Analysis Crypto by Thebittimes.Com

Sam Bankman-Fried says he donated more money to Republican causes than previously reported and that he no longer plants his political flag on the center-left as he apparently attempts to curry favor with Donald Trump’s administration. A year ago, Bankman-Fried was sentenced to 25 years in prison for multiple felony offenses, including wire fraud, conspiracy to commit fraud, and money laundering conspiracy, all tied to the collapse of his crypto exchange FTX. Before his spectacular downfall, he was the second largest donor to Biden’s election campaign, behind only Mike Bloomberg — a result, he says, of “not wanting the Democratic Party to become the party of Bernie Sanders.” However, speaking to The New York Sun from Brooklyn’s Metropolitan Detention Center, Bankman-Fried claims that “he had been giving to Republicans conservative causes a lot more than had been public” and that he had also “ been working with Republicans a lot more than had been previously thoug...

Trolling itself, Forbes has released a list of the most shameful 30 Under 30 laureates, who once included “Pharma Bro” Martin Shkreli and disgraced crypto moguls Sam Bankman-Fried and Caroline Ellison. The influential 30 Under 30 list published annually by Forbes has taken a hilarious, yet self-loathing turn this year. The industry media published on Nov. 29 what it is calling its Under 30 Wall of Shame, which includes past names who have since fallen from grace due to various legal or ethical scandals, illustrating a stark contrast between early promise and subsequent downfall. “Below are 10, out of 10,000, that we’d like to walk back. We’ll add more here as the years go on––the 30 Under 30 list is, by definition, future-facing, and not even Warren Buffett can predict with 100 percent accuracy. But we’d guess he’d be good with 99.9%.” Forbes Topping the list of the most dubious individuals is Sam Bankman-Fried, founder of the FTX cryptocurrency exchange, who made the list alongs...

Following Sam Bankman-Fried’s conviction, a U.S. attorney said that the former FTX fraud case is “as old as time,” adding that the government is ready to deal with fraud sters who believe they are untouchable and beyond prosecution. The founder and former CEO of the collapsed crypto exchange FTX, who used to be the darling of the cryptocurrency industry, received a verdict declaring him guilty of all seven counts, including fraud and conspiracy charges. Despite the verdict, Sam Bankman-Fried’s lawyer declared that the fight wasn’t over, maintaining that his client was innocent. There is no hiding place for fraudsters  The U.S. District Attorney for the Southern District of New York issued a statement following the guilty verdict delivered by 12 jurors.  You might also like: FTX founder, Sam Bankman-fried, is guilty to all charges: crypto community reacts Attorney Williams described Sam Bankman-Fried’s financial fraud as one of t...

On Nov. 2, Jury deliberation began in United States v Bankman-Fried over fraud allegations, conspiracy, and money laundering charges linked to FTX and Alameda’s collapse. The criminal trial for Sam Bankman-Fried over the multi-billion dollar collapse of FTX reached its climax on Nov. 2 following closing statements from prosecutors and the defense.  Bankman-Fried’s defenders offered arguments presenting the FTX founder as merely human and therefore challenging the government’s case which alleges purposeful fraud and criminal intent.  Conversely, federal attorneys said the defendant arrived at several crossroads where he could have come clean and told the public the truth, but chose to risk it all following the two companies filing for bankruptcy.  Defense attorneys claimed witnesses Caroline Ellison, Gary Wang and Nishad Singh only testified to save themselves from severe prosecution. Former executives were never whistleblowers while FTX and Alameda operated because...

FTX’s founder stuck to his guns on who to blame for Alameda’s spending and use of customer funds during the third day of his testimony in United States v Sam Bankman-Fried. Day 15 and Sam Bankman-Fried’s third day on the stand displayed numerous questions from assistant United States attorneys. Simultaneously, the FTX founder ’s lawyers’ direct examination elicited answers that all but blamed Caroline Ellison for Alameda Research’s unchecked use of FTX customer crypto and assets. Bankman-Fried said Ellison, ex-CEO of Alameda, admitted to subpar hedging at the crypto trading firm and tendered her resignation. Eventually, the pair moved forward with running FTX and its sister firm Alameda with the intention of repairing the businesses.  In September, I asked her again about hedging. I asked what the scale was. She gave me some numbers. I told her I was glad but that it should be a bigger number, at least twice as much. She also sent me some spreadsheets. Sam Bankman...

In a 15,000-word document revealed by The New York Times, the disgraced crypto entrepreneur tried to share his point of view on what happened to FTX. Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF), the founder of the failed crypto exchange FTX who’s charged with fraud over its collapse, wrote 15,000 words of what seems to be his legal defense strategy at a criminal trial scheduled for next month. According to details of the document first revealed by The New York Times and shared by Tiffany Fong, a social media influencer, SBF doubted that Caroline Ellison — the former CEO of Alameda Research — was the right choice for the position, saying she “continually avoided talking about risk management.” “She continually avoided talking about risk management — dodging my suggestions — until it was too late. Every time that I reached out with suggestions, it just made her feel worse. I’m sure that being exes didn’t help.” Sam Bankman-Fried Bankman-Fried claims his conce...

