Crypto news
Breaking: FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried arrested, set to be extradited to US
Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder and former CEO of the FTX cryptocurrency exchange and founder of trading firm Alameda Research has been arrested by authorities in The Bahamas. A Dec. 12 statement from the Bahamas Attorney General (AG) and Minister of Legal Affairs, Ryan Pinder, states Bankman-Fried was arrested by the Royal Bahamas Police Force following a formal notification from the United States government that it has filed criminal charges against the FTX founder. The U.S. will likely request the extradition of Bankman-Fried. Pinder states The Bahamas will “promptly” process any extradition request by U.S. authorities. Bahamian Prime Minister Philip Davis said in a statement both countries have “a shared interest in holding accountable all individuals associated with FTX who may h...
Singapore announced by Affyn as first NEXUS World metaverse city
Affyn is a Sinapore-based company operating in the blockchain gaming space. It’s goal is to leverage the play-to-earn model so that rewards earned in the virtual world have the ability to also be utilised in the real world. The NEXUS World metaverse is part of that goal. This will take advantage of mobile geolocation services to directly map metaverse cities to the real world. Affyn has announced that Singapore will be the first city within this world. 2,000 plots of Freehold Land NFTs will be featured. These NFTs will correspond with actual locations in Singapore. The NFTs are hexagonal in shape, representing approximately 15,000 square metres. They are also further categorised into rarity levels – Common, Rare, Epic and Mythical. The NFTs will be further distinguished by their own featur...
Virtua expands its metaverse with the launch of the Monster Zone
London, United Kingdom, 12th December, 2022, Chainwire The Monster Zone will be the first available area on Virtua Island and the land sale begins today at 5 pm GMT Games metaverse Virtua has announced the launch of the Monster Zone. The first area to be released on Virtua Island, a key region of its home planet in the metaverse – Virtua Prime. The launch of Virtua Island follows the successful launch of Cardano Island in the Virtua metaverse and both will form parts of a 3D world in the virtual space. The Monster Zone draws together elements of the metaverse and gaming in ways never before possible and will be populated with amazing creatures from well-known IPs and new exciting brands. Through challenges and events, players will be able to acquire, craft, and trade various resources and ...
BTC price shakes off Binance ‘FUD’ as analysts eye Q1 2023 Bitcoin bottom
Bitcoin (BTC) stayed steady near $17,000 at the Dec. 12 Wall Street open as news involving Binance failed to spark BTC price downside. BTC/USD 1-hour candle chart (Bitstamp). Source: TradingView Factors line up to “scare” Bitcoin trade Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView showed BTC/USD avoiding fresh volatility as United States markets opened. Having traded sideways throughout the weekend, the pair offered few cues to analysts, who were waiting for U.S. macroeconomic data to shake up the status quo. This, in the form of the November Consumer Price Index (CPI) print, would nonetheless be a pivotal moment for crypto assets, they agreed, with the potential for significant upside and downside hinging on the numbers, due Dec. 13. Subsequent events involving the Feder...
Hackers copied Mango Markets attacker’s methods to exploit Lodestar: CertiK
According to a post-mortem analysis provided by CertiK of the $5.8 million Lodestar Finance exploit that occurred on Dec. 10, 5. The hacker burned a little over 3 million in GLP, their profit on this exploit was the stolen funds on Lodestar – minus the GLP they burned. 6. 2.8 Million of the GLP is recoverable, which is worth about $2.4 million. We are going to reach out to the hacker and… — Lodestar Finance (,) (@LodestarFinance) December 10, 2022 In a similar instance, CertiK said that Lodestar Finance hackers “artificially pumped the price of an illiquid collateral asset which they then borrow against, leaving the protocol with irretrievable debt.” “Despite some of the losses being potentially recoverable, the protocol is functionally insolvent right n...
SushiSwap CEO reveals DEX lost $30M on LP incentives this year
According to a new Twitter post by SushiSwap CEO Jared Grey, the decentralized exchange, or DEX, experienced a $30 million loss in the past 12 months on incentives for liquidity providers, or LPs. As explained by Grey, SushiSwap currently employs a token-based emission strategy to incentivize LPs, but the current rate is “unsustainable.” “We commissioned Flipside to build dashboards to showcase these results; we’ll make them available by EOY.” Moving forward, Grey plans to rework SushiSwap’s tokenomics so that LPs are no longer subsidized with emissions and redesign the entire model of bootstrapping liquidity on the exchange. ” In Q1 2023, we will bring innovation to scale swap volume & prioritize TVL. As LPs experience a more profitable swap e...
