Binance has informed its retail customer base of a potential incoming service disruption that may halt on and off-ramp bank payment transfers. The service disruption will impact U.S Dollar-held bank accounts that are looking to buy or sell cryptocurrencies for less than $100,000 via the SWIFT payment system. The disruption will take effect on February 1. Binance announced the news to its “Binancians” by email on January 21, stressing that they’re now “actively seeking” a new SWIFT (USD) partner to avoid service disruptions for future bank payment transfers. The cryptocurrency exchange added that this was the banking partner’s decision and …

The United States Federal Home Loan Banks System (FHLB) is lending billions of dollars to two of the largest cryptocurrency banks in an effort to mitigate the effects of a surge in withdrawals, according to a report from The Wall Street Journal on Jan. 21. The FHLB is a consortium of 11 regional banks across the United States that provide funds to other banks and lenders. Founded during the Great Depression to support housing finance, the system has $1.1 trillion in assets and over 6,500 members. Traditional finance has remained immune to crypto contagion following the collapse of FTX, but …

According to new court filings, disgraced FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) will be subject to the forfeiture of roughly $700 million worth of assets if he were to be found guilty of fraud. In a court document filed on Jan 20, U.S. federal prosecutor Damian Williams outlined that the “government respectfully gives notice that the property subject to forfeiture” covers a long list of assets across fiat, shares and crypto. The filings state that most of the assets were seized by the government between Jan.4 and Jan. 19, while it is also looking to lay claim to “all monies and …

Genesis Capital's parent company Digital Currency Group (DCG) denied involvement in Genesis' bankruptcy filing in a statement on Jan. 20. According to DCG, a special committee of independent directors recommended and decided to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. Filing for Chapter 11 will allow Genesis to seek the reorganization of debts, assets and other business activities. The company estimated liabilities of $1 billion to $10 billion, along with assets in the same range. DCG noted in the statement that: "Genesis has its own independent management team, legal counsel, and financial advisors, and appointed a special committee of independent directors, …

Large enterprise businesses spend tons of money keeping track of their financial dealings — think accountants, financial analysts, consultants and enterprise-grade accounting software. Sam Bankman-Fried, meanwhile, used Microsoft Excel. On Jan. 17, in another sloppy Excel spreadsheet, SBF revealed that FTX US was solvent. The Excel file purportedly showed customer balances, bank deposits and assets held in cold storage. “S&C forgot to include bank balances” of roughly $428 million, SBF said, referring to FTX’s former legal counsel Sullivan & Cromwell. “Once you add those back in, you get in the neighborhood of my prior balance sheet” of around $350 million, …

It looks as if the bear cycle is going to claim another high-profile crypto company. On Jan. 19, Digital Currency Group’s (DCG’s) lending subsidiary, Genesis, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Here we have yet another industry giant with a tale of incestuous lending, little risk management to speak of and opaque reporting policies. For market participants, the gathering storm clouds at DCG represent a failure that would have been unthinkable in 2021. Founded by CEO Barry Silbert in 2015, DCG has become a mainstay in crypto’s short existence. Genesis’ filing revealed the full extent of creditors affected by its implosion, …

The former head of FTX US is launching a new cryptocurrency software company and has raised $5 million from several investors, according to Bloomberg. Brett Harrison, who served as president of FTX US between May 2021 and September 2022, has received backing from Coinbase Ventures and Circle Ventures to launch a new software startup. SALT Fund, Motivate VC, P2P Validator, Third Kind Venture Capital, Shari Glazer of Kalos Labs and Anthony Scaramucci also participated in the seed round. His new startup, dubbed Architect, will develop trading software for large institutions looking to access crypto markets. He told Bloomberg that he …

Blockchain technology has revolutionized the way we think about data storage and transactions, but it can also be a complex field for developers to navigate. One tool that can help simplify the process is ChatGPT, a large language model created by OpenAI. A language model is a type of artificial intelligence model that is trained on a large corpus of text to generate or predict text. It can be used to generate new text, such as in machine translation, or to predict the likelihood of a sequence of words. It uses natural language processing and machine learning techniques to learn …

As the crypto lender Genesis filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in New York, members of the crypto community went on social media to express their thoughts on the matter. From believing that no one will be held accountable to labeling the entire crypto lending concept as “stupid,” members of the community gave their thoughts on the newest addition to the seemingly never-ending bankruptcy spree within the crypto space. Some members of the community believe that the winners in all of these events will be the bankruptcy lawyers in charge of the case. According to a community member who claimed …

Three men reportedly drove their car into the metal barricade outside Sam Bankman-Fried’s parent’s home where he is currently under house arrest, SBF’s lawyers claim. In a filing to the federal court, the lawyers for the former FTX CEO said the three men got out of the car after hitting the barricade and told a security guard guarding the home: “You won’t be able to stop us.” The unidentified trio were then able to drive away before security guards could record the car’s license plate. According to a Reuters report, the incident was described in a Jan. 19 court filing …

Cryptocurrency lender Genesis has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the Southern District of New York,on Jan. 19. The firm has estimated liabilities of $1 billion to $10 billion and assets in the same range according to the filing. Earlier reports claimed the company would file for bankruptcy protection if it was unable to raise capital due to a liquidity crisis. The firm suspended withdrawals from its platform in November 2022 amid market turbulence caused by the collapse of FTX. Earlier in January the company laid off a further 30% of its workforce, the second round of job cuts in …

Venture capitalists battling with the difficulties of proper crypto firm due diligence should be looking at getting back to the basics — to "trust the chain," a crypto-focused venture fund executive argues. Speaking to Cointelegraph, John Lo, head of digital assets at Recharge Capital — a $6 billion fund with crypto and decentralized finance (DeFi) projects on its portfolio — said that FTX shook the "confidence in this industry." "There will be a lot of soul-searching," he said. According to Lo, due diligence has always been a problem in the venture space, even outside of crypto. He said the action …