Welcome again to Chain Reaction.
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It’s week three of the Sam Bankman-Fried trial…how are you holding up?
On Thursday, Can Sun, former FTX basic counsel, took the stand to testify on behalf of the prosecution’s case towards Bankman-Fried. Sun dove into the corporate’s phrases of service, how he documented loans from Alameda to FTX executives and the explanation he finally resigned, which you’ll examine right here.
Nishad Singh, a former FTX government and head of engineering, testified earlier this week that he, Bankman-Fried and different executives on the change and its sister firm Alameda Research spent $8 billion price of buyer funds. The cash went to actual property, enterprise capital investments, marketing campaign donations, endorsement offers and even branding rights to a sports activities stadium, he added.
Singh was the third FTX government to take the stand after Gary Wang, co-founder and CTO of FTX; and Caroline Ellison, CEO of Alameda. All three pleaded responsible for crimes concerning FTX and Alameda’s collapse and might withstand 75 years, 50 years and 110 years in jail, respectively.
More particulars on the place the cash went could be discovered right here.
In an identical tune, on day 11 of Bankman-Fried’s trial, Peter Easton, an accounting professor at University of Notre Dame, testified concerning whether or not or not the FTX collapse was predicated on fraud.
When prosecutors requested Easton if FTX ever spent consumer funds, he bluntly mentioned, “oh, yes.”
Read extra on Easton’s findings after compiling 1000’s of pages of financial institution statements and inside paperwork right here.
This week in web3
If you’re getting SBF trial fatigue, listed here are some articles on what else is going on in the wild world of web3.
- NY legal professional basic sues Gemini, Genesis and DCG for allegedly defrauding crypto buyers of over $1B
- Meet Alliance DAO’s newest accelerator cohort of startups constructing in crypto winter (TC+)
- Reddit is killing blockchain-based Community Points
- Asia emerges as a promising haven amid the crypto winter
- Trezor launches two new units to assist onboard crypto newbies
- FTC sues bankrupt crypto firm Voyager’s CEO over false FDIC insurance coverage claims
The newest pod
For this week’s episode, Jacquelyn interviewed Katherine Dowling, the overall counsel and chief compliance officer at Bitwise Asset Management.
Bitwise is a crypto asset supervisor that’s identified for creating the world’s largest crypto index fund. The agency additionally filed for a bitcoin spot ETF in the U.S., making it one in every of a lot of firms whose functions are pending after the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) delayed its selections.
Katherine beforehand has labored in compliance at True Capital Management and Luminate Capital Partners. Before that, she spent a decade as assistant U.S. legal professional, most lately in the financial crimes unit of the U.S. legal professional’s workplace for the Northern District of California.
We talked concerning the standing of Bitwise’s bitcoin spot ETF utility and how latest developments with different firms’ related functions could convey on the momentum wanted for the monetary car to be accepted.
We additionally talked about:
- How regulatory authorized procedures have an effect on laws
- Easiest locations to start out for crypto regulation
- Key components for crypto corporations’ compliance
- FTX trial being “baked in” for regulators
Subscribe to Chain Reaction on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or your favourite pod platform to maintain up with the newest episodes, and please depart us a assessment for those who like what you hear!
Also take a look at the newest episode on Equity, Ztoog’s podcast concerning the enterprise of startups, which dove into funding of web3 gaming corporations this week. (Spoiler: Web3 gaming capital inflows declined in Q3, however it’s not all that unhealthy.)
Follow the cash
- DeFi protocol Elixir raised $7.5 million at a $100 million valuation
- Decentralized utility Fileverse raised $1.5 million to assist enhance collaboration and productiveness
- Animoca Brands subsidiary Darewise Entertainment raised $3.5 million in token presale
- Solana-focused Squads Labs raised $5.7 million to develop a mobile-focused sensible pockets
- MyShell raised $5.6 million to create AI-focused apps and creator ecosystems on the blockchain
This checklist was compiled with info from Messari in addition to Ztoog’s personal reporting.
What else we’re writing
Want to department out from the world of web3? Here are some articles on Ztoog that caught our consideration this week.
- Ray-Ban Meta sun shades have ‘influencer’ written throughout them
- One yr post-acquisition, X visitors and month-to-month lively customers are in decline, report claims
- Tesla Q3 revenue falls 44% on EV worth cuts
- Hacker leaks tens of millions extra 23andMe consumer information on cybercrime discussion board
- Was Loom’s $975M exit a good worth? (TC+)
Follow me on Twitter @Jacqmelinek for breaking crypto information, memes and extra.