Former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried denied sentencing extension

Former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried isn’t getting a sentencing extension for the holidays, Judge Lewis Kaplan ruled on Wednesday.

Counsel for Bankman-Fried filed a letter early Wednesday seeking a “short four to six-week adjournment of the sentencing hearing in the above-captioned case.”

Sentencing for Bankman-Fried, who was found guilty on seven charges back in November, is scheduled for March 28. He faces a maximum sentence of 110 years in prison.

Bankman-Fried’s lawyers argued that they needed “additional time to collect materials necessary for the sentencing submission and to prepare for the presentence interview.” It also sought to utilize the extra time to prepare for the…

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Bitcoin’s Winter Wonderland: A Tale of Crypto Christmas Cheer

As sleigh bells jingle and Christmas lights twinkle, there’s another sparkle catching the eye of savvy investors around the world—Bitcoin. This cryptocurrency, known for its wild market rides, has shown a fascinating trend during the festive season over the past decade. Imagine stuffing your digital stocking with Bitcoin in 2012 when it was just $13.35; that would’ve turned out to be the gift that keeps on giving!

Year after year, Bitcoin has wrapped up surprises, reaching a hefty $707.25 in 2013. Although it took a dip the next year, it didn’t lose its luster, bouncing back up and eventually hitting a wallet-fattening $50,403 in 2021. The trend is a roller coaster of highs and lows, with 2022 presenting a figure of $16,829, reminding everyone that Bitcoin is as unpredictable as a December snowstorm.

As the years roll by, the question on everyone’s mind each Christmas is not just what’s under the tree, but what’s the value of Bitcoin on that merry day? The numbers have been a mix of naughty and nice, but the excitement they bring is as certain as the arrival of Santa himself. The anticipation builds for Christmas 2023—what will Bitcoin bring this year? The price remains a mystery, but the intrigue is as palpable as the holiday cheer.

Disclaimer: Market capitalizations and data can vary in real-time. The information provided here is intended purely for educational purposes and should not, under any circumstances, be construed as financial advice.

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Celsius’ ETH sales raise cash, eyebrows from creditors

Bankrupt crypto lender Celsius could exit bankruptcy as early as January, if stakeholders agree to move forward on a court approved plan.

Ethereum chain watchers observed the wallets belonging to the debtors have sold close to $250 million in ether in recent months, an amount that roughly matches the expected capital needs of the entity, known as MiningCo, that would emerge from bankruptcy. 

The recent developments in the Celsius case reveal a shift in the company’s post-bankruptcy business plans, primarily influenced by regulatory considerations and the need to satisfy creditor claims.

Initially, the restructuring plan for Celsius included not only bitcoin mining but also…

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Ledger promises to make victims whole after attack

Ledger, in an update following last week’s attack, has promised to make users whole.

An attacker phished a former Ledger employee and was able to access the company’s package manager, where they uploaded a malicious code to ConnectKit. The attacker, according to Ledger, made off with $600,000.

“We commit, by any way possible, including gestures of goodwill, to make sure this is done by the end of February 2024. We are already in contact with many impacted users and are actively working through the specifics with them,” the company said in a post on X.

The company will make victims whole in the wake of the attack, and is working with law enforcement to track down the hacker and…

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Fox Business: Firms Feel "Confident SEC Will Approve" Spot Bitcoin ETFs After January 8

According to Charles Gasparino of Fox Business, financial firms feel confident that the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is going to rule in favor of approving spot Bitcoin Exchange-Traded Funds (ETFs) after January 8, 2024.

Gasparino’s post also stated that shares the of Bitcoin ETFs will only be available to purchase with cash, rather than also with bitcoin. As the regulator is “worried about ETF’s being used as a vehicle for money laundering.” Over the course of the past few weeks, spot Bitcoin ETF issuers like BlackRock have been meeting with the SEC to discuss the final details of their ETFs. There was one topic in particular that the regulator was meeting with issuers about,…

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Top 10 Trending Crypto Coins of The Day

  1. Coq Inu: Market Cap of $215 Million.
  2. DIA: Market Cap of $59 Million.
  3. Injective: Market Cap of $3.5 Billion.
  4. Strike: Market Cap of $58 Million.
  5. Sei: Market Cap of $829 Million.
  6. Bonk: Market Cap of $1.1 Billion.
  7. Decimated: Market Cap of $19 Million.
  8. Solana: Market Cap of $33.9 Billion.
  9. Neon: Market Cap of $95 Million.
  10. dogwifhat: Market Cap of $124 Million.

Disclaimer: Market capitalizations can vary in real-time. The information provided here is intended purely for educational purposes and should not, under any circumstances, be construed as financial advice.

BlackRock’s bitcoin ETF team has met 5 times with the SEC

BlackRock has been busy this holiday season.

The asset management giant is one of more than a dozen fund groups vying to launch a spot bitcoin ETF. The applicants for such funds have so far met 24 times with officials at the US Securities and Exchange Commission, according to data from Bloomberg Intelligence analyst James Seyffart.

The SEC, BlackRock and Nasdaq most recently discussed the company’s planned spot bitcoin ETF on Dec. 19.

BlackRock is one of a few issuers planning to list shares of its bitcoin ETF on Nasdaq. The iShares Bitcoin Trust, if approved, would trade under the ticker IBIT. 

Read more: Lucky 13? Where spot bitcoin ETF proposals stand ahead of judgment day

Ahead…

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Solana flips XRP once more, closes in on Ethereum

Solana’s native asset SOL flipped XRP this morning to again become the fifth-largest cryptocurrency by market cap.

After gaining more than 700% since its market bottomed out at the end of last year, SOL is now valued at nearly $34 billion. XRP and SOL trail only binance coin (BNB), tether (USDT), ether (ETH) and bitcoin (BTC).

This makes SOL one of the best performing top-100 cryptocurrencies of 2023. XRP, meanwhile, has only made about 80% — about the same as ether — but both have underperformed against bitcoin this year.

XRP must still deal with a jury trial in Ripple’s long-running US Securities and Exchange Commission saga set for next year. A federal court in July found…

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BTCPay And Strainly Publish Case Study On The Hemp Industry

Strainly, a cannabis seed and services company, in partnership with BTCPay has published a case study on the use of BTCPay to facilitate payment processing for underserved and blacklisted industries.

One of the most important use cases of Bitcoin is, as many users of a certain privacy wallet would say, “To make the transactions they don’t want you to make.” Censorship resistance. Financial institutions, and indirectly governments through the coercive influence they exert over those institutions, hold a large degree of control over society and the economy by having the ability to deny people access to financial services and the ability to transact in markets they deem unacceptable….

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Braidpool: A Second Competitor In Decentralizing Mining

Yesterday the Human Rights Foundation announced a wave of new grants for a diverse range of projects. I want to focus on one specific project and grant: Braidpool, and the grant Kulpreet Singh received to continue his work on actually implementing it.

The last few weeks have been dominated by discussions about Ocean’s recent launch, and their decision to filter inscriptions and other transaction types they deem to be spam. The conversation around their transaction filtering has entirely dominated the discussion, completely eclipsing the subject of improving the decentralization of the mining ecosystem.

Braidpool can hopefully be a conversational reset on this topic. While Ocean is a…

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