Former FTX Founder Bankman-Fried Flown to the US, Released on Bail
Sam Bankman-Fried got flown from the Bahamas to the US last week to face fraud charges following FTX.com’s collapse. His former colleagues at FTX exchange, Caroline Ellison, and Gary Wang pleaded guilty to seven and four counts respectively, and are cooperating in the case against him. Bankman-Fried was later released on a $250 million bond which prosecutors called “the largest-ever pretrial bond” following a New York federal judge ruling.
SBF would be required to wear an electronic monitoring bracelet, submit to mental health counseling and restrict his travel within and between the Northern District of California and the Southern & Eastern Districts of New York.
What is FTX? What happened to the FTX crypto exchange? Check previous editions of ProBit Global Bits to know more.
Certik Warned Over 500,000 People Now Into Fake KYC Services
After scanning more than 20 over-the-counter (OTC) black market activities mostly on Telegram, Discord, and other less demanding mobile apps, Certik has warned that more than half a million people are now involved in the buying and selling of fake KYC services.
The auditing firm notes that their investigations found KYC actors, mostly in developing countries, impersonate to bypass regular KYC verification to open an account with a bank or exchange. It found that this type of OTC black market is common globally, especially in Southeast Asia, where groups have between 4,000 and 300,000 members.
What is KYC? Check KYC meaning here (and also complete your KYC form with ProBit Global to verify your personal information).
Crypto Billionaires Lost So Much in Nine Months
From Binance’s Changpeng Zhao (CZ) to Barry Silbert of crypto conglomerate Digital Currency Group, and Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss of Gemini, 17 of crypto’s wealthiest investors and founders have collectively lost an estimated $116 billion in personal wealth since March owing to the period’s crypto crash.
According to Forbes’ estimates, 15 of them have lost more than half their fortune over the past nine months while 10 lost their billionaire status altogether.
The founder of Ripple Ventures, a venture capital firm, Matt Cohen, thinks the crypto industry is “going to have a hard reset” since a lot of blockchain technologies and crypto projects “built solutions for problems that didn’t need fixing”.
Looking for the best crypto to buy now? Follow ProBit Global’s IEO page for the next blockchain project to launch.
Trump Reportedly Held Back 1,000 of His Rare NFTs
Remember the report that Donald Trump has joined the NFT bandwagon with the launch of the “Trump Digital Trading Card” series? Well, it turned out last week that Mr. Trump’s admin wallet reportedly minted a thousand of his own most rare and valuable NFTs to his vault.
The vault wallet, timestamped to have been created a day before the NFT launch (December 14), supposedly minted the first 1,000 NFTs in batches of 10 transactions and for free. While the site notes that only 44,000 NFTs are available, it didn’t indicate that the remaining 1,000 were in their vault wallet and comprise 26% of 1-of-1 rares and 28% of autographed rares.
(What does NFT stand for? Non-fungible token)
Setback for Crypto Mining in North America
The Canadian British Columbia province last week temporarily suspended electricity connection requests from cryptocurrency mining operations for 18 months. The suspension, which will affect 21 projects that are requesting 1,403 megawatts, is due to their industry creating fewer jobs in the local economy, BC Hydro notes in a public statement. Across the border, one of the largest publicly-traded crypto mining companies in the U.S., Core Scientific, reportedly filed for bankruptcy protection after a year of plunging crypto prices and rising energy prices, CNBC reports. The company’s market capitalization had fallen to $78 million as of last week from a $4.3 billion valuation in July 2021.
Cryptocurrency Legalization Drive Delayed in Russia
Meanwhile, in Russia where there are plans to legalize cryptocurrency trading and related mining activities, reports came in last week that the bill championing the regulation has been delayed due to critics’ fear of crypto becoming a conduit for capital flight.
The Chairman of the Financial Market Committee of the State Duma (lower house) Anatoly Aksakov admits at a press conference last week that the risk of cryptocurrency-aided capital flight probably exists but maintains that the bill would nevertheless be approved soon. Aksakov plans to move forward with the proposal that was first introduced to parliament in November by convincing the critics “that their opinion will be definitely addressed”.
Marshall Islands Govt Passes Law to Recognize DAOs
Marshall Islands government passed into law the Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs) Act of 2022 last week. The world-first initiative will allow DAOs to incorporate under the internationally-recognized LLC structure (though must identify as a DAO LLC). It means for-profit and not-for-profit DAOs are now recognized to register as legal entities — with their governance, voting, and framework (including tokenization) processes. In other words, the new law allows for proper definitions and regulations to be accorded to DAO formation, agreements, and use of smart contracts. The island nation is well-suited for the DAO push based on its history of shipping registration and compliance, says the island’s Finance Minister, Bransen Wase.
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