Welcome to Law Decoded, your weekly digest of all the major developments in the field of regulation. So, Sam Bankman-Fried, public enemy number one, won’t appear in front of Senators on Dec. 14, as he missed the deadline for responding to a Senate Banking Committee request. However, we could witness the entrepreneur appear before Congress even a day earlier, on Dec. 13. Replying to a thread of tweets from Representative Maxine Waters, Chairwoman of the Financial Services Committee, the former CEO of FTX expressed his willingness to testify at a committee hearing in the U.S. House of Representatives. John Ray, …

Continuing his so-called apology tour, Sam Bankman-Fried appeared on a Twitter Spaces chat with Unusual Whales and told nearly 60,000 listeners that he intends to testify at the United States House of Representatives Financial Services Committee remotely on Dec. 13. He was previously confirmed to appear in person. Bankman-Fried, who is allegedly currently located in the Bahamas, missed the deadline to confirm his appearance before the Senate Banking Committee the following day, despite the threat of a subpoena. Despite his frequent public speaking, Bankman-Fried has gone silent on Twitter himself, not posting since Dec. 9, when he indicated his agreement …

Minnesota Senator Tom Emmer ha slammed United States Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) Chairman Gary Gensler for his flawed “crypto information-gathering efforts” and insisted Gensler should appear before Congress to explain the cost of his “regulatory failures.” Emmer’s comments came from a Dec. 10 tweet to his 67,500 Twitter followers, where he made reference to a bipartisan Blockchain Caucus letter he co-authored to the SEC Chairman on Mar. 16. Emmer said, “we now know Gensler's crypto information-gathering efforts were ineffective” citing the collapses of the Terra ecosystem and bankrupt crypto platforms Celsius, Voyager and FTX. He declined to provide Congress with …

The founder and former CEO of bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange FTX, Sam Bankman-Fried, said he’d be interested in forming a new venture aimed at paying back the customers he owes money to. "I would give anything to be able to do that. And I'm going to try if I can," Bankman-Fried responded when asked if he’d start a new business to repay FTX investors in a Dec. 10 interview with the BBC. "I'm going to be thinking about how we can help the world and if users haven't gotten much back, I'm going to be thinking about what I can do …

United States lawmakers have been pushing for certain witnesses — including Sam Bankman-Fried — to appear before committee hearings scheduled in December. Who should the crypto space expect to see testifying on the events leading to the downfall of FTX? On Dec. 9, Bankman-Fried, or SBF, said — under threat of a potential subpoena — that he was willing to speak at a U.S. House hearing aimed at exploring FTX’s collapse. Leadership with both the House Financial Services Committee and Senate Banking Committee had suggested that they might subpoena the former FTX CEO, prompting SBF to say on Twitter he …

Former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried has indicated that he’s willing to testify at a United States Senate hearing into the collapse of cryptocurrency exchange FTX. Bankman-Fried controversially missed the deadline to respond to a Senate Banking Committee request to appear and testify during a hearing focused on FTX’s bankruptcy earlier this week. While the possibility of a congressional subpoena was on the table, the beleaguered former CEO has offered himself up in a series of Tweets published Dec. 9. 1) I still do not have access to much of my data -- professional or personal. So there is a limit …

Crypto’s public enemy number one, Sam Bankman-Fried has missed a crucial deadline to confirm his appearance at an upcoming Senate Committee hearing. The former FTX CEO missed a Thursday 5pm ET on Dec. 8, deadline for responding to a Senate Banking Committee request that he testify at the Committee meeting on Dec. 14. This has set up the possibility of a congressional subpoena. On Dec. 8, the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, Sherrod Brown, and ranking member of the Committee Senator Pat Toomey released a statement on the request. “FTX’s collapse has caused real …

Three United States lawmakers have introduced legislation that would direct the Environmental Protection Agency, or EPA, to report on the energy usage and environmental impact of crypto miners. In a Dec. 8 announcement, California Representative Jared Huffman and Massachusetts Senate Ed Markey said they were “sounding the alarm” the energy use from crypto mining in the United States, claiming that Bitcoin (BTC) miners accounted for roughly 1.4% of the country’s electricity consumption. Together with Senator Jeff Merkley, the lawmakers introduced the Crypto-Asset Environmental Transparency Act, aimed at instructing the EPA to report on mining activity consuming more than 5 megawatts. …

Two members of the United States Senate have called on the heads of federal financial regulators to address “ties between the banking industry and cryptocurrency firms” in the wake of FTX’s collapse. In letters dated Dec. 7 to Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell, acting Comptroller of the Currency Michael Hsu, and Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation acting chair Martin Gruenberg, Senators Elizabeth Warren and Tina Smith — both on the Senate Banking Committee — acknowledged that the crypto industry was not so “deeply integrated” with traditional financial institutions to severely impact markets after FTX’s bankruptcy filing. However, the two lawmakers pointed …

United States Congressman Ritchie Torres has introduced bills in the House of Representatives to prohibit misuse of customer funds by cryptocurrency exchanges and to require exchanges disclose proof of reserves to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The short bills are intended to supplement other legislation that is passed on cryptocurrency, Torres said. Torres introduced the bills, which have the titles of “Crypto Consumer Investor Protection Act’’ and “Crypto Exchange Disclosure Act,’’ on Dec. 1. The bills are very short. In copies obtained from Torres’ office, the body of the first bill, introduced as H.R. 9241, reads: “A cryptocurrency exchange …

The outgoing United States House Representative Madison Cawthorn has been fined over $15,000 by the House Committee on Ethics for his promotion of a cryptocurrency in which he had an undisclosed investment. A report released by the Committee on Dec. 6 after a seven-month-long investigation found Cawthorn “improperly promoted a cryptocurrency in which he had a financial interest” violating conflict of interest rules. Cawthorn’s “direct and unambiguous” promotional commentary on social media followed an undisclosed purchase by the Representative of $150,000 worth of the token in December 2021. He promoted the Ethereum-based token Let’s Go Brandon (LETSGO) — named after …

Maxine Waters, chair of the United States House Financial Services Committee, has called out former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried for announcing on social media he intended to testify after “learning and reviewing what happened” at the exchange. In a Dec. 5 Twitter thread, Waters cited Bankman-Fried’s numerous media interviews in the wake of FTX’s bankruptcy as evidence that his information was “sufficient for testimony” before the committee. Waters will preside over a hearing investigating the collapse of FTX on Dec. 13, in which committee leadership said they expected Bankman-Fried and other individuals associated with the events around the exchange’s downfall …