2024-04-11 18:25

Bankman-Fried was convicted last year on fraud and conspiracy charges. FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried filed to appeal his conviction and sentence for fraud and conspiracy charges on Thursday, hours before his deadline to do so. Bankman-Fried was convicted last November after a month-long trial on seven different charges, including fraud against FTX customers and Alameda Research investors. His companies filed for bankruptcy the year prior. Earlier this month, Bankman-Fried was sentenced to 25 years in federal prison for his role in the collapse of the exchange, along with 3 years of supervised release and $11 billion in forfeiture. New York District Court Judge Lewis Kaplan said Bankman-Fried was not remorseful for his crimes, and called his altruistic persona an “act.” Kaplan said that the sentence – which was much lower than the 40-50 year sentence requested by federal prosecutors but higher than the 6.5 year sentence Bankman-Fried’s legal team suggested – was necessary in order to ensure Bankman-Fried was unable to commit similar crimes in the future. Though Kaplan ordered Bankman-Fried be remanded to a low or medium-security prison near his parents in Northern California, citing his autism as a risk factor for him in a maximum security facility, Bankman-Fried has surprisingly asked to be kept in the notorious Manhattan Detention Center during his appeal process. Bankman-Fried’s former colleagues and co-conspirators – several of whom turned over evidence on him and testified at his trial – have yet to be sentenced for their roles in the fraud. Bankman-Fried was arrested in the Bahamas in November 2022, shortly after FTX and Alameda – alongside affiliates worldwide – filed for bankruptcy, following the publication of a CoinDesk article revealing oddities in its balance sheet. Federal prosecutors said he deliberately stole customer and investor funds, and lied about what the funds would go toward, during his trial last October. Read all of CoinDesk's coverage here. https://www.coindesk.com/policy/2024/04/11/ftx-founder-sam-bankman-fried-appeals-conviction/

2024-04-11 16:36

The crypto exchange's off-shore arm will open perpetuals market for the popular meme coin on April 18. Popular meme coin pepe (PEPE) jumped on the news that Coinbase International Exchange, the U.S.-based crypto exchange's off-shore arm for institutions, will open a perpetual futures market for the token next week. The exchange said in an X post that it will list PEPE perps on Coinbase International Exchange and Coinbase Advanced and commence trading on or after 9:30 a.m. UTC on April 18. The news sparked hopes among traders that it could foreshadow a potential spot listing for the fourth largest memecoin, boasting a $3 billion market capitalization. PEPE gained as much as nearly 10% immediately after the announcement before paring most of the gains. At press time, the token had pulled back to about a 3% advance over the past 24 hours. https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2024/04/11/pepe-coin-spikes-on-coinbase-international-plan-to-list-perpetual-futures/

2024-04-11 14:00

Shiba Inu is the first layer 2 blockchain to join the media and entertainment association to develop blockchain technology for content security and distribution. Shiba Inu is partnering with the Content Distribution and Security Association (CDSA) to propose and develop blockchain technology for media and entertainment, with a focus on security and content distribution. The collaboration aims to use blockchain technology to address concerns in the AI sector, such as deepfakes and plagiarism. SHIB, an interconnected family of digital assets and solutions built on the Ethereum blockchain that includes the popular meme coin Shiba Inu, today said it is partnering with the Content Distribution and Security Association (CDSA) in a release to CoinDesk. Shiba Inu developers will propose and develop blockchain technology specific to media and entertainment, such as security and content distribution. CDSA is an international nonprofit organization that was founded in 1998 to provide best practices for the delivery and storage of entertainment, software and information technology. “We look forward to providing a unique and blockchain-first perspective to CDSA’s work in helping media and entertainment executives better utilize these innovative technologies, especially as blockchain and artificial intelligence converge,” Shiba Inu lead developer Shytoshi Kusama said in a message. Blockchains could help alleviate concerns around deepfakes and plagiarism within the emergent artificial intelligence (AI) sector, Shiba Inu developers said in the release Most AI models are trained on publicly available content, creating a cause of concern among researchers. SHIB tokens are up 0.69% in the past 24 hours, underperforming the broad-based CoinDesk 20’s 1.7% rise. https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2024/04/11/shiba-inu-joins-cdsa-to-battle-ai-driven-concerns-using-shibarium/

