The brother of a former Coinbase product manager, Nikhil Wahi, has been sentenced to 10 months in prison for wire fraud conspiracy charges, in what is believed to be the first insider trading case involving cryptocurrency. As reported by Reuters, Nikhil Wahi pleaded guilty in September to initiating trades based on confidential information obtained from his brother, Ishan Wahi, who was a former Coinbase product manager. Ex-Coinbase manager's brother sentenced to 10 months in insider trading case https://t.co/Kyy6DqSb9D pic.twitter.com/ruQjwr5i4h — Reuters (@Reuters) January 10, 2023 Nikhil Wahi admitted to trading with the use of inside information obtained from Coinbase. According …

A group of four United States senators have criticized one of the law firms involved in the bankruptcy case of crypto exchange FTX for conflicts of interest. In a Jan. 9 letter to Judge John Dorsey of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware, Senators John Hickenlooper, Thom Tillis, Elizabeth Warren, and Cynthia Lummis — a bipartisan group — called on the judge to approve a motion appointing an independent examiner into FTX’s activities prior to its collapse in November. The U.S. lawmakers said Sullivan & Cromwell, the law firm currently tasked with the investigation, had previously provided …

Terraform Labs (TFL), the firm behind the defunct algorithmic stablecoin TerraUST (USTC), and its co-founder Do Kwon is back in the limelight again for allegedly running a smear campaign and issuing threats against one of their own community members. It all started in the month of May with the genesis airdrop that was planned after the original ecosystem imploded in the wake of its stablecoin depeg. TFL, in a Twitter thread, claimed that Jimmy Le, a community member entrusted with Terra community funds, has refused to return funds gained during the genesis airdrop. The thread noted that the newly minted …

The power that influencers have in affecting public perception and therefore causing alterations in the value of a product, service, asset or currency has increased to the point where they can crash or uplift entire markets with their content and takes. The Elon Effect In 2021, Elon Musk could send the price of the famous memecoin Dogecoin (DOGE) up by 50% with just a single tweet. He still has a lot of power over the crypto markets, and several people in the cryptocurrency world and traditional finance have accused Musk of manipulating the cryptocurrency market with just a few tweets. …

United States prosecutors are investigating hedge funds' relationships with cryptocurrency exchange Binance for money-laundering violations. According to anonymous sources cited by the Washington Post, the U.S. attorney’s office for the Western District of Washington in Seattle subpoenaed investment firms to provide records of communications with Binance in the past months. The allegedly subpoenas do not mean prosecutors are bringing charges against the crypto exchange or hedge funds, as authorities are still evaluating evidence and a possible settlement with Binance, according to legal specialists. Binance did not immediately respond to Cointelegraph’s request for comment. Binance is under probe in the United …

The retail industry is one of the most important sectors of the United States economy. Unfortunately, the COVID-19 pandemic has left the trillion-dollar retail sector vulnerable to in-store theft. Findings from the National Retail Federation’s 2022 Retail Security Survey show that retail losses from stolen goods increased to $94.5 billion in 2021, up from $90.8 billion in 2020. Some retailers also have to lock away certain products to prevent theft, which may lead to decreased sales due to consumers’ inability to access goods. Retailers look toward blockchain to solve retail theft Given these extreme measures, many innovative retailers have started …

The United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York has launched a page on its website appealing to Sam Bankman-Fried’s victims of fraud at FTX to come forward and informing them about court proceedings. In a Jan. 6 filing, Assistant U.S. Attorney Danielle Sassoon requested the federal court allow her office to take “reasonable, accurate, and timely notice” to inform fraud victims from crypto exchange FTX while under the leadership of Bankman-Fried. According to Sassoon, the government proposed an “alternative plan” for notifying victims in the FTX case through an online notice which went live on Jan. …

Authorities with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission and Commodity Futures Trading Commission as well as prosecutors are reportedly investigating former FTX engineering director Nishad Singh for potentially having a role in defrauding investors and users. According to a Jan. 5 report from Bloomberg, U.S. officials were looking at individuals in former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried’s inner circle in their criminal probe of the exchange’s collapse. Bankman-Fried has pled not guilty to all criminal charges against him, but former Alameda Research CEO Caroline Ellison and FTX co-founder Gary Wang reached plea deals with prosecutors in December, admitting to fraud …

Fourteen years after Bitcoin's Genesis block launched a profound disruption in financial services and other industries through the rise of blockchain technology, United States authorities are finally becoming more interested in cryptocurrencies' future and economic impact. On Dec. 14, the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) discussed new accounting and disclosure requirements for entities holding crypto assets in financial statements, following an agenda consultation with investors — the first one in five years. The proposed rules are expected to be issued in the first half of 2023. A few days earlier, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) delivered a sample letter …

Michigan Senator Debbie Stabenow, chair of the United States Senate Agriculture Committee, has announced that she will be leaving office in 2025. In a Jan. 5 announcement, Stabenow said she would finish the remainder of her 6-year term in the Senate, then “pass[ing] the torch” to other U.S. lawmakers. The senator was one of the lawmakers behind introducing the Digital Commodities Consumer Protection Act, or DCCPA — a bill aimed at establishing additional regulatory clarity for cryptocurrencies and the role the Commodity Futures Trading Commission would play in overseeing digital assets. Stabenow said she would be focusing on legislation aimed …

Daniel Friedberg, controversial lawyer who served as top compliance chief at now-defunkt exchange FTX, has reportedly cooperated with United States’ prosecutors investigating FTX collapse. Friedberg provided details about FTX in a meeting with two dozen investigators hold by the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York's (SDNY) office on Nov. 22, Reuters reported. The meeting included officials from the Justice Department, Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the report notes, citing a source familiar with the matter. At the meeting, Friedberg provided prosecutors with his knowledge of FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried's use of …

Celebrities had a shaky year promoting crypto firms and projects throughout 2022. Many found themselves named in lawsuits over their alleged promotion of since-failed projects, while others have been relentlessly mocked on social media for their involvement in the first place. From movie stars to television actors, sports stars to musicians, many celebrities may be regretting their endorsement deals last year, though that’s not to say that there haven’t been exceptions. Who got burned? In February last year, American comedian Larry David, who co-created the television series Seinfeld, appeared in a Super Bowl commercial for now-defunct crypto exchange FTX that …