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The Latest on FTX's Bankruptcy
SBF Ordered $65B Secret Backdoor Line of Credit
Sam Bankman-Fried ordered Gary Wang, the co-founder of FTX, to create a “secret” backdoor that allowed his hedge fund Alameda to borrow $65 billion of clients’ money without their permission
FTX Loan Wiped Out $800M in BlockFi Executives’ Equity
A loan from FTX last year saw BlockFi executives’ equity holdings wiped out by a total $800 million – in exchange for which they granted themselves pay rises of as much as $500,000 each, filings show.
FTX Can Sell Four Key Units Including LedgerX
Sale notices will be published within around three business days, with indications of interest to be received between Jan. 18 for Embed and Feb. 1 for FTX Europe and Japan.
FTX Could Withhold Customers and Creditor Names for Another Three Months
Judge ruled that FTX could withhold the names from public disclosure for another three months, noting that it’s still unclear how many of the company’s 9 million customers are also creditors.
Crypto Giants Big Moves
Binance Reportedly Didn’t Follow Procedures for BUSD Reserves
Bloomberg reported that Binance-Peg BUSD stablecoin “doesn’t always appear to have been completely backed by BUSD”. Binance said the basis for the report was a “timing mismatch in backing Binance-Peg BUSD with BUSD”.
Court Grants Voyager Initial Approval for $1B Binance US Deal
Bankrupt crypto lender Voyager Digital received initial court approval for a proposed $1 billion sale of its assets to Binance.US, and said it will seek to expedite a U.S. national security review of the deal.
Huobi Delists 33 Tokens in One Day
Huobi said that it would delist 33 tokens citing trading risks and low trading volume. Effective Jan. 16, the aforementioned tokens will cease trading and be delisted permanently.
Crypto.com Will Delist Tether in Canada
Crypto.com will no longer facilitate transactions involving Tether in Canada and plans to delist the largest stablecoin by market capitalization for customers in the region.
AWS Taps Avalanche to Scale Blockchain Solutions
The partnership will make it easier for developers to launch and manage nodes on the Avalanche blockchain, with AWS’s support for Avalanche’s infrastructure and dApp ecosystem allowing for one-click node deployment.
Global regulations
Swedish FSA Grants Binance Seventh Regulatory Approval in EU
Sweden becomes the seventh EU Member State in which Binance has been granted authorisation, following authorisations in: France, Italy, Lithuania, Spain, Cyprus and Poland.
China Includes Digital Yuan in Cash Circulation Data for First Time
The People’s Bank of China included the country's digital currency in calculations of the amount of currency in circulation in December, a first for one of the early adopters of a central bank digital currency (CBDC).
Hong Kong to Propose Approved Set of Crypto Tokens for Retail Trading
Hong Kong's Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) will allow retail trading in a select group of cryptocurrencies as it attempts to introduce regularity clarity to crypto.
El Salvador Approves Digital Assets Issuance Law
El Salvador approved the Digital Assets Issuance Law, a framework that will allow the country to issue crypto-related debt instruments. The approved law serves as a base for the issuance of the long-expected volcano bonds.
French Regulator Pushes for Faster Issuance of Crypto Licenses
AMF is pushing for a mandatory and faster licensing of cryptocurrency entities that aren’t registered to offer services in the country.
Crypto weekly price action
Research and technology
Proof of Stake and Other Consensus Mechanisms
There are several different types of consensus mechanisms that are used in blockchain networks. Let's discuss the most prominent ones and understand the difference between them.
The digital asset market has opened the new year...by staying asleep. Realized volatility for the two major assets has fallen to extreme lows.
Crypto Wallet Security Incidents in 2022
The past year has been a painful one for many in crypto. We will revisit major crypto wallet related security incidents that occurred in 2022 and examine their technical details.
Overall, illicit activity in cryptocurrency remains a small share of overall volume at less than 1%. It’s also worth keeping in mind that despite this year’s jump, crime as a share of all crypto activity is still trending downwards.
Fundraising and investment
Venom Foundation and Iceberg Capital Launch $1B Venture Fund
The $1 billion vehicle, Venom Ventures Fund (VVF), is a blockchain-agnostic fund that will invest in pre-seed to Series A rounds for web3 protocols and decentralized applications (dApps) that focus on trends like payments, asset management, DeFi, banking services and GameFi.
Microsoft Mulls US$10 Bln Investment in ChatGPT’s OpenAI
Microsoft’s US$10 billion funding will raise the AI research firm’s valuation to US$29 billion. The deal reportedly involves Microsoft taking 75% of OpenAI’s profits until the initial investment is recouped.
Metaverse Platform Worlds Raises $21M in Series A1 Funding
Worlds Enterprises has completed a $21 million Series A funding round led by Moneta Ventures. Additional participants include existing investors Align Capital, Green Park & Golf Ventures, Chevron Technology Ventures, Piva Capital, PerotJain, and Capital Factory.
Gemini Terminates Genesis Loans, Ends Earn Program
Gemini is terminating customer loan agreements with Genesis Global Capital as it winds down its Earn program. Gemini said it will prioritize the return of customer funds and “operate with the utmost urgency.”
The Easy Company Secures $14.2M Funding for New Crypto Wallet
The Easy Company, a startup focusing on building a consumer layer for the decentralized web, has raised $14.2 million in a seed round for its “social” crypto wallet, which seeks to help onboard more mainstream audiences into the Web3 ecosystem.
Viral Quotes
"Bitcoin, Gold, Silver, and oil moving up in price. Good news for those that know inflation is permanent…now systemic…not transitory. Bad news for the uninformed, poor, middle class… anyone who believes Biden cares about them and their families. Biden does not care about you."
— Robert Kiyosaki, author of "Rich Dad Poor Dad"
"In Asset Servicing, we’ve been growing sales. And at the same time, we’re leaning into the future with things like digital assets and we’re focusing on the expense base as well. So again, it’s something for the near term and for the medium term."
— Robin Vince, President and CEO of BNY Mellon
"Most of these 10,000 or 15,000 tokens will fail."
— Gary Gensler, chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)
“When can we expect proactive guidance instead of leaving the industry to interpret the rules of the road through your after-the-fact enforcement actions?”
— Tom Emmer , U.S. lawmaker, on SEC chairman Gary Gensler
“The outlook for crypto is not horrible, but it’s not great. ”
— Mike Novogratz, Galaxy Digital Founder and CEO
“I don’t think anyone should be in any of these. I think everything should be sold”
— Jim Cramer, CNBC’s Mad Money host, on digital currencies
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