FTX asset sales challenged by U.S. Trustee: Report

Bankrupt crypto exchange FTX’s plans to sell its digital currency futures and clearinghouse LedgerX, among other businesses, were challenged by the U.S. Trustee on Jan. 7, according to Reuters. As per the filing, U.S. Trustee Andrew Vara called for an independent investigation before any sale, claiming that valuable information related to the exchange’s bankruptcy could be compromised. The document states: “The sale of potentially valuable causes of action against the Debtors’ directors, officers and employees, or any other person or entity, should not be permitted until there has been a…

Digital Asset Exchange Giant Huobi Plans To Lay Off 20% of Its Staff Amid Ongoing Crypto Winter: Report

The Seychelles-based crypto exchange giant Huobi is reportedly planning to lay off 20% of its staff as the ongoing bear market continues to thrash companies across the industry. Reuters reports that Huobi says “a very lean team will be maintained going forward” amid the crypto winter. Tron (TRX) founder Justin Sun, a member of the Huobi advisory board, tells the outlet that the workforce reduction is expected to be completed by the end of the first quarter of this year. The exchange’s planned layoffs are the latest in a series…

Hedge funds subpoenaed by U.S. prosecutors as Binance probe unfolds: Report

United States prosecutors are investigating hedge funds’ relationships with cryptocurrency exchange Binance for money-laundering violations. According to anonymous sources cited by the Washington Post, the U.S. attorney’s office for the Western District of Washington in Seattle subpoenaed investment firms to provide records of communications with Binance in the past months. The allegedly subpoenas do not mean prosecutors are bringing charges against the crypto exchange or hedge funds, as authorities are still evaluating evidence and a possible settlement with Binance, according to legal specialists. Binance did not immediately respond to Cointelegraph’s…

U.S. Investigators Subpoena Hedge Funds in Binance Money-Laundering Probe: Report

Recently, Binance has made efforts to increase its commitment to compliance, growing its security and compliance staff by 500% in 2022. Additionally, last fall the company assembled a global advisory board chaired by Max Baucus, a former Democratic senator from Montana. Meanwhile, the exchange seems eager to improve its relations with the U.S. government, recently becoming active in crypto lobbying in Washington, DC. Source

Sam Bankman-Fried’s charitable donations sought by FTX: Report

FTX’s new management is seeking to recover millions of dollars in donations made by the crypto exchange and its former CEO Sam Bankman-Fried, reports the Wall Street Journal.  At the end of September, FTX’s charity arm, Future Fund, had committed more than $160 million to over 110 nonprofit organizations, including biotech startups and university researchers developing Covid-19 vaccines and working on pandemic studies, as well as nonprofit organizations in India, China and Brazil. As per the report, Future Fund committed $3.6 million to AVECRIS, a company working on a genetic…

Metaverse to possibly create $5T in value by 2030: McKinsey report

While the 2022 bear market grazed off the excitement around the budding crypto sub-ecosystems such as nonfungible tokens (NFTs), the Metaverse remains well-positioned for long-term disruption. Considering the myriad consumer and business-centric use cases the metaverse could cater to, a McKinsey & Company report highlights the technology’s potential to generate up to $5 trillion in value by 2030. For the Metaverse to reach its full potential, the report highlighted the need for four technology enablers — devices (AR/VR, sensors, haptics, and peripherals), interoperability and open standards, facilitating platforms and development…

Crypto Conglomerate DCG Being Investigated by DOJ, SEC: Report

The prosecutors with the DOJ’s Eastern District of New York office have so far requested interviews and documents from DCG and Genesis, the report said, while the SEC appears to be in a similarly early stage of its own inquiry. The report, which cited people familiar with the matter, said that neither Genesis nor DCG, which is also the parent company to CoinDesk, have so far “been accused of wrongdoing.” Source

$3.9 billion lost in the cryptocurrency market in 2022: Report

Immunefi, a bug bounty and security services platform for the Web3 ecosystem, published a report on Jan. 6 revealing that the crypto industry lost a total of 3.9 billion dollars in 2022.  According to the report, hacks were found to be the main cause of the losses, accounting for 95.6% of the total, with fraud, scams, and rug pulls comprising the remaining 4.4%. Immunefi also found that decentralized finance (DeFi) was the most targeted sector, suffering 80.5% in losses, compared to centralized finance (CeFi) which suffered a loss of 19.5%. According…

Huobi net outflows crossed over 60M within the past 24 hours: Report

Cryptocurrency exchange Huobi has seen over $94.2 million dollars in net outflows within the past week. Within the past 24 hours alone, approximately $60 million has flowed out of the exchange, according to crypto analytics company Nansen. In the past 24 hours, Huobi has seen a significant increase in net outflows $60.9M* of the $94.2M* net outflow in the past week occurred in the past day alone *Contains Ethereum, Avalanche, BNB Chain, Fantom, & Polygon flows pic.twitter.com/JV1Tg13QMY — Nansen (@nansen_ai) January 6, 2023 Nansen also reported that a significant portion…

ETH Lower, as Markets Await Nonfarm Payrolls Report – Market Updates Bitcoin News

Ethereum was marginally lower on Dec. 6, as markets prepared for this afternoon’s nonfarm payrolls report. December’s report is set to show an addition of 200,000 jobs to the U.S. economy, which would be down from November’s figure of 263,000. Bitcoin was also slightly down ahead of the release. Bitcoin Bitcoin (BTC) continued to hover slightly under the $17,000 level on Friday, as markets consolidated ahead of the latest U.S. nonfarm payrolls (NFP). Today’s report is expected to show an addition of 200,000 jobs to the economy, lower than the…