Caroline Ellison speaks on FTX-Binance battle, SEC won’t appeal Grayscale BTC ETF: Hodler’s Digest, Oct. 8-14

Top Stories This Week

Caroline Ellison wished to step down however feared a financial institution run on FTX

Caroline Ellison, former CEO of Alameda Research, testified for over 10 hours this week at Sam Bankman-Fried’s trial, providing deeper particulars on the occasions that anticipated the FTX debacle in November 2022. From Ellison’s testimony, jurors realized that she planned to leave Alameda months earlier than its collapse, however feared a financial institution run on FTX amidst the crypto market downturn. The week additionally featured a recording presented as evidence within the case displaying the precise second Ellison advised workers about Alameda’s use of FTX buyer deposits. Among the important thing moments of Bankman-Fried’s trial had been revelations of fabricated steadiness sheets with a view to deceive crypto lenders, in addition to BlockFi CEO Zac Prince’s testimony. Check out this week’s highlights from Cointelegraph’s workforce on the bottom.

Months earlier than the collapse of crypto trade FTX, former CEO Sam Bankman-Fried was “freaking out” about shopping for shares in Snapchat, raising capital from Saudi royalty and getting regulators to crack down on rival crypto trade Binance, according to evidence presented in court this week as part of the continued legal trial. Bankman-Fried believed Binance leaked an Alameda balance sheet to the media in 2022. According to a doc from Nov. 6, 2022, Bankman-Fried wrote that Binance had been “engaging in a PR campaign against us.” It continued, saying that Binance “leaked a balance sheet; blogged about it; fed it to Coindesk; then announced very publicly that they were selling $500m of FTT in response to it while telling customers to be wary of FTX.”

SEC reportedly won’t appeal courtroom resolution on Grayscale Bitcoin ETF

The United States Securities and Exchange Commission reportedly has no plans to appeal the recent court decision that favored Grayscale Investments. The ruling requires the SEC to evaluate the agency’s spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) utility. The SEC’s supposed resolution to not appeal doesn’t essentially imply Grayscale’s utility is ready to be permitted. If the reviews are true, the SEC might want to observe the courtroom’s August order and evaluate Grayscale’s utility to alter its Grayscale Bitcoin Trust right into a spot Bitcoin ETF.

Terraform Labs contends Citadel Securities had a hand in its stablecoin collapse

Terraform Labs has once more pointed the finger at market maker Citadel Securities for its function in an alleged “concerted, intentional effort” to trigger the depeg of its TerraUSD stablecoin in 2022. On Oct. 10, Terraform Labs filed a movement within the United States to compel Citadel Securities to supply paperwork regarding its buying and selling exercise in May 2022, when TerraUSD Classic depegged. In its movement, Terraform argued that the paperwork are essential for its protection within the lawsuit filed by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in February, which alleged Terraform Labs and its founder, Do Kwon, had a hand in “orchestrating a multi-billion dollar crypto asset securities fraud.” Citadel Securities has, nonetheless, beforehand denied buying and selling the TerraUSD stablecoin in May 2022.

Mastercard publicizes profitable wrapped CBDC trial outcomes

Mastercard has completed a trial involving wrapping central financial institution digital currencies (CBDCs) on totally different blockchains, just like wrapped Bitcoin and wrapped Ether. The trial was performed with the Reserve Bank of Australia and the nation’s Digital Finance Cooperative Research Centre CBDC. Mastercard mentioned the answer allowed a CBDC proprietor to buy a nonfungible token (NFT) listed on Ethereum. “The process ‘locked’ the required amount of a pilot CBDC on the RBA’s pilot CBDC platform and minted an equivalent amount of wrapped pilot CBDC tokens on Ethereum,” the fee processor wrote.

Winners and Losers

At the tip of the week, Bitcoin (BTC) is at $26,892, Ether (ETH) at $1,551 and XRP at $0.48. The complete market cap is at $1.05 trillion, according to CoinMarketCap.

Among the largest 100 cryptocurrencies, the highest three altcoin gainers of the week are Loom Network (LOOM) at 86.71%, Trust Wallet Token (TWT) at 16.72% and Tether Gold (XAUt) at 5.16%. 

The prime three altcoin losers of the week are Mantle (MNT) at -17.27%, Rocket Pool (RPL) at -14.39% and Avalanche (AVAX) at -13.39%.

