Sam Denied Bail & CZ Warns Crypto Winter Isn’t Over

Daily Bullets: Wednesday, December 14th

Dec 14, 2022

Now that SBF is behind bars and has been denied bail, the slow turning wheels of justice will do their work. What’s next for the disgraced CEO? He’s being held in the Bahamas department of corrections until his extradition hearing set for February 8, 2023. Questions are whether other executives such as co-CEOs Caroline Ellis or Sam Trabucco will face charges. Trabucco in particular slid away earlier in the year and for the most part escaped most of the recent public mobbery.
In other news, markets are eagerly watching for today’s FOMC rate hike decision. Crypto is up, stonks are inching upwards, and the dollar is down going into today’s meeting. 50 bps is the market consensus bringing the overall interest rate to 4.25-4.5%, however the important part will be paying attention to the comments given by Fed chair Jerome Powell as that will give us an idea of what monetary policy in 2023 may look like. You can watch here at 2PM ET
Binance FUD has also seemingly stabilized with USDC withdrawals back online, deposits beginning to flow back in and nothing seemed to have broken (this time).

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Daily Bullets:

SBF’s request for bail denied, he’s remanded to Bahamas department of corrections until Feb 8, 2023
FTX stored private keys without encryption and Alameda had a secret speed advantage when executing orders
Binance’s CZ warns the crypto winter isn’t over, and the months ahead won’t be easy
US Senators Warren, Marshall introduce Digital Assets Anti-Money Laundering Bill
Apple plans to allow the installation of iOS apps from external sources may benefit crypto
Gemini data breach affects 5.7M users' emails, account numbers, and partial phone numbers
Maple released version 2.0 focusing on diversifying borrowers and improving risk management
Bitcoin and ETH ETFs listing on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange by Dec. 16
Several influencers accused of stock manipulation by the U.S. SEC. and earning about $100M
SushiSwap Head Chef discloses $5.2M budget for DAO operation in 2023

Data:

TL;DR: CZ warns that the crypto winter isn’t over. Looking at the total crypto market cap, we can see that we’ve been ranging sideways since roughly June of this year. The question is how much longer could we go sideways. Looking to see how traders are positioned going into today’s FOMC, we can see that they are mostly split down the middle with a slight edge to longs.

Total Crypto Market Cap:

Longs vs Shorts:

Now for a more expanded and detailed look at the day for those who like detail and sources…

Crypto News:

A judge in the Bahamas denied SBF’s request for bail, calling the former billionaire a flight risk and remanded to the country's department of corrections until his extradition hearing set for February 8, 2023

Apple plans to allow the installation of iOS apps from external sources due to impending EU regulations that could make it easier for developers to build apps around NFTs and broaden the ability to make crypto payments

Binance CEO CZ warned colleagues that the proverbial crypto winter isn’t over, and the months ahead won’t be easy

The New York-based asset manager Wisdom tree has launched nine new blockchain-enabled funds effective with the U.S. SEC and come ahead of WisdomTrees digital wallet, slated to launch in the first quarter of 2023

13 years since Satoshi Nakamoto was last active on Bitcointalk
CSOP Asset Management has received approval to list its Bitcoin and Ethereum exchange-traded funds (ETFs) on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange by Dec. 16

Economic/Government/Regulatory:

US Senators Warren, Marshall introduce Digital Assets Anti-Money Laundering Bill which would bring KYC rules to crypto participants such as wallet providers and miners

CFTC declares ETH as a commodity again in court filing countering previous claims that staked coins are securities according to the Howey Test

Influencers known on Twitter as Zack Morris and PJ Matlock, the founders of Atlas Trading and several alleged co-conspirators have been accused of stock manipulation by the U.S. SEC. and earning about $100M in roughly three years of engaging in a fraudulent scheme to scam investors

Lawyers for bankrupt lender Celsius are seeking to claw back $7.7M from the estate of rival Voyager, as judges wrangle over the exact legal status of Celsius’ assets

Nasdaq warns Canadian Bitcoin mining firm Bitfarms about share price deficiency and requirement to stay listed on the exchange

Australia is set to make sweeping changes to financial services laws that will tighten safety net and targets crypto and clearing reforms in finance overhaul

Data shows Indians have lost interest in trading on local crypto exchanges since the government began imposing taxes on profits and transactions

Exchange News:

Binance USDC withdrawals are back online

FTX previously stored private keys without encryption and Alameda Research had a secret speed advantage when executing orders according to the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission

Gemini appears to have suffered a data breach on or before Dec. 13 with 5.7M users' emails, account numbers, and partial phone numbers allegedly leaked

Robinhood Crypto chooses Avalanche as its first blockchain partner for learn-and-earn campaign, giving users an opportunity to earn $AVAX while exploring Avalanche