2024-04-11 13:00

Christian Langalis, whose 2017 photo-bombing of Janet Yellen became a viral meme, will use the proceeds to fund his Bitcoin/Lightning/Urbit startup. A piece of Bitcoin history is going on the block. Christian Langalis, whose photo-bombing of Janet Yellen became a viral meme, is auctioning the "Buy Bitcoin" sign he held up behind the then-Federal Reserve chair during her televised Congressional testimony in July 2017. Flashback | Most Influential in Blockchain 2017 #1: Bitcoin Sign Guy The sign, which Langalis drew on a lined yellow legal pad with a fine-point pen (a Uniball Vision, he told CoinDesk), will be listed Thursday on Scarce City, an online marketplace that sells physical and digital collectibles (and, naturally, accepts payment only in bitcoin). In an interview with CoinDesk, Langalis said he would use the proceeds to fund his company, Tirrel Corp. The pre-seed-stage startup is building an implementation and wallet for Bitcoin's layer-2 Lightning network on top of Urbit, an open-source software project that attempts to rewrite the entire internet computing stack from first principles. Flashback to 2022: Urbit Is Web3, Weird and Wonderful and I Don’t Care Who Made It Asked how much he expected the memento – scribbled at a time when bitcoin (BTC) traded around $2,400 – to fetch, Langalis said, "I try not to think about it." However, he said that in recent weeks he received a private offer to buy the sign for five BTC, roughly $350,000 at recent prices. There is no reserve bid, or minimum price, he said. Bidding for the sign will commence on April 18 and run for a week on Scarce City, but final bids will be entertained in person on April 24 at PubKey, a bitcoin-themed dive bar in New York (where a replica of the sign hangs on the wall). "It's a way to celebrate with the community," Langalis said. The image of Langalis behind Yellen (who is now the U.S. Treasury Secretary and lukewarm at best about crypto) drew international attention to bitcoin. After pulling the stunt, he was escorted out of the House Financial Services hearing room for violating committee rules, he said. By that time, the image was being widely shared on social media, although he didn't know it yet. "I was clueless," he said in a text message. "Phone dead since I arrived [at the hearing] so early." https://www.coindesk.com/business/2024/04/11/bitcoin-sign-guy-is-auctioning-his-bitcoin-sign/

2024-04-11 10:26

The relatively low figure is a sharp decline from GBTC's usual outflow amounts. Grayscale’s bitcoin (BTC) exchange-traded fund (ETF) logged about $18 million in outflows on Wednesday, a record-low figure since it first went live in January, Bitmex Research and Farside Investors said in posts on X. The figures come a day after Grayscale CEO Michael Sonnenshein said he sees outflows from the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) reaching an “equilibrium” as selling activity connected to settlements of bankrupt crypto companies like FTX was "largely behind us.” Analysts at Coinbase Institutional have said that the increased GBTC selling is potentially in part due to Genesis selling shares as part of its bankruptcy process. The GBTC product has hemorrhaged nearly $15 billion in bitcoin outflows since going live and has almost consistently seen outflows every week, likely contributing to selling pressure on the asset. The EFT also charges the highest annual fees among counterparts at 1.5% of holdings, compared with as low as 0.19% for Franklin Templeton’s EZBC. Bitcoin is trading just above $70,600 as of European morning hours, up 2.2% in the past 24 hours. The broad-based CoinDesk 20 added 1.7%. https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2024/04/11/grayscale-bitcoin-etf-sees-record-lowest-daily-outflow-of-18m/

2024-04-11 10:10

Regulators in the country have said they plan to authorize up to 60 digital asset firms by April. South Africa has started licensing crypto firms, with Luno and Zignaly among the first batch of companies to receive regulatory approval. Regulators in the country have said around 60 firms are set to receive approval by April. South Africa’s financial regulator has started issuing crypto licenses, with exchange platform Luno and decentralized social investing marketplace Zignaly among the first bath of companies to receive approvals. Luno shared that it had received approval as a financial service provider under country's Financial Advisory and Intermediary Services Act, 2002 (FAIS). Luno PTY LTD now appears on FSCA's registry of authorized entities. Zignaly told CoinDesk that it had received a Category 2 - Discretionary Financial Service Provider (FSP) license and appears in the FSCA registry as Merritt Administrators PTY LTD. The South African regulator started accepting licensing applications from crypto firms in June 2023 after legislation was passed to bring crypto into the scope of regulated financial activities in the country. The FSCA has promised hefty fines for companies that try to operate without obtaining the right approvals. Around 60 firms are expected to be approved by the regulator in the short term. “This is a positive step for both the cryptocurrency industry and South Africans. Compliance, safety and security for our customers have driven our growth since the beginning and will continue to be priorities as we expand our offering to introduce more features and products for financial institutions,” Christo de Wit, Luno’s country manager for South Africa, said in the statement. Zignaly's Category 2 license will allow the company to conduct discretionary fund management, "where Zignaly is authorized to make investment decisions on behalf of investors, and very importantly – may act as a custodian of funds for its clients,” the company said in a press statement. “It is essentially a full asset management license, comparable to what TradFi behemoths like Blackrock or Vanguard have at their disposal.” Zignaly says the license will also help it “preempt the likely extension” of regulations to decentralized finance. In 2022, the company signed a $50 million financing deal with a Luxembourg fund. https://www.coindesk.com/policy/2024/04/11/luno-among-first-crypto-firms-to-receive-south-africa-license/