Crypto SWOT: Sam Bankman-Fried’s lawyer says his client was the “worst” witness he has ever seen

Strengths

Of the cryptocurrencies tracked by CoinMarketCap, the best performer for the week was Bonk, rising 128%.
The amount of funds that crypto projects have lost to hackers has declined by about half to around $1.7 billion so far this year, reports Bloomberg. This comes amid improved security measures and an uptick in law enforcement actions.
A former private banking executive at Credit Suisse has launched a crypto trading venue targeting banks and securities firms as clients. David Riegelnig co-founded the Zurich-based startup Rulematch, which offers a crypto trading venue for financial institutions only, writes Bloomberg.

Weaknesses

Of the cryptocurrencies tracked by CoinMarketCap, the worst performer for the week was Rocket Pool, down 14.68%.
Cathie Woods’ investment management firm ARK Invest sold Coinbase stock for a third straight day, as shares held steady within 5% of the year’s high, according to Bloomberg.
Blockchain technology will be used to verify the real-name identities of China’s 1.4 billion people, according to an announcement from the Blockchain-based service network. This move is likely to spark concern among data privacy advocates, writes Bloomberg.

Opportunities

Deutsche Bank’s DWS group, Dutch market maker Flow Traders, and crypto fund manager Galaxy Digital Holdings, are planning to form a company to issue a euro-denominated stablecoin with the goal of driving more mainstream adoption of tokenized assets. The company will be based in Frankfurt and led by Alexander Hoptner, a veteran exchange executive and former CEO of crypto platform BitMex, writes Bloomberg.
Coinbase Global is rolling out spot crypto trading on its international exchange as part of a global expansion, saying some users are wary of U.S. venues due to the country’s uncertain regulatory backdrop, Bloomberg reports.
Line Next, the South Korea-based NFT unit of a joint venture between SoftBank and Naver, has secured $140 million from a consortium led by Crescendo Equity Partners, even as hype around the digital collectibles has faded, writes Bloomberg.

Threats

Sam Bankman-Fried’s (SBF) lawyer says his client was the “worst” witness he has ever seen, going off-script when he took the stand. That’s the view of David Mills, the behind-the-scenes architect of the FTX co-founder’s defense at trial, writes Bloomberg.
KuCoin one of the largest and most popular cryptocurrency exchanges, has agreed to pay $22 million in fines and refunds and stop trading in New York to resolve a lawsuit by the state. The payments will resolve claims that KuCoin failed to register as a securities and commodities broker-dealer and falsely represented itself as a crypto exchange, Bloomberg reports.
The latest crypto hack involved one of the industry's top names in security: hardware wallet-maker Ledger. The Paris-based startup saw its Ledger Connect Kit software compromised, leading to hundreds of thousands of dollars being drained from users’ wallets early Thursday, writes Bloomberg.

Frank E. Holmes

Frank Holmes is CEO and chief investment officer of U.S. Global Investors, Inc., a boutique investment advisory firm based in San Antonio that manages domestic and offshore funds specializing in the natural resources and emerging markets sectors. The company’s no-load mutual funds include the Global Resources Fund (ticker PSPFX), the World Precious Minerals Fund (UNWPX) and the Gold Shares Fund (USERX).

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opinion

Crypto SWOT: Sam Bankman-Fried’s lawyer says his client was the “worst” witness he has ever seen

By Frank E. Holmes

Frank E. Holmes

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