opinion

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

Kitco Media
By Frank E Holmes
Published:
Updated:
Crypto SWOT: Sam Bankman-Fried’s lawyer says his client was the “worst” witness he has ever seen teaser image

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.

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  • 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.
Kitco Media

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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