SBF Sent Home and Binance Gets Voyager Assets: Hodler's Digest

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High tales of this week

Despatched SBF residence after his mother and father fastened up their home to cowl his astronomical bail

Sam Bankman-Fried will be vacationing with his family in Palo Alto, California after his parents secured $250 million in bail using their home's equity. The bail conditions include house arrest, location surveillance and surrender of his passport. The former FTX CEO signed surrender documents Dec. 20 allowing his extradition from the Bahamas to the United States, where he faces eight charges that could keep him behind bars for the rest of his life. Bankman-Fried will now be at home with his family awaiting his sentence.

Caroline Ellison and Gary Wang plead guilty to cheating allegations

Former Alameda Research CEO Caroline Ellison and FTX co-founder Gary Wang have pleaded guilty to federal fraud charges. However, Ellison is working on a plea deal with the United States Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York that would bypass all seven charges against her, resulting in $250,000 bail and prosecution for only criminal tax violations would. The agreement does not protect Ellison from further charges Ellison may face from other authorities. Wang and Ellison are reportedly cooperating with US authorities on investigations related to FTX's collapse.

Genesis and DCG seek a way to restore assets amid liquidity woes

Global investment bank Houlihan Lokey has proposed a plan to solve the liquidity problems at crypto lender Genesis and its parent company Digital Currency Group (DCG). The plan, devised by Houlihan on behalf of a committee of creditors, would also provide customers of crypto exchange Gemini with a way to recoup assets owed to Genesis and DCG. Withdrawals on the Genesis platform have been suspended since November 16, days after the company announced nearly $175 million of its funds were in an FTX account.

Binance.US intends to acquire Voyager Digital's assets for $1 billion

With a bid of $1.022 billion, Binance.US will acquire the assets of bankrupt crypto lender Voyager Digital. However, the sale is subject to a creditor vote and closing requirements. A hearing by the Presiding Bankruptcy Court will also be held on January 5, 2023 to approve the purchase agreement. In good faith, Binance has agreed to deposit US$10 million and reimburse Voyager for certain expenses up to a maximum of US$15 million.

Twitter adds BTC and ETH price indices to search function

In its latest move into the crypto space, Twitter has added price indices for Bitcoin and Ether to its search functionality. The new feature allows users to easily search for the ticker symbol, be it a stock or crypto, and check the price chart. Other cryptocurrencies, including Dogecoin, did not make the list. The company plans to expand its coverage in the coming weeks.

Winner and Loser

Bitcoin at the end of the week (Bitcoin) is at $16,835ether (ETH) at $1,218 and XRP at $0.35. The total market capitalization is at $811.38 Billion, according to to CoinMarketCap.

Among the many high 100 cryptocurrencies, the highest three altcoin gainers of the week are XDC Community (XDC) at 14.04% ether (ETH) at 2.13% and pax {dollars} (USDP) at 1.47%.

The highest three altcoin losers of the week are Chain (XCN) at -39.75% Filecoin (FIL) at -21.77% and Belief Pockets Token (TWT) at -19.43%.

For extra data on crypto costs, see Cointelegraph's Market Evaluation.

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Australia's world-leading crypto legal guidelines at a crossroads: The within story

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Blockchain startups consider justice could be decentralized, however the jury continues to be out

Most Memorable Quotes

"Regulation ought to deal with intermediaries (the centralized actors in cryptocurrency) the place further transparency and disclosure is required."

Brian Armstrong, Coinbase CEO

“Because of this, there are situations like the Mango exploit where the exploiter first steals the funds and then starts the negotiations. There is no real incentive to come forward.”

Web3 developer

"If you can create a wallet that will be used by a billion people, that's a huge opportunity."

Vitalik Buterin, Co-founder of Ethereum

“Decentralization will include blockchain as a fundamental element, but other technologies will expand the potential in new ways that blockchain was never designed for.”

Alex Page, Nillion CEO

"Argentina is emerging as a hub for bringing technological development and resources to Latin America from the rest of the world."

Ryan Dennis, Senior Manager at the Stellar Development Foundation

"The biggest challenge for [blockchain analytics] Companies that work on it today is when money flows off the chain into the banking system because they can no longer track it.”

Peter Smith, Founder and CEO of Blockchain.com

forecast of the week

Bitcoin falls below $16.7k as US GDP hits new BTC price 'death cross'

Bitcoin prices fall below $16,700 by the end of the week after gaining some ground the previous day.

A Santa Claus rally is unlikely to materialize for Bitcoin as sentiment is firmly bearish among some pundits.

Pseudonymous Twitter user Daan Crypto Trades drew attention to Bitcoin's year-end results, which will likely mark Bitcoin's third year of negative performance. "The percentage loss this year falls squarely between the other two negative years, namely 2014 and 2018," he noted on Twitter.

FUD of the week

Crypto platform Paxful is removing ETH from its marketplace

Ethereum's native token, Ether, is no longer available on Paxful, a peer-to-peer cryptocurrency exchange. Paxful CEO Ray Youssef announced the move in a message to the platform's approximately 11.6 million users. Among the reasons for delisting the token, Youssef mentioned Ethereum's shift from proof-of-work to proof-of-stake consensus, claiming the transition turned ETH into a "digital form of fiat." .

California regulators instruct MyConstant to shut down crypto lending services

The California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation has ordered crypto lending platform MyConstant to shut down over alleged violations of state securities laws. The agency mentioned peer-to-peer lending services and "unlicensed lending brokerage" and said MyConstant offered and sold unqualified, non-exempt securities.

The South Korean authorities continue to investigate and freeze funds from the people involved in the Terra ecosystem. Multiple assets of Kernel Labs, a subsidiary of Terraform Labs, valued at $92 million have been frozen by local court order. Kim Hyun-Joong, CEO of Kernel Labs, reportedly holds the largest amount of illicit revenue from Terra. In November, assets worth over $104 million were also frozen in the case at the request of South Korean prosecutors.