🤯 SBF's Last Hope
In today's edition: 💊 SBF's adderall, 📉 GBTC discount shrinks, 🛑 CertiK's layoffs, 🚨 Tether's new CEO, and more!
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👨⚖️ Sam Bankman Fried’s Trial Coverage
Samson Enzer, partner at Cahill Gordon & Reindel, and Greg Strong, partner at DLX Law, dissect the second week of the criminal trial of Sam Bankman-Fried. At this point, the prosecution’s star witness, former Alameda Research CEO Caroline Ellison, has testified, as well as another prominent insider, cofounder Gary Wang. Both Enzer and Strong believe that it’s already over for the defense, but agree that the only thing that could turn it around is testimony from SBF himself—but that runs the risk of the defendant significantly increasing his sentence.
Find out how they thought the more salacious details of Ellison’s testimony, concerning alleged bribes to Chinese government officials, would affect the jury, and why Enzer believes introducing that testimony may have been risky for the government.
SBF Trial, Day 8: Former BlockFi CEO Adds Credibility to Fraud Charges
Last Friday, Zac Prince, former CEO of BlockFi, testified about the risks of lending to Alameda. The defense tried to use his testimony to raise questions about whether Alameda’s lenders, like BlockFi, were at fault for their irresponsible lending practices, but didn’t succeed.
Former BlockFi CEO Highlights How FTX Took Alameda Lenders Down With It
Sam Bankman-Fried’s defense team tried to pin down Zac Prince, but he deflected thorny questions and was a credible witness for the prosecution.
Trial of Sam Bankman-Fried Live: Defense Team Probes Former Alameda CEO Ellison About Her Management
Under cross-examination, Caroline Ellison acknowledged that she had been absent for long stretches while serving in her role at FTX’s trading arm.
What’s Poppin’?
by Sam Sriram, Brandy Betz and James Rubin
SBF Needs More Adderall Before He Can Testify, Say Lawyers
Lawyers for the former FTX CEO claim he has struggled to concentrate during his trial because of a lack of access to his prescribed medication.
GBTC Discount Narrows to 16% After SEC Decides Against Appeal on Grayscale Ruling
The GBTC discount to NAV is down to 15.87% for the first time since December 2021, when Bitcoin was trading at an all-time high.
Crypto Security Firm CertiK the Latest to Cut Jobs: Report
Last year, CertiK raised $148 million at a $2 billion valuation from notable investors that included SoftBank Vision Fund and Tiger Global.
Stablecoin Issuer Tether Names Paolo Ardoino as CEO
Ardoino succeeds Jean-Louis van der Velde in December but will continue as chief technology officer of Bitfinex and chief strategy officer for Holepunch.
Daily Bits…✍️✍️✍️
⚖️ The SEC opted not to appeal a court ruling favoring Grayscale's Bitcoin ETF, although this does not guarantee automatic approval for the asset manager.
💵 Sen. Elizabeth Warren used Hamas' crypto funding as an argument to strengthen her proposed legislation targeting crypto money laundering and sanctions abuses.
📱 MetaMask's crypto wallet app was briefly removed from Apple's App Store due to an "internal operational error," but was restored within a few hours.
📊 The FTX estate staked $122 million worth of Solana (SOL) coins, countering concerns of potential liquidation and impacting the asset's market value.
🔄 THORSwap resumed trading with updated terms that exclude countries under U.S. and EU sanctions; its native token rose 10% following the development.
📈 Frax Finance unveiled sFRAX staking vault, attracting over $35 million; the product offers yields matching the U.S. Federal Reserve's interest rate on reserve balances.
🔄 Stars Arena relaunched on Avalanche with paused trading functionality with plans to resume trading after a full audit, following a $2.9 million exploit earlier this month.
💡 Gauntlet proposed to deprecate Mai stablecoin on Aave as its value dropped to $0.72, suggesting the reduction of loan terms and an increase in borrowing rates to incentivize repayment.
🔥 Binance burnt over $450 million in BNB tokens, part of its scheduled token burn mechanism.
📜 California Governor Gavin Newsom signed the Digital Financial Assets Law, a crypto licensing bill set to take effect in July 2025.
Today in Crypto Adoption...
🏎️ Ferrari announced it will accept cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, Ether, and USDC for luxury car purchases in the U.S., partnering with BitPay for payment processing.
What Do You Meme?
Recommended Reads
Reuters: Who funds Hamas? A global network of crypto, cash and charities
Unchained: What Is Wrapped Ethereum (WETH)? A Beginner’s Guide
📈 Your Market Update 📉
BTC is up 3.2%, trading at $27,764
ETH is up 1.9%, trading at $1,584
BTC dominance: 48.43%
Crypto market cap: $1.12T
*All data as of today, 7:05 am ET
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