Top Stories This Week
FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried arrested, set to be extradited to US
Sam Bankman-Fried was taken into custody by the Royal Bahamas Police Force and is more likely to keep there till February, after his utility for bail was denied in Bahamian court docket. A second utility for bail has been reportedly filed by SBF within the Supreme Court of the Bahamas. His arrest got here after the United States authorities formally filed felony expenses in opposition to him — together with eight counts of fraud. If convicted, Bankman-Fried might face 115 years in jail, however authorized commentators have informed Cointelegraph there’s a “lot to play out” within the case. The domino impact ensuing from FTX’s meltdown has additionally impacted the skilled lives of Bankman-Fried’s dad and mom, ensuing of their programs at Stanford Law School being canceled. In different current developments relating to FTX, a class-action lawsuit in opposition to Silvergate Bank was filed in California, aiming to carry the financial institution accountable for its alleged roles in inserting FTX person deposits into the financial institution accounts of Alameda Research.
Binance ‘put FTX out of enterprise’ — Kevin O’Leary
Venture capital investor Kevin O’Leary claimed at a U.S. Senate committee listening to that Binance and FTX “had been at battle with one another, and one put the opposite out of enterprise deliberately.” The listening to was half of a bigger investigation by lawmakers into FTX’s collapse, wherein Binance had a big position, O’Leary claimed. Recent days have seen Binance beset by worry, uncertainty, and doubt (FUD), leading to a drop within the trade’s liquidity. Crypto analytics agency Nansen experiences that Binance had web withdrawals of greater than $3.6 billion from Dec. 7 to Dec. 13.
Read additionally
Features
Blockchain and the world’s rising plastic drawback
Features
Exoduses and Ex-Communications: Blowing Off Steemit with Andrew Levine
Rep. Tom Emmer mulls bringing again invoice aimed toward decreasing crypto pink tape
United States lawmakers are beneath stress to enact crypto laws in gentle of the collapse of FTX, and Congressman Tom Emmer believes that that is “in all probability an excellent time” to re-introduce a bipartisan invoice that will carry necessities for sure crypto companies and initiatives to register as Virtual Asset Service Providers (VASPs). The invoice, titled the Blockchain Regulatory Certainty Act, goals to take away some hurdles and necessities for “blockchain builders and repair suppliers,” similar to miners, multi-signature service suppliers and decentralized finance platforms.
No extra proof-of-reserve checks? Auditors quietly drop crypto initiatives from portfolios
Two of essentially the most distinguished auditors have out of the blue stopped providing crypto auditing companies. At a vital second for the crypto business, Mazars Group eliminated Binance’s proof-of-reserve audits from its web site simply days after confirming the crypto trade managed 575,742 Bitcoin. The resolution affected different crypto exchanges utilizing Mazars’ companies, similar to Crypto.com and KuCoin. Later, Mazars defined the pause was as a consequence of “issues relating to the way in which these experiences are understood by the general public.” Accounting agency Armanino has additionally ended its crypto auditing companies. Armanino has labored with a number of crypto buying and selling platforms like OKX, Gate.io and the embattled FTX trade.
MetaMask to permit customers to buy and switch Ethereum through PayPal
In one other transfer into the crypto area, PayPal teamed up with MetaMask mother or father firm ConsenSys to permit the acquisition and switch of Ether (ETH) by its platform. By logging into the MetaMask app, customers will have the ability to entry their PayPal account and full transactions. Initially, solely chosen PayPal customers within the United States will have the ability to take a look at the service. Other conventional funds corporations are searching for to combine crypto into their companies. In October, Western Union additionally filed three emblems for managing digital wallets and exchanging digital belongings.
Winners and Losers
At the top of the week, Bitcoin (BTC) is at $16,826, Ether (ETH) at $1,194 and XRP at $0.35. The whole market cap is at $817.82 billion, in response to CoinMarketCap.
Among the largest 100 cryptocurrencies, the highest three altcoin gainers of the week are Toncoin (TON) at 30.36%, Bitcoin SV (BSV) at 10.11%, and OKB (OKB) at 9.77%.
The high three altcoin losers of the week are Neutrino USD (USDN) at -33.77%, Trust Wallet Token (TWT) at -27.43%, and Chain (XCN) at -23.42%.
