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Mike Novogratz’s Galaxy Digital has hired BlockFi founder Zac Prince as a managing director. For some reason, Novogratz thinks Prince is an excellent candidate to assist with developing Galaxy’s services. Prince was the CEO of failed digital asset lending company BlockFi. There, he nurtured close relationships with Sam Bankman-Fried’s FTX and Alameda Research. Prince’s company, which once advertised high-interest payouts to customers who lent it bitcoin, ether, and stablecoins, eventually collapsed as the world learned about BlockFi’s false and misleading statements about the safety of those assets. According to the Securities and Exchange Commission, BlockFi lied about its collateral practices from March 4, 2019, to August 31, 2021, and agreed to pay $100 million in penalties for that and other misdeeds. FTX and BlockFi bankruptcies spook Visa and Mastercard Read more: Unredacted document shows $1.2B in BlockFi assets linked to SBF Zac Prince returns to crypto ...

A request to delay the sentencing of Sam Bankman-Fried was rejected by Judge Lewis Kaplan ahead of a presentence interview slated for Dec. 21.  Sam Bankman-Fried’s lawyers requested to extend the sentencing procedure by four to six weeks, citing a possible second trial for the FTX founder on bank fraud and conspiracy to violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act charges. The letter was submitted on Dec. 20, a day before Bankman-Fried’s scheduled presentence interview with the U.S. Probation and Pretrial Services System. This is the body tasked with recommending a prison sentence for the convicted former crypto billionaire. Notably, Bankman-Fried’s sentencing hearing is set for March 28. The defense requires additional time to collect materials necessary for the sentencing submission and to prepare for the presentence interview. In addition, a trial on the severed counts of the indictment is still set for March 11, 2024. The Government has not yet decided whether it intends to ...

Over 11% of global VC funding in blockchain and crypto was funneled towards ventures based in Hong Kong and Singapore throughout 2023. The findings mark a significant rise from the mere 2% allocation in 2021.  That’s according to analysts at PitchBook who attributed this change to several factors, including the collapse of Sam Bankman-Fried’s FTX crypto exchange and the subsequent bankruptcy domino effect it created that compelled many U.S.-based crypto companies to reassess their strategies. According to the report, regulatory uncertainties and the effect of major crypto firms like Binance and Gemini falling foul of authorities have forced many companies to reduce the size and magnitude of their U.S. operations.  Some have even sought refuge in global crypto hubs overseas. The report quoted Bryan Chow, partner at web3 VC investor Side Door Ventures, who stated that many crypto companies had shifted their base of operations to Hong Kong to leverage its supportive governm...

The court cited Sam Bankman-Fried’s alleged witness tampering as the main grounds for rejecting his release bid. FTX founder and convicted fraudster Sam Bankman-Fried will stay jailed after failing to convince a United States appellate court that he should be freed while his legal team appeals his conviction. In a Nov. 21 mandate, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit said Bankman-Fried’s previous attempts to tamper with two witnesses while on pretrial release was a major reason behind rejecting his request. “We have reviewed the Defendant-Appellant’s additional arguments and find them unpersuasive,” the court said. Bankman-Fried’s release motion was rejected by a U.S. appeals court. Source: Courtlistener Government prosecutors accused Bankman-Fried of leaking Caroline Ellison’s diaries to The New York Times in July, which caused his bail to be revoked by a New York District Court. Bankman-Fried argued the New York court failed to consider that he was engaged in activity...

Analysts say the fast-approaching halving will likely cut miners’ USD value revenue to $500 million monthly. The fourth Bitcoin (BTC) halving , expected to happen on April 23, 2024, will likely bring miners’ revenue in the U.S. dollar back to the FTX crash epoch, slashing it by half. Bitcoin mining revenue in BTC vs USD | Source: Glassnode You might also like: Bitcoin halving : what it is and how it may affect the price According to calculations done by Glassnode, the value issued to Bitcoin miners via newly minted supply is currently standing at the $1 billion per month level. However, after the 2024 halving , it would be cut to around $500 million per month, a level last seen in late 2022, when miners generated nearly $450 million per month amid the FTX crash. In the meantime, the difficulty of Bitcoin mining on Nov. 13, 2023, increased by 3.55%, reaching its maximum at 64.68 T, according to BTC.com. The average hash rate since the previous value c...

