Some Celsius customers have reported being able to withdraw funds from the bankrupt crypto firm for the first time, some 263 days after the lender froze withdrawals in the lead-up to its bankruptcy filing. According to numerous social media posts, as of Mar. 2, certain customers who held funds in Celsius’ Custody accounts have been overjoyed that they were finally able to withdraw their funds from the lender. Glad to be one of the few to get their money back in almost one piece. Hoping everyone else will receive theirs in due time — richieroyce.eth (@Richie_Royce) March 2, 2023 Customers …

The bankruptcy judge on Voyager Digital’s case has reportedly scolded the United States securities regulator over ambiguous reasoning for objecting to the crypto lending firm’s proposed sale to Binance.US. At a Mar. 2 hearing in a New York court, U.S. bankruptcy judge Michael Wiles said the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) had basically asked to “stop everybody in their tracks” without explaining how to address concerns it had over the deal according to a Reuters report. The court was considering a restructuring plan announced on Dec. 19 last year to bring Voyager out of Chapter 11 bankruptcy that would see …

Ethereum developers have pushed back the highly-anticipated Shanghai hard fork by approximately two weeks. Initially estimated for late March, the Shanghai upgrade will now likely be deployed sometime within the first two weeks of April. The delay was announced at an Ethereum developer meeting on Mar. 2. During the meeting, core developers came to the consensus that the hard fork would occur about a fortnight after the Goerli testnet launch, which has been slated for Mar. 14. The Goerli testnet will be the final dress rehearsal for the Shanghai hard fork before it is rolled out on the mainnet. So …

The price of Bitcoin (BTC) has fallen over 5% from $23,500 to $22,240 in just over 60 minutes, amid a wave of uncertainty concerning crypto-friendly bank Silvergate Capital. The price drop has wiped $22 billion from Bitcoin's total market capitalization, which is now at $430.9 billion, according to Cointelegraph Markets Pro. Ethereum (ETH), XRP (XRP), Cardano (ADA) and Polygon (MATIC), and other non-Bitcoin cryptocurrencies have also suffered a similar sharp decline. Bitcoin just dropped $1200 in less than 30 minutes. — The Wolf Of All Streets (@scottmelker) March 3, 2023 While the cause behind the steep $1,200 price drop is …

Business intelligence firm MicroStrategy and stablecoin issuer Tether have become the latest two firms to publicly deny any meaningful exposure to Silvergate Bank. The news comes as Silvergate announced on Mar. 1 that it would postpone the filing of its annual 10-K financial report, which has many fearing the cryptocurrency bank may be on the brink of a bankruptcy filing. This led MicroStrategy — which holds over 130,000 Bitcoin (BTC) — to confirm that its BTC collateral is not custodied with Silvergate. The Michael Saylor-founded firm added that it will not need to pay back a loan from Silvergate until …

Our weekly roundup of news from East Asia curates the industrys most important developments. OKX airdrop after token trading fiasco On Mar. 1, cryptocurrency exchange OKX announced that it would airdrop 3,014,381 Tether (USDT) to users who suffered losses as a result of the Celestial (CELT) token trading incident. On Feb. 26, Celestial revealed the development of a novel blockchain game, followed by extensive social media campaigns promoting the project’s alleged backing by OKX. Shortly afterward, the price of CELT pumped nearly 100% in two days before plummeting over 60%, after OKX clarified it had no affiliation with the project …

Cryptocurrency exchange Binance has confirmed it is “not planning any layoffs” and is trying to fill another 500 roles by the end of June, according to a Binance spokesperson. The comments came despite a huge spike in crypto layoffs in January — the majority of whom were from crypto exchanges. In a statement, the Binance representative said: “As of today, we are actively hiring for more than 500 roles with the goal of filling them by the end of H1 [...] We are not planning any layoffs.” The spokesperson was responding to a request for clarification from Cointelegraph on Mar. …

Bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange FTX has revealed a "massive shortfall" in its digital asset and fiat currency holdings with billions worth of customer funds missing from both the exchange and its United States-based arm, FTX US. On Mar. 2 the exchange released a presentation showing FTX had $2.2 billion in exchange wallets and fiat accounts of which $694 million consisted of the most liquid "Category A Assets" that include cash, stablecoins, Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) priced at the latest spot prices. Only $191 million of total assets were located in the wallets of the accounts associated with FTX US, in …

United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) chair Gary Gensler spoke at a meeting of the commission’s Investor Advisory Committee on March 2 on the topic of asset custody. The committee has a proposed rule for investment advisers on safeguarding investor assets. It was the second statement Gensler has made on the proposed rule. The first was in mid-February when the rule was first proposed. The current custody rule, dating to 2009, covers “a significant amount of crypto assets” and was designed to reduce the risk of advisers embarking on Ponzi schemes. The new rule expands safeguards to all asset …

United Kingdom babanks HSBC Holdings and Nationwide Building Society are banning cryptocurrency purchases via credit cards for retail customers. They join a growing list of banks in the country to tighten restrictions on digital assets. A Bloomberg report on March 2 claims the step back is a response to warnings by UK regulators and scandals surrounding the crypto industry. Nationwide is reportedly applying daily limits of £5,000 ($5,965) on debit-card purchases of crypto assets, while credit cards will no longer be available for crypto transactions. Customers of HSBC were barred from making crypto purchases with their credit cards last month. …

Three United States senators led by Elizabeth Warren have sent a letter to Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao (CZ) and Binance.US CEO Brian Shroder expressing concern over a number of facets of Binance’s activities and requesting information from the companies that includes their balance sheets. Crypto skeptic Warren’s cosigners were fellow Democrat Chris Van Hollen and Republican Roger Marshall. They claimed there is evidence that the companies attempted to evade U.S. regulators, that the companies sanctions evasion and facilitated the laundering of at least $10 billion and they lack transparency. "What little information about Binance’s finances is available to the public …

Crypto traders' urge to create leverage positions with Bitcoin (BTC) appears irresistible to many people, but it's impossible to know if these traders are extreme risk-takers or savvy market makers hedging their positions. The need to maintain hedges holds even if traders rely on leverage merely to reduce their counterparty exposure by maintaining a collateral deposit and the bulk of their position on cold wallets. Not all leverage is reckless Regardless of the reason for traders' use of leverage, currently there is a highly unusual imbalance in margin lending markets that favors BTC longs betting on a price increase. Despite …