCB 10X said. The hacker house includes a six-month incubation program in which SCB 10X will recruit developers and entrepreneurs to build web3 startups and create potential unicorns. The exponential hub is a co-working space for SCB 10X’s partners, which include Fireblocks, Nansen, The Sandbox and RakkaR Digital.
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📉 Crypto lender Ledn lays off chief commercial officer in latest industry job cuts
Crypto lender Ledn has laid off several employees amid the crypto crunch. At least two other people from the company posted about being laid off, including: Lígia Robinson, a former workplace coordinator, and Denis Nagasaki, ex-chief commercial officer.
The move comes the same day BlockFi filed for bankruptcy, and less than two weeks since the Canadian crypto firm said it had no exposure to Genesis Global Capital, which halted withdrawals of customer deposits earlier this month amid the collapse of FTX. Ledn offers lending, savings and trading products to digital asset holders in over 130 countries.
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🇧🇸 Bahamas Securities Commission calls FTX CEO John Ray’s allegations inaccurate; says its actions were ‘misinterpreted’
The Securities Commission of The Bahamas (SCB) rejected FTX’s CEO John Ray III’s allegations that it directed unauthorized access to the embattled exchange’s system after it filed for bankruptcy, according to a Nov. 23 press statement.
The regulator added that this timely action protected the digital assets under its control from associated risks like hacking and compromise. SCB highlighted that the statements made by FTX proved the wisdom in its decision as the exchange said, “they have suffered significant thefts, that their systems were compromised.
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🪙 Justin Sun, Tron DAO line up to contribute to Binance recovery fund: Exclusive
Blockchain operator Tron DAO and Justin Sun, its billionaire founder, have applied to contribute capital to Binance’s industry recovery fund. The application comes after seven crypto industry heavyweights were unveiled as its initial contributors yesterday.
Binance published details of the fund yesterday after CEO Changpeng Zhao had earlier signaled a plan to launch it. Binance poured an initial $1 billion into the vehicle. Meanwhile, Jump Crypto, Polygon Ventures, Aptos Labs, Animoca Brands, GSR, Kronos and Brooker Group agreed to an initial aggregate commitment of around $50 million.
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⚡️ Synapse enables bridging to new Layer 1 called Canto
Synapse, one of the most popular cross-chain bridges, has enabled bridging for an emerging blockchain called Canto. This is the 18th chain to join Synapse’s bridging network, and it’s the first time a Cosmos ecosystem bridge integration has gone live on its platform.
Canto’s integration with Synapse also opens the door for applications on other chains to deploy on its network, Synapse wrote in an announcement article. Canto is built on top of Cosmos, which allows developers to spin up their own chain. It is taking a new approach to scaling by having a natively built-in decentralized exchange and lending market that are both free-to-use for users.
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📣 BlockFi seeks to reopen withdrawals for certain users
Bankrupt crypto lender BlockFi is seeking to reopen withdrawals for users who have crypto locked in wallet accounts. The lender filed a motion on Dec. 19 with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in the District of New Jersey.
"The BlockFi Wallet Terms of Service are clear," said BlockFi in the filing. "They provide that 'title to the cryptocurrency held in your BlockFi Wallet shall at all times remain with you and shall not transfer to BlockFi.' The Debtors have no legal or equitable interest in cryptocurrency that was present in the Wallet Accounts as of Platform Pause, and clients should be able to withdraw such assets from the platform if they choose.
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📣 Digital Currency Group tokens red across board, sparking market speculation
Assets on the Digital Currency Group portfolio have taken a hit over the last 24 hours, triggering market speculation. It has been a month since troubled crypto lender Genesis Global Capital, daughter company of DCG, suspended redemptions.
“DCG and Genesis have highly competent teams. In normal circumstances neither would pay 15%-30% of slippage to rapidly exit long-held positions over the weekend, so observers are naturally speculating this was a forced event of some kind,” Rich Rosenblum, president of trading firm GSR, told The Block on Saturday. A market downturn on DCG’s portfolio assets is sparking industry speculation.
