Sam Bankman-Fried, the former CEO of the now-defunct FTX exchange, has denied moving funds tied to Alameda wallets, days after he was released on a $250 million bond. On Dec. 30, Fried tweeted to his 1.1 million followers, denying any involvement in the movement of funds from Alameda wallets. In response to the allegations that he may have been responsible for moving funds out of Alameda wallets, he shared: “None of these are me. I'm not and couldn't be moving any of those funds; I don't have access to them anymore.” None of these are me. I'm not and couldn't …

Mr. Park Mo, the vice president of Vidente, the largest shareholder of South Korean Cryptocurrency exchange Bithumb,was reportedly found dead in front of his home at 4 am, on the morning of Dec. 30. Prior to his death, Mr. Mo had been named as a primary suspect in an investigation launched by South Korean prosecutors for his alleged involvement in the embezzling funds at Bithumb-related companies, as well as, manipulating stock prices. In October 2021, the Financial Investigation Division of the Seoul Southern District Prosecutor's Office launched an investigation into allegations made against Mr. Park Mo, which led to the …

As the hype surrounding play-to-earn (P2E) games and platforms began to dwindle in early 2022, Web3 participants began to emphasize the need for games to be more “fun” and less finance-oriented. In the most recent episode of NFT Steez, Alyssa Expósito and Ray Salmond speak with Aron Beierschmitt, the CEO of Laguna Games and founder of Crypto Unicorns, about the sustainability of P2E-focused blockchain games. For Beierschmitt, the evolution from a play-to-earn to a play-and-earn model suggests that there is still experimentation and maturation to be seen for these games. “Nothing has changed about making games,” said Beierschmitt. But with …

Instead of waiting for a lengthy bankruptcy process, some investors, who have claims on FTX exchange, Celsius Network, BlockFi and Voyager Digital, are looking to pass on their claims to others. Data from crypto claims trading startup Xclaim shows that there are at least hundreds of investors who have been affected by the recent collapses of crypto platforms FTX, Celsius, BlockFi and Voyager who do not want to wait for the lengthy bankruptcy process that doesn’t guarantee that they will even be able to get something. The investors have listed their claims for sale to get something out of it …

FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried is reportedly cashing out large amounts of cryptocurrency soon after being released on bail, on-chain data suggests. SBF has cashed out $684,000 in crypto to an exchange in Seychelles while being under house arrest, according to the on-chain investigation by DeFi educator BowTiedIguana. Decentralized finance (DeFi) analyst BowTiedIguana took to Twitter on Dec. 29 to report on a series of obfuscated wallet transactions allegedly linked to SBF, suggesting that the former FTX CEO could have violated release conditions to not spend more than $1,000 without permission from the court. According to BowTiedIguana’s analysis, SBF’s public address …

Bitcoin advocate Nic Carter has released an in-depth analysis of centralized exchange proof-of-reserves and ranked the attestations provided by some of the most prominent crypto trading platforms in the space. Carter published a detailed examination of the quality of several exchanges’ proof-of-reserves (PoR). The crypto executive used parameters such as attestation to assets held and a disclosure of liabilities, incorporating a third-party auditor, demonstrating credibility by taking a PoR for all assets and committing to an ongoing procedure to determine which PoRs are of the best quality. Crypto trading platforms Kraken and BitMEX topped the list. According to Carter, Kraken, …

The Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey (CBRT) has completed the first trial of its central bank digital currency (CBDC), the Digital Turkish Lira, and has signaled plans to continue testing throughout 2023. According to a statement released by the CBRT on Dec. 29, the central bank authority said it successfully executed its “first payment transactions” using the digital Lira. It said it will continue to run limited, closed circuit pilot tests with technology stakeholders in the first quarter of 2023, before expanding it to include selected banks and financial technology companies in the rest of the year. Press …

It's been a turbulent year for the cryptocurrency industry — market prices have taken a huge dip, crypto giants have collapsed and billions have been stolen in crypto exploits and hacks. It was not even halfway through October when Chainalysis declared 2022 to be the “biggest year ever for hacking activity.” As of Dec. 29, the 10 largest exploits of 2022 have seen $2.1 billion stolen from crypto protocols. Below are those exploits and hacks, ranked from smallest to largest. 10: Beanstalk Farms exploit — $76M Stablecoin protocol Beanstalk Farms suffered a $76 million exploit on April 18 from an …

Former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) may not be able to offset the two counts of wire fraud and six counts of conspiracy he faces with the credits to be received for entering a guilty plea instead of going to trial. Set to appear in court in the first days of January to enter a plea deal, Bankman-Fried is "unlikely to receive a favorable deal from prosecutors," argued Mark Kasten, counsel in Buchanan Ingersoll and Rooney’s Blockchain and Crypto Assets practice group. Speaking with Cointelegraph, Kasten explained the government often requires defendants to assist in the prosecution of others in …

The FTX-owned Japanese crypto exchange Liquid has announced plans to begin the process of returning customer assets in 2023. According to the Dec. 29 statement issued on its blog, the exchange is preparing to return assets entrusted by both customers from FTX Japan and Liquid Japan, and is working on a report for January 2023 that would further outline the details. A statement from the team read: “For the assets entrusted to us by our customers at FTX Japan and Liquid Japan, we are proceeding with system development so that withdrawals will be possible from the Liquid Japan web version.” …

On Dec 29, the state-owned China Academy for Information and Communications Technology, or CAICT, published a document titled "2022 Blockchain Whitepaper." According to the paper, more than 1,400 blockchain firms are currently based in Mainland China. Together with the U.S., the two countries represent a 52% market share in terms of global blockchain enterprises. The CAICT also disclosed that around 48 post-secondary institutions across China have introduced "blockchain engineering" related degrees and certifications. In the report, the institution detailed four types of blockchain technologies with high application potential. First, "settlement chains" would allow transparent publication of telecom fees for firms …

According to a report published by state-owned daily news program Xinwen Lianbo on Dec. 29, Xiao Yi, former Communist Party Secretary of the City of Fuzhou, pleaded guilty to corruption charges in the Zhejiang Hangzhou Intermediate People's Court. During his tenure as director from 2008 to 2021, Yi was accused of accepting over 125 million CNY ($18 million) in bribes related to construction programs and illicit promotions. In addition to the aforementioned counts, Yi also pleaded guilty to charges related to business transactions between himself and Bitcoin (BTC) miners from 2017 to 2021. It is unclear if the series of …