The chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has revealed that he and his team met with Sam Bankman-Fried and other FTX executives 10 times before the crypto exchange filed for bankruptcy. The regulator sees the FTX collapse as “a classic run based on liquidity crunch.” CFTC’s Meetings With FTX and Sam Bankman-Fried The chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), Rostin Behnam, shared details of his agency’s meetings with executives of collapsed crypto exchange FTX before the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry on Thursday. Behnam…
Day: December 2, 2022
Galaxy Digital Expands Brokerage Services With GK8 Acquisition
Bitcoin was recently hovering near $17,000, recovering from an earlier slide on news that the U.S. economy added an unexpected robust 263,000 jobs in November. However, equities were mixed following the strong jobs report. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite closed down 0.12% and 0.18%, respectively, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.1%. Data from crypto analysis firm IntoTheBlock shows bitcoin’s 30-day correlation with the S&P 500 dropped to -0.8, hitting its lowest point since May 2019. “The contrast between crypto’s internal troubles and macro’s positive tailwinds have…
NFT Steez and Victor Solomon chat about building in Web3 and the Metaverse
On Dec. 2, NFT Steez hosts Alyssa Expósito and Ray Salmond chatted with Victor Solomon to discuss his journey into bridging his in-real-life artwork into NFTs and how he cultivates the community and culture that surrounds it. Solomon’s work centers around basketball, not just the object, but the sport itself. For Solomon, the inspiration for his work comes from his early childhood of wanting to play hockey, a sport that was not accessible for him, and his eventual discovery of basketball which he discovered to be more accommodating. Solomon said:…
South Korean judge dismisses arrest warrants for Terra co-founder Do Kwon’s former associates
A judge with the Seoul Southern District Court has reportedly set aside arrest warrants for Terra co-founder Shin Hyun-seong along with those of 3 Terra investors and 4 developers. According to an Dec. 3 report from South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency, Judge Hong Jin-Pyo said there was little risk of Shin or the Terra associates destroying evidence related to the case against the crypto firm, and dismissed warrants that the Seoul Southern District Prosecutors Office issued on Nov. 29. The report added that Terra co-founder Do Kwon, also facing legal…
DeFi ecosystem still haunted by FTX contagion: Finance Redefined
Welcome to Finance Redefined, your weekly dose of essential decentralized finance (DeFi) insights — a newsletter crafted to bring you significant developments over the last week. The FTX contagion that started in the second week of November is still haunting various crypto protocols in the DeFi ecosystem. The latest to fall prey to the contagion includes the Solana-based decentralized exchange (DEX) Serum, of which Alameda and FTX were backers. Another DeFi crypto trading firm Auros Global missed its principal repayment on a 2,400 Wrapped Ether (wETH) DeFi loan. Looking at…
Never mind FTX — Fine arts institutions should still onboard to blockchain
The reality is that blockchain technology can still deliver substantial benefits, particularly within the fine arts. And for those who have been paying attention, 2022 has been a year of incredible normalization for nonfungible tokens (NFTs). Simply put, major institutions across various sectors have dipped their toes into Web3. In November, Instagram announced that creators would soon have the functionality to make and sell NFTs. Apple similarly announced in September that NFTs could be sold in its App Store. Put together, that’s 3.5 billion people (2 billion from Instagram and…
MPI Records Highest Value Since April 2022
On-chain data shows the Bitcoin MPI has surged to its highest value since the April of this year, a sign that may prove to be bearish for the crypto’s price. Bitcoin Miners’ Position Index Has Spiked Up During Past Day As pointed out by an analyst in a CryptoQuant post, this instance is the fifth time that the metric has sent a warning signal. The “Miners’ Position Index” (or the MPI in short) is an indicator that measures the ratio between the miner outflows in USD, and the 365-day moving…
Opera Crypto Browser to enable instant NFT minting through launchpad
In an announcement sent to Cointelegraph, the firm stated that it has partnered with Alteon LaunchPad to let beginners in Web3 or the NFT space easily mint NFTs. With the integration, users will be able to access a feature that lets them drag and drop media files into the browser, which writes a smart contract and uploads the file into a blockchain, turning the files into NFTs. According to Susie Batt, an executive at Opera, this will allow users to explore Web3 and contribute to the ecosystem. Batt explained: “Now,…
DXY bounces at major support, reducing Bitcoin’s chance at breaking the $17.2K resistance
On Dec. 2, the United States dollar index (DXY), an index that measures the dollar’s strength against a basket of top foreign currencies, reached 104.40 which was the lowest level seen in 5 months. To recap, the U.S. dollar’s weight against the basket of top foreign currencies grew by 19.6% in 2022 until late September as investors looked for protection against the impact of a hawkish Federal Reserve and, more recently, the rising energy costs and effect of high inflation. The U.S. dollar’s retreat may have been an interim correction…
While the FTX Co-Founder Claims He ‘Wasn’t Running Alameda,’ SBF Is Asked Why He Threw Caroline Ellison ‘Under the Bus’ – Bitcoin News
While the former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) has done numerous interviews, during these discussions he’s explained on numerous occasions that as far as Alameda Research is concerned, he “wasn’t running Alameda.” SBF wasn’t the CEO of the trading firm Alameda Research as the job was handled by Caroline Ellison, a former Jane Street trader and Stanford graduate. Ellison has been super silent since FTX’s collapse and there’s been speculation that she fled Hong Kong to reside in Dubai. Where in the World Is Alameda’s CEO Caroline Ellison? During Sam…