The price of Solana has plunged as the market fears a large FTX sell-off, however, it seems unlikely that the now-defunct exchange will dump all of its holdings at once. The price of Solana (SOL) has plunged more than 6% the last 24 hours, amid fears that bankrupt crypto exchange FTX may soon liquidate its significant portions of the token and other Solana-affiliated crypto assets.  The price of Solana has fallen 6% to $18.38 in the last 24 hours. Source: CoinGecko According to a combination of data from Solscan, which has added up the value of the three publicly available FTX cold storage wallets, the FTX estate holds a combined $1.5 billion in crypto assets on the Solana network. Of that weighty figure, Solana tokens account for just $128 million. The rest of the amount is comprised of numerous Solana-based altcoins such as Wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC), Maps token (MAPS), Serum (SRM) and a number of other tokens colloquially referred to as “Sam coins” — a jest at the former FTX CEO Sam B...

Judge Lewis Kaplan has revoked Sam Bankman-Fried’s (SBF) bail and sent him to jail at Metropolitan Detention Center in New York City. That’s the same jail as Martin Shkreli, the ‘pharma bro’ who illegally raised the price of the life-saving medication Deraprim by 5,000% to price-gouge AIDS patients. Like Shkreli, criminal prosecutors charged SBF with defrauding investors. Shkreli served more than three years inside the Brooklyn-based federal jail. Prior to this past weekend, SBF was sitting out his house arrest at his parents’ multi-million dollar house in Palo Alto, California. The court granted him limited liberties like watching Netflix and making phone calls. He availed himself of those liberties extensively, making over 1,000 phone calls and sending 100 emails , not to mention using VPNs to pseudonymously access the Internet. Judge Kaplan reasoned that SBF’s various misdeeds — especially using his communication privileges to attempt to influence potential witnesses...

Former co-CEO of FTX Digital Markets, Ryan Salame, is reportedly holding talks with US federal prosecutors about a guilty plea deal. Ryan Salame, who was one of Sam Bankman-Fried’s close associates, is negotiating a guilty plea with US prosecutors , according to Bloomberg, which cited sources familiar with the matter.  The guilty plea could be as soon as September 2023, a month before Bankman-Fried is scheduled for trial. However, it is uncertain if Salame will agree to testify against SBF in the latter’s upcoming October trial.  You might also like: Former FTX exec’s house raided by FBI One of the charges against Salame includes alleged violations of campaign finance laws. The former FTX co-chief, during his time at the company, was one of the prominent Republican donors, reportedly donating about $24 million to candidates of the party, with part of the recipients being Salame’s girlfriend, Michelle Bond.  Bond, the CEO of the Association for Digital As...

FTX and FTX US together have billions in deficits in their exchange wallets and fiat accounts, uncovered in a "huge effort" according to the exchange's CEO. Bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange FTX has revealed a "massive shortfall" in its digital asset and fiat currency holdings with billions worth of customer funds missing from both the exchange and its United States-based arm, FTX US.  On Mar. 2 the exchange released a presentation showing FTX had $2.2 billion in exchange wallets and fiat accounts of which $694 million consisted of the most liquid "Category A Assets" that include cash, stablecoins, Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) priced at the latest spot prices. Only $191 million of total assets were located in the wallets of the accounts associated with FTX US, in addition to $28 million of customer receivables and $155 million of related party receivables. The balances of FTX's wallets and accounts at the time of its bankruptcy showing an $8.6 bi...

When it rains, it certainly pours. The former CEO of FTX Sam Bankman-Fried was arrested earlier today after facing multiple charges by the United States Justice Department. Now, as expected, the Securities and Exchange [SEC] of the country also issued charges against SBF. Earlier today, the SEC affirmed that they were glad that The Royal Bahamas Police Force arrested SBF. Along with this, the watchdog revealed that it would soon file its very own set of charges against the founder of FTX. In a recent announcement, the SEC announced that SBF is currently charged with “ orchestrating a scheme to defraud equity investors in FTX Trading Ltd..” BREAKING: 🇺🇸 SEC charges Sam Bankman-Fried with orchestrating a scheme to defraud FTX investors. — Watcher.Guru (@WatcherGuru) December 13, 2022 In the announcement, the SEC claimed that SBF carried out “years-long fraud “. All of this was done while painting a picture that his exchange was ...

US politicians, crypto execs, and influencers fired up their Twitter apps upon learning of Sam Bankman-Fried's arrest in The Bahamas. Crypto Twitter has blown up over the shocking news of Sam Bankman-Fried’s arrest in The Bahamas — many of whom weren’t expecting it to happen so soon.  On Dec. 12, the disgraced FTX founder was arrested by the Royal Bahamas Police after receiving notification from the United States government that criminal charges has been filed against him. Within hours, politicians, crypto executives and influencers all booted up their Twitter apps to comment on the arrest of the FTX’s former CEO. New York Democratic Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who’s held a fairly neutral view on the crypto industry to date, told her 13.4 million Twitter followers that Bankman-Fried’s was a step in the right direction towards “justice being served,” but noted that the arrest would likely postpone Bankman-Fried’s testimony before the House Financial Services Committee, ...