😭 Ellison's Tearful Testimony

In today's edition: 🤯 Alameda whistleblower, 🚨 USDR crashes, 🤝 JPMorgan, BlackRock, Barclays, 📈 Standard Chartered's ETH prediction, and more!

October 12, 2023

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👨‍⚖️ Sam Bankman Fried’s Trial Coverage

On the most emotional day of the trial, Caroline Ellison breaks down while revealing the desperate financial maneuvers orchestrated by Sam Bankman-Fried. Her testimony also included dramatic references to allegedly bribing Chinese government officials, creating accounts using the IDs of Thai prostitutes, and an attempt to raise money by selling FTX shares to a Saudi prince.

Former Alameda CEO Caroline Ellison testified for a second day, becoming emotional over the impact FTX’s collapse has had on people, and revealing how FTX executives responded behind the scenes to the growing crisis.

Former Alameda CEO Caroline Ellison testified that SBF also wanted regulators to crack down on FTX’s rival, Binance.

What’s Poppin’?

by Sam Sriram, Brandy Betz and Rosie Perper

A former employee at Alameda Research shared details about three instances where the firm lost hundreds of millions of dollars due to inadequate risk management structures.

The stablecoin lost its peg to the U.S. dollar after all the liquid DAI in its treasury was redeemed.

The trade was the first live collateral settlement using JPMorgan’s Tokenized Collateral Network and Onyx blockchain. 

The multinational bank also predicted that ether could reach between $26,000 to $35,000 by 2040.

Daily Bits…✍️✍️✍️

  • ⏩ Democratic Senators, led by Elizabeth Warren, urged the IRS to expedite the implementation of crypto tax reporting rules, expressing concern over delays until 2026.

  • 🌐 Avalanche's social app Stars Arena recovered 90% of the $3 million in funds lost to an exploit after paying a 10% bounty fee plus 1000 AVAX to the hacker.

  • 🚫 The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) voiced concerns over potential risks associated with decentralized finance (DeFi) in a new report.

  • 🛑 Platypus Finance, a DeFi protocol on Avalanche, suffered a $2 million loss due to a flash loan attack, leading to the temporary suspension of all its liquidity pools.

  • 💸 Ethereum Layer 2 network Scroll goes live on mainnet, with over $515,000 and nearly 500 unique users bridged to the platform so far.

  • 🗳️ BarnBridge DAO initiated a community vote to decide its response to an ongoing SEC investigation, including potential compliance measures.

  • 🔒 Trezor introduced new hardware wallets, including the Trezor Safe 3 and a backup solution called Trezor Keep Metal.

The $$$ Corner…

  • 💰 Membrane Labs, a crypto trading and lending platform, garnered $20 million in Series A financing, drawing support from prominent investors like Brevan Howard Digital and Point72 Ventures.

  • 🏇 Game of Silks, a crypto-based fantasy horse racing startup, raised $5 million in funding, bringing its total funding to over $10 million since its 2021 launch.

  • 📊 Parsec, an on-chain data analytics platform, secured $4 million in a funding round led by Galaxy Digital, launching a DeFi and NFT analytics product.

This week, the crew is joined by Gabriel Shapiro, general counsel at Delphi Labs, to talk about the key points in the criminal trial of Sam Bankman-Fried and his lackluster defense strategy so far. They also delve into Michael Lewis’ book and his depictions of SBF’s “lore and backstory,” and discuss how SBF’s “quirks of character” may have actually enticed investors.

What Do You Meme?

Recommended Reads

📈 Your Market Update 📉

  • BTC is down 1.7%, trading at $26,760

  • ETH is down 1.6%, trading at $1,548

  • BTC dominance: 48.2%

  • Crypto market cap: $1.08T

*All data as of today, 7:36 am ET

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