FTX and CFTC Reach $4 Billion Settlement Agreement

FTX, CFTC Agree to $4 Billion Claim Settlement in Bankruptcy

FTX Trading Ltd. reached a $4 billion bankruptcy settlement with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, resolving massive fraud claims against the collapsed cryptocurrency firm through a customer-friendly deal.

The agreement, presented to the US Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware, would cap the CFTC’s $52.2 billion claim against FTX and related entities at a significantly reduced amount and advance the companies’ bid to repay customers and exit Chapter 11.

Self-proclaimed bitcoin inventor Craig Wright referred to prosecutors

Craig Wright, an Australian man who claimed to be the inventor of bitcoin was on Tuesday referred to British prosecutors for committing alleged perjury.

On Tuesday, British High Court Judge James Mellor decided to refer a case against Wright’s claim to be the inventor of bitcoin to the Crown Prosecution Service — which is the organization that prosecutes criminal cases investigated by the police in England and Wales.

The CPS will now consider whether Wright should be prosecuted for what Mellor called “wholescale perjury and forgery of documents,” and decide on whether a warrant for arrest and possible extradition is needed.

Memecoins are not securities

“Memecoins are seemingly the antithesis of investment contract securities,” Selig explained. “People buy memecoins to express a viewpoint, be a part of a community, speculate on the attention value of cat pictures or for other entertainment reasons.”

The SEC’s view is essentially that it is illegal to publicly offer a cryptocurrency that represents an investment of money in a common enterprise with profits to come solely from the efforts of others. But an investment of money in nothing, with profits to come solely from memes, is fine. So you get the crypto projects that regulation allows. The SEC encourages crypto to be dumb, and crypto obliges.

BlackRock’s Larry Fink: Bitcoin Is ‘Legitimate Financial Instrument’

BlackRock CEO Larry Fink reiterated his belief that Bitcoin is an asset that everybody should consider holding as part of their portfolio.

“My opinion five years ago was wrong,” Fink said in an interview with CNBC. “I believe bitcoin is a legitimate financial instrument.”

***

Bitcoin, Fink continued, should be part of every investor’s portfolio as it potentially allows for uncorrelated returns and provides financial control.

Trump’s VP pick JD Vance is first Bitcoin holder on a Presidential ticket

If Donald Trump wins the presidential election in November, America will have its first crypto Vice President. Trump announced on Monday afternoon that Bitcoin-owning Ohio Senator JD Vance will be his running mate “after lengthy deliberation and thought,” according to a post on his Truth Social network.

The senator, former venture capitalist and author of Hillbilly Elegy—a memoir of his white, working class upbringing in Ohio’s rust-belt—has personal stakes in the legitimizing of crypto. Vance owns between $100,000 and $250,000 in Bitcoin on the cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase, according to a financial disclosure by Vance last year. In addition, Vance owns a brokerage account with Robinhood, up to $250,000 in a gold ETF, up to $100,000 in a crude oil ETF and up to $250,000 in a checking account with brokerage Charles Schwab.