SBF Trial Week 2 - Ellison Testimony
The second week of Sam Bankman Fried's (SBF) trial featured the prosecution's star witness, Caroline Ellison. Former Alameda CEO Caroline Ellison provided explosive testimony. She admitted to fraudulent activities and revealed how Alameda misappropriated funds from FTX customers. Ellison went on to explain in detail how Alameda used FTX customer funds for various purposes and manipulated balance sheets. She claimed that SBF approved bribes to Chinese Communist Party officials. He allegedly also sought emergency funding from Saudi Prince Bin Salman. She revealed that SBF was aware of the day-to-day operations of Alameda Research despite claiming he instituted a firewall between the exchange and the hedge fund.
Biotech Revolution By DAO
VitaDAO, a DAO backed by Pfizer, launched its first biotech firm, Matrix Biosciences. The firm is seeded with $300,000, and future funding will be via IP-NFT fractionalization. The biotech firm aims to revolutionize treatments for cancer and aging related diseases, using research into naked mole rats.
Crypto Donations for Israel
Israel's crypto and web3 communities have come together to form the Crypto Aid Israel organization. The aim is to raise funds for Israeli citizens suffering due to the ongoing conflict with Hamas. They will use a multi-sig wallet to accept crypto donations. Israeli banks would facilitate the flow of these donations, and Fireblocks would manage the crypto assets.
Israel Freezes Hamas Crypto
Israeli police have frozen crypto accounts linked to Gaza based militant group Hamas. It worked with the country's defense ministry, intelligence agencies, and Binance to identify these accounts. The seized funds would be added to Israel's national treasury. Meanwhile, investigations have revealed that Hamas received more than $134 million in crypto during the first half of 2023.
Consultant's Efforts to Save FTX Money
During the FTX hack last year, consultant Kumanan Ramanathan volunteered to move over $400 to $500 million of FTX's crypto assets to his personal Ledger Nano wallet. His actions mitigated losses after FTX saw unusual outflows after the collapse. Later, he collaborated with BitGo to transfer the assets to the crypto custodian's cold wallets.
Tokenized Collateral Network
JPMorgan's Tokenized Collateral Network (TCN) went live this week. Its first transaction involved BlackRock and Barclays. BlackRock utilized TCN to convert money market fund shares into digital tokens and transferred them to Barclays as collateral for an OTC derivatives trade.
Tattoos as NFTs
Austin based company Blackdot has developed a tattoo robot named "Blackdot" that can ink tattoos, turning them into NFTs stored on the blockchain. It is allowing artists to earn royalties when their designs are used. Digital artist Tyler Hobbs is said to be a supporter of the project.
Galxe Refund
Web3 rewards platform Galxe's website was compromised in a DNS hack last week. Hackers redirected the users to a phishing site to steal their funds. Galxe announced that it would compensate over 980 impacted users. The refund amounts to over $396,000, along with an additional 10% on the lost funds.
Cryptoverse
Bitmain, the world's largest Bitcoin mining machine manufacturer, has paid its employees' September wages after a delay due to cash flow issues.
The hacker behind the nearly 5,000 ETH exploit on crypto exchange HTX last month has returned the stolen funds. HTX has paid the hacker a "whitehat bonus" of 250 ETH ($400,000).
The US supermarket chain Trader Joe's is suing DeFi exchange Trader Joe for trademark infringement.
Blocknative, a provider of tools for transactions on the Ethereum blockchain, has reduced its workforce by 33% to extend its runway and focus on its Real Time Observability thesis.
Settling with Teneo, the liquidator of 3AC, crypto exchange WOO will repurchase its shares and tokens from the failed hedge fund.
Crypto exchange Bitstamp said it would end serving in Canada starting Jan 8 and has asked its Canadian customers to withdraw funds and deactivate their accounts.
CoinList is launching a fund that will allow the US accredited investors to earn returns from staking various digital coins, including Ether and Near.
Stars Arena has recovered 90% of the stolen funds from last week's hack after negotiating a 10% bounty deal with the hacker.
DeFi protocol Platypus Finance was exploited and lost over $2 million. The project that operates on Avalanche temporarily halted all of its liquidity pools.
The US SEC will not appeal the DC Circuit Court of Appeals' ruling to reverse its decision of not letting Grayscale convert its bitcoin trust into an ETF.
Synergists
Blockchain gaming firm Immutable is partnering with AWS to develop infra solutions for crypto gaming. It aims to make it easier for developers to launch and scale their games.
Ferrari will accept crypto for luxury car payments in the US and plans to expand it to Europe soon.
Policy
Komainu, a crypto custody joint venture of Nomura, Ledger, and CoinShares, successfully registered with the UK FCA just before the regulator's new promotion rules went into effect.
The FCA has restricted Binance's UK approver, Rebuilding Society, from conducting financial promotions for unauthorized crypto asset service providers.
Gibraltar based digital asset bank Xapo has gotten a securities broker license, allowing it to offer S&P 500 stocks and Ethereum to European customers.
Funds and Investments
The fantasy horse racing startup Game of Silks, which creates NFTs representing real-life thoroughbreds, has raised $5 million.
Crypto trading and lending platform Membrane Labs raised $20 million in a Series A round that had investors, including Brevan Howard Digital and Point72 Ventures.
Layer 1 blockchain network Initia emerged from stealth after gaining a preseed investment from Binance Labs.
Crypto analytics platform Parsec raised $4 million in a seed extension round from investors, including Uniswap and Galaxy.
Wallet provider Account Labs raised $7.7 million in a strategic funding round led by Amber Group, MixMarvel DAO Ventures, and Qiming Ventures.