The biggest news in the cryptoverse on January 12 saw former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried comment on a potential FTX recovery and tell his side of the story. Elsewhere, Nexo has been accused of financial crimes and his offices were raided. Lido is accumulating ETH staked, while Binance is doubling down on Fetch.ai. Also, the investigation into Genesis and its GUSD stablecoin, along with reports that the company owes creditors $3 billion.
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FTX recovery possible if sold as a going concern per SBF
Sam Bankman-Fried confirmed that he still believe there is a future for FTX in a tweet response to a Twitter user WassieAttorney. SBF said: “I think [customers] being made substantially complete is a real possibility.”
SBF agreed with the Twitter user who said that “a sale of the FTX exchange as a going concern is viable” and that they were “optimistic of a recovery” regarding FTX.
SBF said selling FTX as a going concern “is and always has been the best recovery scenario for clients.” He also referenced the ongoing argument that FTX.US should be able to return funds to clients as it was allegedly solvent at the time of the Chapter 11 filing.
SBF Reveals Their Side of FTX Story, Blames CZ, Targeted Attack Against FTX
Former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) released a Substack report detailing his account’s version of what happened at FTX.
SBF claimed that “no funds were stolen” and attributed the collapse to Alameda’s inability to adequately hedge against a market downturn.
Nexo co-founder says financial crime allegations are “absurd”
Nexo co-founder and managing partner Antoni Trenchev confirmed that authorities are present at one of Nexo’s offices in Bulgaria following local reports that the Sofia office was raided in relation to “financial crimes”.
Trenchev said CryptoSlate that “Bulgaria is the most corrupt country in the EU” and called the accusations “absurd” since Nexo is “one of the strictest entities regarding KYC/AML.”
Nexo offices raided due to financial crime allegations
Nexo’s offices in Sofia were raided by authorities and “foreign agents” in connection with financial crimes, according to local media standard news.
The report claims that investigations into Nexo began several months ago after “foreign services” alerted the Bulgarian authorities to suspicious transactions. He added that the nature of these transactions was related to circumventing Russian sanctions.
Standart News also claimed that the company’s owners have embezzled user funds to the tune of billions of dollars.
Nexo-linked addresses see outflows of nearly $9 million amid FUD surge
On-chain data shows that addresses related to crypto lender Nexo are registering exits following financial crime news research by the Bulgarian government.
The dashboard of crypto intelligence platform Arkham Intelligence showed that the crypto lender had seen outflows of approximately $9 million since the news broke.
A breakdown of the transactions showed that Nexo’s address, 0xFfe, saw the most withdrawals.
DCG struggles to raise funds to cover Genesis’ $3B debt load
Beleaguered crypto lender Genesis owes more than $3 billion to its creditors, the Financial Times reported on January 12, citing sources familiar with the matter.
The lender owes $900 million to users of the Gemini’s Earn program, more than $303 million to Dutch exchange Bitvavo, as well as money to users of crypto savings firm Donut.
On January 10, Bitvavo rejected DCG’s proposal to pay 70% of its debt.
Genesis is in talks with investment bank Moelis to explore its options, but attempts at external financing have it has failed so far. Genesis parent company Digital Currency Group (DCG) is trying to offload its venture capital portfolio to raise funds, according to the FT report.
Ethereum Stake Surpasses 16 Million, Over 70% of Participants Lose
The amount of Ethereum staked (ETH) has grown 18% to more than 16 million since the network completed its transition to a proof-of-stake (PoS) network last year, according to CryptoSlate data.
The 16 million ETH staked equals roughly 13.28% of the total ETH supply, with a value of $22.42 billion, 500,213 total validators, and 87,121 distinct depositor addresses, according to Dune Analytics. data.
Lido is the dominant staking platform, controlling 29.08% of staked Ethereum. Around 4.65 million ETH, worth $6.8 billion, has been staked through it, according to the official Lido. website,
FET becomes reserve asset for Binance as AI token popularity rises
Get.ai(FET) has become a Proof of Reserves (PoR) listed token for a number of exchanges, including Binance, Huobi, and Bitfinex, according to data from Glassnode.
Artificial intelligence (AI) the popularity of the token increased in the last three months, leading to significant increases in the price of the AI token and active addresses, according to CryptoSlate data.
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Research: Gemini, GUSD Begin to Lose Followers as Metrics Hit Record Lows
Glassnode data analyzed by CryptoSlate shows that the US-based crypto exchange Gemini and its stablecoin Gemini Dollar (GUSD) are starting to lose followers and community trust as metrics drop to all-time lows.
The number of active addresses holding GUSD has dropped to its 2020 levels. The chart below represents the number of active wallets since the beginning of 2019.
The number of wallets began to increase in late 2020 and reached almost 1,200 by the end of 2021. Since then, active addresses holding GUSD have dropped 91.6%, falling back to 100 in January 2023.
The BUSD balance on exchanges also saw a significant decline. The chart below shows the balance of BUSD held on exchanges since the beginning of 2019.
cryptomarket
Over the past 24 hours, Bitcoin (BTC) is up 7.41% to trade at $18,850, while Ethereum (ETH) is up 6.43% at $1,427.
Biggest winners (24h)
- XYO (XYO): 21.73%
- Avalanche (AVAX): 19.57%
- Locus Chain (LOCUS): 14.12
The biggest losers (24h)
- USD Neutrino (USDN): -11.4%
- Voyager Token (VOX): -10.73%
- iExec RLC (RLC): -8.02%
