Nachrichten, ICOs, etc.

[reko]

11 Personen wurden wegen Betrugsvorwürfen an der Kryptowährungsbörse JPEX festgenommen. Die Plattform arbeitet nach eigener Aussage an einer Lösung eines „Liquiditätsengpasses“. Die Börse verwaltet 2 Milliarden US-Dollar Vermögen.

2023/09/22 JPEX: Hong Kong investigates influencer-backed crypto exchange

[Michaael]

https://cryptoticker.io/de/dr-julian-hosp-wie-ein-idol-zur-enttauschung-wurde/

 

Ich hoffe nachdem Herr HOSP soviel mist über BTC erzählt und nur seinen scheiss CAKE DFI als "gut" verkaufen möchte, das seine Tage gezählt sind.

Er hat es nicht verdient Reich zu sein und Geld von gutgläubigen einzukassieren.

[WalleWalle]

Ich bin mal mit Hosp online zusammengestoßen, als er in einem Video falsch behauptet hat, dass Bitcoin genau wie Ethereum zentralisiert ist, da es ja eine Ethereum-Foundation und auch eine Bitcoin-Foundation gibt. Es ging da um die Frage commodity oder security. Mein Hinweis, dass die sogenannte "Bitcoin-Foundation" erst Jahre später von unbeteiligten Personen gegründet wurde (da der Begriff Bitcoin nicht geschützt ist), keinen rechtlichen Anspruch auf irgendwas ausübt und somit irrelevant ist, hat ihn schnell zu Kraftausdrücken in den Kommentaren und einem Block verleitet.

[Michaael]

vor 10 Stunden von WalleWalle:

Ich bin mal mit Hosp online zusammengestoßen, als er in einem Video falsch behauptet hat, dass Bitcoin genau wie Ethereum zentralisiert ist, da es ja eine Ethereum-Foundation und auch eine Bitcoin-Foundation gibt. Es ging da um die Frage commodity oder security. Mein Hinweis, dass die sogenannte "Bitcoin-Foundation" erst Jahre später von unbeteiligten Personen gegründet wurde (da der Begriff Bitcoin nicht geschützt ist), keinen rechtlichen Anspruch auf irgendwas ausübt und somit irrelevant ist, hat ihn schnell zu Kraftausdrücken in den Kommentaren und einem Block verleitet.

Besser konnte man es auch nicht argumentieren.

Weshalb seine Meinung eher Pro ETH und Kontra BTC ist, (er wird 100% auch BTC halten da er sicher das potenzial bei BTC erkennt, er ist nicht doof und versteht ganz genau die Materie) ist mir aber etwas unklar.

[bmi]

Zitat

SBF Trial – 10th October 2023 – Caroline Ellison Testimony

 

Just like with other witnesses, quick admission of crimes at the start:

 

Q. When you were working at Alameda, did you commit any crimes

A. Yes, we did.

Q. When you say "we," who do you mean by "we"?

A. I mean Sam and I and others.

Q. What kinds of crimes did you commit with Sam?

A. Fraud, conspiracy to commit fraud, and money laundering.

Q. Who did you defraud?

A. The customers of FTX, the investors in FTX, and lenders to Alameda.

Q. And just to be clear, did you commit these crimes alone?

A. No. They were committed with Sam.

…

Q. What are some of the ways that Alameda was able to steal customer money?

A. We had access to an essentially unlimited line of credit on FTX, and we received FTX customer funds directly into our bank accounts as part of the FTX fiat deposit system.

 

 

Q. And what was the defendant's role in taking that money and spending it on Alameda?

A. He was the one who set up the systems that allowed Alameda to take the money, and he was the one who directed us to take customer money to repay our loans.

…

Q. You said you defrauded Alameda's lenders with the

defendant. How did you defraud Alameda's lenders?

A. I sent balance sheets to our lenders at the direction of Sam that incorrectly stated the amount of our assets and our liabilities and made Alameda's balance sheet look less risky than it really was.

