The Friday Focus - Issue 62

Our weekly crypto news summary. Curated by us, for you.

Dec 02, 2022

Weekly happenings

FTX is obviously the focus again this week, with SBF still “being sorry” and trying to convince us that he didn’t know about the comingling of customer funds. Nice try, Sam.

Let’s dive into it!

Top stories

Sam Bankman-Fried has been quite public this week, still telling a story of unawareness of comingling of funds and claims he was surprised by how big Alameda’s position was, calling it a “failure of oversight” on his part.

At the same time, the first US Congress FTX hearing took place, with CFTC Chair Behnam being the sole witness and responding to questions about his agency’s handling of the fallen crypto giant and his continued call for legislation. Moreover, US House lawmakers have set Dec 13 as the date for the first FTX hearing, and a US Trustee has asked the bankruptcy court to appoint an FTX trustee.

The contagion naturally continues after the FTX collapse, with BlockFi filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. FTX and Alameda Research owe BlockFi more than $1 billion according to a court hearing - $671 million on a now-defaulted loan to Alameda and $355 million in funds frozen on the FTX. Ouch.

Genesis, another well-known crypto lender, has creditors working hard to keep the company out of bankruptcy, with the Alabama Securities Commission and other states at the same time investigating the company.

More crypto exchanges are feeling the crypto winter, with both Kraken and Bitso announcing layoffs this week. Binance, on the other hand, is pushing ahead and acquiring the Japan-based crypto exchange SEBC, while INX is joining the conversation in purchasing bankrupt Voyager’s assets. In other exchange news, six exchanges in the UK were ordered to disclose customer details to help trace funds overseas.

On the regulatory side, Brazil's long-awaited crypto bill is now inches from the finish line after seven years in the works. EU policymakers debate crypto laws during the first FTX hearing in the EU, and Lagarde calls for broader crypto regulation. In the US, Binance and Coinbase are among the crypto firms questioned by US senators after the FTX collapse.

Lastly, some positive adoption news this week as well, with Fidelity finally opening its retail crypto offering.

And that’s all for this week. Until next time!