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This week, the jury found FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried guilty of all charges brought against him. The market also suffered a bullish run, while the SEC continued its industry-wide offensive.
Sam Bankman-Fried found guilty
- After 18 days of trial, Sam Bankman-Fried was found guilty on all seven charges, sparking a reaction from the crypto community.
- The verdict, scheduled for March 28, 2024, has created expectation on the scene.
- Pro-cryptocurrency lawyer John Deaton claims Bankman-Fried could face 30 to 40 years. Meanwhile, David Lesperance, CEO of Lesperance & Associates, sees a possible 20-year sentence.
- According to Bloomberg, Bankman-Fried associates Caroline Ellison, Gary Wang and Nishad Singh are likely to face sentencing.
- These allies can avoid a significant prison sentence and potentially serve in minimum security facilities for non-violent offenders.
bitcoin maintains rally and remains above $35,000
- bitcoin (btc) saw a bullish surge a couple of weeks ago, mainly driven by hopes for a spot approval of an ETF. This increase extended to the new week.
- At the beginning of the week, btc reached $34,000. Despite this, a major indicator still pointed to significant volatility in the asset.
- Santiment data showed a considerable drop in whale activity and social engagement related to bitcoin.
- Nonetheless, btc further recovered $35,000 on November 1 amid a sustained run. The asset targeted the $36,000 level shortly after, reaching a yearly high of $35,984 on November 2 before facing resistance.
- Amid the bullish trend of recent weeks, CoinShares’ latest market report revealed that $326 million flowed into cryptocurrency investment products this year, marking the largest inflow since July 2022.
- bitcoin aims to seal a position above $35,000, occasionally recovering and falling below the level.
US SEC targets SafeMoon and PayPal
- This week, PayPal and the team behind the SafeMoon crypto project fell under the radar of the US SEC.
- The regulatory body issued a subpoena to PayPal for the issuance of its PYUSD stablecoin, requesting certain documents from the company. PayPal confirmed that it is cooperating with the agency.
- On November 1, the SEC charged SafeMoon executives Braden John Karony, Kyle Nagy and Thomas Smith with fraud and money laundering related to SafeMoon.
- The SEC alleges that the team marketed SafeMoon as unregistered cryptoasset securities.
- The agency accused them of artificially inflating SafeMoon’s market capitalization to $5.7 billion through tactics such as wash trading.
Terraform cases continue
- This week, Daniel Shin, co-founder of Terraform Labs, denied any involvement in Terra’s collapse amid allegations of fraud and embezzlement in South Korea.
- Shin’s legal team claimed in a South Korean court that co-founder Do Kwon was solely responsible for Terra’s downfall.
- Meanwhile, in the United States, Terraform Labs took a bold step by seeking an early dismissal of the multi-million dollar securities fraud lawsuit filed against them by the SEC in February.
- Their argument hinges on the claim that the SEC failed to provide substantial evidence that Terraform Labs engaged in the trading of unregistered securities.
- However, the SEC had its own plans. Reports suggested that the agency is aggressively seeking summary judgment regarding all allegations against Do Kwon and Terraform Labs.
- The SEC’s goal is to avoid a full trial by emphasizing the presence of very clear and indisputable facts in its complaint.
MicroStrategy buys more bitcoin
- MicroStrategy continued its relentless cryptocurrency accumulation, adding 155 btc to its portfolio in October 2023, worth $5.3 million.
- The latest acquisition brings its total btc holdings to an impressive 158,400, valued at over $5.6 billion, according to its Q3 2023 earnings report.
- Phong Le, CEO and president of MicroStrategy, said the company is well positioned to benefit from the momentum of bitcoin and the growth of its business intelligence (BI) business.
OpenSea confirms layoffs
- Devin Finzer, co-founder and CEO of OpenSea, revealed job cuts on November 3 via social media.
- The move is part of “OpenSea 2.0” as the digital collectibles trading hub moves to expand its dominance within the non-fungible token (nft) market.
- OpenSea’s upgrades follow a turbulent period after former chief product officer Nathanial Christain was found guilty of insider trading on fraud and money laundering charges.
Yuga Labs and Magic Eden join forces
- Yuga Labs, the creators of Bored Ape Yacht Club and Magic Eden, are collaborating to launch an ethereum nft marketplace that will ensure creators receive the correct royalties.
- Magic Eden will be responsible for sharing a portion of the secondary market sales revenue from its nft collections with Yuga Labs.
- Magic Eden is expanding its support for compressed NFTs (cNFTs) powered by Solana. The cNFT feature makes it easy for creators to create NFTs on the Solana network.
Avi Eisenberg trial rescheduled
- The trial of Avi Eisenberg, the cryptocurrency trader accused of a $110 million fraud, has been delayed until April 2024. The trial was initially scheduled to begin next month.
- The government agreed to postpone the trial until April 8, 2024, a decision approved by the judge on November 4, 2023.
- Eisenberg is charged with commodity manipulation and wire fraud, specifically for implementing a highly profitable trading strategy against Solana-based Mango Markets in October 2022.