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Was SBF 'Spiteful' and 'Volatile'? đ
In today's edition: New TCB pod, what's coming in crypto this week, mining difficulty increases, FTX's assets, SBF's bail signatories, and more!
New TCB Pod!

Welcome to âThe Chopping Block!â â where crypto insiders Haseeb Qureshi, Robert Leshner, Tom Schmidt, and Tarun Chitra chop it up about the latest news.
Show topics:
Haseebâs TL;DR of the ongoing situation between DCG, Genesis and Gemini
whether DCG committed fraud because of a misrepresentation of its financials
why DCG did Genesis a favor by absorbing the losses from exposure to Three Arrows Capital
whatâs required to force an entity into bankruptcy
why Cameron Winklevoss would request Barry Silbert to step down as DCG CEO
the SECâs probe into the investors of FTX and whether the regulators will fine them
whether there will be on-chain assets for trading FTX bankruptcy claims
what Tarun thinks of the future of NFTs and what needs to be built for them to thrive
why Robert thinks most NFTs are âhot garbageâ
what the value behind NFTs is and whether they need a utility
whether the massive layoffs are good for the industry and how many companies over-hired during the bull market
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Whatâs Poppinâ?
Polygon Hard Fork
Bitcoinâs Price Back at Pre-FTX Levels
Weekend Recap
FTX Gets Green Light to Sell LedgerX and Other Assets
Bankrupt crypto exchange FTX was granted permission to sell some of its assets to repay creditors. A judge overseeing the bankruptcy proceedings approved the sale of the firmâs subsidiaries LedgerX, Embed Technologies, FTX Japan and FTX Europe, a Friday court filing shows.
FTXâs liquidators petitioned the court to sell these entities last month, saying the proceeds would help speed up the recovery process for the exchangeâs creditors. Then, last week, a U.S. Trustee filed an objection to the proposed sale, arguing that it could hamper internal investigations into misconduct in FTXâs people and entities. The objection now appears to have been overruled, meaning these fully solvent FTX subsidiaries could soon be sold off to the highest bidder.
FTX said it has received an expression of interest from 111 parties regarding the sale of these business units.
Media Giants Demand Transparency in Bankman-Fried's Bail Signatories
A group of well-known news media outlets submitted a petition to the court handling the criminal case of Sam Bankman-Fried, requesting that the court reveal the identities of the individuals who signed his $250 million bail bond, other than his parents.
The media outlets, which include Associated Press, Bloomberg, the Financial Times, CNBC, Reuters, Insider, Wall Street Journalâs publisher Dow Jones, and the Washington Postâs publisher, argue that it is in the public interest to reveal the signatories since Bankman-Fried is accused of committing one of the largest financial frauds in history. Full story here.
Alameda Had a $65B âSecret Backdoorâ Line of Credit on FTX
Sam Bankman-Fried directed co-founder Gary Wang to open a $65 billion line of credit for Alameda Research on FTX, the New York Post reported on Friday. In a court hearing last week, Andrew Dietderich, an attorney for the now-bankrupt crypto exchange, revealed that the size of this credit facility was an astounding $65 billion.
According to Dietderichâs testimony, Wang created this âsecret backdoorâ by inserting a single number into millions of lines of code for the exchange â something that potentially explains why this feature went undetected by other employees at the crypto exchange. Wang pleaded guilty to charges against him last month, implicating Bankman-Fried in his own testimony.
Tron Founder Justin Sun Eyes $1B Worth of DCGâs Assets
Justin Sun, founder of the Tron blockchain, is considering the prospect of buying $1 billion worth of assets from major crypto conglomerate Digital Currency Group (DCG). A weekend report from Reuters, disclosed that Sun was willing to buy DCGâs assets âdepending on their evaluation of the situation.â He did not disclose which assets in particular he was interested in.
