The FTX collapse continues to unfold, BlockFi announces bankruptcy filing and Kraken settles a sanctions breach: Hodler’s Digest, Nov. 27 – Dec. 3

Our weekly roundup of news from East Asia curates the industry’s most important developments. On Jan. 25, Yonhap Infomax reported that South Korean authorities had requested an arrest warrant for Kang Jong-Hyun, chairman and owner of cryptocurrency exchange Bithumb, over embezzlement allegations. That same day, the Financial Investigation Second Division of the Seoul Southern District Prosecutor’s Office accused Jong-Hyun and two Bithumb executives of embezzlement, conducting fraudulent transactions and breach of trust.

Both Bitcoin and Ethereum look like good long-term investment plays.

FTX creditor list shows airlines, charities and tech firms caught in collapse. The complete list of creditors owed money by the bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange FTX has been released, revealing a wide range of global companies. Among the potential creditors are airlines, hotels, charities, banks, venture capital companies, media outlets and crypto companies, along with United States and international government agencies. According to another headline regarding the FTX scandal, U.S. federal prosecutors allege that Sam Bankman-Fried invested $400 million in the venture capital firm Modulo Capital with money from the FTX’s customers. Investigators allege that Modulo was likely built with criminal proceeds or misappropriated funds. Lawyer costs in the case are estimated to reach hundreds of millions of dollars before the firm’s bankruptcy investigation is over.

The International Swaps and Derivatives Association (ISDA) is working on two papers to address fundamental legal risks in the crypto markets, such as the insolvency of crypto exchange firms, according to a statement released on Jan. 26. The initiative was motivated by the collapse of crypto exchange FTX and previous...

About two months after the FTX collapse, the Solana network is stronger than ever, according to Austin Federa, head of strategy and communications at the Solana Foundation. Federa defines the recent SOL token price crash as a short-term market reaction to the perceived connection between Solana and the defunct crypto exchange FTX. While FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried was invested in many Solana-based projects, Federa pointed out he didn’t have any influence on the network’s operations and fundamentals.

Inflation has reduced the value of social security benefits to recipients. But there will be further cuts in the long run. Experts say the increasing needs of seniors are burdening small benefit reserves. Americans are living longer because of lower lifestyle risks. Life expectancy was 47 years in 1900 and it was 76 in 2021.

Bitcoin (BTC) has “well-formed” evidence, which suggests that its next all-time high will top out at $200,000, one analyst says. In a tweet on Jan. 27, popular Twitter commentator Trader Tardigrade, also known as Alan, also revealed $70,000 as the next potential bear market bottom. Stochastic indicator offers...

Stablecoins in the cryptocurrency market help provide U.S. dollar-pegged tokens within the volatile industry. In bull markets, the market capitalization of stablecoins tends to decrease as investors flock to more volatile assets; and in bear markets, investors seek shelter in low-volatility stablecoins, thus increasing their market caps. On Jan. 26,...

With the deadline approaching for filing the 2022 federal income tax return, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) — an enforcement agency of United States federal tax laws — released a list of reporting requirements for the general public dealing with cryptocurrencies. Until 2021, the IRS used the term...

For much of 2022, the crypto market focused on the United States Federal Reserve’s actions. The central bank created a bearish environment for risk-on assets like stocks and cryptocurrencies by increasing the interest rates on borrowing. Toward the end of 2022, positive economic data, healthy employment numbers and a...

According to court records, the Bankrupt Bitcoin (BTC) mining firm, Core Scientific, filed an emergency motion on Jan. 25, seeking to sell Bitmain coupons worth $6.6 million. As per the filing, some conditions applied to the coupons make them useless for Core Scientific’s business. Specifically, the coupons can “only be used to pay 30% of any new order of S19 Miners from Bitmain, and cannot be exchanged with Bitmain for cash.”

At least five firms placed bids on Celsius Network’s crypto assets, including Binance, Bank To The Future and Galaxy Digital, according to leaked information shared by crypto blogger Tiffany Fong. Fong, a follower of Celsius developments who shot to fame after several exclusive interviews with Sam Bankman-Fried following FTX’s...

The United State Federal Reserve Board has rejected Custodia Bank’s application to become a member of the Federal Reserve System. In its announcement, the Fed stated that the application was “inconsistent with the required factors under the law.” It also claimed Custodia had an “insufficient” management framework and cited an earlier joint declaration by the Fed with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and Office of the Comptroller of the Currency that found crypto assets to be at odds with sound banking practices.

Crypto lender BlockFi has had a highly tumultuous 12 months. After getting caught up in the Terra fiasco, which resulted in one of the most prolific asset death spirals of all time, the company managed to avoid bankruptcy after receiving a $400 million lifeline in July 2022. The problem? Its lender was FTX US, and we all know what happened next.

The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has been probing traditional Wall Street investment advisers that may offer digital asset custody to its clients without the proper qualifications. A Jan. 26 Reuters report citing “three sources with knowledge of the inquiry” said the SEC’s investigation has been going on...

Monica Long has been named the new president of Ripple, moving up from general manager. Long joined the company in 2013 as director of communications and expanded her role last year from general manager of RippleX, the blockchain development side of the business, to general manager of the company as a whole, adding RippleNet, the company’s financial network, to her purview.

The crypto bear market may be lasting longer than expected, but some Web3 startups see it as the perfect opportunity to build solutions and infrastructure that will welcome users and institutions when the next wave of adoption arrives. Cross-chain yield aggregator 88x Finance claims that the emergence of general message...

Cryptocurrency is a notoriously volatile industry, regardless of what coin you’re trading. During periods of extreme volatility, it’s easy to become disheartened when trades don’t go your way. It’s also easy to become overconfident when you get lucky, falsely attributing it to your trading strategy — when, in reality, the price often rose or fell for reasons other than you assumed.

The United States Federal Reserve Board announced on Jan. 27 that it was issuing a policy statement regardin limitations on banks. The policy seeks to create a level playing field and limit regulatory arbitrage for state banks with deposit insurance, state banks without deposit insurance and national banks, which are overseen by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), by allowing them the same scope of permissible activities.

Crypto proponents would be wise to keep their eyes on nonfungible token (NFT) and metaverse trademark applications this year, which are “reliable signals” of future-use plans. Speaking to Cointelegraph, intellectual property lawyer Michael Kondoudis said while many people may think big corporations are just jumping onto the NFT...