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Binance's Australian derivatives license was canceled at the crypto exchange's own request, the Australian Securities & Investments Commission said Thursday, after the regulator had begun a "targeted review of Binance" in February. Binance's exchange token was down just under 0.5% Thursday morning. Binance's regulatory scrutiny has been mounting in recent weeks and months. An apparently inadvertent compliance issue led to the Australian regulatory probe. Australia's top securities regulator has had a challenging relationship with the crypto industry in recent months, pursuing enforcement actions against several firms which the regulator alleges have violated Australian law.

"Our 2-year investigation has concluded that Block has systematically taken advantage of the demographics it claims to be helping," the short seller said in its report. Up to 35% of Cash App's revenue is derived from interchange fees, Hindenburg alleged. But Block avoids that regulatory cap imposed on large financial institutions by routing the revenue through a small bank, Hindenburg alleged. The small-bank routing method is one employed by Block rival PayPal , the short seller claimed, and which prompted a Securities and Exchange Commission probe. Hindenburg took issue with Cash App's practices during the pandemic, when the government issued stimulus checks to qualified American adults.

The Securities and Exchange Commission issued crypto exchange Coinbase a Wells notice, warning the company that it identified potential violations of U.S. securities law. "Based on discussions with the Staff, the Company believes these potential enforcement actions would relate to aspects of the Company's spot market, staking service Coinbase Earn, Coinbase Prime and Coinbase Wallet," Coinbase said in a regulatory filing. A Wells notice is typically one of the final steps before the SEC formally issues charges. Coinbase described the investigation as "cursory," and said the Wells notice provided relatively little information about potential violations. The SEC sent a Wells notice to stablecoin issuer Paxos in February.

The proposed amendments to federal custody rules would "expand the scope" to include any client assets under the custody of an investment advisor. The move poses a fresh threat to crypto exchange custody programs, as other federal regulators actively discourage custodians like banks from holding customer crypto assets. "Make no mistake: Today's rule, the 2009 rule, covers a significant amount of crypto assets," Gensler said in a statement. "As the release states, 'most crypto assets are likely to be funds or crypto asset securities covered by the current rule.' In its most recent earnings report, the exchange specified that it keeps customer crypto assets "bankruptcy remote" from hypothetical general creditors, but noted that the "novelty" of crypto assets meant it was uncertain how courts would treat them.

Crypto exchange Kraken will shutter its U.S. cryptocurrency staking operation and pay a $30 million fine to settle an enforcement action alleging it sold unregistered securities, the Securities and Exchange Commission said Thursday. U.S. investors had crypto assets worth over $2.7 billion on Kraken's platform, the SEC alleged, earning Kraken around $147 million in revenue, according to the SEC complaint. With crypto staking, investors typically vault their crypto assets with a blockchain validator, which verifies the accuracy of transactions on the blockchain. The SEC alleged that, to incentivize users, Kraken promised investors in the staking program "enhanced liquidity and immediate rewards." Shares of crypto exchange Coinbase slid sharply on Thursday after CEO Brian Armstrong warned that potential SEC action in retail crypto staking would be a "terrible path."

The law firms that billed FTX are Sullivan & Cromwell, Landis Rath & Cobb, and Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan. Landis Rath & Cobb and Sullivan & Cromwell, FTX's primary legal firms, billed the company a combined $10.7 million for over 8,400 hours of work. Landis Rath & Cobb billed $1.16 million for work done between Nov. 11 and Nov. 30. Full compensation for legal and advisor fees will not occur until a final fee application is filed, whenever FTX's bankruptcy saga concludes. Lawyers for Sullivan & Cromwell did $40,000 worth of work just to appear in FTX's first bankruptcy hearing on Nov. 22, based on court filings of hours billed and hourly rates.

The restructuring deal and recovery plan were announced during a status conference for crypto lender Genesis, which filed for bankruptcy protection in New York on Jan. 19. The deal, cut between Genesis, DCG, Gemini, and Genesis' range of creditors, is largely predicated around a refinancing of Genesis' loans to DCG. DCG will also contribute to Genesis "all equity" in Genesis' trading subsidiary, which remained operational during the bankruptcy. As part of the recovery plan, that promissory note will be equitized, meaning it will be converted into something of substantive value, typically equity, CoinDesk reported. When Genesis halted its lending business following the collapse of FTX in November, Gemini Earn was forced to temporarily shutter its operations, as well.