Caroline joined Alameda in March 2018, she learnt things were bad pretty fast and SBF appears to have tricked her into joining

 

Q. When you started working at Alameda as a trader, what did you learn shortly after starting this new job?

A. Shortly after I started, I learned that the company was in much worse shape than I realized. Right before I had started working there, they had suffered large losses and just discovered them. Right after I started working there, the lenders pulled out a lot of their money and more than half of the company ended up quitting.

Q. When the defendant offered you a job at Alameda, had he shared with you the rough circumstances at Alameda?

A. No.

Q. And when you learned about it, did you discuss this with him?

A. Yes, I did.

Q. And what did you talk about?

A. I asked why he hadn't shared more of this information. He apologized and he said that he hadn't known how to tell me.

According to Ellison, SBF had a plan to borrow FTX customer funds for speculative investments, right from the start

 

Q. Of course. What was the defendant's involvement in using FTX customer money as a source of funds for Alameda in those early days at FTX?

A. He said that FTX would be a good source of capital, and he set up the system that allowed Alameda to borrow from FTX.

Caroline raised concerns about trading with customer money and what an auditor might think and SBF said that "auditors aren't going to look at that"

 

Q. The concerns that you just described having, did you ever voice them to the defendant?

 

 

A. Yeah. I remember one conversation that we had about when FTX was first being audited, when I asked him whether this line of credit would show up on the FTX audit because I was concerned that, you know, it would raise concerns with investors and other people who were seeing the audit, and he said, like, No, don't worry, the auditors aren't going to look at that.

SBF decided to buy back FTX equity from Binance with FTX customer money.

 

Q. Prior to June of 2022 are there any occasions that stand out in your mind when the defendant told you to use Alameda's line of credit?

A. Yeah. There was one instance when we were buying FTX equity back from Binance that he did so.

$1 billion of clients funds were spent buying back FTX equity from Binance

 

Q. When you said to the defendant that you didn't really have the money and you would have to borrow from FTX, what did he say?

A. He said, That's okay, I think this is really important, we have to get it done.

Q. And did you get it done?

A. Yes, we did.

Q. About how much money did Alameda take from FTX customers to buy out Binance?

A. It was in the ballpark of $1 billion.

FTT token

 

Alameda had 60% to 70% of the initial supply

 

Q. Roughly what percentage of that initial distribution of FTT went to Alameda?

A. Not sure. Maybe, ballpark, 60 or 70 percent.

Q. What did Alameda pay for its initial supply of FTT that was about 60 or 70 percent of all the tokens?

A. Nothing as far as I know.

 

The token was priced at $0.10 in teh "seed round"

 

Q. And when FTT was first actually listed for sale, what was the approximate price?

A. The price in the seed round was 10 cents, but when it was listed on exchanges, it quickly went up to around a dollar.

 

SBF wanted to keep the price above $1

 

Q. What, if any, instructions did the defendant give you about trading FTT?

A. He said that he thought 1 dollar was a psychologically important price, and if it went below a dollar, then people might lose confidence in it, so that we should try to buy it if it started going below a dollar.

 

SBF wanted to keep Alameda's involvement in teh FTT market quite

 

Q. And do you recall any specific occasions when the defendant told you to buy FTT when the price was going down?

A. Yeah. One that comes to mind is in 2021, when Binance was selling some of their stake in FTT.

Q. What did the defendant tell you to do?

A. He said to start buying once the price had gone down a bit.

Q. Was this something the defendant discussed openly in front of you with other employees?

A. No. He tended to be pretty careful about not discussing it too openly.

Q. What, if anything, did the defendant say to you about that?

A. He at one point got upset at me when I had discussed our FTT trading what he thought was too openly around several other employees and he said to keep our discussions of FTT trading, you know, between us or us and a few other people.

...