Last week, DCG was said to be looking to sell some of its assets in light of the significant amount of debt that its subsidiary Genesis owes creditors. Sources said the DCG planned to offload a part of its $500 million venture capital portfolio, which includes stakes in Coinbase, Kraken and Circle.
Bitcoin Mining Difficulty Hits Another All-Time High
The Bitcoin Network saw a 10.26% increase in its mining difficulty this week, reaching a record high of 37.59 trillion on Sunday. Difficulty is a metric that measures how hard it is to solve the cryptographic puzzle tied to Proof-of-Work blockchains like Bitcoin. Essentially, a larger number of participants involved in block production leads to a higher difficulty adjustment, so that the average time new coins are mined remains more or less the same.
Higher mining difficulty will likely add to the pressure for existing miners competing for hashrate. The ongoing bear market has led to a number of publicly traded Bitcoin miners declaring bankruptcy over the last year.
North Korean Hackers Moved Over $60M This Weekend
Lazarus Group, a North Korean state-sponsored hacking group, moved 41,000 ETH worth $63.5 million from the Harmony bridge hack over the weekend. On-chain analyst ZachXBT reported the fund flows in a tweet, explaining that the stolen crypto was sent through the coin mixer Railgun and then deposited on three different exchanges.
The Harmony Horizon bridge exploit was one of the biggest in 2022, resulting in $100 million worth of stolen assets last June. The large-scale theft was later linked to the Lazarus Group by blockchain security firms Elliptic and Chainalysis. The government-backed cybercrime unit has stolen more than $1 billion in 2022 alone, accounting for 60% of all the money lost in DeFi hacks.
On Unchained Premium
How do FTX creditors feel? @sunil_trades comes on Unchained Premium to discuss
â Laura Shin (@laurashin)
7:23 PM ⢠Jan 15, 2023
Sunil Kavuri, an FTX creditor with a financial background, talks about the valuation of FTX, the lawsuit he filed against the exchange, and much more.
In Other NewsâŚâď¸âď¸âď¸
Brett Harrison, former president of FTX US, said that he decided to leave the company as a result of CEO Sam Bankman-Fried's emotionally unstable behavior.
Anthony Scaramucci revealed that he is investing in a new venture started by Brett Harrison.
Crypto exchange Gemini and its founders, Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss, are facing a class-action lawsuit for allegedly defrauding investors by falsely advertising unregistered securities.
Crypto lender Nexo (disclosure: a former sponsor of Unchained) denied the accusations made against it by the Bulgarian Prosecutor's Office, following the arrest of four individuals on Friday as part of an ongoing investigation into the company.
Grayscale submitted a new court filing criticizing the Securities and Exchange Commission for denying its application for a spot Bitcoin ETF, calling the regulator's central premise âunreasonable.â
Crypto lender Celsius's bitcoin mining unit is disposing of mining equipment worth $1.3 million to investment firm Touzi Capital as part of the bankruptcy process.
Crypto analysis company Arkham reported that over $1 million in assets have been liquidated from Alameda Research, the trading firm owned by Sam Bankman-Fried.
Popular web3 wallet MetaMask, developed by ConsenSys (disclosure: a former sponsor of Unchained), enabled staking for Ethereum through the wallet itself.
The $$$ CornerâŚ
Sortium, a web3 entertainment developer, closed a $7.75 million seed round.
What Do You Meme
The movie as "recalled" by SBF
â Coin Bureau (@coinbureau)
9:36 AM ⢠Jan 13, 2023
đ Your Market Update đ
BTC is up .09%, trading at $20,842
ETH is up .46%, trading at $1,545
BTC dominance: 39.51%
Crypto market cap: $1.02 trillion
*All data as of today, 5 am ET
Recommended Reads
CJ on three solutions for managing crypto assets of deceased users:
Cyril - DeFi on three critical flaws that brought DeFi protocols down in this cycle:
Adam Popescu on how Bitcoin mining helped Congoâs national park from going bust
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