Happy Anniversary — See You in Court 🧑⚖️
Happy Anniversary — See You in Court 🧑⚖️
Plus, Bitcoin records tumble💸, Ether ETFs pop 📈, and Crypto’s biggest critic just got stronger 🙁
Welcome to the new week! I’m Juan Aranovich, managing editor of Unchained.
In today’s edition:
🔍 FTX: Lawyering up
💸 Crypto trading: Ups and downs
🌡️ Ether ETFs: Hot cakes
💣 Warren on the warpath?
🔥 Jupiter: Burn, baby, burn
🪙 BlackRock’s IBIT: All that glitters
With over 20 licensed or regulated assets on-chain and a global ecosystem of 400k+ ramps, Stellar is the network of choice for real-world asset tokenization.
Unlock zero trading fees, up to 5.1% APY on USDC, boosted staking rewards and more with Coinbase One.
Try it free for a month with code UNCHAINED.
What’s Poppin’?
FTX Sues Binance and Changpeng Zhao
On Friday, it was the two-year anniversary of the beginning of the collapse of FTX. Today, it is the two-year anniversary of the exchange filing for bankruptcy, and the company is celebrating with a couple of lawsuits…
The most relevant one is a lawsuit against Binance and its former CEO Changpeng Zhao, seeking to recover $1.8 billion allegedly transferred fraudulently by FTX co-founder Sam Bankman-Fried. The legal filing claims the funds were part of a 2021 stock buyback deal in which Binance sold its stakes in FTX’s international and U.S.-based entities for a mix of FTT and Binance-branded tokens.
The lawsuit also accuses Zhao of posting “false and misleading” tweets in 2022 that accelerated FTX’s collapse by triggering a run on withdrawals. Binance has not yet responded to the allegations.
This is one of several lawsuits by FTX’s estate in its bankruptcy proceedings, targeting investors, affiliates, and even political groups tied to the company’s financial downfall.
One of those lawsuits is against an individual named Nawaaz Mohammad Meerun, alleging that his market manipulation resulted in losses around $1 billion for FTX and its sister firm, Alameda Research.
In a complaint filed on Nov. 8, FTX said that Meerun had executed a scheme in January 2021 in which he “cornered more than half” of the illiquid token BTMX, artificially driving up its price by 10,000% over three months.
Meerun allegedly used the token’s inflated value to exploit a flaw in FTX’s margin trading rules, “borrowing” tens of millions of dollars from FTX using his BTMX holdings as “collateral.”
By the time FTX’s then-CEO, Sam Bankman-Fried, and other exchange personnel began to catch on to the alleged scheme and froze his accounts, Meerun had allegedly already absconded with more than $450 million.
FTX also accused Meerun of being the mastermind behind a governance attack on lending platform Compound Finance in July.
In a move met with clear incredulity by FTX, Meerun filed his own bankruptcy claim to the $13 million worth of crypto he had left on the platform, using his own name, address and know-your-customer information.
The FTX estate petitioned the court to disallow that bankruptcy claim and one other, and to recoup more than $29 million Meerun withdrew before the preference period.
Crypto Markets Shed $630M
Bitcoin’s swift rise past $81,000 has triggered large-scale liquidations across crypto markets over the past 24 hours.
Data from CoinGlass shows that crypto traders saw $649 million in liquidations, with just a little more than half of those positions taken by traders betting on a higher bitcoin price.
The ratio of long to short positions liquidated shows just how volatile bitcoin’s price action was over the past day as traders on both sides of deals felt the pain.
The single biggest liquidation order took place on OKX on a BTC/USDT swap position valued at $15.56 million.
Spot Ether ETFs Draw Record Weekly Inflows
Inflows into spot ether exchange-traded funds hit a weekly record of $154.66 million for the week ending Nov. 8, according to data from SoSoValue.
BlackRock’s ETHA accounted for $94.44 million worth of the week’s inflows, followed by Fidelity’s FETH, which saw $42.72 million of inflows.
Until as recently as last week, spot ether ETFs were in only tepid demand compared to their bitcoin-based counterparts listed in the U.S.
The week’s inflows preceded ether’s breakout past the $3,000 mark on Saturday evening. The second-biggest cryptocurrency by market cap also saw its biggest weekly gain since May.
At the time of writing, ether was trading at around $3,200, having gained 30% over the previous seven days.
Elizabeth Warren Gains Power as Crypto’s Biggest Critic
The crypto industry may have scored a victory by ousting Sherrod Brown, but it inadvertently gave Elizabeth Warren, leader of the “Anti-Crypto Army,” an even larger platform.