A. I was having a conversation with Victor where he was expressing disagreement with our FTT trading strategy and he said that we should be buying less, we should be waiting for it to——the price to go down more before we bought, and I was pushing back against him because Sam had said he wanted to buy

FTT at this price.

Q. Did what Victor Xu said to you, that you shouldn't be buying at the low price, make sense to you?

A. Yeah, it did make sense. I thought that what he was saying would be a more profitable trading strategy.

Q. So why were you pushing for a different trading strategy?

A. Because Sam had said that he wanted to buy more, and I——I understood that to be because he didn't want to spook the market or didn't want to put any of our loans in danger by having the price go down too much.

 

Relationship between SBF and Caroline:

 

Q. How would you describe the nature of your personal

relationship with the defendant?

A. I would say the whole time that we were dating he was also my boss at work, which created some awkward situations. I would say in our personal relationship there was a general theme that I sort of wanted more from our relationship but often felt like he was distant or not paying attention to me.

Q. Why did you ultimately break up?

A. Because of those things I mentioned, because I felt like he wasn't paying much attention to me or spending much time with me in the relationship.

Q. Were you and the defendant open with other FTX and Alameda employees about your personal relationship?

A. Not really. The first time that we dated, we agreed to keep it secret, though some people did end up finding out. The second time that we dated, Sam agreed that we could make it public, and we were living together, but it still wasn't something that we really talked about openly with people much.

A $3.5 million loan went through Caroline for a "gambling company that some people at FTX wanted to start"

 

A. I received one loan of $3.5 million.

Q. What was that loan for?

A. It was for a gambling company that some people at FTX wanted to start, and they asked if they could start it in my name since I wasn't affiliated with FTX. So the money -- like I never really saw or used the money. It went straight to this -- to cede this gambling company.

SBF really valued the loyalty of Ryan Salame.

 

A. Yeah. I learned that Alameda had loaned, I think it was around $35 million to Ryan Salame as well.

Q. What, if anything, did the defendant say to you about Ryan Salame as an employee?

 

 

A. He said that he really valued Ryan for his loyalty.

Q. What, if anything, did you learn about how the multimillion dollar loans to Ryan Salame were being spent?

A. They were being used for donations to republican

candidates.

Q. What, if anything, did the defendant tell you about

spending money on politics?

A. He said he thought it was very effective, that you could get very high returns in terms of influence by spending relatively small amounts of money.

Caroline was concerned about how some may view the loans

 

Q. Why do you think that those loans to insiders might raise concerns with lenders?

A. For one thing, because I didn't think that they would -- Alameda would easily be able to get the loans back if we needed to, and for another thing, I thought it might look like Alameda was sort of funneling or giving money to the FTX executives.

In late 2021, SBF wanted to borrow more

 

Q. Who if anyone, as far as you know, was directing Alameda's strategy with respect to borrowing in late 2021?

A. Sam was directing us at the time to borrow as much money as we could from whatever sources we could find at whatever terms we could get. This was something he emphasized a lot and talked to us about frequently.

By around the end of end of 2021, Alameda had borrowed around $9.4 billion from third parties (Excluding the FTX debt). These loans could be recalled at any time. Based on the transcript below, it seems almost all of this funding came from Genesis Trading.

 

Caroline talked about a scenario, of 50% crypto fall reducing the loans to $8bn. Therefore, around $6.6 billion of the loans were in USD and $2.8bn in crypto.

 

Q. And according to this spreadsheet, what were Alameda's liquid assets at this time?

A. At the time it was $8 billion.

Q. And what was the rough size of Alameda's loans at that point?

A. $9.4 billion.

Q. And when we're talking about loans here, are these loans from third parties?

A. Yes, that's right.

Q. And is that broken down beneath it?

A. Yeah, that's broken down into Genesis, Bitcoin, Genesis US dollars, and other sources.

…

Q. And beneath that, where it says "Genesis, 4.8 billion," what is that?

A. That's specifically the loans that we were taking out from Genesis.

…

Q. By mid-2022 what was the rough amount of Alameda's borrowing from third parties like Genesis?

A. It was in the ballpark of $10 billion.

Q. And what were the loans from Genesis and other third-party lenders being used for?

A. Some were being used for our general trading, others had been used for these venture investments that we've talked about.

