Sam Bankman-Fried's Extradition to Face Charges Approved by Judge

FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried is returning to the United States to face criminal charges related to the failure of FTX after a judge authorized his extradition from the Bahamas.
> Bankman-Fried, who has been imprisoned since his arrest last week, has decided not to fight extradition, The Wall Street Journal reported.
> Authorities in the United States have accused Bankman-Fried of conducting or conspiring to perpetrate a fraud on FTX's clients and lenders, money laundering, and a conspiracy to defraud the United States as well as breaking rules governing campaign financing disclosure.
> The disgraced former CEO of the defunct Bahamas-based cryptocurrency exchange FTX was detained at his condominium in the country’s capital last week and at first, resisted extradition to the United States. Read more.

Amid Regulatory Scrutiny, Crypto Exchange Swyftx Withdraws From $1B Merger Deal

Australia-based cryptocurrency exchange Swyftx has been compelled to renege on a planned 1.5 billion Australian dollar ($1 billion) merger deal with superannuation fund platform Superhero, The Australian Financial Review reported on Tuesday.
> The transaction was first disclosed in June by both parties.
> The agreement was to establish a large wealth management firm that would manage investments totaling $1 billion in direct shares, superannuation, and cryptocurrency for up to one million Australian clients.
> The deal is now reportedly off because of Australia's crypto regulatory environment.
> John Winters, a co-founder of Superhero, was quoted by AFR as saying that the country's investor enthusiasm for cryptocurrency products had decreased.

Retail Investors Now Hold The Largest Share of Bitcoin Supply: Report

Retail investors currently hold about 17% of the total circulating quantity of Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC), according to recent public blockchain data compiled by analytics company Glassnode.
> Will Clemente, an analyst at Reflexivity Research, tweeted in response to the data, saying it was “Not perfect yet, but solid for a 12-year-old asset and definitely trending in the right direction,”
> “Bitcoin's supply disperses over time, while fiat's holder base concentrates to whales over time,” Clemente added.
> He shared a Glassnode figure that demonstrates the percentage of the Bitcoin supply held by retail investors has increased steadily since 2011.

Coinbase Stock Drops to New Low, Down 87% Since Start Of 2022

The price of Coinbase's stock has dropped to its lowest level since the business went public last year, with dropping a whopping 87.04% to $35.00 from $268.15 on December 21, 2021, according to Yahoo! Finance.
> While tech stocks have suffered losses in 2022, Coinbase stands out as a publicly traded company with a focus on cryptocurrencies—a small group that also includes Block Inc. (previously Square), Core Scientific, and Riot Blockchain.
> Even though COIN is declining, Cathie Wood, Chief Investment Officer and Portfolio Manager of Ark Invest purchased an additional 297,000 shares of Coinbase Stock last week for a total cost of $11.9 million.

Paxful Marketplace Removes ETH: Was it a Smart Move or a Flop?

Global peer-to-peer trading platform Paxful has banned trading in Ethereum (CRYPTO: ETH) from its market.
> “We finally kicked Ethereum off our marketplace. 11.6m humans safer. Integrity over revenue. Who is next?” Ray Youssef, CEO of Paxful said.
> Youssef explained that this provides individuals some time to settle trades and potential issues.
> A snapshot of the newsletter that was delivered to Paxful users indicates that ETH trades will be stopped on Thursday.
> In April 2021, Paxful announced support for ETH, stating at the time that “Ethereum gives users a different chance to claim their stake in the crypto world.”

Plan for asset recovery proposed by Genesis and DCG creditors

The creditor committee for the cryptocurrency broker Genesis and its parent company, DCG, proposed a liquidity resolution proposal through the investing and financial services company Houlihan Lokey.
> Cameron Winklevoss, a co-founder of Gemini, used Twitter to outline the procedure for asset recovery for Gemini Earn members.
> "Based on data currently available from Genesis, DCG, and their respective consultants, this strategy was created. This week, the creditor committee anticipates receiving the first response, "wrote Winklevoss.
> The upgrade was released to reimburse users of Gemini Earns, a scheme where people lent out their digital assets in exchange for interest.
> Since the middle of November, the program has been suspended due to a liquidity crisis at Genesis and DGC.

Founder of Waves Blockchain Requests Delisting of WAVES Token Derivative Trading on Exchanges

The creator of the decentralized blockchain Waves, Sasha Ivanov, has ordered cryptocurrency exchanges to shut down futures markets connected to Waves' native WAVES token.
> Waves are independent of wave futures markets. Ivanov tweeted something. "They serve as a breeding ground for FUD and a lucrative market for short positions. I kindly request that Waves futures markets be turned off on all controlled exchanges."
> Over the previous two weeks, the WAVES (WAVES) token has fallen by more than 40%. It is down 4.5% from Wednesday morning's high of $1.51 and is now down about 98% from its all-time high, which was reached in April 2022.

Prices of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies remain stable as Coinbase and Block trade higher

> Coinbase and Block shares rose higher during pre-market hours, while cryptocurrency prices barely changed over the course of the day.
> According to TradingView data, the price of bitcoin hovered around $16,800, up 0.2% from the previous day.
> According to CoinMarketCap, the 24-hour trading volume decreased by 20%.
> With only a 0.1% gain over the previous day, Ether traded flat.
> Binance's BNB fell by 0.4%, Ripple's XRP fell by 0.6%, and Polygon's MATIC also fell. Dogecoin lost 1.3% more as its decline continued over the previous day.
> According to Nasdaq data, Coinbase was up around 1.2%, while shares of Block increased by 1.4%. The trading activity for MicroStrategy and Silvergate shares remained subdued.
> Data from The Block shows that the Grayscale GBTC fund's discount to net asset value (NAV) increased from 46% to 47.5%.