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In this episode, Laura does a detailed unpacking of the historic Sam Bankman-Fried trial and verdict with defense lawyer Sam Enzer and former Southern District of New York prosecutor Rich Cooper. They discuss what a thorough job the government did in presenting its case, whether the government will pursue a second trial on campaign finance charges, why it takes so long for sentencing to occur, what the differences between this case and the Bernie Madoff case are, and what Bankman-Fried’s likely sentence will be.

What’s Poppin’?

by Brandy Betz, Juan Aranovich, and Samyuktha Sriram

Stablecoin Issuer Circle Considers IPO Next Year: Report

Circle is reportedly in talks with advisers to prepare for a public listing in 2024 at an undisclosed valuation.

Rapid Verdict Signals Tough Road Ahead for Bankman-Fried in Sentencing and Appeals

Rich Cooper and Sam Enzer dissect the rapid jury decision and the complex road ahead for SBF’s legal battles.

Wintermute: NEAR Foundation and Aurora Backed Out of $11 Million Redemption Deal

Wintermute CEO Evgeny Gaevoy claims that the NEAR Foundation refused to honor their commitment for the $11 million USDT in exchange for USN sent to them.

Mantle, Ondo Finance Launch Real-World Asset-Backed Token

USDY is a yield-generating tokenized note backed by U.S. Treasuries and bank demand deposits.

Bitcoin Ordinals-Linked Token Surges After Binance Listing

ORDI is currently up 77% after the crypto exchange listed the token under its “seed” tag.

Daily Bits…✍️✍️✍️

• 🚨 Nearly half of the CFTC's enforcement actions in a record year targeted digital assets, underscoring increased regulatory focus.

• 🏦 Federal Reserve's Michael Barr urged the establishment for a comprehensive federal framework to regulate stablecoins.

• 🔄 Nil Foundation unveiled an Ethereum ZK-Rollup solution with sharding support, promising enhanced scalability.

• 🔐 Binance announced a self-custody crypto wallet during its conference, enhancing user control over assets with multi-party computation security.

Today in Crypto Adoption...

• 🤝 Animoca Brands Japan entered a strategic partnership with Cool Cats Group, aiming to merge Web3 with Japanese anime culture.

• 📜 SEBA Bank secured a Hong Kong license for its subsidiary to provide a range of crypto-related services, expanding its global financial offerings.

• 🏦 HSBC announced a 2024 launch for its institutional digital-assets custody service, focusing on tokenized securities in collaboration with Metaco.

The $$$ Corner…

• 💷 a16z Crypto spearheaded a $4.2 million seed investment in Pimlico, a UK firm specializing in Web3 infrastructure.

• 🌏 Ninety Eight launched a $25 million fund to nurture Web3 startups across Asia, with a focus on innovative blockchain applications.

• 📉 Coatue Management slashed its investment valuation in OpenSea by 90%, indicating a significant decrease in the NFT platform's market value.

What Do You Meme?

Recommended Reads

1. Unchained: What Are zk-SNARKS? A Beginner’s Guide

2. Ally Zach on the L2 ecosystem

3. CoinDesk: How the Crypto Industry Responded to the IRS Proposed Broker Rule 

📈 Your Market Update 📉

• BTC is up 1.8%, trading at $35,378

• ETH is up .3%, trading at $1,882

• BTC dominance: 49.68%

• Crypto market cap: $1.39T

*All data as of today, 06:20 am ET

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