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SBF’s Bahamian prison reported for ‘harsh’ conditions and ‘degrading treatment’ — US State Dept
After being denied bail in a Bahamas Magistrate Court, former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried could spend up to two months in the country’s Fox Hill Prison, a facility with reported cases of physical abuse against prisoners and “harsh” conditions. Authorities in the Bahamas reportedly remanded Bankman-Fried to the medical wing of Fox Hill following a Dec. 13 hearing. SBF’s counsel said he had been taking medication prior to his arrest on Dec. 12, including Adderall and anti-depressants, but it’s unclear if the former CEO will serve his time at the correctional facility, its medical unit, or an alternative location. According to a 2021 human rights report from the U.S. State Department, conditions at Fox Hill were “harsh.” Investigations determined that the facility was overcrowded, prisoners had...
Bitcoin retraces intraday gains as bears aim to pin BTC price under $18K
On Dec. 14, Bitcoin (BTC) broke above $18,000 for the first time in 34 days, marking a 16.5% gain from the $15,500 low on Nov. 21. The move followed a 3% gain in the S&P 500 futures in three days, which reclaimed the critical 4,000 points support. Bitcoin/USD index (orange, left) vs. S&P 500 futures (right). Source: TradingView While BTC price started the day in favor of bulls, investors anxiously awaited the U.S. Federal Reserve decision on interest rates, along with Fed chair Jerome Powell’s remarks. The subsequent 50 basis point hike and Powell’s explanation of why the Fed would stay the course gave investors good reason to doubt that BTC price will hold its current gains leading into the $370 million options expiry on Dec. 16. Analysts and traders expect some form o...
Maple Finance 2.0 overhaul aimed at speeding up the defaulting process
Maple Finance is a decentralized credit market powered by blockchain technology. Instead of requiring overcollaterlization of loans, it instead allows managers, called “Pool Delegates” to issue loans from its lending pools based on a set of risk-management criteria, according to the protocol’s documents. Introducing Maple 2.0. Maple 2.0 is a fundamental overhaul of the smart contract architecture. The new contracts are modular and robust and will facilitate Maple bringing capital markets on-chain. pic.twitter.com/5GGsMXaXhv — Maple (@maplefinance) December 14, 2022 However, in the wake of FTX’s collap, the platform experienced two major defaults from borrowers on the platform. On Dec. 1, algo trading and market maker Auros Global missed its payment of 2,400 Wrapped Ether (wETH) follo...
Fonbnk’s Michael Kimani sorts out facts on crypto adoption in Africa
The African continent has been tipped as an important market for crypto adoption due to its young population, lousy economic management by governments and lack of efficient financial infrastructure to connect the continent internally and globally. Adoption is becoming so widespread that celebrities do not want to get left out, with several big names in the entertainment and media space working with crypto brands. In the first episode of Cointelegraph’s new podcast Hashing It Out, hosted by Cointelegraph social media specialist Elisha Owusu Akyaw, Fonbnk co-founder Michael Kimani answers questions about what crypto adoption really looks like in the face of rising hype about the continent in the media and reports. One of the continent’s “OGs,” Kimani began working with one of the first...
Will FTX’s ill wind reach the Global South? Maybe not
With the crypto world still reeling from the FTX collapse, Brazil recently passed legislation that legalized cryptocurrency use for payments in the country. How to reconcile this with all those declarations in the West that crypto is having its “Lehman moment”? Brazil may have inadvertently revealed a cleft between the developed world and emerging markets with regard to the uses and misuses of cryptocurrencies. (The legislation still requires a presidential signature before it becomes law.) Unquestionably, FTX’s Nov. 11 bankruptcy filing hurt crypto exchanges and other crypto-focused enterprises in Brazil, as well as many crypto-based companies all through Latin America (LATAM). But this latest gale in the crypto winter is generally not seen as an existential threat — as it is someti...
Gemini allegedly suffered data breach; 5.7 million emails leaked
Cryptocurrency exchange Gemini appears to have suffered a data breach on or before Dec. 13. According to documents obtained by Cointelegraph, hackers gained access to 5,701,649 lines of information pertaining to customers’ account numbers, email addresses and partial phone numbers. In the case of the latter, hackers apparently did not gain access to the full phone numbers, as certain numeric digits were obfuscated. The leaked database did not include sensitive personal information such as names, addresses and other Know Your Customer information. In addition, some emails were repeated in the document; thus, the number of customers affected is likely lower than the total rows of information. Gemini currently has 13 million active users. Security breaches in the Web3 industry, even if mild i...