Following FTX’s collapse, Nansen on-chain data shows that SOL has outperformed ETH, emerging as the preferred investment choice.  At the same time, Kaiko, an alternative source of cryptocurrency market data, reports that Solana is still suffering the effects of the exchange’s bankruptcy. Looking forward According to recent findings from Nansen, Solana’s Total Value Locked has nearly doubled since the beginning of the year, reaching a substantial 30.95 million SOL, as the Solana vs. Ethereum ratio has since been reported to be approaching year-long highs. Since the collapse of FTX, SOL has declined more than ETH, meaning ETH has been the better coin to hold… But since summer, SOL has been trending positively, with the SOL vs ETH ratio breaking higher, nearing highs not seen all year Will this momentum continue? pic.twitter.com/aDhh0wY92q — Nansen (@nansen_ai) October 19, 2023 Despite facing previous setbacks, including network interruptions and the ...

The price of soccer fan tokens, designed for fan engagement, is seemingly impacted by the on-field performance of teams. Argentina’s shock 2-1 loss to Saudi Arabia in the opening match of the FIFA World Cup has plummeted the price of the Argentine Football Association Fan Token (ARG), in line with the hopes of the nation’s die-hard soccer fans.  With the ARG token priced at $7.21 at kick-off, the poor performance by the Lionel Messi-led soccer team saw the token’s price fall 31% to $4.96 by the end of the match before rising to $5.22 at the time of writing, according to data from CoinGecko. By contrast, the floor price of “The Saudis,” a Saudi Arabian-themed nonfungible token (NFT) collection unrelated to the soccer team, skyrocketed 52.6% from 0.196 Ether (ETH) to 0.3 ETH over the same time before cooling off to a price of 0.225 ETH, around $250. The collection’s sales volume also spiked 990% over the last 24 hours, closing in on 24.5 ETH, according to OpenSea data. Despite the bui...

FTX strongly criticized the UCC's pursuit of asset control, as it recommended that debtors allocate nearly $2.6 billion from cash reserves into short-term Treasuries. FTX debtors led by chief restructuring officer John J. Ray III have expressed disapproval of traders and market makers within the Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors (UCC) who are aiming to gain authority over assets. They believe the UCC’s plan to invest nearly $2.6 billion in cash reserves in short-term Treasuries is a bad idea amid FTX 2.0 draft restructuring plan. In a court filing dated August 9, FTX issued a response to the UCC's commentary regarding the reorganization and term sheet proposal. FTX strongly criticized the UCC's pursuit of asset control , particularly as it recommended that debtors allocate nearly $2.6 billion from cash reserves into short-term Treasuries, aiming to cover professional fees amounting to as much as $330 million. Screenshot of the debtors' response to the UCC.  S...

Sam Bankman-Fried recently contended that being sent to jail will violate his “free speech right.” The FTX co-founder was also against the revocation of his bond. Last week, U.S. prosecutors asked the court to revoke Bankman-Fried’s $250 million bond. JUST IN: Sam Bankman-Fried says being put in jail violates his "free speech right." — Watcher.Guru (@WatcherGuru) August 2, 2023 As reported by Watcher Guru, SBF was granted a $250 million bail in December 2022. That had been recognized as the highest pre-trial bail bond in the history of the U.S. Two other individuals of “considerable means” also signed the bond. Also Read: FTX Confirms Plan to Relaunch Exchange Being Detained Raises ‘Serious’ First Amendment Issues: SBF’s lawyer Recently, the New York Times published an article featuring excerpts from a diary written by Caroline Ellison, the former CEO of Alameda Research. After the article went live, prosecutor...

