SBF’s handcuffs aren’t loosening up anytime soon
Welcome back to Chain Reaction.
If you’re reading this, I’m willing to bet you probably weren’t arrested this week and are now sitting in a Bahamian jail. But, you know who was arrested and is sitting in a Bahamian jail right now? Yep, FTX’s former CEO, Sam Bankman-Fried.
Seems like the majority of the headlines have been on SBF and FTX lately — and for good reason. This week’s chatter was surrounded by his anticipated testimony at the U.S. House Financial Services Committee’s hearing on FTX’s collapse, which he never spoke at because he was arrested the night before.
After being denied bail, SBF is being held in the Bahamas Department of Correctional Services in the prison’s max security infirmary with five other inmates in a “dorm-style setting,” according to The Nassau Guardian. And don’t worry, Bahamas’ acting commissioner of corrections Doan Cleare said SBF is in “good spirits” and that the prison is no longer infested with rodents.
Now we can all sleep soundly tonight.
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this week in web3
Here are some of the biggest crypto stories TechCrunch has covered this week.
SEC, CFTC and SDNY attorney’s office charge FTX’s Sam Bankman-Fried with defrauding investors
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has officially charged disgraced FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried (aka SBF) with defrauding investors, it revealed on Tuesday morning following his arrest in the Bahamas. The SEC said in a press release that in addition to being charged with fraud regarding equity investors in FTX, he’s also being investigated regarding other securities law violations — and noted that there are ongoing investigations pending against others involved as well. The SEC isn’t the only one getting a hand on this ball, however: Both the Southern District of New York’s attorney’s office and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) also filed charges against SBF in “parallel actions.”
US attorney says ‘we are not done’ charging individuals for FTX collapse
Multiple U.S. government agencies held a press conference Tuesday afternoon regarding the indictment of FTX’s former CEO, Sam Bankman-Fried. When asked whether the entities will bring charges against other individuals allegedly involved in the FTX collapse, Damian Williams, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, said during the event, “I can only say this: Clearly, we are not done.”
FTX’s new CEO, John Ray, details crypto exchange’s downfall in US House testimony (TC+)
As mentioned above, the U.S. House Financial Services Committee held a hearing Tuesday morning focused on FTX’s collapse. John J. Ray III, FTX’s CEO of four weeks, sat as the only witness for the hearing as SBF made an appearance in a Bahamian court for his arraignment. The four-hour hearing covered a lot of ground and left many questions unanswered, but several parts stood out from Ray’s testimony. Given that we presume you couldn’t catch the entire session live, feel free to crib off of our notes.
PayPal and MetaMask team up to make it easier to buy crypto
PayPal is primarily known as an online payment method. But the company wants to become an easy way to get started with cryptocurrencies. In that regard, ConsenSys, the company behind MetaMask, announced that it would add an integration in its crypto wallet so that users can buy cryptocurrencies using their PayPal account.
Coinbase launches asset recovery tool for unsupported Ethereum-based tokens
Coinbase, the second-largest crypto exchange globally, has launched a new tool to help its customers recover more than 4,000 unsupported ERC-20 tokens sent to its ledger, the company exclusively told TechCrunch. “ERC-20 token” is technical terminology for any cryptocurrency created using the Ethereum blockchain. While Coinbase supports hundreds of cryptocurrencies, there are thousands that it doesn’t. The ERC-20 self-service asset recovery tool allows customers to recover different kinds of tokens sent to a Coinbase address.
the latest pod
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follow the money
- Aztec Network raised $100 million in a round led by a16z to build an encrypted blockchain
- Nillion raised over $20 million to build a non-blockchain decentralized network
- Crypto insurance firm Evertas raised $14 million in a Series A
- Forum3 raised $10 million to help companies build web3-enabled loyalty rewards programs
- Web3 licensing protocol Spaceport raised $3.6 million in a pre-seed round
This list was compiled with information from Messari as well as TechCrunch’s own reporting.
