The stunning collapses of Celsius and FTX destroyed many lives — early adopters who had the foresight to understand the unique value propositions of Bitcoin (BTC) and crypto were left with practically nothing when both platforms halted withdrawals, shuttered their doors and eventually filed for bankruptcy. While there’s still hope that creditors will be made partially whole again, the road to recouping financial losses is expected to be long. While they’re waiting, creditors are banding together to sue these firms for various alleged infractions. This week’s Crypto Biz delves into recent lawsuits targeting Celsius co-founder Alex Mashinsky and several venture …

Bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange FTX’s subsidiary in Japan, FTX Japan, reportedly plans to resume withdrawals for affected users as early as February. According to a Feb. 17 report from Bloomberg, FTX Japan sent out notifications asking users to verify their account balances as part of the process to begin allowing withdrawals. Seth Melamed, chief operating officer of the exchange, reportedly said users could transfer assets to accounts on the FTX-owned Liquid Global platform, with withdrawals expected to begin “very soon”. “We are confident that we will adhere to the timeline,” said Melamed. The schedule for restart of withdrawals for all FTX …

Former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried could “conceivably” have his bail revoked after a federal judge said there was “probable cause” to believe he may have engaged in attempted witness tampering. In the Feb. 16 hearing on Bankman-Fried’s bail conditions, Judge Lewis Kaplan said there was “probable cause to believe that he [Bankman-Fried] has committed or attempted to commit a federal felony while on release, namely witness tampering” according to multiple reports. Kaplan suggested that this could “conceivably” see the FTX founder sent back to jail until his trial date in October. Kaplan noted however that the Feb. 16 hearing was …

The price of Bitcoin (BTC) has reached a new 2023 high of $25,000. The milestone comes after a surge in Bitcoin's price over much of January. The last time Bitcoin’s price was around $25,000 was near mid-June 2022 on its way down to between $19,000 and $21,000, where it had hovered for several months, according to data from CoinGecko. The price of BTC however took a big dip in November following the FTX crisis, which saw it drop to a 2022 low of $15,742 on Nov. 10. 2022. The price began to surge in early January, when the price of …

The former dean of Stanford Law School who co-signed Sam Bankman-Fried’s bail said he considered Bankman-Fried’s parents “the truest of friends” who helped his family through a “harrowing battle with cancer.” In an emailed statement to Cointelegraph on Feb. 16, Larry Kramer said he co-signed Bankman-Fried’s bail as a way to return the favor. “Joe Bankman and Barbara Fried have been close friends of my wife and I since the mid-1990s,” said Kramer. He said that over the past two years, Bankman-Fried’s parents Joe Bankman and Barbara Fried, provided food and moral support while “frequently stepping in at moment's notice …

Sam Bankman-Fried, the former CEO of crypto exchange FTX may no longer be able to play League of Legends and other video games if newly proposed changes to his bail conditions from United States prosecutors are approved. In a Feb. 15 letter to United States District Judge Lewis Kaplan, U.S. Attorney Damian Williams asked the courts to further expand restrictions surrounding Bankman-Fried’s electronic device usage. They pointed to Bankman Fried’s recent device usage as cause for concern, and agreed with the court’s intuition that it was “shortsighted” by focusing only on apps, adding: “There is now a record before the …

A federal judge has allowed identities of guarantors who signed on sureties for former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried’s $250 million bond to be made public following a request from several news outlets. Court documents released on Feb. 15 showed that the two previously unidentified individuals were Andreas Paepcke, a senior research scientist at Stanford University and Larry Kramer, a former dean of Stanford Law School. The two signed on as sureties for Bankman-Fried’s bail on Jan. 25 for $200,000 and $500,000, respectively. Eight major news outlets petitioned Judge Lewis Kaplan in a Jan. 12 letter, requesting the court disclose the …

Judge John Dorsey of the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware has denied a motion appointing an independent examiner for FTX. In a Feb. 15 hearing, Judge Dorsey said he had some discretion under the law to choose whether to appoint an examiner in the FTX bankruptcy case despite some of the the parties meeting the debt threshold with the loss of funds. According to the judge, appointing an examiner would be an “unnecessary burden” on FTX’s debtors and creditors. He also cited CEO John Ray’s experience under similar circumstances. “There’s no question that if an examiner …

Silvergate Bank and its CEO Alan Lane have been accused of “aiding and abetting” a “multibillion-dollar fraudulent scheme orchestrated by Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF)” and two of his entities, FTX and Alameda Research, in a newly proposed class action lawsuit. The proposed class-action lawsuit was filed in the United States District Court of the Northern District of California on Feb. 14 by lawyers representing a San Francisco-based FTX user who — just like all other FTX customers — was frozen out of around $20,000 in crypto when the exchange collapsed last year. Plaintiff Soham Bhatia alleges that Silvergate Bank, its parent …

Users of bankrupt crypto exchange FTX have reportedly taken aim at financiers who promoted the platform suggesting their efforts added an “air of legitimacy” to the now-defunct exchange, a case labeled as "tricky" by a crypto lawyer. A Feb. 15 Bloomberg report revealed a class-action suit filed Feb. 14 by FTX investors against venture capital firm Sequoia Capital and private equity firms Thoma Bravo and Paradigm. The firms were accused by the investors of touting “their own investments” of hundreds of millions of dollars in FTX. It was alleged the firms were involved in a promotional marketing campaign in 2021 …

Polaris Ventures, a charity created by former FTX and Alameda chief of staff Ruairi Donnelly, reportedly wants to access roughly $150 million earned from insider trading on the bankrupt exchange’s tokens. According to a Feb. 14 Wall Street Journal report, Donnelly received roughly $562,000 in salary during his time at FTX, which was converted into FTX Tokens (FTT) at a rate not yet available to the public — $0.05. The former executive reportedly ‘donated’ the tokens to Polaris Ventures, selling them in 2019 and 2020 after public trading opened at price of $1 and making millions. FTX filed for Chapter …

A New York judge has granted a request from prosecutors to defer civil proceedings from the Commodities Futures Trading Commision (CFTC) and the Securities Exchange Commision (SEC) until after Sam Bankman-Fried’s criminal trial in October. U.S. District Judge of Manhattan Kevin Castel on Feb. 13 granted the motions to stay the civil proceedings “without prejudice,” meaning the cases will now be halted until after the Department of Justice's (DOJ’s) criminal trial concludes. The motion was first submitted on Feb. 7 by Damian Williams, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, requesting to defer both civil cases against the …