DBS Bank’s crypto trading platform has been attracting more institutional investors due to crypto exchanges that collapsed last year. Singapore government-owned megabank DBS is among the few companies around the world that reaped major benefits from massive cryptocurrency collapses in 2022. DBS Digital Exchange, DBS Bank’s institutional crypto trading platform, saw a significant increase in Bitcoin (BTC) trading volumes last year. According to DBS Digital Exchange CEO Lionel Lim, the number of DBS crypto clients more than doubled in 2022 compared to the previous year. “Bitcoin trading volumes grew 80% at the digital exchange during the same period,” Lim said in an interview with Cointelegraph on May 8. The executive believes that the spike in demand for crypto services at DBS Digital Exchange is a consequence of crypto exchange collapses in 2022. Lim noted that DBS continues seeing a growing trend in volumes. He stated: “DBS continues to benefit from the flight to safety and quality...

The new algorithmic currency system aims to provide a more “stable, efficient and scalable” asset than common coins like Bitcoin. Singapore's government-owned investment firm Temasek continues investing in cryptocurrency projects even after losing hundreds of millions of dollars to the collapsed FTX crypto exchange. Temasek has invested $10 million in Array, the developer of an algorithmic currency system based on smart contracts and artificial intelligence. Announcing the news on May 1, Array said that the raise is its second funding round, which is believed to bring the firm’s valuation to more than $100 million. The new Temasek-backed algorithmic currency system aims to provide a more “stable, efficient and scalable” asset than traditional cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin (BTC). The system is expected to have a variety of use cases, including payments, remittances as well as investments. Array’s smart contract platform, ArrayFi, is designed to enable decentralized applications ...

Watcher.Guru had earlier reported that Anthony Scaramucci is planning to invest in Brett Harrison’s cryptocurrency company. Brett Harrison, who was the previous head of the FTX US branch, recently dropped a tweet explaining his journey at FTX. He also describes how he moved out of the company to start his own firm. In a 49-tweet-long Twitter thread, Harrison digs deep into his relationship with Sam Bankman-Fried. He speaks about his 17-month journey and the actual reason why he quit his job at FTX. Source: Techstory FTX didn’t feel like the dream job, says Harrison Narrating his journey with FTX US, he stated that he didn’t feel like FTX was his dream job, even though it appeared that way to the industry and media. 3/49 The truth was that FTX US hadn’t felt to me like the dream job it appeared to the industry and media for some time, and my departure was not abrupt. — Brett Harrison (@BrettHarrison88) January 14, 2023 Harrison’s jour...

Blockchain tracker Whale Alert has attempted to scan FTX’s historical balance checks to find out whether it was possible to spot the collapse sooner. Data transparency has been a focal point for the crypto industry, but the FTX fiasco has shown that centralized exchanges (CEX) are not transparent enough. So far, crypto analytics firms are apparently not capable of tracking transactions to prevent collapses like FTX. All Bitcoin (BTC) transactions are available publicly on-chain, which enables tracking such transactions when sending crypto from one address to another. However, this is not the case when it comes to interacting with a centralized crypto exchange. Cointelegraph spoke with executives at blockchain intelligence firms, including Chainalysis, Nansen and Whale Alert, to learn more insights about tracking illicit CEX transactions on-chain. According to Chainalysis, a major Blockchain Data platform that cooperates with many governments across the world, there is currently no on-...

The crypto trading firm reportedly suffered a $20 million dollar exposure in the FTX collapse. Cryptocurrency trading firm Auros Global, which reportedly suffered a $20 million dollar exposure in the FTX collapse, has released a statement saying it plans to resume regular operations after implementing a restructuring plan.  Statement from Auros regarding recent references in the media – pic.twitter.com/9RFHhYjHqz — Auros (@Auros_global) December 20, 2022 Following the collapse of FTX, the cryptocurrency trading firm shared that it “found itself in a position where immediate liquidity was insufficient to satisfy recalls from lenders.” However, its top management remained confident that they would be able to weather the storm caused by the FTX contagion.  In the issued statement, Auros also revealed that it applied for a kind of restructuring program that allows the current management team to continue to trade in the capacity of “Authorized Managers" under the supervision of a...