Bankman-Fried Could Be Extradited to the U.S. as Soon as Wednesday
This week in crypto, from stack.money
Welcome to this week’s crypto roundup from Stack.
Let’s get to it.
Sam Bankman-Fried Attempted to Destabilize the Crypto Market to Save Ftx, Is Charged With Money Laundering and Fraud and Is Denied Bail by Bahamas Judge
SBF could be sent to the US as soon as Wednesday after being accused of treating his crypto exchange FTX as his personal piggy bank. He's facing a protracted court battle over allegations he screwed crypto users and investors out of their money.
News also emerged that Tether's executives, as well as Binance CEO CEO Changpeng "CZ" Zhao, had worries surrounding Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF), former FTX CEO, for attempts to destabilize the crypto market, as a means of saving the bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange FTX, based on reports on December 9.
The messages seen by The Wall Street Journal of a Signal Group chat named "Exchange coordination" have revealed an argument between CZ and SBF on November 10 about Tether's stablecoin Tether (USDT). Based on the report, CZ and others worried that trades made by Alameda Research were focusing to depeg the stablecoin, which would have a ripple effect across crypto prices.
“Stop trying to depeg stablecoins. And stop doing anything. Stop now, don’t cause more damage.”, Binance's CEO reportedly told SBF.
SBF was arrested by The Royal Bahamas Police Force following the criminal charges which were filed against him. The US Government has charged SBF with money laundering, wire fraud, and securities fraud, based on reports by The New York Times.
Additionally, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has also begun looking at filing a case against SBF, where the SEC official Gurbir Grewal noted that separate charges pertaining to his violations are being made.
Following the arrest of SBF, Coindesk reported FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried was denied bail. The judge presiding over the case, Joyann Ferguson-Pratt, ordered an extradition hearing. The scheduled hearing on February 8 followed the decision to withhold bail.
Additionally, the realized losses from the collapse of FTX peaked at $9 billion, which is far below earlier crises. The weekly realized losses peaked at $20.5 billion when Terra Luna (LUNC) imploded and reached $33 billion when Three Arrows Capital (3AC) and Celsius collapsed, based on data from Chainalysis. The crypto firm Amber raised $300 million to tackle the damage caused by FTX.
The Bank of England Has Opened Applications for A Proof-of-Concept CBDC Wallet
The Bank of England (BOE) has begun seeking a Proof-of-Concept surrounding a wallet that will be able to hold a central bank digital currency (CBDC).
On December 9, the BOE posted a request for applications within the United Kingdom government’s Digital Marketplace, which is a service in which government organizations can solicit work for digital projects.
In it, the simple guidelines for what the Proof-of-Concept wallet would have to achieve were outlined.
The wallet needs to demonstrate it can be loaded and unloaded with a CBDC, alongside being able to request Peer-to-Peer (P2P) payments through an account ID or QR Code, and it needs to be used for payments of businesses online.
PayPal Launched an Integration With the Web3 Wallet Known As MetaMask for Ethereum Transactions
Anyone using one of the most popular Web3 wallets currently available, MetaMask, will gain the ability to buy Ethereum's native cryptocurrency, Ether (ETH), through the usage of PayPal directly.
Similarly, as PayPal's checkout feature operates at online stores such as eBay or Etsy, this integration with ConsenSys's MetaMask will enable users the ability to buy and transfer ETH simply by logging into MetaMask and clicking on or taping on the Buy button, after which they can make the purchase.
Gemini Exchange Data Leak Exposed 5.7 Million Customer Emails, and the Exchange Was Offline for Seven Hours
On December 14, 2022, the Gemini cryptocurrency exchange reported that some customers had been a target of phishing campaigns, adding that the exchange believed they were the result of an incident at a third-party vendor.
Based on the Chinese media outlet known as Wu Blockchain, 5.7 million users were affected by the incident, which led to the leaking of customer email addresses and phone numbers. The hackers, however, did not gain access to the full phone numbers as some were obfuscated.
The company did, however, confirm that the account information and system were not compromised.
Gemini also experienced a seven-hour downtime, where the company's notice board stated:
"The Gemini Spaceship will undergo scheduled Exchange maintenance on Thursday, December 15, from approximately 10:00 p.m. until Friday, December 16 at 12:30 a.m. ET," where all user interfaces and trading were unavailable.