For extra information on crypto costs, make certain to learn Cointelegraph’s market analysis.

Most Memorable Quotations

“That’s our homework, actually. To really educate people about the benefit of using blockchain.”

Grace Sabandar, co-founder of the Indonesia Blockchain and Metaverse Center

“Crypto-assets markets, including DeFi, do not represent meaningful risks to financial stability at this point.”

European Securities and Markets Authority

“I was worrying about customer withdrawals from FTX, this getting out, people to be hurt. […] I didn’t feel good. If people found out [about Alameda using FTX funds], they would all try to withdraw from FTX.”

Caroline Ellison, former CEO of Alameda Research

“It’s alarming and should be a wakeup call for lawmakers and regulators that digital wallets connected to Hamas received millions of dollars in cryptocurrencies.”

Elizabeth Warren, U.S. senator

“Bitcoin and Ethereum may seem like opposites, but they can co-exist and complement each other.”

Willem Schroé, CEO of Botanix Labs

“People who believe SBFraud is a ‘good guy’ who made ‘mistakes’, and FTX grew too fast and it all got away from him, should NEVER be in charge of other people’s money.”

John Deaton, lawyer and crypto advocate

The price of Ethereum’s native token, Ether, is trading around a 15-month low versus Bitcoin, and the bottom since Ethereum switched to proof-of-stake. The ETH/BTC pair dropped to as little as 0.056 BTC earlier this week. In doing so, the pair broke beneath its 200-week exponential transferring common (200-week EMA; the blue wave) close to 0.058 BTC, elevating draw back dangers additional into 2023.

The 200-week EMA has traditionally served as a dependable help degree for ETH/BTC bulls.

ETH/BTC stares at comparable selloff dangers in 2023 after shedding its 200-week EMA as help. In this case, the following draw back goal appears to be like to be round its 0.5 Fibonacci line close to 0.051 BTC in 2023, down about 9.5% from present value ranges.

Conversely, ETH value could rebound towards its 50-week EMA (the purple wave) close to 0.065 BTC if it reclaims the 200-week EMA as help.

FUD of the Week 

One of the CrypToadz NFTs, whose average price doesn’t exceed $1,000, was bought for an astonishing 1,055 wrapped Ether, an equal of $1.6 million. The CrypToadz assortment was launched in the course of the NFT increase of 2021 and surpassed a buying and selling quantity of $38 million price of Ether throughout its first 10 days on the market. The value paid by the nameless person for the NFT raised questions among the many group. Two weeks in the past, this merchandise was acquired for 0.95 ETH (round $1,600), solely to be bought for a value a thousand occasions larger.

USDR stablecoin depegs to $0.53, however workforce vows to offer options

Real estate-backed stablecoin USDR misplaced its peg to the United States greenback after a rush of redemptions caused a draining of liquid assets such as Dai from its treasury. USDR, backed by a combination of cryptocurrencies and actual property holdings, is issued by the Tangible protocol, a decentralized finance venture that seeks to tokenize housing and different real-world belongings. During the disaster, a dealer reportedly exchanged 131,350 USDR for 0 USD Coin, leading to a whole loss on funding.

HTX claws again $8M in stolen funds, points 250 ETH bounty to hacker

Huobi Global’s crypto trade HTX has confirmed the return of the funds stolen by a hacker in late September and issued a 250 Ether bounty after resolving the difficulty. One of HTX’s sizzling wallets was drained of 5,000 ETH on Sept. 25, price roughly $8 million on the time. Shortly after the hack occurred, the agency contacted the hacker and claimed to know their identification. HTX finally supplied to pay a 5% bounty price round $400,000 and to not take any authorized motion in the event that they returned 95% of the funds earlier than a deadline of Oct. 2.

Beyond crypto: Zero-knowledge proofs present potential from voting to finance

An emerging cryptographic technology could present assist with two gaping Twenty first-century wants: Privacy and fact.

Eleanor Terrett on impersonators and a greater crypto trade

Fox Business producer Eleanor Terrett’s following exploded after she started offering commentary on the SEC v. Ripple lawsuit.

SBF’s alleged Chinese bribe, Binance clarifies account freeze: Asia Express

SBF allegedly bribes Chinese officials with $150 million to unfreeze accounts, Binance justifies blocking Hamas customers, in the meantime, Huobi hacker returns all $8M in stolen belongings.

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Cointelegraph Magazine writers and reporters contributed to this text.