SBF risks 115 years in jail, Binance’s FUD, and auditors quit crypto: Hodler’s Digest Dec. 11-17

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 prone to keep there till February, after his software for bail was denied in Bahamian courtroom. A second software for bail has been reportedly filed by SBF in the Supreme Court of the Bahamas. His arrest got here after the United States authorities formally filed prison expenses towards him — together with eight counts of fraud. If convicted, Bankman-Fried might face 115 years in jail, however authorized commentators have instructed Cointelegraph there’s a “lot to play out” in the case. The domino impact ensuing from FTX’s meltdown has additionally impacted the skilled lives of Bankman-Fried’s mother and father, ensuing in their programs at Stanford Law School being canceled. In different latest developments relating to FTX, a class-action lawsuit towards Silvergate Bank was filed in California, aiming to carry the financial institution accountable for its alleged roles in putting FTX consumer deposits into the financial institution accounts of Alameda Research.

Binance ‘put FTX out of business’ — Kevin O’Leary

Venture capital investor Kevin O’Leary claimed at a U.S. Senate committee listening to that Binance and FTX “were at war with each other, and one put the other out of business intentionally.” The listening to was half of a bigger investigation by lawmakers into FTX’s collapse, in which Binance had a big function, O’Leary claimed. Recent days have seen Binance beset by worry, uncertainty, and doubt (FUD), ensuing in a drop in the change’s liquidity. Crypto analytics agency Nansen experiences that Binance had web withdrawals of greater than $3.6 billion from Dec. 7 to Dec. 13.

Rep. Tom Emmer mulls bringing again invoice aimed toward lowering crypto purple tape

United States lawmakers are below stress to enact crypto rules in gentle of the collapse of FTX, and Congressman Tom Emmer believes that that is “probably a good time” to re-introduce a bipartisan invoice that may 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 developers and service providers,” corresponding 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 immediately stopped providing crypto auditing companies. At a crucial second for the crypto trade, Mazars Group eliminated Binance’s proof-of-reserve audits from its web site simply days after confirming the crypto change managed 575,742 Bitcoin. The resolution affected different crypto exchanges utilizing Mazars’ companies, corresponding to Crypto.com and KuCoin. Later, Mazars defined the pause was attributable to “concerns regarding the way these reports are understood by the 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 change.

MetaMask to permit customers to buy and switch Ethereum by way of PayPal

In one other transfer into the crypto area, PayPal teamed up with MetaMask father or mother firm ConsenSys to permit the acquisition and switch of Ether (ETH) by means of its platform. By logging into the MetaMask app, customers will be capable to entry their PayPal account and full transactions. Initially, solely chosen PayPal customers in the United States will be capable to take a look at the service. Other conventional funds corporations are in search of to combine crypto into their companies. In October, Western Union additionally filed three logos 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 complete market cap is at $817.82 billion, in keeping with CoinMarketCap.

Among the most important 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 prime 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 data on crypto costs, be sure to learn Cointelegraph’s market evaluation.

Most Memorable Quotations

“Binance is a massive unregulated global monopoly now, and they put FTX out of business.”

Kevin O’Leary, enterprise capital investor

“I supposed it made sense. The kid was young, the principles were revolutionary, the ideas were golden. […] Who was I to challenge that?”

Danielle Cloud, former FTX worker

“Our experience to date of [crypto] platforms, whether FTX or others, is that they are deliberately evasive, they are a method by which money laundering happens in size.”

Ashley Alder, appointed chair of the United Kingdom’s Financial Conduct Authority

“Just as we are protective of our physical assets, we need to make sure that people protect their digital assets and personal information within the metaverse.”

Andrew Newman, chief know-how officer and co-founder of ReasonLabs

“Looking forward, pretty much everyone who could go bankrupt has gone bankrupt.”

Arthur Hayes, former CEO of BitMEX

Prediction of the Week 

Bitcoin dips below $17K as ‘craziest rumors’ over Binance sink BTC worth

Bitcoin fell under $17,000 as merchants remained cautious over Binance’s FUD triggering overly bearish BTC worth motion. On Bitstamp, BTC/USD reached multi-day lows of $16,928 on Dec. 16, in keeping with Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView knowledge. The pair retraced its complete run to one-month highs courtesy of the newest macroeconomic knowledge and coverage replace from the United States.

“Interesting to see everyone suddenly so bearish on BTC as if it’s solely acting so weak. SPX is doing exactly the same, maybe 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 in 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 risks like cyber fraud, assaults and unauthorized entry to assets, in keeping with a report. The new restrictions have been launched on Microsoft’s common license phrases, citing that “mining cryptocurrency is prohibited without 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 include any delicate private info corresponding 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 towards 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, and then promoting their shares to capitalize on the demand they generated by their “deceptive promotions.” Cryptocurrencies and different digital belongings weren’t talked about in the criticism.

Best Cointelegraph Features

Should crypto initiatives ever negotiate with hackers? Probably

Some safety consultants suppose negotiating is a great solution to get again a lot of the stolen funds, whereas others argue you must 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 thing going offline directly?

Listen up! Cointelegraph launches crypto podcasts, beginning with 4 reveals

Want extra crypto content material? Cointelegraph’s new podcast part options 4 separate reveals exploring quite a lot of impactful matters.