As the incoming Ranking Member of the Senate Banking Committee, Warren is set to amplify her campaign for stricter crypto regulations.
While Republican Senator Tim Scott is expected to take over as committee chair and provide a counterweight, Warren’s elevated role signals an uphill battle for the industry in the legislative arena.
Jupiter’s Bold $3 Billion Token Burn Ceremony
In a striking move to address concerns over emissions and valuation, Jupiter’s DAO plans to burn 30% of its token supply—worth $3 billion—during a theatrical ceremony at its January conference in Istanbul.
Dubbed “Catstanbul 2025,” the event will feature the symbolic burning of a cat figure, highlighting Jupiter’s flair for the dramatic.
The onchain burn aims to bolster JUP’s growth potential while addressing its high fully diluted valuation, reaffirming Jupiter’s place in the DeFi spotlight.
BlackRock’s IBIT Surpass Gold ETF
BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF (IBIT) has overtaken the firm’s 19-year-old gold ETF, with net assets climbing to $33.2 billion—a milestone reached just 10 months after IBIT’s launch.
Is bitcoin’s growing appeal as a “digital gold” reshaping how investors view risk assets?
ENS Labs to Launch Layer 2 Network Namechain
ENS Labs, the company behind the Ethereum Name Service, is preparing to launch its own layer 2 network.
ENS Labs shared details of its planned Namechain network plans at Web3 conference “frENSday” in Bangkok on Monday.
“This is the next evolution in ENS and part of the larger ENSv2 direction,” ENS Labs COO Katherine Wu said on X. “By dramatically reducing costs, improving performance, and providing a familiar Ethereum developer experience our hope is to see new opportunities for ENS and Ethereum flourish.”
Namechain is expected to go live around the end of next year, and will be based on zero-knowledge technology that brings down the cost of transactions by processing them off-chain.
ENS Labs first floated the idea of migrating to a layer 2 network earlier this year, but at the time, it had not decided whether it would shift its infrastructure onto an existing L2 or whether it would build out its own custom network.
Opinion: How Democrats Failed to Deliver on Crypto’s Promise in the 2024 Elections
Democrats missed a crucial chance to shape a clear and balanced framework that could protect consumers while still fostering robust innovation in the US.
Earn bitcoin on Gemini here.
Daily Bits… ✍️✍️✍
📈 Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson announced plans to establish a Washington, D.C., policy office to advocate for bipartisan, crypto-friendly regulations, coinciding with a 35% surge in Cardano's price amid speculation over his potential advisory role under incoming president Donald Trump.
🔄 Polygon's total value locked dropped 20% to $1.1 billion as $340 million exited Polymarket following the U.S. presidential election, although daily transactions on the blockchain remained steady at pre-election levels of around 3 million.
🌍 Tether financed a $45 million Middle Eastern crude oil transaction, marking its expansion into the $10 trillion trade finance sector while leveraging its USDT stablecoin to improve efficiency and reduce transaction costs.
⚡ Stacks announced its sBTC upgrade for early December, introducing a decentralized two-way Bitcoin peg to enhance DeFi applications on Bitcoin's blockchain while competing with centralized wrapped Bitcoin alternatives.
⏳ The SEC delayed its decision on options for spot Ethereum ETFs, citing concerns over investor protection and market manipulation, while eight approved Ethereum ETFs saw inflows surpass $79 million this week.
The $$$ Corner…
🚀 Pharos raised $8 million in seed funding to develop a layer 1 blockchain targeting fintech use cases such as real-time payments and real-world assets.
What Do You Meme?
📈 Your Market Update 📉
BTC is up 3.2%, trading at $82,234
ETH is down 0.4%, trading at $3,202
BTC dominance: 55.46%
Crypto market cap: $2.93T
*All data as of today, 07:10 am ET. Source: CoinGecko
Recommended Reads
From prediction markets to info finance by Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin
a16z crypto: A Positive Path Forward
We Are Hiring!
A Part-Time Sponsorships Manager to generate and manage sponsorships across Unchained’s platforms. See the details and apply here.
A Bitcoin Reporter to cover all things Bitcoin. See the details and apply here.
An Audience Development Director to broaden the reach of the publication’s content, whether through the web, social media, newsletters, podcast platforms, or videos. See the details and apply here.
🔝 Are you hiring and want to promote the postings in the Unchained newsletter? Let us know!