Monday December 5, 2022
◾ Sam Bankman-Fired tweeted that it is his “duty” to testify before the House Finance Committee and he will appear once he finishes “learning and reviewing what happened.” (Twitter)
◾ Customers stormed the Nigerian offices of AAX and beat-up local staff because of the decision to suspend withdrawals. (Legit.ng)
◾ Galaxy Digital (GLXY) is acquiring GK8, a digital assets custody platform, from the Celsius Network’s bankruptcy estate. (Newswire)
Government & NGO Actions
◾ The Central Bank of Pakistan launched laws for licensed non-bank entities as a step toward issuing a digital currency by 2025. (Arabnews)
◾ A Chinese court declared that NFTs are virtual property that should be protected under Chinese laws. (Twitter)
◾ A Korean court denied the arrest warrant for Terraform co-founder Daniel Shin. (Yna.co.kr)
◾ The International Committee of the Red Cross is looking to use blockchain technology to help distribute financial aid in conflict zones. (Theblock)
Public Company Releases
◾ Hut 8 (HUT) generated 238 bitcoin in November and maintained its long standing strategy of HODLing 100% of its self-mined production. (Cision)
◾ CleanSpark (CLSK) mined 535 bitcoin selling its full production plus a few BTC (544) to fund operations during November. (Globenewswire)
Restructuring, Losses and Legal News
◾ Gemini capital is working to recover $900 million from Genesis’ suspended lending platform. (FT)
◾ A group of assorted creditors represented by Proskauer and separate from Gemini are also due $900 million. (Coindesk)
◾ Liquidators for Three Arrows Capital seized $35 million in cash and $2.7 million in forced investment redemptions from accounts held by the failed crypto hedge fund. (AWS)
◾ The founders of failed crypto hedge fund Three Arrows Capital are reportedly refusing to assist the bankruptcy appointed liquidators with asset recovery efforts with founder Kyle Davies tweeting it’s because the liquidators are refusing to engage “constructively.” (Reuters)
◾ Alameda Research was given special privileges and permitted to exceed FTX’s normal borrowing limits since its early days. (FT)
◾ Sam Bankman-Fried believes it is possible that customer funds wired to Alameda to assist with customer onboarding may have remained on Alameda’s balance sheet after it should have been transferred to FTX’s resulting in a huge hole in both company’s balance sheets. (WSJ)
◾ Australian crypto exchange Swyftx eliminated 90 jobs due to the market fall out following the FTX collapse. (Swyftx)
◾ Crypto exchange Bybit reduced its workforce by 30% to respond to a “deepening bear market.” (Twitter)
◾ FTX’s acquired derivative’s exchange LedgerX is attracting interest from would-be buyers including Blockchain.com and Gemini. (Bloomberg)
Protocols, Applications & Business News
◾ Representatives of the Australian Securities Exchange told parliament it prioritized the wrong features focusing on “functionality” instead of “security” and “scalability” in working to developed its failed blockchain technology-backed trading, clearing and settlement platform. (Reuters)
Market Data
◾ Bitcoin’s difficulty is expected to drop 8.01%, its largest decline since the summer of 2021, after its next adjustment late tonight / tomorrow morning. (BTC)