🕵️ SBFs new SCAM?

Good morning.

It’s been a wild ride since Monday, where the meme coin we covered $BALD, has since been involved in a huge market scandal, with people even claiming that SBF was behind the coin (who knows?!).

Michael Saylor is apparently preparing to buy even more Bitcoin, he wants to raise up to $750 million by selling stock, which has had a positive effect on Bitcoins price.

And the WSJ has reported that Binance is still secretly operating in China, where crypto trading is banned!

Let’s dive in. 👇

Markets

Bitcoin Whale Michael Saylor Might Buy a Lot More BTC (2 minute read)
MicroStrategy, the software developer known for its massive bitcoin stash, is looking to raise up to $750 million by selling more stock. What's the grand plan with all that cash? Well, they're itching to buy even more bitcoin, among other exciting ventures. The news of this ambitious move was spilled in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission late on Tuesday. Bitcoin's price couldn't resist the temptation and rose to around $29,800, up from $29,200. Chairman Michael Saylor has been snapping up billions of dollars worth of it since the pandemic hit.

Is Sam Bankman-Fried Tied to a New Apparent Crypto Scam Called BALD? (3 minute read)
There’s fresh drama surrounding $BALD, a short-lived and heavily hyped cryptocurrency. Rumors are swirling about the possible involvement of Sam Bankman-Fried, with on-chain data suggesting interactions between BALD's deployer contract and a wallet connected to Alameda Research, the trading company led by Bankman-Fried. With the promise of meme coin fortunes, traders poured in a whopping $68 million in ether and generated over $200 million in trading volumes. The coin's market cap skyrocketed to $85 million, and some traders managed to turn a mere $500 investment into jaw-dropping $1.4 million gains. But alas, the meme coin magic didn't last long. On Monday, BALD deployers decided to pull the rug out from under the token's trading pairs, removing millions of dollars in liquidity without any warning. Panic ensued, and holders rushed for the exits, causing prices to plummet by a staggering 90%.

Binance denies reports of $90B in crypto trades in China (2 minute read)
It seems that Binance, the popular cryptocurrency exchange, has been defying the odds and continuing its operations in China, despite the country's ban on cryptocurrencies. The Wall Street Journal reports that the exchange has been facilitating billions of dollars worth of transactions on a monthly basis. With insider information and access to "internal figures," the Journal states that users traded a staggering $90 billion in cryptocurrency-related assets within China during just one month. However, as these claims came to light, Binance promptly denied any business activity within China. According to a Binance representative's statement to Cointelegraph, the Binance.com website is blocked in China and remains inaccessible to users in the country.

Tech

Former Mt. Gox CEO breaks silence on 1Feex address (2 minute read)
Mark Karpelès, the former CEO of the now-defunct Mt. Gox exchange, has officially declared that the funds in the 1Feex address are considered "stolen property." According to Karpelès, a whopping 79,956.55 Bitcoins were sent to this wallet without proper authorization from the exchange back on March 1, 2011. He's adamant that these assets rightfully belong to Mt. Gox and its creditors. In June, the US Department of Justice (DOJ) revealed charges against two Russian nationals, Alexey Bilyuchenko and Aleksandr Verner, who allegedly had connections to the infamous Mt. Gox hack. These charges included the laundering of around 647,000 BTC and involvement in other illicit activities within the crypto space.

Kenya Suspends Worldcoin Operations Amid Privacy Concerns (2 minute read)
The cryptocurrency project Worldcoin is facing additional attention in Kenya as the interior ministry decided to hit the pause button on it. In a Facebook announcement, the ministry mentioned that the suspension was taken as a precautionary measure to prioritize public safety. They want to make sure everything is risk-free before moving forward. Worldcoin, co-founded by Sam Altman of OpenAI fame, has been raising eyebrows, especially among privacy watchdogs. The project's unique approach involves scanning human irises to offer a digital passport, which has sparked some hefty scrutiny.

Misc

FTX 2.0 would be a bad idea, says Kraken co-founder Jesse Powell (3 minute read)
Jesse Powell, the co-founder of crypto exchange Kraken, didn't hold back when expressing his doubts about FTX 2.0's revival plans. In a tweet, he questioned the feasibility of resurrecting the now-bankrupt exchange, citing multiple concerns, including the absence of a team, technology, licenses, and banking, along with a tarnished brand. Powell suggested that the trustee should simply auction off the domain and trademark to the highest bidder, considering anything beyond that as a "fee extraction attack on delusional creditors." In June, FTX CEO John J. Ray III had mentioned the company's efforts to solicit interest for the reboot of FTX.com, which would likely involve rebranding.

Three Arrows Capital Co-Founder Kyle Davies Says He Doesn't Have to Answer to US Courts (2 minute read)
Kyle Davies, co-founder of the now-collapsed crypto hedge fund Three Arrows Capital (3AC), revealed that he renounced his American citizenship, cleverly dodging the need to answer to U.S. courts. According to court documents filed on Tuesday, Davies became a permanent resident of Singapore in 2017. To comply with Singapore's policy against dual citizenship, he renounced his American citizenship upon getting married. In a humorous declaration, Davies clarified that he is not subjecting himself to the jurisdiction of the United States courts. Three Arrows Capital faced a tumultuous journey, eventually going bankrupt last year after a court in the British Virgin Islands ordered its liquidation. The Singapore-based firm's unfortunate downfall was largely attributed to its investment in the crypto project Terra, which suffered a major collapse in May 2022.

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