The judge assigned to oversee the blockbuster criminal trial of Sam Bankman-Fried recused herself from the case late Friday, citing a potential conflict of interest stemming from the fact that her husband’s law firm previously advised FTX, Bankman-Fried’s now-defunct crypto exchange. Federal judge Ronnie Abrams of the US District Court for the Southern District of New York formally withdrew from…
Tesla CEO and Twitter chief Elon Musk says the Federal Reserve’s recent rate hikes “might go down in history as most damaging ever.” The billionaire has urged the Fed to cut interest rates immediately, emphasizing that the U.S. central bank is “massively amplifying the probability of a severe recession.” Elon Musk on Fed Rate Hikes Tesla, Spacex, and Twitter boss…
From an outside perspective, 2022 has been a rollercoaster ride for crypto. The market reached a total valuation of $3 trillion during the bull market of 2021, only to scale back to its current level of around $810 billion. While this poor performance can be partly attributed to the pervading macroeconomic environment — compounded by rising inflation rates and the…
On Dec. 23, 2022, Matthew Russell Lee from the Inner City Press published the recently unsealed guilty plea transcript of Caroline Ellison, Alameda Research’s former CEO. In her statements, Ellison describes that she was the co-CEO and CEO of Alameda, and under those roles, she reported directly to the former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF). The ex-Alameda CEO’s testimony details…
The chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Gary Gensler, has revealed that the regulator will use all available tools to bring crypto platforms into compliance with its rules. In addition, the SEC chief said: “Proof of reserves is neither a full accounting of the assets and liability of a company, nor does it satisfy segregation of customer…
The chaos we’ve experienced in global markets this year — global geopolitical upheaval magnified by the confluence of broken supply chains, inflation and heavy national debt loads — seems to signal the beginning of a new era. All of this is within the context of the United States dollar serving as the primary global reserve currency, currently accounting for about…
A key set of crypto tax reporting rules is being delayed until further notice under a decision made by the United States Treasury Department. The rules were supposed to be effective in the 2023 tax filing year, in accordance with the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act passed in November, 2021. The new law requires that the Internal Revenue Service (IRS)…
Hong Kong police arrested two executives of the crypto exchange AAX accused of fraud and misleading the police, according to local media reports. The former CEO of AAX, Weigao Capital Liang Haoming, and the founder of AAX, Thor Chan, were arrested on Dec. 23. Local authorities accused the company’s head of declaring “system maintenance” as an excuse to delay customers…
Security has been a critical challenge for decentralized finance (DeFi) and its evolution. Between 2020 and 2022, hackers stole over $2.5 billion through vulnerabilities on cross-chain bridges, Token Terminal data shows. Compared to other security breaches, this is a substantial amount. Issues with bridges have a root cause: All of them have an “inherent vulnerability,” Theo Gauthier, founder and CEO of…
Password management service LastPass was hacked in August 2022, and the attacker stole users’ encrypted passwords, according to a Dec. 23 statement from the company. This means that the attacker may be able to crack some website passwords of LastPass users through brute force guessing. Notice of Recent Security Incident – The LastPass Blog#lastpasshack #hack #lastpass #infosec https://t.co/sQALfnpOTy — Thomas…
