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Prime Tales This Week
Opening arguments start in Sam Bankman-Fried trial
The trial of former FTX CEO Sam “SBF” Bankman-Fried kicked off on Oct. Four in New York after jury choice started the day prior to this. Assistant United States Legal professional Thane Rehn advised jurors that SBF used FTX buyer funds to counterpoint himself and achieve credibility amongst politicians via donations. “The defendant blamed a downturn within the crypto market. However he had dedicated fraud. That’s what the proof on this trial will present. You’ll hear from his inside circle. His girlfriend will let you know how they stole cash collectively,” Rehn stated. SBF’s legal professional Mark Cohen stated the “girlfriend,” former Alameda Analysis CEO Caroline Ellison, and Changpeng Zhao, CEO of rival cryptocurrency alternate Binance, share a number of the blame for the downfall of FTX. Take a look at our detailed recap on Sam Bankman-Fried’s first week at trial.
Alex Mashinsky’s jury trial scheduled for September 2024
Alex Mashinsky, former CEO of crypto lender Celsius, will likely be tried on costs of fraud and market manipulation in September 2024, a decide selected Oct. 3. Mashinsky will stay free on $40 million bail, topic to journey and monetary restriction, within the meantime. Celsius filed for chapter in July 2022 and Mashinsky was arrested in July of this yr. He’s accused of defrauding buyers out of billions of {dollars}. The USA Commodity Futures Buying and selling Fee, Securities and Trade Fee and Federal Commerce Fee all have energetic fits in opposition to Mashinsky as nicely. Former Celsius chief income officer Roni Cohen-Pavon pleaded responsible to 4 legal costs in September.
Binance spot market share drops for seventh consecutive month
Cryptocurrency alternate Binance is constant to lose market share for the seventh month in a row. Analysts say HTX (previously Huobi), Bybit and DigiFinex have been the beneficiaries of Binance’s slide. In line with an evaluation by CCData reported by Bloomberg, Binance’s share of the spot market fell from 38.5% in August to 34.3% in September. On the derivatives market, Binance’s share fell from 53.5% to 51.5% in the identical interval. Ongoing struggles with regulators in the US have been recognized as one explanation for Binance’s market share decline, however in addition they identified the tip of the alternate’s zero-fee buying and selling promotion for main buying and selling pairs and Binance’s withdrawal from the Russian market, which made up 7% of its site visitors.
Alameda despatched $4.1B of FTT tokens to FTX earlier than crash: Nansen report
A report shared with Cointelegraph by blockchain information analyst Nansen reveals that FTX moved $4.1 billion value of its native FTT tokens to Alameda Analysis between Sept. 28 and Nov. 1, 2022. FTX and Alameda Analysis managed round 90% of the FTT provide. Nansen recommended that the businesses have been utilizing them to prop up one another’s steadiness sheets. FTX additionally transferred $388 million in stablecoin to Alameda Analysis throughout the identical interval. Knowledge implied that Alameda Analysis wouldn’t have been capable of undergo with its supply to Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao to purchase out that alternate’s FTT holdings at $22 on Nov. 6. Alameda Analysis CEO Caroline Ellison made the supply on X (previously Twitter) as the 2 entities scrambled to manage the turmoil sparked by revelations of irregularities of their steadiness sheets. FTX filed for chapter days later.
Valkyrie backtracks on Ether futures contract purchases till ETF launch
Asset administration agency Valkyrie stated in a submitting with the U.S. Securities and Trade Fee (SEC) on Sept. 29 that it’ll not buy Ether prematurely of receiving approval for its exchange-traded fund (ETF). Valkyrie had beforehand advised Cointelegraph that it deliberate on permitting buyers publicity to ETF futures earlier than launching its mixed Bitcoin and Ether Technique ETF in early October. Not solely that, Valkyrie stated it might promote the ETH futures it had already purchased. Valkyrie is amongst a number of monetary corporations which might be anticipated to start providing ETH futures ETFs quickly. The SEC has delayed choices on a number of of them. Observers say it could be resulting from considerations a couple of U.S. authorities shutdown.
Winners and Losers
On the finish of the week, Bitcoin (BTC) is at $27,880, Ether (ETH) at $1,640 and XRP at $0.52. The entire market cap is at $1.07 trillion, in accordance with CoinMarketCap.
Among the many largest 100 cryptocurrencies, the highest three altcoin gainers of the week are Belief Pockets Token (TWT) at 18.11%, Avalanche (AVAX) at 17.5% and Render (RNDR) at 17%.
The highest three altcoin losers of the week are ApeCoin (APE) at -9.5%, THORChain (RUNE) at -9.3% and Curve DAO Token (CRV) at -8.8%.
For more information on crypto costs, ensure to learn Cointelegraph’s market evaluation.