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🇭🇰 First Hong Kong bitcoin, ether ETFs lure nearly $75 million with trading set to begin Friday
CSOP Asset Management, a China Southern Asset Management subsidiary, will list the first bitcoin and ether ETFs on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on Friday. The two funds attracted over $74 million in investment, with most going into the bitcoin fund.
CSOP Bitcoin Futures ETF and CSOP Ether Futures ETF will track CME's bitcoin and ether futures, the company said. The CSOP bitcoin and ether ETFs have received more than $74 million in initial investments — $54 million and $20 million, respectively — shaking off the slump in cryptocurrency prices and the fallout from high-profile collapses of FTX and others. The approval of the ETFs is an "important milestone" for digital assets in Asia.
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🪙 Binance CEO warns colleagues 'crypto winter' isn't over: Bloomberg
Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao warned colleagues at the world's biggest crypto exchange that the proverbial "crypto winter" isn't over, and the months ahead won't be easy, according to Bloomberg. While we expect the next several months to be bumpy, we will get past this challenging period.
Zhao — who often goes simply by his initials, CZ — blamed the collapse of high-profile competitor FTX for adding "a lot of extra scrutiny and tough questions" on Binance. On Tuesday, a U.S. grand jury charged former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried with committing or conspiring to commit fraud on FTX’s customers and lenders, as well as money laundering. He was reportedly denied bail and remanded to the custody of the Bahamas Department of Corrections.
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💰 SBF plans new venture to repay FTX collapse victims, claims ‘did not commit fraud’
Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF), the former CEO of the now-collapsed FTX crypto exchange, has said that he hopes to start a new business to generate funds to pay back victims of the company’s collapse.
Described by bankruptcy lawyers as “one of the most abrupt and difficult collapses in the history of corporate America,” SBF was accused of running FTX as “his own personal fiefdom.”. Furthermore, it is alleged that SBF’s hedge fund company, Alameda Research, was using customer funds from FTX to make risky bets on financial markets without customer knowledge or consent.
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🚨 The Block CEO resigns after failing to disclose $43 million in personal loans from Alameda Research
Crypto news outlet The Block’s CEO Michael McCaffrey has resigned after failing to disclose a series of loans from Alameda Research – a company linked to former FTX head Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF).
McCaffrey took over as CEO in 2021 after using a $12 million loan from Alameda to buy out other investors in the company. He received two more loans from Alameda, one for $15 million in January, and another for $16 million earlier this year.McCaffrey will also be stepping down from The Block’s board, which is set to expand to three members.
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📣 Nomad to restart bridge after $190 million hack in August
Cross-chain bridge protocol Nomad is getting set to relaunch and partially reimburse those that lost funds in its $190 million hack earlier this year.Since the Nomad Token Bridge hack, the team has been working hard on recovering funds and making the necessary updates to safely relaunch.
Nomad has asked affected users to go through Know Your Customer (KYC) verification via CoinList, a centralized exchange and launchpad platform, to receive their reimbursements. The team at Nomad said the KYC process was essential to ensure the payments were in line with compliance norms.will allow them to receive any additional funds that are recovered in the future.
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⚡️ Celsius receives extension to submit Chapter 11 reorganization plan
Bankrupt crypto lender Celsius received court approval to extend its exclusivity period — the time when it maintains the exclusive right to submit a Chapter 11 reorganization plan — to Feb. 15.A motion requesting approval for a stablecoin sale aimed at providing operational liquidity was also discussed.
The extension comes after two court hearings, according to tweets from Celsius, during which a motion requesting approval for a stablecoin sale aimed at providing operational liquidity was also discussed. The judge's decision on the matter, which aims to "maximize value for all stakeholders," is expected next week, according to the crypto lender.
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📉 Paul Krugman: Cryptocurrency Era May Be Coming to an End
In an opinion piece in New York Times, crypto skeptic Paul Krugman argued that we might be seeing the end of crypto. The article “Blockchains, What Are They Good For?” discussed the end of crypto and the uselessness of blockchain technology. In his view, blockchain technology has no point.
