Were Celsius Creditors Rekt? ☠️

In today's edition: 🖊️ SBF's co-signers revealed!, 🤝 Celsius' restructuring plan, 🤔 SEC's new proposed rules for crypto, and more!

February 16, 2023

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On the Pod…

What’s Poppin’?

A former Stanford Law School dean and research scientist put up $500,000 and $200,000 respectively towards former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried’s bond.

Celsius’ creditor committee is officially in support of NovaWulf’s reorganization and sale plan for the firm.

The SEC voted to amend a rule that could mean the end of custodial services for crypto exchanges without a banking license.

After denying any kind of investigation into its operations in December, Binance now says it expects to pay financial penalties to settle with US lawmakers.

On Unchained Premium

In Other News…✍️✍️✍️

  • FTX transferred $7.7 billion worth of assets from its Bahamian estate to its US entities before filing for bankruptcy in Delaware, according to information disclosed in a court hearing on Wednesday.

  • FTX's new leadership is reportedly in talks to retrieve the $400 million invested by its former CEO Sam Bankman-Fried in the hedge fund Modulo Capital.

  • FTX insiders, including former CEO Sam Bankman-Fried, have been served with subpoenas as part of the ongoing bankruptcy proceedings. The court is seeking documents related to the exchange's activities.

  • A judge rejected a motion to appoint an independent examiner in the bankruptcy case of FTX, saying it would be too costly with multiple investigations already underway.

  • Banks are distancing themselves from crypto companies due to concerns over regulatory action that may disconnect digital currencies from the traditional financial system.

  • The attorney for Celsius Network stated that the company's CEL token might be valued at 20 cents during the bankruptcy recovery process, which is significantly lower than its current market value of 54 cents.

  • U.S. Senator Tommy Tuberville of Alabama plans to reintroduce a bill to prevent the Labor Department from blocking employers and investment firms from including cryptocurrency in 401(k) retirement plans.

  • The Kansas Legislature is considering a bill to limit cryptocurrency donations to $100 for primary and general elections.

  • Alexey Pertsev, developer of crypto privacy tool Tornado Cash, will remain in jail after a Dutch court hearing due to concerns that he may flee or hide evidence in his money laundering trial.

  • LDO token rose 10% as Lido DAO considered a proposal to sell or stake $30 million in ether from its treasury.

Today in Crypto Adoption...

  • Hub71, Abu Dhabi’s tech ecosystem, has initiated a $2 billion program to support Web3 and blockchain startups in the region.

The $$$ Corner…

  • Amazon's venture capital arm invested in a $20 million funding round for 3D character studio Superplastic, known for creating "synthetic celebrities,” vinyl toys, and NFT collections on Ethereum.

  • Collider Ventures and Disruptive AI co-led a $7 million funding round for Ironblocks, a blockchain security platform.

  • Aura Network closed a $4 million funding round, with investments from Hashed and Coin98 Ventures.

  • Modular Cloud, a blockchain tooling provider, raised $1.7 million in a pre-seed round to develop a block explorer for modular blockchains, backed by Maven 11 and Blockchain Capital.

  • Napster, the music streaming service known for its early 2000s peer-to-peer file-sharing platform, acquired web3 music startup Mint Songs for an undisclosed amount.

What Do You Meme? 

📈 Your Market Update 📉

  • BTC is up 10.7%, trading at $24.645

  • ETH is up 8.34%, trading at $1,688

  • BTC dominance: 41.04%

  • Crypto market cap: $1.16 trillion

*All data as of today, 5 am ET

Recommended Reads

  1. Bloomberg: US Crackdown Seeks to Push Crypto Back to the Fringes of Finance

  2. Security Tokens and Tokenized Securities Are Not the Same Thing by Noelle Acheson

  3. DeFi Cheetah on why stablecoins from Frax Finance and Curve Finance are more regulatory-resistant than DAI:

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