The balance shown in the unredacted BlockFi filing includes $415.9 million worth of assets linked to FTX and $831.3 million in loans to Alameda. Both of Bankman-Fried's firms were wrapped into FTX's November bankruptcy, which sent the crypto markets reeling. Bankrupt crypto lender BlockFi had over $1.2 billion in assets tied up with Sam Bankman-Fried's FTX and Alameda Research, according to financials that had previously been redacted but were mistakenly uploaded on Tuesday without the redactions. In all, the crypto lender has unadjusted assets worth almost $2.7 billion, with close to half tied to FTX and Alameda, the presentation shows. After all adjustments, BlockFi has just shy of $1.3 billion in assets, only $668.8 million of which is described as "Liquid / To Be Distributed."

Federal prosecutors seized nearly $700 million in cash and assets connected to Sam Bankman-Fried, primarily in the form of Robinhood shares that were owned by the FTX founder, a court filing revealed Friday. Bankman-Fried was arrested on criminal fraud charges in December and is released on a $250 million bond as he awaits trial. Federal prosecutors have alleged that the Robinhood shares were purchased using allegedly stolen customer funds. Bankman-Fried has denied misappropriating customer assets. Those three Binance accounts were the only seized assets that did not have values attached to them.

The company listed over 100,000 creditors in a "mega" bankruptcy filing, with aggregate liabilities ranging from $1.2 billion to $11 billion dollars, according to bankruptcy documents. In a statement, the company noted that the companies were only involved in Genesis' crypto lending business. Genesis listed a $765.9 million loan payable from Gemini in Thursday's bankruptcy filing. Other sizeable claims included a $78 million loan payable from Donut, a high-yield, decentralized platform, and a VanEck fund, with a $53.1 million loan payable. The bankruptcy puts Genesis alongside other fallen crypto exchanges including BlockFi, FTX, Celsius, and Voyager.

On a larger exchange like Binance or Coinbase , for example, many customers opt to let the platform custody their crypto tokens. In the four years that Bitzlato operated, only $52 million moved directly from the exchange to Binance, the same dataset shows. CNBC reviewed transaction data for the ten largest recipients of Bitzlato outflows, which collected over $45 million in Bitzlato-originated funds. Those wallets also received millions more in funds from other exchanges, including Huobi, FTX, Poloniex, Nexo, and WhiteBIT, a Ukrainian exchange. We also asked whether Binance was aware that Bitzlato was allegedly used to launder money and, if so, why funds from Bitzlato were custodied on its platform.

Former FTX chief executive Sam Bankman-Fried (C) arrives to enter a plea before US District Judge Lewis Kaplan in the Manhattan federal court, New York, January 3, 2023. In a Thursday morning Substack post, FTX co-founder Sam Bankman-Fried denied allegations that he stole billions in user funds and suggested that Binance CEO Changpeng "CZ" Zhao conducted a monthslong effort to bring down FTX. It is Bankman-Fried's first significant response to federal allegations that he directed an $8 billion fraud that destroyed his $32 billion crypto conglomerate. In the beginning of 2022, for example, Bankman-Fried says he estimated Alameda's total net assets at $99 billion. By October, he believed that his hedge fund's net assets had fallen to $10 billion.

Silbert is the founder of Digital Currency Group (DCG), a crypto conglomerate that includes the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust and trading platform Genesis. Winklevoss, along with his brother Tyler, co-founded Gemini, a popular crypto exchange that, unlike many of its peers, is subject to New York banking regulation. Winklevoss and Silbert were linked through an offering called Earn, a nearly two-year-old product from Gemini that promoted returns of up to 8% on customer deposits. With Earn, Gemini loaned client money to Genesis for placement across various crypto trading desks and borrowers. Silbert has avoided responding directly to Winklevoss' latest accusation, though the company has taken up his defense.

