Jan. 12 was the biggest news in cryptoverse. Sam Bankman-Fried, former CEO of FTX, commented on a possible FTX recover and told his side. Nexo has been charged with financial crimes and its offices raided. Lido is accumulating staked ETH and Binance is doubling up on Fetch.ai. Plus, research on Genesis and its GUSD stablecoin — alongside reports that the company owes creditors $3 billion.
Top Stories by CryptoSlate
FTX recovery is possible if the company is sold as a going concern under SBF
In a tweet response to WassieLawyer, Sam Bankman-Fried stated that he still believes there’s a future for FTX. SBF said: “I think that [customers] being made substantially whole is a real possibility.”
SBF was agreeing with the Twitter user who said “a sale of the FTX exchange as a going concern is viable” and they were “bullish on recovery” in relation to FTX.
SBF said that selling FTX as a functioning business “is and always has been the best recovery scenario for customers.” He also referenced the ongoing argument that FTX.US should be able to return funds to customers as it was allegedly solvent at the time of the Chapter 11 filing.
SBF reveals his side on the FTX story, blames CZ and launches a targeted attack against FTX
Sam Bankman Fried (SBF), former CEO of FTX launched a Substack article in which he presented his version of the events at FTX.
SBF claimed that “no funds were stolen” and attributed the collapse to Alameda’s inability to hedge against a market crash adequately.
Nexo co-founder calls financial crimes allegations ‘absurd’
Nexo’s 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 told CryptoSlate that “Bulgaria is the most corrupt country in the EU” and called the allegations “absurd” as Nexo is “one of the most stringent entities with regards to KYC/AML.”
Nexo offices raided in response to allegations of financial crimes
Nexo’s Sofia offices were raided by authorities and “foreign agents” in relation to financial crimes, according to local media outlet Standart News.
The report claims investigations into Nexo began several months ago after “foreign services” alerted Bulgarian authorities to suspicious transactions. It stated that these transactions were intended to circumvent Russian sanctions.
Standart News also made the claim that the company owners have appropriated users’ funds to the tune of billions of dollars.
Nexo-linked addresses experience outflows of nearly 9M in rising FUD
On-chain data reveals that addresses linked to crypto lender Nexo are seeing outflows in the wake of news about financial crimes investigations being conducted by the Bulgarian government.
Arkham Intelligence dashboard, a crypto intelligence platform, showed that the crypto lender had seen outflows in excess of $9 million since news broke.
A breakdown of the transactions showed that Nexo’s address, 0xFfe, saw the majority of the withdrawals.
DCG scrambling to raise funds to cover Genesis’ $3B debt burden
The Financial Times reported that Genesis, a troubled crypto lender, owes more than $3 billion to its creditors on Jan. 12, citing sources familiar.
The lender owes $900 million to users of Gemini’s Earn program, over $303 million to Dutch exchange Bitvavo, as well as money to users of crypto savings firm Donut.
On Jan. 10, Bitvavo rejected DCG’s proposal to repay 70% of its debt.
Genesis is currently in talks with Moelis investment bank to explore its options, but all external funding attempts have failed. Genesis’ parent company Digital Currency Group (DCG) is seeking to unload its venture capital portfolio to raise funds, according to the FT report.
Staked Ethereum surpasses 16M and over 70% of stakers lose
The amount of staked Ethereum (ETH) has risen by 18% to over 16 million since the network completed its transition to a proof-of-stake (PoS) network last year, according to CryptoSlate data.
The 16 million staked ETH equates to roughly 13.28% of ETH’s total supply — worth $22.42 billion — 500,213 total validators and 87,121 distinct depositor addresses, according to Dune analytics data.
Lido controls 29.08% staked Ethereum. Around 4.65 million ETH — worth $6.8 billion — have been staked through it, according to the offical Lido website,
FET is now a reserve asset in Binance, as AI token popularity rises
According to Glassnode data, Fetch.ai has been listed on Proof of Reserves for a variety of exchanges including Binance and Huobi.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) token popularity surged over the last three months — leading to significant increases in AI token price and active addresses, according to CryptoSlate data.
Research Highlight
Research: GUSD, Gemini lose their followers as metrics reach all-time lows
Glassnode data analyzed by CryptoSlate shows that the U.S.-based crypto exchange Gemini and its stablecoin Gemini Dollar (GUSD) are starting to lose followers and the community’s trust as metrics fall to all-time lows.
GUSD is now held by fewer active addresses than it was in 2020. Below is the chart that shows the number of active wallets since the start of 2019.
At the end 2020, the number of wallets began to rise and reached nearly 1200 by the end 2021. Since then, active addresses that hold GUSD fell by 91.6% and retreated back to 100 in January 2023.
The BUSD balance on exchanges also saw a significant decline. Below is a chart showing the BUSD balance on exchanges since the start of 2019.
Crypto Market
Bitcoin (BTC), which traded at $18,850, rose 7.41% in the last 24 hour, while Ethereum (ETH), traded at $11,427, up 6.43%.
Biggest Gainers (24h).
- XYO (XYO): 21.73%
- Avalanche (AVAX): 19.57%
- Locus Chain (LOCUS: 14.12
Biggest Losers (24h)
- Neutrino USD (USDN): -11.4%
- Voyager Token (VOX): -10.73%
- iExec RLC (RLC): -8.02%
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