Companies

Cryptocurrency bank Silvergate Capital has laid off 40% of its staff, or about 200 employees, after the collapse of FTX.com, which sparked mass withdrawals of around US$8.1 billion.

WazirX VP Rajagopal Menon sits down with Forkast to provide some insight as survival becomes a huge concern for crypto exchanges in India.

U.S. prosecutors are moving to seize the US$460 million worth of Robinhood Markets Inc., shares linked to Sam Bankman-Fried, the former chief executive officer of Bahamas-based bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange FTX.com

MoneyGram has requested the court to seal certain portions of summary judgment materials in Ripple Labs’ ongoing lawsuit against the SEC.

Welcome to The Daily Forkast – January 4, 2022 – presented by Angie Lau. As the bells rang in the new year, many said goodbye and good riddance to a year of headline grabbing failures in the blockchain space. From Ronin’s bridge hack, the collapse of Terra Luna, to the bankruptcy of FTX, 2022 was […]

Cryptocurrency payments company Wyre is reportedly shutting down operations by the end of January, amid the broader crypto market downturn following the fall of FTX

Top blockchain and crypto news: Where is Alameda Research’s money going? US tax loophole may give crypto investors a break. China’s blockchain momentum builds.

Ripple Labs Inc. expects a court decision in the first six-months of this year in the case filed against the company by the U.S. Securities Exchange Commission. The SEC sued Ripple in December 2020 for allegedly selling US$1.3 billion in unregistered securities.

Binance declined to comment on reports in local media that it is in late stage talks to acquire South Korean digital asset exchange GOPAX.

Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder of the FTX cryptocurrency exchange that collapsed in November with billions of dollars in investor funds missing, pleaded not guilty to charges of fraud on Tuesday in New York.

The Securities Commission of The Bahamas has rejected “material misstatements” made by FTX’s newly-appointed CEO, John J. Ray III

Yosuke Matsuda, the president of Square Enix, has reaffirmed the gaming company’s commitment to blockchain technology.

Barry Silbert, the CEO of Digital Currency Group rejected claims that the company borrowed US$1.6 billion from its Genesis Global Capital.

It takes a village to raise a child, and Bitcoin is no different — we must support its growth but also set firm boundaries, writes Justin d’Anethan of Amber Group.

In the post-FTX world, crypto exchanges must offer stronger protection for investors’ assets, writes Colin Brooks, chairman of the advisory board of Hex Trust.

OKB, the utility token of OKX, jumped by up to 15% during Asia trading hours on Monday. OKT, the native token of the OKX Chain, was up 13%.

On-chain data showed that Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder of the now-bankrupt FTX exchange, sent around 570 Ether worth US$684,000 to a Seychelles-based exchange and Ren Protocol’s Bitcoin bridge on Wednesday

The Securities Commission of the Bahamas is temporarily holding US$3.5 billion of digital assets seized from FTX Digital Markets

FTX liquidators may be behind the latest transactions from Alameda Research wallets, but someone else may have sent the first set of cryptocurrencies to decentralized exchanges.

Bitcoin and Ether dropped slightly during Asian trading hours on Thursday afternoon, with XRP leading losses across the top 10 non-stablecoin cryptocurrencies by market capitalization.

FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried took funds from his trading firm, Alameda Research, to buy stock of trading app Robinhood, court documents revealed Tuesday.

Several wallets associated with Alameda Research, the trading arm bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange FTX.com, came to life on Wednesday, swapping various tokens. 

Former customers of FTX have filed a class action lawsuit against the bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange and its top executives, including Sam Bankman-Fried, to seek priority rights to repayment before any non-customer creditors.  

Kraken announced on Wednesday that it will “cease its operations” in Japan and deregister from the Financial Services Agency.

From Terra and FTX crises to Ethereum’s triumphant Merge and China’s inventive NFT industry, Forkast reviews a rollercoaster year and its consequences.

After a year of new all-time highs for major cryptocurrencies in 2021, 2022 was a challenging year for Web3. Industry experts tell Forkast what crypto has in store for 2023 and beyond.

While the collapse of FTX may invite more scrutiny for centralized exchanges, Binance’s Patrick Hillmann believes it could benefit the industry through more decentralization.

Caroline Ellison, former chief executive of trading firm Alameda Research, told a federal judge last week that she agreed with executives of FTX, including former CEO Sam Bankman-Fried, to mislead lenders and customers on how much Alameda was borrowing from the now-bankrupt exchange.

ICBA vice-president Brian Laverdure believes that community banks are unfazed by FTX’s collapse, but remain split on cryptocurrencies.

This year’s cascade of crypto collapses should be a wake-up call to regulators, says the Independent Community Bankers of America’s Brian Laverdure.

Hong Kong’s commercial crime investigation bureau on Friday arrested two local men for suspected involvement in digital asset fraud on Atom Asset Exchange (AAX)

Bitcoin slipped and Ether inched up in Asian trading on Friday afternoon, with Dogecoin leading gains across the top 10 non-stablecoin cryptocurrencies by market capitalization.

Failed cryptocurrency exchange FTX Trading Ltd. has asked a bankruptcy court to keep US$450 million worth of Robinhood shares frozen, as three parties battle for the true ownership of the assets. 

A lot of the troubles for India exchanges in 2022 will run into next year as they shed staff and run down reserves to stay afloat, and not all are expected to make it.

Bankman-Fried won an upgrade from his Bahamas prison cell after posting bail following his extradition to the U.S. on Wednesday, where he faces charges for what prosecutors called “fraud of epic proportions.”

