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Bankman-Fried bought D.C. influence by spending ‘dirty money,’ prosecutors say

Three U.S. agencies levy charges against Bankman-Fried

Federal prosecutors charged Sam Bankman-Fried with multiple counts of fraud on Tuesday, just hours after the Securities and Exchange Commission accused the disgraced FTX founder of orchestrating a scheme to defraud investors.

The indictments against Bankman-Fried accuse him moving billions of dollars illegally from FTX to Alameda. Prosecutors describe it as a “dirty money” scheme that helped fuel Bankman-Fried’s effort “to buy bipartisan influence and impact the direction of public policy in Washington.”

Meanwhile, the House Financial Services Committee forged ahead with a hearing into the cryptocurrency exchange’s recent implosion despite the arrest Monday night of Bankman-Fried, its star witness, who was taken into custody in the Bahamas after U.S. officials requested his extradition.

Here’s what to know

• The entrepreneur is facing charges in one criminal and two civil cases.

• SBF was arrested in the Bahamas Monday December 12th 2022

• A judge in the Bahamas denied bail to Bankman-Fried.

• At a House hearing, FTX’s new chief executive, John J. Ray III, described the events that led to FTX’s downfall as “plain old embezzlement” and said customers will not recover all their money. Ray was brought into the company to manage the bankruptcy.

Binance Halts USDC Withdrawals Amid Massive Outflows

Facing an unprecedented surge in withdrawal requests, Binance was forced to halt withdrawals of the USDC coin.

• Binance halts withdrawals of USDC

• The biggest crypto exchange saw $1.6 billion in outflows over the last 24 hours

• Binance had previously decided to auto-convert USDC tokens to BUSD for all depositors

Regulation and Policy in Crypto: Policymakers Look Ahead With Blockchain Association

Congressman Jim Himes (D-Connecticut) and CFTC's former Commissioner Dawn Stump join Blockchain Association's Executive Director Kristin Smith at I.D.E.A.S. 2022 to discuss their outlook for regulation and policymaking in the digital economy space.

​​Art Basel Miami Community Embraced Web3—But Use Cases Remain Stuck in Web2

“Subdued” is not a typical description associated with Art Basel Miami. But this year, the twentieth time since the city first hosted the global art and tech fest, that’s the word that fits.

The wildly imaginative community representing luxury brands, contemporary art and emerging tech that converges in Miami at the end of every November is not known for restraint and practicality. But as talk of crypto winter set in as 2021’s NFT hype cooled, the mood in Miami last week was much more down to earth.

And that’s actually why this Art Basel Miami may be more meaningful for brands, investors and technologists versus the unbridled party atmosphere of past years. If you missed Art Basel, don’t worry—the transformative technologies that were there are about to catch up with you before you know it.

Analytical Data

⚡️ Crypto is still growing at the same pace the internet was in the 1990s.

Google search queries about buying bitcoins outpaced interest in buying stocks for the first time 

🥇 BTC is currently flowing out of exchanges at a rate of -172.7k BTC per month, eclipsing the previous peak set following the June 2022 sell-off.

Events

Click here for events & meetups in December 2022

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