It’s the weekend edition of CoinMarketRecap! Connor Sephton and Molly Jane Zuckerman chew over some of the biggest crypto stories from the past seven days. You can find us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Google Podcasts, too!
Good Morning America’s George Stephanopoulos has flown to The Bahamas for a sitdown interview with Sam Bankman-Fried. The embattled FTX founder argued he’s nothing like Bernie Madoff — and was asked whether he knew customer funds were improperly mixed with Alameda’s. He insisted he didn’t know this was the case. SBF admitted he didn’t spend time trying to manage risk at the doomed exchange — and conceded he was “cocky.” The 30-year-old also denied being in a polyamorous relationship with Alameda Research’s CEO Caroline Ellison. “I lived with a bunch of monogamous couples when I was here, some of whom got married over the course of their time here. I don’t know of any polyamorous relationships within FTX,” he said.
The U.S. Department of Justice has asked a Delaware bankruptcy court judge to appoint an independent examiner to investigate the collapse of FTX. A filing says: “FTX’s approximately one million worldwide creditors, outside investors, and regulators are demanding answers to what happened and how.” Officials said they had confidence in the qualifications of FTX’s new CEO John Ray — but his “objectives may not necessarily be aligned with those of all other interested parties.” They went on to argue that an independent examiner “would be able to act as a true neutral as to all affected parties” — meaning that it “likely would enjoy broader acceptance and credibility.”
In Washington, FTX’s demise has left politicians rather confused. Sam Bankman-Fried spent tens of millions of dollars calling for a comprehensive regulatory framework for the crypto industry — pushing for a bill that his company “could never comply with.” The Digital Commodities Consumer Protection Act would give the CFTC far broader regulatory control over crypto. Describing what’s needed to prevent an FTX-style collapse happening again, CFTC chairman Rostin Benham said: “We need registration of exchanges. We need surveillance of market activity. We need direct relationships with custodians who are holding customer money so that we can prohibit and prevent money moving around.”
Crypto’s ongoing fight with Apple’s App Store policy of collecting a 30% cut of every sale just knocked NFTs out of the Coinbase Wallet. On Thursday, the @CoinbaseWallet Twitter account announced that the iPhone version of the Wallet “can’t send NFTs on Coinbase Wallet iOS anymore.” Apple argues that the gas fees required to transfer non-fungible tokens should be paid for through their in-app purchase system — despite the fact that this would be impossible to achieve. “This is akin to Apple trying to take a cut of fees for every email that gets sent over open Internet protocols,” the exchange has warned. Apple has been accused of protecting profits “at the expense of consumer investment in NFTs and developer innovation.”
Thanks for reading! Have a great day — more news tomorrow!
