Atlas Trading Is Being Sued By The SEC For A $100M Stock Manipulation Scheme

Eight people connected to Atlas Trading, a Discord-based community, have been named in a complaint by the United States Securities Exchange Commission (SEC).
> Co-founders of the forum, podcasters, and YouTubers who are connected to them are accused of manipulating stock.
> The lawsuit was submitted to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas on Dec. 13.
> The defendants are charged with breaking both Section 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act and Section 17(a) of the Securities Act, according to the regulator.
> By taking significant positions in certain securities, advocating those stocks to their followers, and then selling their shares when demand increased as a result of their "deceptive promotions," bloggers profited at least $100 million, according to the SEC. Full story here.

Binance CEO Warns Staff To Gear Up For A Bumpy Ride Ahead: Report

Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao has cautioned employees at the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the world that the ongoing "crypto winter" is still ongoing and that the coming months can be difficult.
> “While we expect the next several months to be bumpy, we will get past this challenging period — and we’ll be stronger for having been through it,” Zhao stated in an internal memo.
> Zhao, popularly known as CZ in the crypto industry, said that Binance is now the subject of "a lot of extra scrutinies and tough questions" due to the collapse of prominent rival crypto exchange FTX. Continue reading.

White House Press Secretary Dodges Question On Whether It Will Return $5.2M In Donations From Sam Bankman-Fried

The White House has refused to answer questions pertaining to $5.2 million in campaign donations made by Sam Bankman-Fried to U.S. President Joe Biden and if the money will be returned back to the disgraced founder of crypto exchange FTX (CRYPTO: FTT).
> Attending a press briefing on December 13, Associated Press (AP) reporter Zeke Miller asked White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre if the President will return the donation.
> “Does he call on all politicians who got campaign donations that may have come from customer money to return those funds?” he sought to know. More here.

Senators Marshall And Warren Present A Bill To Tighten Crypto Money Laundering Regulations

Senators Roger Marshall of Kansas and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts have introduced legislation to impose stricter anti-money laundering regulations on digital assets.
> According to a joint statement from the senators, the Bill would extend know-your-customer regulations to wallet providers, miners, validators, and other network users.
> Additionally, it would outlaw financial institutions' use of and interaction with transaction mixers, which are decentralized programs that mask the origin of transactions on distributed ledger systems like Ethereum.
> The adoption of this legislation will guarantee that the same standards are applied to similar financial transactions, according to Warren. Full story here.

A data breach at Gemini results in the leak of 5.7 million emails

Cryptocurrency exchange Gemini seems to have had a data breach, sometime around December 13.
> Documents state that 5,701,649 lines of data, including account numbers, email addresses, and partial phone numbers, were accessed by hackers.
> Since some of the numeric digits in the later example were obscured, it appears that hackers were unable to get the complete phone numbers.
> Names, addresses, and other sensitive personal data such as Know Your Customer data were not contained in the database that was leaked.
> The number of clients affected is probably less than the total number of rows of data because some emails were duplicated in the document. There are presently 13 million users of Gemini. Read here.

Bitcoin mining company Bitfarms is warned by Nasdaq over deficiency in share price

Due to the current cryptocurrency winter, Bitfarms, a Canadian company that mines bitcoins, is having compliance issues with its Nasdaq listing.
> On December 13, Nasdaq sent Bitfarms a warning letter because the company's stock price had fallen below $1 for 30 straight working days.
> Bitfarms stated that it has the first window of 180 calendar days to go back in compliance with Nasdaq criteria in an announcement made on December 14.
> Bitfarms' shares must close at $1 per share for a least 10 straight days, at any point before June 12, 2023, in order to restore compliance. More here 

As the Fed increases interest rates by 50 basis points, Bitcoin drops below $18,000

>   The U.S. Federal Reserve raised the federal funds rate by 50 basis points, increasing it to a range of 4.25% to 4.5%, the highest since 2007.
>   The decision to raise interest rates was largely anticipated by traders who had already priced it in.
> Following the news, the price of Bitcoin fell below $18,000, a price the cryptocurrency reached for the first time since the collapse of FTX.
> Ether was still trading above $1,300, having risen above it after Tuesday's inflation data.
> On the flip side, Altcoins posted a muted performance.
> Ripple's XRP was up just 0.6% in the past day, while Cardano's ADA rose just 0.2%
> Trading above $40, Coinbase’s stock increased by 4.3%. Tuesday saw a record low for COIN shares as investors continued to worry about the effects of FTX and the company's declining sales.
> Shares of Silvergate made some of their losses from the previous week up. The crypto stock was trading above $19, up about 2%.
> Block shares were up 1.8 dollars at $72.3, while MicroStrategy increased by roughly 3% to $207.