Monday January 9, 2023
◾ New York’s Attorney General sued Celsius’ founder and former CEO Alex Mashinsky for defrauding investors out of billions of dollars worth of cryptocurrency. (Ag.ny.gov)
◾ A US Trustee filed an objection to FTX’s plans to sell LedgerX and its exchanges in Japan and Europe claiming an investigation is required before the sale as the companies may have information related to FTX’s bankruptcy. (Reuters)
◾ A US bankruptcy judge issued an order saying that since customer turned their assets over to Celsius to ‘earn’ interest the assets are now part of the company’s bankruptcy estate and will not be automatically returned to the customers. (Reuters)
Government & NGO Actions
◾ Mexico’s government announced the Central Bank will issue its own digital currency by 2024. (News.bitcoin)
◾ Bank of France Governor Francois Villeroy de Galhau called for tougher regulatory requirements for crypto firms. (Bloomberg)
◾ Opposition leaders in the Bahamas are accusing the Government of attempting to silence them from voicing any publicly concerns regarding the FTX collapse. (Ewnews)
◾ Federal prosecutors are investigation US hedge fund dealings with Binance as part of their investigation into money laundering at the crypto exchange. (Washingtonpost)
◾ The SEC wants Binance to provide details about its ability to close on its acquisition of Voyager before the transaction proceeds further. (Bloomberg)
◾ The SEC charged the creator of CoinDeal and his associates for participating in a fraudulent investment scheme raising more than $45 million from the sale of unregistered securities. (SEC.gov)
◾ The UK’s National Crime Agency is looking to form a new group focusing on crypto crimes. (Decrypt)
Public Company Releases
◾ Coinbase (COIN) agreed to pay $50 million in penalties to New York’s Department of Financial Services for “significant failures in its compliance program” and to invest another $50 million to improve its compliance program over the next two years. (Dfs.ny.gov)
◾ Silvergate Capital (SI) said it had to liquidate debt to cover $8.1 million in withdrawals which resulted in a loss that exceeded its total profits since 2013. The crypto focused bank also reduced 40% of its workforce, shelved plans to launch its own digital currency, and is writing off the $196 million it spent buying Diem’s stablecoin technology. (WSJ)
◾ Hut 8 Mining (HUT) mined 309 bitcoin in the final month of the year bringing total holdings to 7,078 BTC. (Hut8mining)
◾ Hive Blockchain (HIVE) produced 212 Bitcoin (2.06 EH/s) in December bringing its treasury holdings to 2,348 BTC. (Newsfilecorp)
◾ Marathon Digital (MARA) achieved a record in quarterly bitcoin production producing 475 bitcoin in December (7.0 EH/s) and 1,562 for the quarter as it continues its path to reach 23 EH/s. (Marathon)
◾ Riot Platforms (RIOT) produced 659 bitcoin in December but sold 600 to fund operations. (Riot)
◾ DMG Blockchain Solutions (DMGI) mined 104.6 bitcoin with 0.91 EH/s realized hashrate selling 40 BTC in December. (Globenewswire)
◾ BitDigital (BTBT) earned 130 bitcoin in December. (BitDigital)
◾ CleanSpark (CLSK) mined 464 bitcoin (6.2 EH/s) in December selling 111% of monthly production. (Cleanspark)
◾ Ault Alliance (AULT) mined 123 bitcoin last month and expects to increase its total capacity to 2.66 EH/s. (Ault)
Restructuring, Losses and Legal News
◾ MtGox’s Japanese Trustee extended the deadline for creditors to select their method of repayment by an additional 2 months to March 10th. (Mtgox)
◾ The Department of Justice is seizing 56 million shares of Robinhood (HOOD), with a value of over $425 million, tied to Sam Bankman-Fried claiming the property should not be included in the bankruptcy estate. (Reuters)
◾ But, Sam Bankman-Fried is arguing to maintain control of the Robinhood (Hood) shares claiming he needs them to help pay for his legal fees. (Bloomberg)
◾ FTX’s new management has reached an agreement to cooperate on asset collections with Bahamian liquidators. (Cision)
◾ FTX is seeking to recoup the charitable donations made by Sam Bankman-Fried and his former company. (WSJ)
◾ Due to the large number of potential victims, US prosecutors launched a public website for FTX victims to contact the victim/witness coordinator. (Justice.gov)
◾ The SEC is seeking details about FTX investor’s due diligence leading to concerns that VC firms and investment funds could face regulatory scrutiny. (Reuters)
◾ FTX's former top lawyer cooperated with US prosecutors investigating the crypto firm's collapse. (Reuters)
◾ FTX's Bahamian entity spent nearly $40 million on hotels, food, and travel between January and September 2022. (Businessinsider)
◾ Genesis issued a public-client update stating it “will take some additional time” to reach a solution with creditors in its borrowing and lending intermediation businesses. (Genesistrading)
◾ Genesis laid off 30% of its workforce; its second employment reduction in 6-months. (WSJ)
◾ Seychelles based exchange Huobi plans to lay off about 20% of its staff. (Reuters)
◾ NFT platform SuperRare announced a 30% reduction in workforce. (Twitter)
◾ Crypto payments company Wyre is shutting down following the cancelation of its acquisition by Bolt. (Axios)
◾ Wyre is limiting withdrawals to 90% of customers assets. (Twitter)
Protocols, Applications & Business News
◾ Fanatics is selling its 60% stake in NFT platform Candy Digital to a group led by co-investor Galaxy Digital. (CNBC)
◾ Digital Currency Group is closing HQ, its recently formed wealth management division. (Theinformation)
◾ The missing founders of Three Arrows Capital were sent subpoenas in the fund’s bankruptcy trial via Twitter. (Twitter)
◾ CME Group (CME) is creating crypto reference rates and real-time indices for three new Metaverse tokens: Axie Infinity, Chiliz, and Decentraland. (Cmegroup)
AI Announcements
◾ OpenAI is in talks to sell existing shares at a $29 billion valuation. (WSJ)
◾ Microsoft (MSFT) is adding OpenAI writing tech to Office. (Appleinsider)
◾ New York’s Department of Education has blocked the use of AI-powered ChatGPT on school networks and devices. (Ny.chalkbeat)
◾ An app has been designed using "perplexity" and "burstiness” to determine whether an essay was written by ChatGPT. (NPR)
Thoughts on the Ecosystem
◾ Former Fed Chair Alan Greenspan says crypto is too dependent on the 'greater fool theory' to be a desirable investment. (News.bitcoin)