For extra information on crypto costs, make sure that to learn Cointelegraph’s market evaluation.
Read additionally
Features
Crypto innovators of colour restricted by the principles aimed to guard them
Features
E For Estonia: How Digital Natives are Creating the Blueprint for a Blockchain Nation
Most Memorable Quotations
“Binance is a large unregulated world monopoly now, and so they put FTX out of enterprise.”
Kevin O’Leary, enterprise capital investor
“I supposed it made sense. The child was younger, the ideas had been revolutionary, the concepts had been golden. […] Who was I to problem that?”
Danielle Cloud, former FTX worker
“Our expertise up to now of [crypto] platforms, whether or not FTX or others, is that they’re intentionally evasive, they’re a way by which cash laundering occurs in measurement.”
Ashley Alder, appointed chair of the United Kingdom’s Financial Conduct Authority
“Just as we’re protecting of our bodily belongings, we have to be sure that individuals defend their digital belongings and private info throughout the metaverse.”
Andrew Newman, chief know-how officer and co-founder of ReasonLabs
“Looking ahead, just about everybody who might go bankrupt has gone bankrupt.”
Arthur Hayes, former CEO of BitMEX
Prediction of the Week
Bitcoin dips beneath $17K as ‘craziest rumors’ over Binance sink BTC value
Bitcoin fell beneath $17,000 as merchants remained cautious over Binance’s FUD triggering overly bearish BTC value motion. On Bitstamp, BTC/USD reached multi-day lows of $16,928 on Dec. 16, in response to Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView knowledge. The pair retraced its complete run to one-month highs courtesy of the most recent macroeconomic knowledge and coverage replace from the United States.
“Interesting to see everybody out of the blue so bearish on BTC as if it’s solely appearing so weak. SPX is doing precisely the identical, perhaps even weaker,” famous Michaël van de Poppe, founder and CEO of buying and selling agency Eight, questioning whether or not the Binance FUD actually had a job to play within the markets.
FUD of the Week
Microsoft bans cryptocurrency mining on cloud companies
Microsoft has quietly banned crypto mining from its on-line companies to extend the steadiness of its cloud companies and higher defend prospects from dangers like cyber fraud, assaults and unauthorized entry to sources, in response to a report. The new restrictions had been launched on Microsoft’s common license phrases, citing that “mining cryptocurrency is prohibited with out prior Microsoft approval.” With this transfer, Microsoft joins different cloud computing suppliers, together with Google, who additionally prohibit prospects from mining cryptocurrency with out prior written consent.
‘Third-party incident’ impacted Gemini with 5.7 million emails leaked
Gemini seems to have suffered a knowledge breach from a third-party vendor. Hackers gained entry to five,701,649 strains of knowledge associated to Gemini prospects’ e-mail addresses and partial cellphone numbers, per paperwork obtained by Cointelegraph. According to Gemini, the breach was attributable to a third-party vendor, nevertheless it additionally warned of ongoing phishing campaigns. The leaked database didn’t comprise any delicate private info similar to names, addresses and different Know Your Customer info.
SEC sues Atlas Trading for $100M inventory manipulation scheme
The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filed a declare in opposition to eight people related to the Discord-based discussion board Atlas Trading for alleged inventory manipulation. The SEC reported that bloggers made not less than $100 million by buying substantial positions in securities, recommending them to their followers, after which promoting their shares to capitalize on the demand they generated by their “misleading promotions.” Cryptocurrencies and different digital belongings weren’t talked about within the grievance.
Best Cointelegraph Features
Should crypto initiatives ever negotiate with hackers? Probably
Some safety specialists assume negotiating is a brilliant approach to get again a lot of the stolen funds, whereas others argue it is best to by no means give in to extortion.
Can Bitcoin survive a Carrington Event knocking out the grid?
A large Carrington Event-level photo voltaic storm might knock out nearly all of electronics on earth. Would crypto survive every part going offline without delay?
Listen up! Cointelegraph launches crypto podcasts, beginning with 4 exhibits
Want extra crypto content material? Cointelegraph’s new podcast part options 4 separate exhibits exploring quite a lot of impactful subjects.
Subscribe
The most participating reads in blockchain. Delivered as soon as a
week.
Editorial Staff
Cointelegraph Magazine writers and reporters contributed to this text.