Coinbase’s prime broker platform, Coinbase Prime, received two System and Organization Control (SOC) attestation reports that verify that an organization follows industry best practices from the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA

DeFi News:

Maple Finance released version 2.0 a week after a $36M default on the platform that aims to update focuses on diversifying borrowers and improving risk management parameters

SushiSwap Head Chef discloses $5.2M budget for DAO operation in 2023

DeFillama update allows checking whether money is leaving or entering CEXs and how much

Paxos is the sole issuer of BUSD, the US dollar-backed stablecoin regulated by the New York State Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) on Ethereum

Nimbus platform on BSC exploited on December 14 for 278 BNB

NFT/Gaming/Metaverse News:

Gaming platform Forte partners with Venture Studio SuperLayer to expand beyond Web3 gaming and invested $5M, which will go towards backing incubated companies

Fundraises:

Startup Web3 c02-neutral music marketplace, Public Pressure, built on Polkadot, raised a $6M funding round led by digital asset manager Scytale and Ethereum co-founder and Polkadot founder Gavin Wood @jointhepressure

Decentralized sports prediction market Frontrunner raised $4.75M in a seed round led by Susquehanna Private Equity Investments @frontrunnerxyz

Breez, a Lightning solution service provider, raised $4.5M in an oversubscribed funding round led by ego death capital and Entrée Capital @Breez_Tech

Spaceport, a web3 intellectual property protocol, raised $3.6 million in pre-seed round co-led by Arca, Decasonic and Crit Ventures @spaceportxyz

Finterest, the first crypto lending protocol available on the Internet Computer (ICP) built to support native Bitcoin borrowing and lending, closed a $1.5M seed round that included Polychain Capital @FinterestICP

Early Stage Projects:

Aura system has been upgraded - to continue earning rewards, all Aura LPs need to migrate from old reward pools in the next 7 days

Satsuma - a reliable subgraph & blockchain indexing platform for web3 engineering teams

Research/Reads:

CFTC Charges Sam Bankman-Fried, FTX Trading and Alameda with Fraud and Material Misrepresentations - source

Jack Dorsey - a native internet protocol for social media - source

FTX, Solana & Co., the Royalists in the Crypto World - source

Cross-chain Interoperability Is the Future of DeFi - source

Is Web3 Bad for the World? - source

Zero Knowledge - source

Have you seen our institutional-quality research?

M6 Research

Crypto Twitterverse:

Reuters Legal @ReutersLegal

Former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried's bail application was denied by a magistrate judge in the Bahamas. Bankman-Fried to be sent to the Bahamas Department of Correction till Feb. 8, judge says

Trung Phan @TrungTPhan

Major iPhone changes in Europe by 2024 that could bypass 15%-30% fee: — Alternative app stores — Side-loading of apps — Opening up private APIs — Opening up camera and NFCs to third-party devs TBD on: — allowing 3rd-party payments — opening up iMessage

bloomberg.comBloomberg - Are you a robot?

sarah emerson @SarahNEmerson

BREAKING: Forbes obtained a draft of the testimony @SBF_FTX was scheduled to present before Congress tomorrow, and has published it in full. Just hours ago, Bankman-Fried was arrested and taken into custody by Bahamian authorities. From @Steven_Ehrlich:

forbes.comExclusive Transcript: The Full Testimony Bankman-Fried Planned To Give To CongressBefore he was arrested, Forbes obtained a draft of Bankman-Fried’s full testimony and is publishing it here, verbatim

CZ 🔶 Binance @cz_binance

Things seem to have stabilized. Yesterday was not the highest withdrawals we processed, not even top 5. We processed more during LUNA or FTX crashes. Now deposits are coming back in. 🤷‍♂️💪

CZ 🔶 Binance @cz_binance

We saw some withdrawals today (net $1.14b ish). We have seen this before. Some days we have net withdrawals; some days we have net deposits. Business as usual for us. I actually think it is a good idea to “stress test withdrawals” on each CEX on a rotating basis. 💪 1/2 https://t.co/uF9lLPDSyS

Unlocks Calendar @UnlocksCalendar

Is Solana gonna make it? Some views on the current situation and future of $SOL after FTX collapse🧵👇

Crypto in Black (💙,🧡) @thehiddenmaze

Ignoring this thread will potentially cost you $1,000,000 Why? It lists 60 NEW Layer 0/1/2 Blockchains and some of them will 20x, 50x or even 100x in the next bullrun. $Matic, $ADA, $FTM $AVAX

Did we miss anything or is there anything you want to discuss? We’d Love to hear your feedback and engage with the community! Feel free to leave a comment and let us know your thoughts on the Crypto market!