It was a big week for FTX-related developments, after scant movement the week prior. For 5+ weeks onlookers have asked why Sam Bankman-Fried wasn’t behind bars, why he was able to be freely giving interviews and talking on Twitter Spaces. Well: Now he’s behind bars. SBF got arrested and charged this week, and the charges and lawsuits keep piling up from the DOJ, SEC, and CFTC. Elsewhere in crypto, Donald Trump did NFTs.
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Donald Trump released his first NFT project on Thursday, and despite being widely mocked across the internet (and on late night TV), the project managed to sell through all 44,000 NFTs released to the public. The digital trading cards offered potential perks to buyers, such as a chance to win a meet-and-greet or dinner with Trump.
After selling for $99 a pop, the NFTs were going for twice as much or more as of Friday, with some holders claiming they’d bought them as a joke. The launch was very rocky, with buyers complaining of issues accessing the created Polygon wallets, allegations of stolen artwork, and suspicions that the project minted an outsized portion of the rare NFTs for itself before the public sale. In other words, typical Trump.
💰 Coin of the Moment
Remember NBA Top Shot? FLOW, the native token of the Flow blockchain Top Shot uses, is down bad. FLOW has fallen 29% over the last week and nearly 41% over the last 30 days as trading on its top platforms declines. It set an all-time low price of just $0.73 this week, down 98% from its April 2021 peak.
Overall NFT trading on Flow fell more than 50% in each of the last two months, while Top Shot notched its worst month in nearly two years in November with just $2.1 million in trades. Dapper Labs, which created both Flow and Top Shot, laid off 22% of its staff in November.
SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce has been an outspoken advocate for crypto and a candid critic of her own agency’s approach to regulating crypto markets. In an extensive chat with Dan Roberts and Stacy Elliott she discussed FTX, Gary Gensler, DeFi, and the problems with the Howey Test. Don’t miss this conversation for the inside take on the SEC’s thinking on crypto—straight from the source.