FTX Ventures was described as a $2 billion venture fund, in its press release with Dave. FTX Ventures was allegedly part of that scheme. But the investments appear to be the first identified examples of customer money being used by FTX and Bankman-Fried for venture funding. In explicitly linking the two $100 million investments to customer money, the SEC has raised the possibility that they'll be prospects for clawbacks. FTX's $100 million investment was through a convertible note, a short-term loan of cash that FTX could convert into shares at a later date.

Federal prosecutors endorsed plans to allow two former Sam Bankman-Fried lieutenants, Gary Wang and Caroline Ellison, to post bail after both pleaded guilty to supporting a multibillion-dollar fraud allegedly perpetrated by former FTX CEO Bankman-Fried, court documents show. Wang and Ellison would be required to post $250,000 in bail each, surrender their passports and restrict their travel to the continental United States. In addition to admitting their complicity in the collapse of FTX, Wang and Ellison signed consent orders with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, a civil concession that Bankman-Fried has yet to make. Wang, 29, and Ellison, 28, both pleaded guilty to fraud charges stemming from their leadership positions at FTX and Alameda, respectively. In a prerecorded statement Wednesday night, U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said the indicted former FTX CEO had been taken into FBI custody after a chaotic Bahamas extradition process.

FTX co-founder Sam Bankman-Fried is escorted out of the Magistrate's Court on December 21, 2022 in Nassau, Bahamas. FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried will be released on $250 million bond while awaiting trial for fraud and other criminal charges, a New York federal judge ruled Thursday. Judge Gabriel Gorenstein said Bankman-Fried would require "strict" supervision following his release to his parents' home in California. Bernie Madoff posted a $10 million bond while awaiting trial on his multibillion-dollar Ponzi scheme. Jeff Skilling, former Enron CEO, posted a $5 million bond, while Elizabeth Holmes, Theranos founder, posted a scant $500,000.

FTX co-founder Sam Bankman-Fried is escorted by corrections officers to the Magistrate's Court on December 21, 2022 in Nassau, Bahamas. Bankman-Fried, 30, was indicted in New York federal court on Dec. 9 and arrested three days later by Bahamas law enforcement at the request of U.S. prosecutors. Chaos ensued as reporters and attorneys for Bankman-Fried attempted to pin down whether the former crypto billionaire would be rendered back to the United States for arraignment in federal court. When Bankman-Fried lands in New York, the so-far atypical proceedings should take on a more familiar tenor. "But again, if arranged in advance with the magistrate in charge of the detention hearing, the court may allow a hearing before processing, but that is unlikely.

Sam Bankman-Fried, co-founder of FTX, is escorted out of the Magistrate's Court in Nassau, Bahamas, on Monday, Dec. 19, 2022. FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried signed extradition papers in the Bahamas and will return to the U.S. on Wednesday, a Bahamas prison official told NBC News. Bankman-Fried stands accused by federal law enforcement and financial regulators of perpetrating what the SEC called one of the largest and most "brazen" frauds in recent memory. Bankman-Fried was indicted in New York federal court on Dec. 9 and was arrested three days later by Bahamas law enforcement at the request of U.S. prosecutors. WATCH: Sam Bankman-Fried defied the advice of lawyers

The firm's "years-long" fraud didn't just extend to playing with customer money, according to the SEC. Unlike those other market makers or power users, Alameda had a set of powerful tools at its disposal. The kind of high-frequency trading that FTX users engaged in made that invaluable. Alameda secured its loans from Voyager and BlockFi with FTT tokens, which FTX minted itself. Major Alameda lenders, like Voyager, declared bankruptcy.

FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried (2nd L) is led away handcuffed by officers of the Royal Bahamas Police Force in Nassau, Bahamas on December 13, 2022. FTX founder and former CEO Sam Bankman-Fried will no longer contest extradition to the U.S., an about-face just days after he was remanded to Bahamian jail pending a hearing, a person familiar with the matter told CNBC. The former crypto billionaire will appear in Bahamian court this Monday to formally waive his extradition rights, paving the way for federal authorities to secure his return to the U.S. The change of heart would move up the timeline for Bankman-Fried's federal trial significantly. Charges from the SEC and CFTC indicated that FTX had commingled customer funds with Bankman-Fried's crypto hedge fund, Alameda Research, and that billions in customer deposits had been lost along the way.

