🚨 It Wasn’t That Profitable ⛓️

In today's edition: New episode of The Chopping Block, Avi Eisenberg arrested, DOJ's criminal probe, SBF's Robinhood shares, and more!

December 28, 2022

New Pod Today!

Welcome to The Chopping Block! Crypto insiders Haseeb Qureshi, Robert Leshner, Tom Schmidt, and Tarun Chitra chop it up about the year 2022 in the crypto industry and share their biggest winners and losers of the year, what were the best mechanisms, the biggest surprises and the best memes, and their predictions for the upcoming year.

Show topics:

  • why stablecoin bulls performed so well in 2022, as well as journalism, DeFi, and the EVM

  • how the reputation of the industry suffered tremendously in 2022

  • how Solana had to endure multiple hacks and challenges and whether it’s having its “ETH moment” 

  • whether ETH is the only crypto with good tokenomics

  • why MEV has seen such a massive adoption, even if it’s technically not good for crypto 

  • why the investment landscape changed so much in June

  • whether Arbitrum is the winner among layer 2s on Ethereum and the role of retroactive airdrops

  • why so many lending companies went bust this year

  • whether proof of reserves is a useful concept

  • whether developers will go back to build on Ethereum rather than alternative layers 1s

What’s Poppin’?

After arriving on US soil, Avraham "Avi" Eisenberg, the person behind the Mango Markets exploit, was arrested and charged with market manipulation.

 FTX’s stake in Robinhood was acquired with borrowed funds. And now three different entities are fighting over them.

The U.S. Department of Justice is investigating the post-bankruptcy FTX hack in which $370 million was allegedly stolen.

Depressed global trading has prompted the closure of crypto exchange Kraken in Japan — again.

Will crypto learn the lessons from 2022? Watch our year-end recap and let us know!

In Other News…✍️✍️✍️

  • Wallets linked to Alameda Research, the trading shop of FTX, sold several tokens on Ethereum and then transferred them to the Bitcoin network.

  • Judge Lewis Kaplan was appointed to preside over the upcoming criminal trial of Sam Bankman-Fried, following the withdrawal of Judge Abrams due to a potential conflict of interest.

  • Midas Investments, an investment firm focused on DeFi yields, is shutting down its platform after losing 20% of its $250 million in assets under management.

  • Security researchers linked BlueNoroff, a group with ties to the North Korean hacking collective Lazarus Group, to criminal activities including the creation of fake domains to impersonate VC companies and banks in order to invest in crypto startups.

  • Bitcoin miner Argo Blockchain asked Nasdaq to halt trading activity leading in advance of an announcement today.

  • The Pudgy Penguins NFT collection broke an all-time high after a surge in trading activity.

Today in Crypto Adoption...

  • Japan's Financial Services Agency is pushing for regulations that would allow stablecoins like USDT and USDC issued outside of Japan to be listed on local exchanges.

What Do You Meme

📈 Your Market Update 📉

  • BTC is down 1.25%, trading at $16,658

  • ETH is down 2.15%, trading at $1,196

  • BTC dominance: 38.7%

  • Crypto market cap: $828 billion

*All data as of today, 5 am ET

Recommended Reads

  1. Wassielawyer’s new FAQ page on the FTX bankruptcy 

  2. Freddy Brewster from LA Times on SBF’s efforts to cultivate relationships with federal regulators

  3. FT’s Sujeet Indaap on how lawyers are cashing in on crypto bankruptcies

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