According to Krugman, the original argument that Bitcoin would do away with the need for trust was yet to happen. This is because banks rarely steal customers’ funds and crypto institutions are more likely to be vulnerable to temptation and extreme inflation. The Nobel laureate also argued against the idea that cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology will guarantee cheaper transactions saying this was yet to happen.
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💰 Bankman-Fried-backed bill on hold until next Congress, says Senate chair
The Digital Commodities Consumer Protection Act, or DCCPA, whose association with Sam Bankman-Fried has come under added scrutiny following FTX's collapse, is on pause until next year. The crypto exchange legislation will have to wait until the next Congress convenes in January.
Senate Agriculture Committee Chair Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., confirmed the delay after a hearing on the topic with Commodity Futures Trading Commission Chair Rostin Behnam, another proponent of the bill. "We look forward going into the new year, given the fact that this is December," Stabenow said. Speaking to reporters after the hearing, Behnam emphasized cooperation with the SEC.
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📣 Genesis creditors organize in bid to forestall bankruptcy move: Bloomberg
Crypto firm Genesis Global Capital warned last week about a possible bankruptcy filing, and now some of its creditors are pursuing options in order to prevent such a move. Law firms Proskauer Rose and Kirkland & Ellis are said to be involved in discussions with creditors, according to Bloomberg.
Genesis Trading was previously said to be seeking as much as $1 billion in emergency funding for its lending arm, though would-be investors like Binance ultimately bowed out. Genesis Global Capital previously halted withdrawals and new loan originations and disclosed it had some funds in FTX. FTX as well as a broader downturn in the crypto market that began earlier this year.
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🚨 AAX crypto exchange VP Ben Caselin resigns amid liquidity crisis
Caselin’s departure comes two weeks after the crypto exchange halted operations. AAX reportedly suffered a malicious exploit that saw it unable to verify the account balances of its customers. The Hong Kong-based platform has since liquidated the crypto futures.
Caselin is critical of the steps being taken by AAX. “The way things are handled is without empathy and overly opaque,” said Caselin in a statement on Monday. The former AAX executive said the crypto exchange had broken its trust with customers and that “the damage is done.”. AAX previously stated that it experienced massive withdrawals following FTX’s bankruptcy.
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🇹🇷 Turkey to Confiscate ‘Suspicious’ Assets Related to FTX: Report
Turkey’s MASAK is willing to seize assets associated with FTX and launch an investigation against SBF. The Financial Crimes Investigation Board of Turkey (MASAK) seeks to seize “suspicious” assets linked to the battered cryptocurrency exchange FTX.
The Turkish agency sought a greenglight from the Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office to launch a thorough inspection on FTX and its dubious activities over the years. The entity vowed to confiscate “suspicious” assets related to the platform should the regulators give their approval. MASAK is also willing to examine the actions of Bankman-Fried and determine his role.
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🇧🇸 Bahamas regulator defends FTX actions as bankruptcy tensions mount
The Bahamas’ financial regulator has defended its treatment of FTX in the face of allegations it gained unauthorized access to the failed crypto exchange’s systems. FTX in the Bahamas agreed to transfer the case to Delaware earlier this week.
The Securities Commission of The Bahamas (SCB) said John Ray — who took over as FTX’s CEO after Sam Bankman-Fried’s resignation on Nov. 11 — had misrepresented its “timely action” through “intemperate and inaccurate allegations,” in a statement issued Wednesday. The news comes amid efforts to consolidate separate bankruptcy proceedings relating to FTX.
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🇸🇨 Bitget registers in Seychelles, plans to increase headcount
Bitget has registered in Seychelles as part of the crypto exchange's plans to expand globally and establish more regional hubs. The registration falls under the archipelagic country's 2016 International Business Companies Act, according to a statement. The news follows Bitget commencing operations in Brazil on Nov. 16.
Additionally, the exchange — which purports to "operate in a decentralized manner with no specific headquarters" — claims to be targeting a 50% increase in headcount, up to 1,200, by the first quarter of 2023. "Our recruitment always aligns with our global expansion and long-term strategy, and we will continue to hire despite current market sentiment," Bitget Managing Director Gracy Chen said.
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