U.S. Senate Hearing to Discuss FTX, New York Bans Proof of Work, and FTX Appraises its Assets: Hodler’s Digest, November 20-26

Coming every Saturday, Summary of Hodler will help you follow every important news that happened this week. The best (and worst) quotes, adoption and regulation highlights, major coins, predictions and more – a week on Cointelegraph in one link.

Top stories this week

BlockFi Files For Bankruptcy, Cites FTX Collapse For Problems

Digital asset lending company BlockFi announced on Nov. 28 that it had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in New Jersey. The bankruptcy filing revealed, among other details, that BlockFi aims to restructure and keep specific employees on board. BlockFi has eight daughter companies that are also included in the bankruptcy petition. Later news revealed details of the bankruptcy proceedings, including BlockFi’s attorney reporting that $355 million of the organization’s capital is frozen on FTX.

Kraken Settles With US Treasury OFAC Over ‘Apparent’ Sanctions Violations

In a deal with the US Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), US crypto exchange Kraken will pay a fine of around $362,000 for violating sanctions against Iran. The company itself reported the violation to OFAC, according to comments from Marco Santori, Kraken’s chief legal officer. Kraken allegedly allowed its exchange to be used by participants based in Iran and did not have a proper system in place to ban certain IP addresses. The company agreed to spend $100,000 on sanctions compliance measures as part of the settlement, in addition to the $362,000 fine.

FTX Was ‘Fastest’ Corporate Bankruptcy in U.S. History – Fiduciary Calls for Investigation

FTX headlines continue to pour in as events unfold. FTX’s bankruptcy filing prompted the US trustee handling the case to request an independent examiner to come and examine the details surrounding FTX’s downfall. Another headline revealed that sister entity Alameda Research’s bank accounts were allegedly used for funds activities of FTX clients without the exchange working directly with a bank. FTX was also the subject of a December 1 meeting of the US Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry. Additionally, Bahamian authorities are investigating FTX.

Binance Hires Audit Firm That Served Donald Trump To Audit Crypto Reserves

Binance has continued to work to increase its transparency regarding its reserves. The crypto exchange engaged Mazars, an accounting firm known for retaining former US President Donald Trump as a longtime client, to perform its Proof of Reserves (PoR) audit. Mazars and the Trump family severed ties in 2022. In another PoR audit-related development, Binance recently moved large amounts of cryptocurrency, raising concerns in the crypto community.

3AC bankruptcy process faces challenges as founders unknown

Three Arrows Capital’s liquidators are struggling to engage with Su Zhu and Kyle Davies, the hedge fund’s founders. In a virtual hearing in bankruptcy court for the Southern District of New York, attorneys representing the liquidators said the founders had not engaged with them in recent months, despite their social media activity. Zhu and Davies are believed to be currently based in Indonesia and the United Arab Emirates, where it is difficult to enforce foreign court orders.

Winners and losers

At the weekend, Bitcoin (BTC) is at $17,002Ether (ETH) at $1,288 and XRP at $0.39. The total market capitalization is $857.72 billion, according to CoinMarketCap.

Among the 100 biggest cryptocurrencies, the top three altcoin gainers of the week are Fantom (FTM) at 32.0%, ApeCoin (MONKEY) at 20.85% and GMX (gmx) at 20.67%.

The top three altcoin losers of the week are BinaryX (BNX) at -18.11%, Nexo (NEXT) at -9.53% and Convex Finance (CLC) at -7.48%.

For more information on crypto prices, be sure to read Cointelegraph’s market analysis.

Most Memorable Quotes

“I think the crypto industry will need to take a more focused approach, moving from cycles of hype to creating real utility.”

Rahul AdvaniDirector of APAC Policy at Ripple

“If you’re Brazilian or you’re from Venezuela or Argentina, it becomes much easier to understand the power of a decentralized currency.”

Marcel Pechmann, market analyst and Cointelegraph contributor

“DeFi-centric platforms simply cannot fall victim to shady business practices because ‘code is law’ for them.”

Aishwarya GuptaDeFi Chief of Staff at Polygon

“We definitely noticed more people buying Bitcoin because of the FTX crash.”

Imo Babics, Marketing Director at Relay

“I think Apple has kind of stood out as the only company trying to unilaterally control what apps get on a device and I don’t think that’s a sustainable or good place.”

Mark ZuckerbergCEO of Meta

“Obviously I made a lot of mistakes or things I would give anything to be able to do it again.”

Sam “SBF” Bankman-Friedformer CEO of FTX

Prediction of the week

Bitcoin Will “Teleport” To $14,000 Or Worse If BTC Surpasses $16,000 — Analyst

Bitcoin spent some time above $17,000, although the asset has played above and below the level several times over the past few days, according to Cointelegraph’s BTC Price Index.

At the start of the week, pseudonymous digital asset analyst Il Capo Of Crypto tweeted that danger may lie in wait for BTC if the asset falls below $16,000. “When it drops below 16k, it teleports to 12k-14k,” the analyst said Nov. 28.

Other notable factors and analysis were also mentioned in the article, including the potential significance of the monthly close of the November candles.

FUD of the week

Head of Crypto Exchange Libertex Vyacheslav Taran Dies in Helicopter Crash in France

A third unexpected death recently rocked the crypto space. Vyacheslav Taran, the 53-year-old billionaire Russian chairman of the Libertex Group, died in a helicopter crash on November 25, an official Libertex statement confirmed. Taran also founded the Forex Club and was involved in several crypto endeavors. The helicopter trip to Monaco from Switzerland had only Taran and the pilot on board, both killed in the crash. Amber Group co-founder Tiantian Kullander, 30, and MakerDAO co-founder, 29, Nikolai Mushegian, also died unexpectedly in November and October, respectively.

EmpiresX ‘Head Trader’ Faces 4 Years in Prison for $100M Crypto ‘Ponzi’

Joshua David Nicholas was sentenced to approximately four years in prison for his involvement in EmpiresX, a $100 million crypto Ponzi scheme. Nicholas served as chief trader for the scheme, claiming the promise of profits based on bot trading, although the operation was actually a Ponzi scheme that misused client funds. Still at large, Emerson Pires and Flavio Goncalves also played a role in the scam, which ran from 2020 to 2022.

Bankman-Fried on hook in Texas, set to appear at February hearing

An investigation by the Texas securities regulator is looking into whether Sam Bankman-Fried and FTX US violated Texas securities laws. Bankman-Fried is due in court Feb. 2 as part of the investigation. According to a Notice of Hearing filed by Texas State Securities Board Director Joseph Rotunda and served on Bankman-Fried on Nov. 29, FTX US offered unregistered securities to Texans through its “EARN” accounts.

Best Crypto Features

South Korea’s unique and amazing crypto universe

“There’s this whole other side of crypto that we just don’t hear about that’s based in Asian culture. And it’s all from South Korea.

The objective of the boss of Socios? To knock crypto out of the park

“As an entrepreneur, I always try to find new opportunities… At the end of 2017, I started looking at crypto from a sports angle.”

How stable are stablecoins in the FTX crypto market contagion?

The collapse of crypto exchange FTX has hit the crypto world like a tropical storm. It is worth asking once again: how stable are stablecoins?