John J. Ray, chief executive officer of FTX Cryptocurrency Derivatives Exchange, arrives to a House Financial Services Committee hearing investigating the collapse of FTX in Washington, DC, on Tuesday, Dec. 13, 2022. Instead, like bankers and lawyers who are working on the bankruptcy proceedings, the new leadership team is professional independent contractors. That means, among other things, that they get paid immediately, before any FTX investors receive recompense for their losses. According to court filings, the new FTX CEO will collect $1,300 hourly plus "reasonable expenses" for his work untangling what U.S. Attorney Damian Williams called "one of the biggest frauds in American history" in a news conference Tuesday. In one bankruptcy case Ray worked on, he billed around 156 hours in a two-month period, netting him $120,582, so his billings for FTX may run higher or lower.

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission announced new charges against Bankman-Fried, FTX and Alameda Research, alleging that FTX commingled customer funds and that the onetime crypto billionaire violated the Commodities Exchange Act. From the founding of FTX in 2019, the CFTC alleged, Alameda "accessed and used FTX customer funds for Alameda's own operations and activities, including to fund its trading, investment, and borrowing/lending activities." The CFTC filing echoed charges that the SEC unveiled earlier Tuesday, which said Bankman-Fried operated his empire as a fraud "from the start." FTX allowed Alameda access to massive amounts of liquidity, backstopping risky bets on crypto assets and derivatives, the CFTC alleged. "At Bankman-Fried's direction, FTX executives created features in the underlying code for FTX that allowed Alameda to maintain an essentially unlimited line of credit on FTX," the CFTC alleged.

☆ Sam Bankman-Fried criminal charges unsealed: Conspiracy to defraud the U.S., wire fraud, securities fraud, and money laundering
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-13 | by ( Rohan Goswami Mackenzie Sigalos | Rohan Goswami | Mackenzie Sigalos | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

A federal indictment was unsealed Tuesday alleging widespread fraud by FTX co-founder Sam Bankman-Fried, a day after the fallen crypto exchange operator was arrested in the Bahamas in connection with the charges. The indictment in U.S. District Court in Manhattan charges Bankman-Fried with eight criminal counts: conspiracy to commit wire fraud and securities fraud, individual charges of securities fraud and wire fraud, money laundering, and conspiracy to avoid campaign finance regulations. Follow CNBC's live blog covering Tuesday's hearing on the collapse of cryptocurrency exchange FTX before the House Financial Services Committee. It also accuses Bankman-Fried of conspiring with others to defraud FTX's lenders "by providing false and misleading information to those lenders regarding Alameda Research's financial condition." Prosecutors also allege he conspired with others to make illegal donations to political candidates, using the names of other persons to mask and augment political giving.

In this article BTC.CM=ETH.CM= Follow your favorite stocks CREATE FREE ACCOUNTKris Marszalek, CEO of Crypto.com, speaking at a 2018 Bloomberg event in Hong Kong, China. Paul Yeung | Bloomberg | Getty ImagesKris Marszalek wants everyone to know that his company, Crypto.com, is safe and in good hands. While no evidence has emerged of wrongdoing at Crypto.com, Marszalek's business history is replete with red flags. Over the course of 2008 and 2009, Marszalek and his partner were transferred nearly $3 million in payments from Starline, according to the documents. As a result, when the bank forced Starline into liquidation, Marszalek and his partner were forced into bankruptcy as well.

"I've had a bad month," Bankman-Fried added later. Sorkin asked Bankman-Fried what motivated his acquisitions in the crypto industry, given the size of Alameda's borrowing from companies Bankman-Fried intended to acquire. Bankman-Fried claimed that he believed that by the middle of 2022, Alameda had repaid all lines of credit to various borrowing desks. Sorkin asked Bankman-Fried why FTX and Bankman-Fried even had access to customer money. By 2022, Bankman-Fried claimed, that number was down to 2%, which led him to believe that FTX's exposure was lessened.

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