 

As a reminder, based on Genesis’s quarterly published reports, this is the size of the Genesis balance sheet in the period. It appears as if Alameda paid back much of the loan balance by the end of Q2 2022.

Image

In May 2022 Caroline shared a document with SBF, where she shared concerns about risks at Alameda. SBF then asked if his own equity in FTX was included in Alameda’s balance sheet as an asset.

 

Q. Let's turn to page 2, the end of this document. I want to direct your attention to where it says Worries/Questions. What did you mean by Worries/Questions?

A. Those were either things I was concerned about or questions I wanted Sam's input on.

Q. The last item here says, "Leverage, both actual leverage and presenting on our balance sheet." What did you mean by that in describing actual leverage and how to present it on your balance sheet as a worry?

A. By actual leverage, I meant that I thought Alameda's financial position was risky and that if the market went down significantly, we would lose a lot of money, and by presenting on our balance sheet, I meant that I was concerned about conveying that information to lenders and having them worry

about Alameda's financial health and recall their loans.

Q. And Sam Bankman-Fried wrote a comment on that line. Can you read it. A. It says, "Yup, and could also get worse. Do you put Paper Bird/FTX equity on the balance sheet?"

Q. What are Paper Bird and FTX equity?

A. Paper Bird was an entity that Sam held most of his FTX equity in, and FTX equity being shares in the company FTX.

Quelle

 

Für mich noch immer erschreckend, wie viele VCs - die den ganzen Betrug erst ermöglicht haben - einfach blind und offensichtlich ohne DD ihr Geld reingeworfen haben. Und dann auch noch mit Meme-Beträgen (siehe irgend einen meiner vorherigen Posts hier).

 

[CorMaguire]

"Bitcoin benötigt so viel Wasser wie 660.000 Sportschwimmbecken"

Spiegel --> https://www.spiegel.de/netzwelt/netzpolitik/bitcoin-benoetigt-so-viel-wasser-wie-660-000-sport-schwimmbecken-a-ccb01ecd-3473-4afa-9d50-70909101fbae

 

Die Studie aus dem Artikel:

"UN Study Reveals the Hidden Environmental Impacts of Bitcoin: Carbon is Not the Only Harmful By-product

Global Bitcoin mining is highly dependent on fossil fuels, with worrying impacts on water and land in addition to a significant carbon footprint."

--> https://unu.edu/press-release/un-study-reveals-hidden-environmental-impacts-bitcoin-carbon-not-only-harmful-product

 

Unter dem Link zur Pressemitteilung sind dann auch Links zu Summary und ganzem Bericht.

[bmi]

Geht das schon wieder los...  die Energie kommt von Satoshi, der sich bei diesem Qualitätsjournalismus fast ununterbrochen im Grab umdrehen muss.

[WalleWalle]

Die SEC verklagt den nächsten Shitcoin Safemoon wegen Verkauf von unregistrierten Wertpapieren und Betrug.

 

SEC Charges Crypto Company SafeMoon and its Executive Team for Fraud and Unregistered Offering of Crypto Securities

"According to the SEC’s complaint, the Defendants promised to take the price of the token “Safely to the moon,” but instead of delivering profits, they wiped out billions in market capitalization, withdrew crypto assets worth more than $200 million from the project, and misappropriated investor funds for personal use."

