Sam Bankman-Fried, founder of the embattled crypto exchange FTX, is being\u00a0investigated by the US Securities and Exchange Commission for potential violations of securities rules.<\/p>\n
The Bahamas, where his FTX.com arm is based,\u00a0froze\u00a0the assets of a local trading subsidiary and \u201crelated parties.\u201d<\/p>\n
Troubled crypto lender BlockFi said it can no longer operate as usual, citing \u201ca lack of clarity\u201d in relation to FTX. Earlier, Bankman-Fried said he\u2019s closing Alameda Research, the trading house at the center of speculation about whether his crypto exchange mishandled customer funds.<\/p>\n
Bankman-Fried has warned of bankruptcy if he can\u2019t secure capital to cover a shortfall of as much as $8 billion. Trading may be halted in a few days on FTX US, which is a separate legal entity from FTX.com.<\/p>\n
(Times are US Eastern Standard unless specified otherwise.)<\/p>\n
Virtual coins were in retreat Friday, with the largest token Bitcoin falling as much as 5.5% and second-ranked Ether sinking almost 8% at one point. The crisis engulfing FTX and signs of spreading contagion undid investor sentiment.<\/p>\n
Easing US inflation had delivered a fillip for risk assets generally on Thursday, propelling the biggest advance in a gauge of the top 100 crypto tokens since early September.<\/p>\n
About 72% of digital assets deployed by Hodlnaut on centralized exchanges were held with FTX, with an estimated market value of S$18.5 million ($13.3 million), its interim judicial managers said. The extent of the recovery of those digital assets is currently uncertain, they added.<\/p>\n
Troubled crypto lender BlockFi said in a statement on Twitter that the company can\u00a0no longer operate\u00a0business as usual, citing \u201ca lack of clarity\u201d on the status of FTX.com, FTX and Alameda Research.<\/p>\n
The company said it is limiting platform activity and pausing client withdrawals. BlockFi asked customers not to deposit funds at this time.<\/p>\n
FTX US general counsel Ryne Miller\u00a0said\u00a0in an internal memo he\u2019s working with advisers to preserve \u201cwhatever is preservable\u201d of the crypto exchange.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe should not be optimistic for an outcome that is positive,\u201d Miller wrote. \u201cI\u2019m working with outside advisers to be best prepared to navigate FTX entities to next steps.\u201d<\/p>\n
John Boozman, a lead co-sponsor on legislation that would give the Commodity Futures Trading Commission more power to oversee digital assets, said the bill\u2019s backers are \u201ctaking a top-down look to ensure it establishes the necessary safeguards the digital commodities market desperately needs.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cChairwoman Stabenow and I remain committed to advancing a final version of the DCCPA that creates a regulatory framework that allows for international cooperation and gives consumers greater confidence that their investments are safe,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
He was referring to Debbie Stabenow, a leader of the Senate Agriculture Committee along with Boozman. DCCPA refers to the bill, the Digital Commodities Consumer Protection Act of 2022.<\/p>\n
Crypto broker Genesis said its derivatives business has about $175 million \u201cin locked funds\u201d in the company\u2019s FTX trading account.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis does not impact our market-making activities,\u201d the firm said in a Twitter thread, adding \u201cour operating capital and net positions in FTX are not material to our business.\u201d<\/p>\n
The fallout from the collapse of the FTX empire has left investors on edge about the risk of contagion.<\/p>\n
The Bahamas Securities Commission has frozen the assets of FTX Digital Markets \u201cand related parties.\u201d An asset freeze was \u201cthe prudent course of action\u201d to preserve assets and stabilize the company, the agency said Thursday in a statement.<\/p>\n
An attorney has been\u00a0appointed\u00a0provisional liquidator as the Bahamas securities regulator seeks to place the beleaguered crypto exchange into receivership.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe commission is aware of public statements suggesting that clients\u2019 assets were mishandled, mismanaged and\/or transferred to Alameda Research. Based on the commission\u2019s information, any such actions would have been contrary to normal governance, without client consent and potentially unlawful,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n
Employees of the US-based crypto exchange are in talks about\u00a0selling parts of the business, including some assets that Bankman-Fried amassed on a sweeping acquisition tear across the industry, according to two people with direct knowledge of the matter, who requested anonymity because the talks were private.<\/p>\n
The Biden administration is aware of recent developments surrounding cryptocurrencies and will \u201ccontinue to monitor the situation,\u201d White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters on Thursday.<\/p>\n
Jean-Pierre said the White House believes cryptocurrency markets require \u201cproper oversight,\u201d but declined to comment on specific steps regulators can or should take.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe most recent news further underscores these concerns and highlights why prudent regulation of cryptocurrencies is indeed needed,\u201d Jean-Pierre said at her daily press briefing.<\/p>\n
FTX US, the American entity of Bankman-Fried\u2019s crypto exchange, said trading may be\u00a0halted on it in a few days.<\/p>\n
FTX.com and FTX US are separate entities with separate management personnel, tech infrastructure, and licensing, but have similar owners and investors, representatives for the firms have said in the past.<\/p>\n
Japan\u2019s government has ordered FTX.com\u2019s local subsidiary to\u00a0suspend\u00a0some of its operations, saying it has no structure in place to properly offer cryptocurrency exchange services to users.<\/p>\n
FTX.com has\u00a0resumed withdrawals on the platform, according to blockchain data, after halting such activities on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
Nansen and Kaiko, another blockchain data firm, both confirmed the resumed activities. FTX processed $8 million worth of withdrawals in an hour on Thursday, Nansen said.<\/p>\n
Bankman-Fried is\u00a0shutting down\u00a0Alameda Research, the trading house at the heart of his digital-asset empire, as he seeks last-ditch financing to save his troubled crypto exchange FTX.<\/p>\n
The fallout from FTX’s failure has started to spread to other crypto players.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":341034,"featured_media":468563,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"idle","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"","_sma_facebook_post_id":"","_sma_instagram_post_id":"","_sma_threads_post_id":"","_sma_x_attempts":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[44696],"tags":[79850,77192,79470,76264,79496,82589,82591,76268,54019],"class_list":["post-468561","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cryptocurrency","tag-alameda-research","tag-blockfi","tag-commodity-futures-trading-commission-cftc","tag-ftx","tag-genesis","tag-hodlnaut","tag-john-boozman","tag-sam-bankman-fried-sbf","tag-securities-and-exchange-commission-sec"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/468561"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/341034"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=468561"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/468561\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/468563"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=468561"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=468561"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=468561"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}