The federal judge in the ongoing lawsuit between the SEC and Ripple has granted a joint motion from all parties to extend the deadline for the Daubert Motions that would exclude certain expert testimonies.

Caroline Ellison and Gary Wang, two integral members of the Sam Bankman-Fried now collapsed cryptocurrency businesses, are cooperating with prosecutors.

A year of scandals in the crypto industry has led to questions about the viability of regulation.

Top blockchain and crypto news: US senators push for crypto KYC. SBF faces the music in US courts. Alibaba Cloud to launch blockchain node.

The new restructuring team of FTX has reportedly located over US$1 billion in cash assets that are held in U.S. financial institutions.

BlockFi, an early victim of the financial contagion caused by the collapse of the FTX cryptocurrency exchange, said it wants to return assets locked up in its bankruptcy proceedings.

Bitcoin prices rose Wednesday morning in Asia amid a week of volatile price movements in end-of-year trading.

Sam Bankman-Fried, former CEO of FTX, has signed documents in the Bahamas for extradition and is scheduled to the U.S. on Wednesday.

A S.Korean court has approved prosecutors’ request to freeze assets of US$93.3 million belonging to seven former associates of Terraform Labs.

Visa is researching ways to introduce recurring, automatic payments for self-custodial Ethereum wallets.

Bitcoin and Ether gained in Asian trading on Tuesday afternoon, with Dogecoin leading declines across the top 10 non-stablecoin cryptos

With highly anticipated blockchain games set to hit the shelves in 2023, Animoca Brand’s Yat Siu sees the next opportunity to onboard the generation of crypto users.

The deal will need approval in a court hearing on January 5 and also faces a vote by creditors under Voyager’s chapter 11 bankruptcy filing.

Busan announced the steering committee for its flagship exchange, but it didn’t include global partners earlier linked to the project.

Centralized exchanges releasing ‘proof of reserves’ is not enough to win back users, while improving user experience will be key, writes Holger Arians of Banxa.

FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried appeared in court in the Bahamas, but did not agree to be extradited to the U.S. 

Bitcoin and Ether prices fell in Tuesday morning trading in Asia as concern about the stability of crypto exchanges and a possible global recession continued to weigh on markets.

Cryptocurrency exchange CoinDCX, India’s first crypto unicorn, published its complete proof of reserves (PoR) on Monday detailing its USDT liabilities and reserves.

Ripple CEO Bradley Garlinghouse’s attorney has applied to withdraw as his counsel in Ripple’s ongoing lawsuit against the SEC.

Bitcoin and Ether were little changed on Monday after a weekend slump amid worries about a global recession and the stability of crypto exchanges.

Mazars, the financial auditing firm behind Binance’s proof-of-reserves (PoR) audit, has suspended all work for crypto firms.

Several venture funds tell Forkast they have become conservative and are only investing in ‘true believers’ of Web 3.0

Attorneys representing FTX are requesting permission from the U.S. bankruptcy court to sell four of the company’s branches: FTX Japan, FTX Europe, Embed, and LedgerX.

Sam Bankman-Fried has reportedly made a second application for bail in the Bahamas – this as lawyers feud over control of the FTX bankruptcy, raising concern the sour grapes may seep into efforts to have Bankman-Fried extradited to face fraud charges in the U.S.

Asia’s cryptocurrency community is “on the path of moving on” from the FTX fiasco, following the arrest of FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried, said Yat Siu, cofounder and chairman of Hong Kong-based blockchain gaming studio and venture capital firm Animoca Brands.

Kevin O’Leary Kevin O’Leary, chairman of venture capital firm O’Leary Ventures and star of TV’s Shark Tank, said in a congressional hearing on Wednesday that Binance Global Inc.’s chief executive and founder Changpeng Zhao deliberately caused the collapse of Bahamas-based cryptocurrency exchange FTX.com. 

Ryan Salame, the former co-CEO of FTX’s Bahamian entity tipped off the Securities Commission of the Bahamas about FTX violating its internal procedures in transferring customer funds to Alameda Research.

A Japanese lawmaker called for more transparent regulations following the FTX meltdown, where investors were not warned of the risks with FTX Token.

ConsenSys Inc., the company behind leading crypto wallet MetaMask, announced on Thursday a new partnership with PayPal Holdings Inc.

As U.S. prosecutors line up charges against Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder of the collapsed FTX cryptocurrency exchange, Senator Elizabeth Warren is seeking to pass bipartisan regulation to rein in the “dark underbelly” of the crypto industry.

The bankruptcy of cryptocurrency exchange FTX doesn’t represent the biggest losses for crypto investors in 2022, according to a report from Chainalysis.

SBF was arrested by Bahamian authorities just a day before he was due to testify before Congress – but his successor has been revealing much about FTX’s collapse.

An official in the South Korean city of Busan said the authorities have received no confirmation that Binance has pulled out of a partnership to establish the country’s first city-backed crypto exchange, as reported by local media.

Top blockchain and crypto news: SBF denied bail, US extradition likely next. The Block chief quits over secret FTX loans. Hong Kong readies digital asset rules.

Bitcoin and Ether increased in Asian trading on Wednesday afternoon, with Solana leading gains across most top 10 non-stablecoin cryptocurrencies

Interpol fugitive and chief of Terraform Labs Pte. Ltd. Kwon Do-hyung has registered his residential address in the Republic of Serbia.

Members of a U.S. Congressional hearing expressed frustration about the timing of Bankman-Fried’s arrest, saying they wanted him to testify under oath so the public could get the answers they are seeking about the collapse of FTX.