 

https://www.sec.gov/news/press-release/2023-229

[The Statistician]

vor 11 Stunden von WalleWalle:

SEC Charges Crypto Company SafeMoon and its Executive Team for Fraud and Unregistered Offering of Crypto Securities

"According to the SEC’s complaint, the Defendants promised to take the price of the token “Safely to the moon,” but instead of delivering profits, they wiped out billions in market capitalization, withdrew crypto assets worth more than $200 million from the project, and misappropriated investor funds for personal use."

Safely to the moon...ich finde das echt witzig und kann mir nur vorstellen, dass das extreme Scam-Jokes sind um zu schauen wie dümmer es noch gehen kann 

[bmi]

ZEIT: Kein Wunderkind mehr, bloß ein Betrüger

Zitat

Sam Bankman-Fried hielt sich für den König Midas der Kryptowelt. Er endete als schnöder Abzocker. Sein Untergang lässt die Bitcoin-Idee jetzt umso richtiger erscheinen.

https://www.zeit.de/geld/2023-11/sam-bankman-fried-ftx-krypto-unternehmer-betrug-urteil/komplettansicht

[WalleWalle]

Die SEC verklagt jetzt die Cryptobörse Kraken wegen Handel mit unregistrierten Wertpapieren und Vermischung von Kundeneinlagen mit internen Geschäften.

 

SEC Charges Kraken for Operating as an Unregistered Securities Exchange, Broker, Dealer, and Clearing Agency

 

The SEC’s complaint also alleges that Kraken’s business practices, deficient internal controls, and poor recordkeeping practices present a range of risks for its customers. As alleged in the complaint, Kraken commingles its customers’ money with its own, including paying operational expenses directly from accounts that hold customer cash. Kraken also allegedly commingles its customers’ crypto assets with its own, creating what its own auditor had identified as “a significant risk of loss” to its customers.

https://www.sec.gov/news/press-release/2023-237

 

Eine (unvollständige) Liste der unregistrierten Wertpapiere:

"including crypto assets trading under the symbols ADA, AXS, ALGO, ATOM, CHZ, COTI, DASH, FIL, FLOW, ICP, MANA, MATIC, NEAR, OMG, SAND, and SOL"

[Metasom]

vor 5 Stunden von WalleWalle:

Vermischung von Kundeneinlagen mit internen Geschäften.

 

vor 5 Stunden von WalleWalle:

Kraken commingles its customers’ money with its own, including paying operational expenses directly from accounts that hold customer cash.

Ein Hoch auf die Deregulierung...

[s1lv3r]

vor 7 Stunden von WalleWalle:

https://www.sec.gov/news/press-release/2023-237

 

Gibt neben der Pressemitteilung der SEC natürlich auch eine Gegendarstellung von Kraken: https://blog.kraken.com/news/kraken-continues-to-fight-for-its-mission-and-crypto-innovation-in-the-united-states

 

Ist natürlich für den Anleger eine etwas undurchsichtige Gemengelage. Wenn man sich den Originaltext des SEC Complaints (PDF) durchliest, ergibt sich sich für mich auch kein klares Bild. Was ich aber sofort unterschreiben würde: Man sollte keine größeren Bestände FIAT bei Kraken halten. Es gibt eben keine Einlagensicherung jeglicher Art und an dem was die SEC hier bemängelt (keine Segregation von FIAT-Kundeneinlagen) ist definitiv was dran.

[bmi]

Am 16.6.2023 um 06:36 von bmi:

Die aktuelle Klage gegen Binance bzgl. unregistrierter Wertpapiere betrifft indirekt auch Kraken, denke ich. Meine Auflistung war im übrigen auch mehr eine Auflistung vergangener Ereignisse die mMn den Weg für die Big-Boys der Wallstreet geebnet haben. 

Kleiner Reminder. 

 

Binance 4,3Mrd Strafe und Changpeng Zhao muss das Feld räumen:

https://m.faz.net/aktuell/wirtschaft/unternehmen/bericht-milliardenstrafe-gegen-kryptowaehrungsplattform-binance-19330606.html

 

Fehlt noch Tether (USDT)?

https://www.wertpapier-forum.de/topic/63696-tether-usdt/?tab=comments#comment-1661125

[WalleWalle]

Doge-Adressen to teh moon. Ob Elon sich gerade für eine Integration in X vorbereitet?

