Top stories

Did SBF Move Money?

FTX Japan Reveals Plans to Return Customer Funds

In mid-January, FTX Japan customers will first be directed to set up an account with Liquid Japan. Then, after customers check their balances, withdrawals will be made available as of mid-February.

SBF Denies Moving Funds From Alameda Wallets

Bankman-Fried is reportedly cashing out $684,000 in crypto. He denies any involvement in the movement of funds from Alameda wallets.  “None of these are me. I'm not and couldn't be moving any of those funds; I don't have access to them anymore.”

FTX Debtors and Bahamas Lay Different Claims

The Bahamian Securities Commission said they have taken custody of FTX deposits valued at more than $3.5 billion. But FTX disputed claims by Bahamas, saying they were worth just $296 million.

 SBF Single Handedly Funded This Political Organization

Bankman-Fried donated around $760,000 to the Campaign Legal Center’s (CLC) action fund in 2021. Amounted to over 95% of its earnings for that year, and covered almost 94% of its expenses.

Investors Seek To Sell FTX, Celsius, BlockFi, Voyager Claims

The investors have listed their claims for sale to get something out. At the time of writing, almost ten thousand claims were listed, with 9,072 claims on Celsius Network, 93 claims on Voyager, 67 claims on FTX and 23 claims on BlockFi.

FBI Investigating 3Commas Data Breach

This week, 100,000 Binance and KuCoin API keys linked to 3Commas were leaked by an anonymous person. 3Commas users were contacted by agents from the FBI’s Cincinnati Field Office in connection to the leak.

MicroStrategy Sells Off Bitcoin for First Time

MicroStrategy sold 704 BTC for about $11.8 million on December 22. However, the firm then turned around and purchased 810 BTC for about $13.6 million on December 24.

HSBC File Web3 Trademark Applications

Banking giant HSBC has filed trademark applications for a wide range of digital currency products and services, including those related to the metaverse and non-fungible tokens (NFTs).

Global regulations

Japan Moves to Ease Crypto Token Listings

New rule which takes effect immediately will enable exchanges to list coins without going through a lengthy pre-screening unless the tokens are new to Japan’s market.

Italy Approves 26% Crypto Gains Tax

Crypto traders will be subject to Italy's 26% capital gains tax starting in 2023, according to a new budget that won parliamentary approval on Thursday.

Turkey’s Central Bank Runs First CBDC Pilot

Central Bank of Turkey announced that it had successfully completed the first payment transactions using the Digital Turkish Lira Network as part of the first phase of experimentation.

US Delays Tax Rules for Crypto Brokers

The enforcement of a requirement for brokers to report gains made by crypto investors has been postponed. The new tax rules were to be imposed in 2023.

Crypto weekly price action

Research and technology

The Status of Proof of Reserve as of Year End 2022

In the last two months, major exchanges Kraken, BitMEX, OKX, and Binance, among others, have all published attestations they call Proof of Reserve. Here I’ll answer some lingering questions around PoR and dig into some of these recent attestations.

Fighting Back Against NFT Rug Pulls

We will dive deeper into how communities can band together to “fight back” when faced with some of the unsavory pitfalls that tend to plague the NFT space.

2022 Crypto Investigations Wrap-Up

In 2022, several notable federal indictments, sentences, and seizures related to cryptocurrency were made public in the United States. CertiK has conducted research and analysis on the state of federal and regulatory crypto investigations in 2022.

Analysing 680 Crypto Funding Rounds

Insights on analysing 680 crypto fundraisings. The findings show current trends and allow conclusions to be drawn about future developments.

Fundraising and investment

One-Third of Crypto Projects ‘Died’ in 2022

Of the 96 cryptocurrency projects that were declared ‘dead’ this year, 28 had received funding, bringing the total ‘dead’ project financing amount to $3.61 billion.

Argo Will Avoid Bankruptcy With $100M Bailout

Bitcoin miner Argo Blockchain (ARBK) will avoid filing for bankruptcy protection, after it agreed to sell its Helios mining facility in Dickens Country, Texas, to Galaxy Digital (GLXY) for $65 million.

Developer to Tokenize Over $3MM Worth of Real Estate

Multi-Billion Dollar real estate developers, Niecon, has partnered with NFT Real Estate Platform All Set by Xillion (XIL). They will tokenize and sell several luxury villas worth over $3MM in small pieces starting at $10 per piece.

The Open Network Secured $10 Million Injection

TON’s latest bullish indicator: a fresh $10 million injection earmarked for building out the blockchain’s infrastructure from Cypher Capital.

Viral Quotes

“This guy has got no shot. He has no defense. He’s gonna plead guilty at some point and cop a plea. He’s not going to go to trial, and he’s going to get sentenced. My guess is somewhere north of 50 years in jail, maybe even more.”

—  Jordan Belfort, “Wolf of Wall Street”, said SBF was “done”

“Shareholders will pay dearly for @saylor's #Bitcoin obsession. Don't make the mistake of thinking 90% off is a good buy. This isn't just a sale, it's a going-out-of-business sale.”

— Peter Schiff on MicroStrategy’s Bitcoin accumulation

“I would not touch crypto in a million years because I wouldn’t trust the deposit bank.”

— Jim Cramer, host of CNBC’s Mad Money show

" Some smart people tell me there is an earnest smart developer community in Solana, and now that the awful opportunistic money people have been washed out, the chain has a bright future. Hard for me to tell from outside, but I hope the community gets its fair chance to thrive."

— Vitalik Buterin, Ethereum co-founder