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Cryptocurrency Archive

Archives for November 2023

Emma Roth
Emma Roth
Here are the three companies in the running to buy what’s left of FTX.

Bullish, a crypto exchange led by former New York Stock Exchange president Tom Farley, is just one of the companies that could potentially relaunch the fallen exchange, The WSJ reports.

Fintech startup Figure Technologies is also in the running, as is the crypto venture capital firm Proof Group, which was one of the companies that bought up Celsius’ assets after it went bankrupt. We could find out FTX’s winning bidder as soon as December, according to the WSJ.

WSJ News Exclusive | Former NYSE President in Talks to Reboot FTX Exchange

[WSJ]

Elizabeth Lopatto
Elizabeth Lopatto
Ask us anything: Liz Lopatto and CoinDesk’s Danny Nelson answer your questions about the Sam Bankman-Fried trial at 4PM New York time.

We’ve got the goss on early wake-ups, lawyer fashion, courtroom sketches, and other pressing matters. Go ahead and leave a question here if you’ve got one... [Arnold voice] I’ll be back.

The trial and sentencing of FTX co-founder Sam Bankman-Fried

Bored Ape NFT event attendees report ‘severe eye burn’Bored Ape NFT event attendees report ‘severe eye burn’
Elizabeth Lopatto
Elizabeth Lopatto
That defense amounted to SBF saying, “I’m innocent because my customers were dumb enough to believe me.”

Kevin Dugan’s overview really sums it up: stripped of the affectations, we discovered there wasn’t much to Sam Bankman-Fried at all.

The Real SBF Stood Up

[Intelligencer]

Sam Bankman-Fried might not be the last crypto criminal

Cryptocurrency advocates might believe that FTX’s collapse was an anomaly — but they could have trouble convincing the public of the same.

Emma Roth
Richard Lawler
Richard Lawler
‘OpenSea 2.0’ starts with mass layoffs as the NFT balloon deflates.

CEO Devin Finzer says OpenSea is “shifting to a smaller team with a direct connection to users.” Decrypt reports about 50 percent of employees are impacted. When it laid off 20 percent of its employees last year, around 230 people remained.

This chart shows OpenSea activity peaked with over 50,000 active wallets (around the time it was valued at $13 billion) and $140 million in daily volume, which has dropped to fewer than 8,000 active wallets and $2.3 million in volume.

A line graph from the site DappRadar showing how the active wallets, volume, and transactions on OpenSea peaked at the end of 2021 and have shrunk to almost nothing now in comparison.
Data on OpenSea active wallets, volume, and transactions since January 2021.
Image: DappRadar
Sam Bankman-Fried gambled on a trial and his parents lost

Over five weeks, the FTX founder’s parents watched from the galleys — deluded, humiliated, and finally, defeated.

Elizabeth Lopatto
Sam Bankman-Fried found guilty of fraudSam Bankman-Fried found guilty of fraud
Richard Lawler
Richard Lawler
The jury in the Sam Bankman-Fried / FTX fraud trial has reached a verdict.

The jury only started deliberating a few hours ago, but after all of the testimony and evidence, they notified court officials they reached a verdict, as former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried faces seven charges, including wire fraud. We’ll have their decision here as soon as it is available.

According to a report from CNBC, the media will see it in about 10 minutes.

Emma Roth
Emma Roth
Jurors have begun deliberating Bankman-Fried’s fate.

The 12-person jury will decide whether Bankman-Fried is guilty of seven criminal charges, including two counts of wire fraud. If convicted, Bankman-Fried faces over 100 years in prison.

The Verge’s Elizabeth Lopatto has been tracking the case from the courtroom, and from what she’s seen so far, it doesn’t look like Bankman-Fried’s defense has brought too many convincing arguments to the table:

The closing arguments made clear was how lopsided the case was. Bankman-Fried’s defense appears to be that he is a nice boy who would never do anything to hurt anyone on purpose... Bankman-Fried is right to be frightened. He brought excuses. The prosecution brought receipts.

Jurors in Sam Bankman-Fried criminal trial begin deliberations

[CNBC]

Closing time for Sam Bankman-Fried

Mistakes aren’t illegal, but fraud is — and Bankman-Fried’s lawyers never made his defense land.

Elizabeth Lopatto
Richard Lawler
Richard Lawler
“...getting caught in a lie by a judge is very bad.”

That’s what experienced litigator Mitchell Epner wrote about this incident during the cross-examination of Sam Bankman-Fried. Elizabeth Lopatto’s summary of SBF’s final day of testimony captures it as part of being “vivisected” on the stand.

It was not until Judge Lewis Kaplan intervened to ask if Bankman-Fried had ever been told by Yedidia about that money, in words or in substance, that Bankman-Fried admitted he’d been told.

Trying to worm his way past tough questions by answering a slightly different question doesn’t seem to work as well for SBF in court as it did with investors and interviewers.

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