 

https://twitter.com/intotheblock/status/1729185397404582305/photo/1

[stagflation]

Heise Newsticker:

Zitat

Krypto-Bankraub: 82 Millionen Dollar bei Orbit Chain gestohlen

 

Die Räuber gingen sehr methodisch vor und übertrugen Ethereum und andere Kryptowährungen vom südkoreanischen Anbieter zu verschiedenen Krypto-Geldbörsen.

[slowandsteady]

https://www.heise.de/news/Petro-Venezuela-schafft-die-Kryptowaehrung-ab-9605262.html

Zitat

Ohne nähere Erklärungen hat Venezuela die Kryptowährung "Petro" beendet. Diese war von der Regierung Nicolás Maduro vor sechs Jahren eingeführt worden, um die US-Finanzsanktionen zu umgehen; wurde aber nur sehr begrenzt genutzt und war zuletzt in einen gewaltigen Korruptionsskandal verwickelt.

 

[stagflation]

Heise Newsticker:

Zitat

Kryptounternehmen Terraform Labs meldet Insolvenz an

 

Während der TerraUSD-Gründer Do Kwon auf eine Auslieferung in die USA wartet, meldet das Kryptounternehmen Terraform Labs im US-Bundesstaat Delaware Konkurs an.

 

Bemerkenswert finde ich das Statement des Managements:

Zitat

"Die Terra-Gemeinschaft und das Terra-Ökosystem haben angesichts der Widrigkeiten eine beispiellose Widerstandsfähigkeit bewiesen, und diese Maßnahme [das Insolvenzverfahren, Anm.] ist notwendig, damit wir weiter an unseren gemeinsamen Zielen arbeiten und gleichzeitig die noch offenen rechtlichen Herausforderungen lösen können", sagte Chris Amani, Chief Executive Officer von Terraform Labs, in einer Erklärung.

[WalleWalle]

Ferrari akzeptiert jetzt Zahlungen in Dogecoin

 

As anticipated, the prestigious car manufacturer Ferrari has recently integrated the crypto Dogecoin as a payment method for their exclusive sports cars in the United States... Before the integration of Dogecoin, accepted payments were in Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH) and the stablecoin USDC.... To facilitate transactions in the United States, Ferrari has chosen the cryptocurrency payment company BitPay, with plans to expand this collaboration to Europe as soon as possible.

 

https://cryptonews.net/news/altcoins/28582224/

[WalleWalle]

Reddit investiert jetzt in Bitcoin, Ethereum (und Matic).

 

We invested some of our excess cash reserves in Bitcoin and Ether and also acquired Ether and Matic as a form of payment for sales of certain virtual goods, which we may continue to do in the future.

 

https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1713445/000162828024006294/reddits-1q423.htm

[WalleWalle]

Ein Richter hat indirekt entscheiden, dass Altcoins unregistrierte Wertpapiere darstellen und die SEC zuständig ist, auch auf dem Sekundärmarkt wenn sie etwa über Coinbase weiter verkauft werden.

 

On Friday, Lin ruled in favor of the SEC, agreeing that sales of the crypto assets constituted securities, even when sold on secondary markets. In her decision, she argued that the tokens were broadly promoted by issuers, therefore creating an expectation of increased value. Furthermore, the issuers facilitated trading on secondary trading markets like Coinbase.

Currently, the only cryptocurrency with regulatory clarity is Bitcoin, which the Commodity Futures Trading Commission declared to be a commodity in 2015. Other assets have remained in a gray zone.

 

https://fortune.com/crypto/2024/03/03/sec-coinbase-insider-trading-kraken-howey-binance-ripple-terra/