Learn additionally
Most Memorable Quotations
“We allowed Alameda to withdraw limitless funds.”
Gary Wang, co-founder and former chief expertise officer of FTX
“He advised me to make use of Sign. He advised your complete firm. It additionally had auto-delete. […] He stated it [auto-delete] was all down-side to maintain messages round. If regulators discovered issues they didn’t like, it may very well be dangerous for the corporate.”
Adam Yedidia, former FTX employee and roommate of SBF
“Macroeconomic headwinds are limiting our ability to generate revenue, and in response to the current market conditions and business realities, we must reduce roles across the global business.”
Pascal Gauthier, CEO and chairman of Ledger
“The gravitational pull in crypto for the time being stays in BTC, with a promising event horizon down the line, still favoring aggressive accumulation.”
Vetle Lundem, senior analyst at K33
“It’s relatively difficult to innovate in traditional finance. In crypto, it’s a lot better and more efficient. And in terms of cost, it is a lot more cheap. So, you can see the pace is a lot faster, and we can serve an even bigger audience than traditional finance right now.”
Lennix Lai, global chief commercial officer at OKX
“Banks have trillions of dollars of transactions with each other at the end of the day, but there is a cut-off time where you simply cannot transact internationally. It’s a big pain point, and it’s also expensive and inefficient.”
Akshay Chopra, vice president, head of innovation and design for CEMEA at Visa
Prediction of the Week
Bitcoin bull market awaits as US faces ‘bear steepener’ — Arthur Hayes
With bond yields surging to 30-year highs, the financial markets are due for “mass liquidity injections” in the near future, according to BitMEX founder Arthur Hayes. This should provide the next catalyst for the crypto bull market, he said.
“Why do I love these markets right now when yields are screaming higher? Bank models have no concept of a bear steepener occurring,” Hayes argued. A “bear steepener” describes the phenomenon of long-term interest rates rising more quickly than short-term interest rates.
“The faster this bear steepener rises, the faster someone goes belly up, the faster everyone recognises there is no way out other than money printing to save govt bond markets, the faster we get back to the crypto bull market,” Hayes said.
FUD of the Week
Crypto suffered 153% YoY increase in hacks and scams in Q3
Blockchain security platform Immunefi released a new report on crypto hacks and scams for the third quarter. According to the report, the number of hacks and scams increased by over 153% from July to September 2023 compared to the same period in the previous year. In Q3 2022, there were only 30 incidents, whereas there were 76 incidents in Q3 2023. A total of over $680 million of crypto was lost from scams and hacks during the quarter. The largest hack of the quarter was of the Mixin protocol, which resulted in it being drained of over $200 million, while the Multichain hack for over $126 million was the second largest. The two most targeted networks were BNB Chain and Ethereum.
Bitcoin analysts still predict a BTC price crash to $20K
Bitcoin holders were elated when the coin began October at a six-week high, but technical analysts are warning that it may be headed for a fall to $20,000 soon. According to pseudonymous Bitcoin trader CryptoBullet, the current chart shows a classic “head and shoulders” pattern that generally means the price is about to fall. The bottom of the left shoulder of this pattern is at around $20,000, implying that the price will fall to that point before recovering. Joao Wedson, founder and CEO of crypto trading resource Dominando Cripto, went even further, claiming that Bitcoin may fall below $20,000. According to Wedson, the current price action is forming a fractal that looks similar to the 2020-2022 period. The last time this happened, the price increased greatly in the beginning, but then collapsed back to lower levels by the end of the fractal. In Wedson’s view, this implies that we may be in the early stages of a move below $20,000.
US Treasury sanctions crypto wallets as authorities crack down on fentanyl
The Office of Foreign Assets Control of the United States Department of the Treasury announced that it has sanctioned multiple wallets connected with manufacturers and dealers of the illicit drug, fentanyl. According to Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo, the wallets have “received millions of USD funds over hundreds of deposits” as payment for various Fentanyl-related criminal activities. The wallet sanctions were initiated as part of an indictment that targeted some Chinese-based chemical manufacturers. Valerian Labs, Hanhong Pharmaceutical, and Hebei Crovell Biotech were three of the parties named in the indictment.
The Truth Behind Cuba’s Bitcoin Revolution: An on-the-ground report
From addressing runaway inflation to providing a secure way to save money, Bitcoin can be a critical economic tool for Cubans.
Singer Vérité’s fan-first approach to Web3, music NFTs and community building
Is music the next frontier of blockchain adoption? Some musicians think the technology can help them carve out a sustainable career in the industry.
6 Questions for JW Verret — the blockchain professor who’s tracking the money
The Harvard-educated attorney answers questions about crypto adoption and regulation.
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Cointelegraph Magazine writers and reporters contributed to this article.
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