Comic-Con guru says storytelling is the key component for successful NFT projects
NFT Steez, a new weekly Cointelegraph podcast exploring nonfungible tokens and Web3 projects, spoke to Comic-Con legend Gareb Shamus about how he has used storytelling to build engagement and a “maker world” that grows and strengthens communities. What started off as a newsletter about comics — Shamus’ passion project — ultimately became known to the world as Wizard magazine. According to Shamus, Wizard was an outlet where he could “create a voice” and share with his friends the things he had discovered that excited him. Shamus touched on the importance of building elements of engagement and not limiting creativity within communities to further “unite them around what they love.” More importantly, he explained how building engagement allowed him to reach billions of people around...
Decentraland (MANA) vs Metacade (MCADE) – Which One Should I Buy?
The future of the gaming industry is in GameFi, and there are some top spaces in the GameFi market that look poised to lead the way. As one of the first big metaverse spaces, Decentraland (MANA) has given us a glimpse of what metaverse gaming can be. But as the Metaverse expands, there are some new spaces that can build on that to reach the next level of metaverse gaming. Platforms like Metacade (MCADE) are filling in that role. GameFi as the Future Right now, the gaming industry is shattering records, as it only becomes more popular. As GameFi shifts the way video games are played, the winner of all that success is going to be metaverse gaming. With GameFi, users get all the fun of playing a game AND an opportunity to earn money while doing it. That’s right, there are video game...
Binance US finally rolls out mobile payments service to US customers
United States crypto exchange Binance US has finally rolled out its Binance Pay service — some 22 months after the feature was launched by the global exchange to its customers outside the U.S. in 2021. The service, which had a beta version rolled out globally in Feb. 2021 for peer-to-peer payments which was expanded to include merchant transactions on Mar. 12, allows mobile users of the Binance app to instantly transact nearly 150 supported cryptocurrencies without fees. A Dec.13 blog post from Binance US clarifies that Pay transactions will feature zero gas or transaction fees, and notes that the app is currently only available on mobile as it prepares to introduce a web version “which will arrive in the near future.” Meanwhile, amid the recent FUD against Binance global, Binance CEO...
White House silent on whether it will return $5.2M in donations from SBF
White House press secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre, declined to answer questions from a reporter on whether United States president Joe Biden will return the $5.2 million in campaign donations previously given by FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried. “Will the president return that donation?” Associated Press reporter Zeke Miller asked in a Dec. 13 press briefing, “does he call on all politicians who got campaign donations that may have come from customer money to return those funds?” “I’m covered here by the Hatch Act,” Jean-Pierre responded, adding she was “limited on what I can say.” ”Anything that’s connected to political contributions, from here I would have to refer you to the DNC,” she said in reference to the Democratic National Committee — the governing body of the U.S. Democrat...
How to trade crypto using Wyckoff accumulation theory
On Dec. 2, independent market analyst Stockmoney Lizards said Bitcoin (BTC) had entered the process of bottoming out inside its current $15,500-$18,000 price range, citing Wyckoff Accumulation. Wyckoff Accumulation is a classic technical analysis setup, named after Richard Wyckoff, a technical analysis pioneer in the first half of the twentieth century, who broke down the market cycle into four distinct phases. But is Wyckoff a reliable pattern, particularly for trading cryptocurrency? Let’s find o. What is Wyckoff accumulation? Wyckoff accumulation is one of the four phases listed in the Wyckoff market cycle theory, with the other three being markup, distribution and markdown. In layman’s terms, each phase determines when large entities drive the direction of the ma...
Bahamian securities regulator slams new FTX CEO over ‘misstatements’
The Securities Commission of Bahamas has slammed the current CEO of bankrupt crypto exchange FTX John J. Ray III for his statements regarding the ongoing investigation into FTX. In a press release sent to Cointelegraph, the Bahaman regulator didn’t directly point toward the exact statements of the CEO, but addressed recent reports that suggest the Bahamas’ government asked former CEO Sam Bankman-Fried to create a new multi-million token and hand over the control to them. The said report also alleged Bahamas officials tried to help Bankman-Fried regain access to key computer systems of the FTX. According to United States lawyers, Bahamas officials were “responsible for directing unauthorized access” to FTX systems in order to take over control of digital assets under the s...
