Binance CEO Changpeng ‘CZ’ Zhao knew Sam Bankman-Fried was in a desperate situation when the former CEO of the now-bankrupt FTX exchange called him for a bailout. CZ opened up on the events that nearly saw Binance come to the rescue of its ailing industry competitor as a credit crunch sent FTX into an inescapable spiral. Speaking at the Milken Institute’s fourth annual Middle East and Africa summit, CZ reflected on the fateful call with SBF as the latter looked to save his struggling exchange: “When he came to me, I knew he was desperate. If we can’t help him, …
Court filings continue to shed light on the dubious relationship between FTX and Alameda Research, in which the hedge fund was afforded an ‘unfair’ trading advantage as well as unprecedented access to user holdings on the cryptocurrency exchange. The United States Commodities Futures Trading Commission filed a complaint in the Southern District Court in New York on Dec. 1, alleging a host of irregular business dealings between Sam Bankman-Fried’s cryptocurrency exchange FTX and his trading company Alameda Research. The complaint provides a raft of allegations detailing how the two companies and select insiders including Bankman-Fried violated the Commodity Exchange Act …
Up until the start of this week, Bitcoin (BTC) had been demonstrating record-low volatility, and this gave altcoins enough latitude to paint some nice technical setups. At the same time, on-chain data and technical analysis were beginning to suggest that BTC was midway through carving out a bottom, and many analysts believed that brighter days lay ahead. Fast forward to the present, and the volatility spike the market received actually turned out to be a black swan event. As you already know, FTX is kaput. Alameda Research is kaput. BlockFi has put a stop to withdrawals, citing an inability to …
Eight major media companies including Bloomberg, The Financial Times and Reuters have demanded public disclosure of the two individuals responsible for guaranteeing FTX former CEO Sam Bankman-Fried's $250 million bond. In a Jan. 12 letter addressed to New York District Court Judge Lewis Kaplan, attorneys from Davis Wright Tremaine LLP — acting on behalf of the media giants — argued that “the public’s right to know Bankman-Fried's guarantors outweighed their privacy and safety rights.” Media organizations looking to persuade the judge to unseal the identities of Bankman-Fried's guarantors include the Associated Press, Bloomberg, CNBC, Dow Jones, The Financial Times, Insider …
Lawyers representing former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried in federal court have requested an extension to file a proposal related to his bail conditions. In a Feb. 24 filing with the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, Mark Cohen of Cohen & Gressler said the legal team wanted until March 3 to file a proposal for additional bail conditions for Bankman-Fried as well as find a suitable candidate to act as a technical expert in the case. The lawyers agreed to hire an expert following a Feb. 16 hearing discussing the former FTX CEO’s use of …