Bitcoin News and Finance: What You Need to Know

Crypto exchange FTX is trying to regain $1 billion in a lawsuit against founder Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) and some former executives. FTX’s new management argues the funds were misappropriated through dubious deals and transactions made before the coin trading platform went bankrupt last fall. Failed Crypto Firm FTX Files New Lawsuit Against Founders and Chiefs FTX Trading , the company which operated what was one of the largest crypto exchanges, sued its founder Sam Bankman-Fried and other former executives on Thursday in an attempt to recover more than $1 billion they allegedly diverted. Besides Bankman-Fried, among the defendants named in the suit are co-founder and former FTX Chief Technology Officer Gary Wang, former CEO of SBF’s Alameda Research hedge fund Caroline Ellison, and former FTX Engineering Director Nishad Singh, Reuters and Bloomberg reported. The complaint filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court, District of Delaware, accuses them of misappropriating and using the money to ...

The exchange rate of the Nigerian currency versus the greenback recently plunged to an all-time low of NGN860:USD1. The naira’s depreciation has been attributed to shortages of foreign exchange on the official market and the rising demand for forex. The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) said it has revoked the licenses of nearly 2,700 bureaux de change (currency exchanges). Widening Gap Between Official and Parallel Market Exchange Rates On July 20, the Nigerian currency reportedly hit a new low of NGN860 per dollar on the parallel market. The currency’s fall widened the gap between the so-called import and export weighted average rate (NGN773:USD1) and the rate offered by black market dealers. According to a Reuters report , the currency’s plunge followed the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN)’s decision to float the naira, which was made shortly after Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s inauguration as the Nigerian president. The report added that the naira’s depreciation came a week before the CBN mone...

U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chairman Gary Gensler has asked Congress for more funding for his agency to address “risks in the crypto markets.” In a Senate hearing, he stressed: “We’ve seen the Wild West of the crypto markets, rife with noncompliance, where investors have put hard-earned assets at risk in a highly speculative asset class.” SEC Seeks More Funding to Police Crypto Gary Gensler, chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), talked about cryptocurrency during his testimony on Wednesday before the U.S. Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government regarding the SEC’s Fiscal Year (FY) 2024 budget request. “I am pleased to support the President’s FY 2024 request of $2.436 billion for SEC operations, to put us on a better track for the future,” Gensler told lawmakers. After outlining “tremendous growth” and changes in the U.S. capital markets, the SEC chairman stated: We’ve seen the Wild West of the cry...

Bitmain, the mining rig manufacturer, has announced the launch of a new rig that mines the digital currency filecoin (FIL). Similar to the company’s KAS Miner KS3, the new FIL miner carries a hefty price tag of $38,888 per machine. Bitmain Introduces On-Rack Filecoin Miner Bitmain announced Thursday that it will begin selling a newly manufactured Filecoin (FIL) mining rig. Filecoin, a decentralized, blockchain-based storage network, was launched by Protocol Labs in 2017. Its mining algorithm, known as proof-of-replication and proof-of-spacetime, was originally designed to resist application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs) in an effort to encourage decentralization. Despite this, Bitmain and other manufacturers have developed ASICs specifically for mining FIL and also offer FIL cloud mining contracts . In the announcement on Thursday, Bitmain stated that the on-rack filecoin miner will be sold throughout the day on Friday for $38,888 per unit. Bitmain detailed that the machin...

Ilya Lichtenstein and Heather Morgan, the New York-based couple implicated in the alleged laundering of $4.5 billion in bitcoin pilfered from the 2016 Bitfinex cyber-attack, have reached a plea bargain, as revealed by recent court records. The pair is scheduled to appear before U.S. judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly on August 3, 2023, and will be mandated to surrender all cryptocurrency assets and funds they possessed prior to their apprehension. NY Duo Set to Surrender More Than $2.8B in Historic Plea Deal The Department of Justice reported the arrest of Ilya Lichtenstein and Heather Morgan on February 8, 2023, for purportedly conspiring to launder proceeds from the theft of 119,754 bitcoins from Bitfinex. Morgan was granted bail in July 2022 with permission to seek lawful employment but her husband remained incarcerated. Now, one year after Morgan’s release on certain terms, both individuals have struck a deal with the government. Court documents filed on July 20 and 21, 2023 indic...

Australia’s securities regulator has canceled the license of the local FTX entity, allowing it to perform only limited financial services. These will be related to the termination of derivatives with clients and arrangements to compensate retail customers. ASIC Revokes Financial Services License of Crypto Exchange FTX Subsidiary The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) announced it had canceled the financial services license of FTX Australia, a company owned by the failed crypto exchange FTX which filed for bankruptcy in the United States last fall. “ASIC has cancelled the Australian financial services (AFS) license held by FTX Australia Pty Ltd (FTX Australia), effective from 14 July 2023,” the regulatory body said in a press release published Thursday on its website. Under the cancellation terms, FTX Australia will be permitted to provide limited financial services related to the termination of existing derivatives with clients until the end of July 12, 2024...

Ethena, a protocol that seeks to build a banking system independent stablecoin, has announced that it has raised $6.5 million in its seed round. The round, led by Dragonfly, aims to help issue Ethena’s decentralized stablecoin product in Q3 2023, which was inspired by an article written by former Bitmex CEO Arthur Hayes. Stablecoin Protocol Ethena Raises $6.5 Million in Seed Funding Round Ethena, an Ethereum stablecoin protocol, has raised $6.5 million in its seed round. The funding round led by Dragonfly Capital also had the participation of former Bitmex CEO Arthur Hayes and some derivatives exchanges such as Deribit, Bybit, Okx, Gemini, and Huobi. Ethena’s goal is to bring to fruition a stablecoin that has no connection with the traditional financial system. The protocol was inspired by the “ Dust on Crust ” Arthur Hayes article, where he explains how a stablecoin can be constructed using delta-neutral techniques, derivatives, and onchain collateral. Ethena uses the concept o...