Cryptocurrency roundup for December 28: Nexo writes open letter to Vauld creditors, case against Sam Bankman-Fried transferred to another judge, and more

Cryptocurrency company Nexo has sent an open letter to Vauld's creditors, stating that the potential deal between the two companies is not yet over. The letter includes Nexo's final proposal to Vauld with some amendments to its earlier proposal. In the letter, Nexo claims that Kroll, Vauld's financial advisor, misrepresented and manipulated Nexo's previous proposal when presenting it to Vauld's creditors. The letter states, "The 'Nexo Deal Terms' contained in the presentation delivered at the CoC [committee of creditors] meeting on October 10, 2022, were not provided by Nexo, rather they were pieced together by Kroll without Nexo's prior knowledge." Read details here

Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder of FTX, has received advice from former white-collar criminal Martin Shkreli, also known as "Pharma Bro," on how to survive in federal prison. The former FTX chief, who is presently out on bail, should think about shaving his head, deepening his voice, and brushing up on gang culture and rap music, according to Shkreli, who served about four years in prison for securities fraud between 2018 and 2022. Shkreli was speaking on the cryptocurrency podcast "Unchained" on December 23. The former prisoner said that SBF needed to reinvent himself for prison since being a wealthy white kid from a good neighborhood "doesn't sound great."

Fidelity Investments, a $4.5 trillion asset management company, has filed three trademark applications with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) for a variety of Web3 goods and services, including an NFT marketplace and a crypto trading platform in the metaverse. The applications, numbered 97727409, 97727473, and 97727439, were submitted on December 21 and focus on non-fungible tokens (NFTs) that include text and visual content, as well as services related to virtual worlds. You can buy and sell digital media on an online marketplace, get financial planning and investment advice through referral services that operate in the metaverse, invest in virtual real estate, and use exchange and trading services for cryptocurrencies. It is worth noting that the patent applications also focus on investing services for retirement accounts and mutual funds in the metaverse. Read more here

"DeGods" and "Y00ts," two of the top non-fungible token (NFT) projects on the Solana platform, have announced that they will be leaving the SOL ecosystem. The DeGods team will be switching to Ethereum, while Y00ts will migrate to Polygon, both in the first quarter of the year. According to the project's leader, Rohun Vora (aka Frank), the decision to leave Solana was driven by the desire to achieve higher growth rates. DeGods and Y00ts are two of the most popular collections in the Solana NFT market, with DeGods commanding the highest floor price (around $5,750) at the time of writing, and Y00ts, DeGods' sibling PFP line, having a floor price of around $1,660. Read details here

According to reports, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has opened a criminal investigation into the alleged hack that is believed to have stolen approximately $372 million from FTX-controlled wallets on the evening that the Bahamas-based exchange declared bankruptcy. Massive cryptocurrency outflows started occurring during the early hours of November 11 and the early hours of November 12, moving out of FTX and FTX US's wallets. Several FTX workers admitted on Twitter to sleuth ZachXBT that they were unaware of the transfers. Take a look

After U.S. District Judge Ronnie Abrams withdrew on Friday, the criminal case against former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried has been moved to U.S. Judge Lewis Kaplan, according to a court document. Kaplan is also in charge of high-profile defamation claims brought against former president Donald Trump. Since Abrams' husband is a partner at Davis Polk & Wardwell, the law firm that provided FTX with legal counsel in 2021, she had withdrawn from the case. In a filing on Friday, Abrams said, "My husband has had no involvement in any of these representations. Nonetheless, to avoid any possible conflict, or the appearance of one, the Court hereby recuses itself from this action." Read more here

Over the past 24 hours, the prices of most cryptocurrencies have remained stable, with slight fluctuations of around 0.2% for bitcoin and ether. At the time of writing, the coins were trading at approximately $16,800 and $1,200, respectively. However, other coins saw more significant changes in value. Solana saw a 3.5% drop, while OKB, which is issued by the OKX exchange, saw a 5% increase. Ripple's XRP also saw a 3% rise. On the other hand, Coinbase and Silvergate experienced a 6% decrease, and Galaxy Digital and MicroStrategy saw a decline of around 3%. In anticipation of an announcement set to be made on Wednesday, bitcoin miner Argo Blockchain has suspended trading on Nasdaq.