🚨 SBF back in jail for leaking his Ex's diary!

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We have some juicy developments since our last send, with SBF going back to jail, and Donald Trump holding Ethereum.

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Markets

Bitcoin Steady Below $30K as SBF Goes Back to Jail (2 minute read)
In the span of 2021 and a significant portion of 2022, Sam Bankman-Fried amusingly maneuvered himself into the role of a cryptocurrency tycoon. The outcome of today's court proceeding will determine whether his gift of gab has, perhaps ironically, talked him out of luxurious house arrest and into the confines of a jail cell with real walls and bars. The focal point of the current courtroom session, revolves around Bankman-Fried's action of publicly disclosing Caroline Ellison's private journal. Notably, Bankman-Fried had previously positioned Ellison as the figurehead CEO of FTX, only to allegedly instruct her to participate in fraudulent activities later on. Prosecutors assert that this disclosure aimed to undermine or intimidate Ellison prior to her forthcoming testimony as a cooperative witness in the trial. However, this incident is just the tip of the iceberg; Bankman-Fried's trial antics have involved a series of crafty public arguments and concealed private exchanges ever since FTX's collapse began to unfold.

Donald Trump, Long Skeptical of Crypto, Holds Up to $500,000 In Ethereum (3 minute read)
Former President Donald Trump's financial disclosure form, recently submitted to a federal ethics agency, reveals that he's riding the cryptocurrency wave with holdings potentially ranging from $250,000 to $500,000 in a cryptocurrency wallet linked to Ethereum. Tucked within an 82-page filing to the Office of Government Ethics, this revelation spices up the list of his assets and income sources. The wallet seems to tie into a line of NFTs launched by his campaign, presenting Trump in various entertaining guises like a superhero, cowboy, and astronaut. These NFT trading cards, initially priced at $99 each, made their debut in December 2022, as part of his ambitious 2024 White House comeback campaign following his 2020 loss to President Joe Biden.

Cathie Wood's Ark 21Shares Bitcoin ETF Application Decision Pushed Out by SEC (2 minute read)
Amidst the financial giants like BlackRock and Fidelity Investments vying for a spot on the ETF stage, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has decided to extend its spotlight on the Ark 21Shares bitcoin exchange-traded fund application. This delay, which is a common occurrence in the realm of regulatory reviews, has pushed the decision timeline further out. The SEC, in its usual bureaucratic stride, allows for a comprehensive public input period spanning three weeks on the Ark 21Shares Bitcoin ETF proposal, with an extra five weeks tacked on for responses to the initial comments. The regulatory clock continues ticking, with the SEC having a 240-day window to finalize its verdict from the moment it begins its assessment. Highlighting their case, the filing asserts that the proposal aligns with Section 6(b)(5) of the Act, underlining the significance of the CME Bitcoin Futures market as a well-regulated entity. It also suggests that concerns over potential manipulation have been mitigated sufficiently, overshadowed by the prospect of bolstering investor safeguards through the ETF's approval.

Tech

Zunami Protocol Loses Over $2.1 Million in Price Manipulation Hack (3 minute read)
Over the weekend, the Zunami Protocol, a DeFi platform, found itself on the wrong side of a hack, as their Curve Finance liquidity pool took a hit, resulting in a loss exceeding $2.1 million. Security watchdogs PeckShield and Ironblocks were quick to report the breach, casting a spotlight on the incident. Zunami Protocol, operating through a DAO, had been proudly flaunting its high annual percentage yields (APY) and a hefty $5 million locked in its stablecoin staking hub called the "zStables" pool on Curve. The attacker executed a cunning maneuver involving a flash loan, tweaking the price, and orchestrating trades within Zunami's domain before departing with a significant haul of 1,152 ETH.

Visa launches card payments for on-chain transaction fees (2 minute read)
Visa has been delving into the realm of blockchain technology to find a way for users to settle those pesky blockchain gas fees with their trusty credit or debit cards. This brainwave has led them to employ smart contracts, allowing users to deftly cover gas fees using regular fiat currency tied to their linked Visa card. The goal? Making it unnecessary for folks to wrangle with holding crypto just for the sake of footing blockchain-related bills. Visa takes the backstage complexity in stride, orchestrating a seamless process where users can elegantly tap their Visa card to tackle those gas fees. This inventive strategy hinges on Ethereum's ERC-4337 standard and introduces a clever "paymaster" smart contract that carries out the backend magic. To put their concept through its paces, Visa's crafty engineers cooked up a successful trial run on Ethereum's Goerli test network.

Misc

‘Sucks for Sam’ Says Martin Shkreli as Bankman-Fried Is Booked Into Brooklyn Prison (4 minute read)
FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried's once-comfy confines have shifted dramatically as he got transported to a New York detention facility on Friday, following the revocation of his bail. His new digs, quite a departure from his previous spot in his parents' Stanford University campus abode in California, mark his transition from house arrest to the less cushy surroundings of the Metropolitan Detention Center (MDC) in Brooklyn. The journey was spurred by U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan's suspicion that Bankman-Fried might have meddled with witnesses, leading to his move to MDC. “Pharma Bro” Martin Shkreli was also held at MDC Brooklyn before he was convicted in 2018 of a multi-million dollar fraud scheme. In 2017, he told The Tab to “avoid this place,” recalling a time he almost got into a fight while waiting in line to use a computer.

Sotheby's becomes defendant in Bored Apes-MoonPay lawsuit as confidential witness added (3 minute read)
In the ongoing saga of a class action lawsuit that's painting a rather colorful picture involving MoonPay, the Bored Ape Yacht Club maestro Yuga Labs, and even some celebrity guests, there's a new twist. The lawsuit's script has been edited to include the story of a "confidential witness," who reportedly had a backstage pass as an employee in MoonPay's compliance department. This witness, peering into the crypto limelight, reportedly grew wary of MoonPay's actions after the gossip mill churned out tales of celebrities facing legal music for allegedly promoting crypto assets. Auction house Sotheby's also secured itself a spot on this star-studded legal stage as a defendant.

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