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FTX’s Bankruptcy Hearing, Binance Withdrawals Surge, Gemini Data Breach | Cointime Weekly Dec.11 – Dec.17

Top stories

Everything about FTX’s bankruptcy hearing

A month after FTX’s public implosion, former CEO Sam Bankman-Fried testified before Congress.

 O’Leary quoted SBF as saying that a large portion of the missing money was used to buy back FTX shares from Binance founder. He called Binance "a massive unregulated monopoly".

Crypto market maker Wintermute Asia among those on the ‘Committee of Unsecured Creditors’. Other creditors included individual investors, crypto hedge fund Coincident Capital, GGC International — an affiliate of lending platform Genesis

Media outlets including The New York Times and Bloomberg filed a motion in the FTX case to make all personal information of FTX creditors public, citing public interest.

The court will deliberate on a motion to sell four FTX businesses namely FTX Japan, FTX Europe, Embed, and Ledger X, in an effort to raise liquidity to make customers whole.

How is Sam Bankman-Fried's jail life going

It has been a long week for FTX  as its founder Sam Bankman-Fried was imprisoned in the Bahamas. 

Conditions at Fox Hill were reportedly “harsh”: facility was overcrowded, prisoners had poor nutrition, inadequate sanitation and medical care, and physical abuse by officers.

Bahamas Acting Commissioner of Corrections Doan Cleare said SBF was spending his time in the prison’s sick bay and was receiving his medications on time.

Sam Bankman-Fried has reportedly filed a new application for bail in the Bahamas Supreme Court following his previous unsuccessful bail bid.

Binance withdrawals surge, CZ might face criminal charges

  • Binance saw “as high as $3 billion in net outflows” over a 24-hour period.
  • Reuters reported Binance and its top executives could be potentially charged with flouting anti-money laundering rules and allowing bad actors to evade sanctions.

Gemini leaked 5.7M emails, Raydium hacked for $4M

  • Gemini suffered a data breach. Hackers gained access to 5,701,649 lines of information pertaining to Gemini customers’ email addresses and partial phone numbers.
  • Raydium had been the victim of a 7-figure exploit. The exploit appears to stem from a trojan attack and compromised private key for the pool owner account.

Global regulations

Canada, Australia, France tighten crypto regulations

  • Canadian regulators outlined stricter requirements for crypto firms, include separating client and proprietary business assets, prohibiting offering margin or leverage.
  • In early 2023, Australian government shall release a consultation paper to decide the kind of digital assets they want to regulate.
  • France may reassess its eased regime of licensing for digital asset providers. Proposal would force companies to secure a licence from October next year.

Hong Kong debuts crypto futures ETFs

Hong Kong launched two exchange-traded funds (ETFs) tracking cryptocurrency futures, becoming the first “in Asia to offer crypto asset exposure through ETFs”.

New policy allows banks to hold 2% in crypto

BIS introduced a new policy that permits banks to now hold 2% of their reserves in cryptocurrencies. The policy will take effect on January 1st, 2025.

Crypto weekly price action

Cryptocurrency Prices Heat Map in 7 Days, Source COIN360

Research and technology

Glassnode 2022 Year In Review

2022 has been one of the most chaotic, volatile, and financially brutal years. Let’s have an overview of the year that was, and where we are in the setup for 2023.

Cryptocurrency Scams in 2022

From January to November 2022, hackers stole $4.3 billion worth of cryptocurrency. This accounts for a 37% increase from 2021 during the same period.

The Bluffers Guide to secp256k1

If it wasn’t for Satoshi Nakamoto, you probably would never have heard of the secp256k1 Elliptic Curve Cryptography (ECC) method. Let’s dive into secp256k1 technology

The Web3 Identity Stack

This article covers core concepts in decentralized identity, the evolution of identity on the internet, a layer-by-layer overview of the web3 identity infrastructure stack, and related developments in privacy primitives.

Fundraising and investment

Crypto-based ETFs rasied $73M ahead debut

Hong Kong’s first crypto-based exchange-traded funds (ETFs) have attracted over $73 million ahead of their debut on the region’s stock exchange.

Amber Group Completed $300M Series-C

Amber Group has completed a $300M Series-C round, led by Fenbushi Capital US and joined by other crypto-native investors and family offices.

a16z Leads $100 Million Raise for Aztec

The firm will use the fresh raise to develop encrypted architecture that lets individuals properly use blockchains without exposing identifying information.

Warner Music Partners with DressX

Items such as digital concert T-shirts and sweatshirts will be available in 3D and augmented reality and shareable via social media platforms

Viral Quotes

Good policy should be decided behind veil of ignorance first, applied second.”

— Vitalik Buterin, founder of Etherum, on recent wave of Twitter censorship

“Does this man have no shame? Against the entire weight of an absurdly massive amount of evidence, he blames the FTX collapse on ..... Binance.”

— David Schwartz, CTO at Ripple, reacts to O’Leary’s blames on Binance for FTX collapse

“This is the problem. In 2005 when I started using a new kind of credit default swap, our auditors were learning on the job. That’s not a good thing. Same goes for FTX, Binance, etc. The audit is essentially meaningless.”

— Hedge fund manager Michael Burry, commenting on Mazars halting POR audits for crypto companies

“You can commit fraud in shorts and T-shirts in the sun. We are not done. Extradition is ongoing in the Bahamas.”

— Damian Williams, United States Attorney, in response to a reporter’s question on SBF fitting the profile of a fraudster

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