A Tale of 2 SBFs in Trial’s Closing Arguments: Prosecution Calls Him a Liar 🤥, Defense Says He Was Unfairly 🦹 Villainized
In today’s edition: Coinbase Starts Crypto Futures in US 🏎️, PayPal Receives UK Approval to Offer Crypto Services 🇬🇧, How Lazarus Tricked Crypto Exchanges 🧑🏻💻 and more!
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👨⚖️ Sam Bankman Fried’s Trial Coverage
SBF Trial - Defense’s closing argument finished!!!
Defense’s closing argument finished — after 6 pm! It went from weak to OK. It didn’t address a lot of the government’s core arguments but still made a few points and an emotional appeal. We’ll see if it ends up having any sway 🤷🏻♀️
SBF Trial, From the Courthouse: Metadata Reveals Surprises in Government's Closing
The government’s closing is in full swing. Find out why the metadata has turned out to not be so boring after all & how the government is using very damning timelines to pinpoint SBF in what they call lies + some of prosecutor Nicholas Roos’s lines made us laugh in the overflow room.
On the Pod
Welcome to The Chopping Block – where crypto insiders Haseeb Qureshi, Tom Schmidt and Robert Leshner chop it up about the latest news. This week, the gang sits down with guest Nic Carter of Castle Island Ventures, whose tweet thread pushed the Wall Street Journal to correct its story that Hamas had raised tens of millions in crypto. Carter discusses the challenges in tracking how much crypto Hamas has actually received, the declining prospects for Sam Bankman-Fried’s acquittal, and ongoing dramas surrounding staking protocol Lido and decentralized exchange dYdX.
📚 The Cryptopians - Out in Paperback!
Find out the inside story of the rise of Ethereum in Laura’s book, “The Cryptopians.”
What’s Poppin’?
by Brandy Betz and Samyuktha Sriram
Coinbase Officially Opens Crypto Futures Trading to US Customers
The contracts are now available for eligible customers after regulatory approval in August.
PayPal Receives UK Approval to Offer Crypto Services
The payments giant is now registered with the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority but still faces several restrictions.
How Lazarus Tricked Crypto Exchanges
Cybersecurity firm Elastic exposed the mechanism used by Lazarus to infiltrate crypto exchanges.
Hacked Multichain Resumes Confirming Transactions
Cross-chain protocol Multichain resumed confirming transactions 117 days after being hacked for $126 million.
Bitcoin Price Could Hit $150K by 2025, Says Bernstein Analyst
The lofty target is based on optimism that spot bitcoin ETFs could receive SEC approval early next year.
Daily Bits…✍️✍️✍️
🕵️ The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) arrested and charged SafeMoon’s executive team, including CEO John Karony, with defrauding investors in a case that has also involved the Securities and Exchange Commission.
🐌 The U.S. central bank left its Federal funds rate unchanged amid continued signs of waning inflation, but bitcoin remained largely unmoved in the immediate aftermath.
📈 For the first time in two months, ether futures premiums are trading at face value with bitcoin futures on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, the latest K33 Research report said.
🌂 Binance plans to end its partnership with Belize-registered Advcash, a payments firm that allowed customers to transfer funds held at sanctioned Russian banks to the crypto exchange, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the decision and messages Binance sent to a client.
👮 In the largest case of crypto money laundering in the country’s history, Taiwan law enforcement has arrested an individual suspected of laundering a record 10.4 billion Taiwanese dollars ($320 million) via digital assets.
Several team members behind NovaWulf, the digital asset investment firm that bid for bankrupt crypto lender Celsius, have created a new investment firm called Valinor, according to an email reviewed by CoinDesk.
Today in Crypto Adoption...
🇭🇰 Hong Kong regulators are expected to issue more policy papers and tokenized assets, stablecoins and crypto trading as they continue efforts to make the city a web3 hub in Asia.
The $$$ Corner…
💲Modulus Labs, a project combining crypto and artificial intelligence technologies, raised $6.3 million in a seed round with backing from Variant and 1kx, the firm announced on Wednesday.
What Do You Meme?
Recommended Reads
Laura Shin on CoinDesk: SBF vs. ETF: Get Rich Quick vs. Get Rich Slowly
Pedro Gomes on Blockworks: Crypto builders, please sweat the small stuff
📈 Your Market Update 📉
BTC is up 2.8%, trading at $35,403
ETH is up 1.7%, trading at $1,834
BTC dominance: 51%
Crypto market cap: $1.36T
*All data as of today, 05:55 am ET
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