Sam Bankman-Fried says he will testify before the US House Financial Services Committee remotely
Continuing his so-called apology tour, Sam Bankman-Fried appeared on a Twitter Spaces chat with Unusual Whales and told nearly 60,000 listeners that he intends to testify at the United States House of Representatives Financial Services Committee remotely on Dec. 13. He was previously confirmed to appear in person. Bankman-Fried, who is allegedly currently located in the Bahamas, missed the deadline to confirm his appearance before the Senate Banking Committee the following day, despite the threat of a subpoena. Despite his frequent public speaking, Bankman-Fried has gone silent on Twitter himself, not posting since Dec. 9, when he indicated his agreement to appear at the House committee hearing. 1) I still do not have access to much of my data — professional or personal. So the...
NFT market held back by oversupply, greed and bad projects: Gary Vee
Popular entrepreneur and NFT proponent Gary Vaynerchuck — also known as Gary Vee — has argued that oversupply, greed and subpar projects are the main reasons the NFT market fell so hard over the past year. On Dec.12, Vaynerchuck highlighted his latest blog post via Twitter which explores the NFT sector’s current issues and where he thinks it’s headed next year. Hope this article can help some of you, the feedback has been humbling …. Why I Said 97-99% of NFTs Would Go to Zero – Gary Vaynerchuk https://t.co/BmhO7OUGdH — Gary Vaynerchuk (@garyvee) December 11, 2022 Commenting on the state of the market, Vaynerchuck emphasized that there has been a significant amount of fear, uncertainty and doubt (FUD) from the media and users of social media this year, who have generally h...
US senator calls on SEC’s Gensler to answer for ‘regulatory failures’
Minnesota Senator Tom Emmer has slammed United States Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) Chairman Gary Gensler for his flawed “crypto information-gathering efforts” and insisted Gensler should appear before Congress to explain the cost of his “regulatory failures.” Emmer’s comments came from a Dec. 10 tweet to his 67,500 Twitter followers, where he made reference to a bipartisan Blockchain Caucus letter he co-authored to the SEC Chairman on Mar. 16. Emmer said, “we now know Gensler’s crypto information-gathering efforts were ineffective” citing the collapses of the Terra ecosystem and bankrupt crypto platforms Celsius, Voyager and FTX. He declined to provide Congress with the information requested in the letter, which would’ve informed Congress of the apparent inconsistencies...
Arthur Hayes: Bitcoin bottomed as ‘everyone who could go bankrupt has gone bankrupt’
Arthur Hayes, the former CEO of crypto derivatives platform BitMEX, thinks the worst might be over for Bitcoin (BTC) this cycle as the “largest most irresponsible entities” have run out of BTC to sell. “Looking forward, pretty much everyone who could go bankrupt has gone bankrupt,” he said in the Dec. 11 interview with crypto advocate and podcaster Scott Melker. Hayes elaborates on his stance by explaining that when centralized lending firms (CELs) have financial troubles, they will often call in loans first, then sell BTC first because it operates as the “reserve asset of crypto” and “the most pristine asset and the most liquid.” “When you look at the balance sheet of any of these of the heroes, there’s no Bitcoin on it because what do they do, they sold...
Paxful CEO preaches Bitcoin self-custody, advises against crypto exchange
The case for self-custody grows stronger as investors demand evidence of their assets over crypto exchanges. While some CEOs chose to double down on assuring the funds’ safety on their platforms, Ray Youssef, the CEO of crypto exchange Paxful, sided with the idea of self-custody as he took responsibility for over 11 million users. The fall of FTX was an eye-opener for investors who predominantly entrusted crypto exchanges with safeguarding their assets. FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried, however, broke this trust by misappropriating users’ funds via Alameda Research. Ever since, numerous exchanges had to share wallet information as proof of reserves publicly. Will be sending an email every week strongly advising our people to never keep savings on any exchange, including @paxful This is the way ! ...
Former top SEC crypto regulator hired by Caroline Ellison
A former top crypto regulator with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) will represent Caroline Ellison, the ex-Alameda Research CEO, in an ongoing federal probe, according to a Dec. 10 report from Bloomberg. Ellison will be represented by Stephanie Avakian and a team of attorneys from WilmerHale. Avakain is currently chair of the Securities and Financial Services department at the law firm. At the SEC, she was a director at the Enforcement Division, where she expanded cryptocurrency oversight, bringing cases against Robinhood and Ripple Lab. According to the law firm’s website, “Ms. Avakian oversaw the Division’s approximately 1,400 professionals and staff. During her four years leading the Division, the SEC brought more than 3,000 enforcement actio...
