BlockFi Creditors Plead For Privacy in Bankruptcy Proceedings To Avoid Hacks And Identity Theft

BlockFi's cryptocurrency lender's creditors have pleaded to keep their personal information private in court documents, claiming that disclosing their names as part of the bankruptcy proceedings could put them at risk of identity theft or hacking.
> The peculiar request is a result of a similar incident involving another cryptocurrency lender, Celsius, in which the financial information of tens of thousands of users was made public as part of customary legal procedure.
> In a separate filing to the New Jersey bankruptcy court, Andrew Vara, a U.S. Department of Justice official in charge of bankruptcy cases, argued that disclosure, which he previously asserted in the case of the defunct cryptocurrency exchange FTX, is "a basic premise of bankruptcy law," and required to avoid any suggestion of improper behavior. Continue reading.

DCG Reveals Outstanding Debts Of $447.5M And $78 million in Bitcoin To Genesis

Institutional investor Digital Currency Group (DCG) has revealed that they owe Genesis, a digital currency lending firm, $447.5 million and an additional $78 million in Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC).> These debts are set to mature in May of this year and come in addition to an outstanding promissory note.
> DCG also has a $500 million credit line, which originated between January and May 2022 and carries double-digit interest rates of between 10% to 12%.
> DCG CEO Barry Silbert stated that the interest rate is "priced at prevailing market interest rates."
> The firm also revealed that they had made a "small equity investment" of a quarter of a million dollars in FTX's Series B round, raised in July 2021. More here.

Goldman Sachs Goes Live With Blockchain Platform To Streamline Financial Processing

Investment bank Goldman Sachs has announced the launch of a tokenization platform GS DAPTM, developed in collaboration with Digital Asset and deployed on the Canton blockchain.
> The platform, which was developed with the goal of improving the velocity of transactions, has already been put to the test.
> In November, the European Investment Bank issued a 100-million-euro, two-year digital bond on the platform in what was the first fully digitally native bond with same-day settlement and also the first syndicated digital bond issued by a public institution to be admitted on the Luxembourg Stock Exchange's Securities Official List. Full report here.

Binance Plans to Expand Workforce Despite Crypto Market Crash, Rival Layoffs

Cryptocurrency exchange Binance plans to increase its workforce by 15-30% in 2023, according to its CEO, Changpeng Zhao.
> He made the announcement at the Crypto Finance Conference in St. Moritz, Switzerland, highlighting the company's aim to be well-organized ahead of the next crypto bull run, CNBC reported.
> Several other cryptocurrency exchanges have had to lay off their workforce in the range of 20-30% to sustain the bleak market in 2022, which wiped off nearly $1.4 trillion erased from the market and many digital currencies, including Bitcoin and Ether losing over 60% of their value.
> Zhao acknowledged that Binance itself is "not super efficient", but stated that it will continue to build and aim to ramp up again before the next bull market. More here.

FTX Naming Rights Agreement for Miami Heat Arena Ends Due to Allegations of Fraud and Misuse of Funds

A court filing revealed that the naming rights agreement between the crypto exchange FTX and Miami-Dade County has been ended by a federal bankruptcy judge.
> This means the home arena for the Miami Heat may receive a new name.
> Miami-Dade County had requested for the agreement to be terminated in November following accusations that FTX's CEO, Sam Bankman-Fried, mishandled company funds and defrauded customers.
> He is now facing trial on charges of fraud and conspiracy. FTX's new leadership, led by CEO and bankruptcy specialist John J. Ray III, also requested for the agreement to be ended retroactively as of December 31. Continue reading.

FTX Claims to have located $5 Billion in assets during bankruptcy proceedings, as former CEO faces fraud charges

FTX's new leadership announced that it has found $5 billion worth of cash, liquid cryptocurrency, and liquid investment securities, about two months after the exchange filed for bankruptcy protection.
> The information was shared by FTX attorney Andy Dietderich during a bankruptcy court hearing in Delaware on Wednesday.
> This $5 billion does not include $425 million in crypto assets which are under the custody of the Securities Commission of the Bahamas.
> The lawyer didn't specify whether these assets include over $450 million of Robinhood stock belonging to the former CEO of FTX Sam Bankman-Fried, which had been seized by the US government last week as he faces charges of fraud. Details here.

Crypto Prices Remain Positive with Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Altcoins Seeing Gains while Related Stocks Show Mixed Results

The crypto market is showing positive gains with Bitcoin trading at around $17,400 and an increase of 1.2% in the last 24 hours.
> Ethereum was trading at around $1,300, showing a rise of 0.5%.
> Other altcoins such as Ripple's XRP and Polygon's MATIC also showed significant growth with gains of 5.1% and 2.2% respectively.
> Litecoin too saw an increase of 1.7%.
> Meanwhile, in pre-market trading, crypto-related stocks saw mixed results.
> Coinbase saw a dip of 3.3%, Silvergate decreased by 1.6% and Block was up 0.6%. MicroStrategy remained unchanged after closing 8% up the previous day.
> Grayscale's GBTC fund had a positive start to the year, with shares approaching $10, an increase of over 20% since last week.
> The discount on the net asset value also continues to decrease.