🥊 SBF Ensnared Again by His Own Words and Deeds on Final Day of Testimony
In today’s edition: GAO finds fault with SEC's crypto guidance bulletin 🚅, BlackRock's spot Bitcoin ETF attracts traditional trading heavyweights, Tether's Q3 reserves stay stable 💰 and more!
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👨⚖️ Sam Bankman Fried’s Trial Coverage
Prosecutors again pounded away at SBF’s credibility, with the former FTX CEO at one point claiming he didn’t look into why Alameda had spent $8 billion of FTX customer funds.
Sam Enzer, a partner at the law firm Cahill Gordon & Reindel, told Laura that former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried did about as well as he could in his testimony Friday but that he was unlikely “to withstand the scrutiny” of what prosecutors have already said will be a robust cross-examination when he takes the stand Monday. Enzer noted that Bankman-Fried’s attempts to explain why he thought his trading shop, Alameda Research, could borrow billions in dollars of FTX customer assets “defies common sense,” and that the company’s own terms of agreement or any other communications offered no justification for this belief. A Thursday hearing without the jury present, in which the defense gave a preview of some arguments it wanted to make, ended up giving the government answers from SBF that it can now use against him. Enzer also said that Bankman-Fried’s contention that his biggest mistake – a failure to implement proper risk management – did not constitute criminal fraud, did not address the core of the government’s case; namely, that he lied about how FTX was handling customer deposits.
📚 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
GAO Finds Fault With SEC’s Crypto Accounting Bulletin
The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) took issue with the SEC’s Staff Accounting Bulletin 121, which contained controversial guidance for firms with crypto assets on their balance sheet.
BlackRock Spot Bitcoin ETF Attracting Top Market Makers: Report
Jane Street and Jump Trading are among the prominent trading firms reportedly offering to provide liquidity for the fund.
Tether’s Q3 Reserves Stay Stable With Highest-Ever Cash and Equivalents
The USDT stablecoin issuer released its audited third-quarter attestation report, which showed $3.2 billion in excess reserves.
Daily Bits…✍️✍️✍️
🚀 Bitcoin has risen about 27% in October to trade comfortably above $34,000, and one LMAX strategist is targeting $40,000 for the weeks ahead.
🔥 Investment research firm Bernstein predicted that Bitcoin will hit $150,000 by 2025.
⛓️ Decentralized cross-chain protocol Frax Finance's domain resolved the hijacking of its domain early Wednesday with help from its domain registrar.
🇩🇪 Crypto custody firm BitGo received the German Crypto Custody License by BaFin.
🇭🇰 Web3 and digital asset investment firm Hivemind Capital Partners has expanded to Hong Kong and appointed veteran banker Stanley Huo as its head of Asia.
🔑 Asia-based crypto exchange HashKey Exchange officially unveiled its app for retail trading on Wednesday as it expands into Hong Kong.
🤔 Bitcoin and Ethereum have been “wildly successful” but have not yet fulfilled their promise, said Jeff Lewis, a product manager at crypto-focused investment company Pantera Capital.
🇹🇷 Turkey to propose fresh crypto legislation to remove itself from FATF’s “grey list” of countries with insufficient anti-money laundering restrictions.
The $$$ Corner…
💲Crypto anti-fraud solution Vaas closed a $2M pre-seed funding round led by ABSeed Ventures, with participation from Fuse Capital and Honey Island Capital.
What Do You Meme?
Recommended Reads
📈 Your Market Update 📉
BTC is down 0.3%, trading at $34,488
ETH is down 0.5%, trading at $1,807
BTC dominance: 50.8%
Crypto market cap: $1.33T
*All data as of today, 05:15 am ET
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