Top cryptocurrency news on December 20: Sam Bankman-Fried back to Bahamian prison after hearing, Grayscale may return 20% investor capital, Binance to acquire Voyager’s assets, & more

Bitcoin and Ether were down less than 1 percent at the start of the week and fluctuated at $16,600 and $1,170, respectively.
But, the BNB coin on Binance has increased by 0.2 percent over the last day. This was after Binance reached an agreement to purchase the assets of the bankrupt cryptocurrency lender Voyager and the remaining 40 percent of the Indonesian exchange Tokocrypto that it did not already hold.
Coinbase was down roughly 5 percent, and Silvergate stock was trading 3.8 percent lower, while MicroStrategy decreased by 0.9 percent. Read full here

Grayscale Investments is considering options to return some of the capital of its flagship Grayscale Bitcoin (GBTC) product, if the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) declines approval for its spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF), according to a letter to investors.
One choice, according to the report, is to offer a tender for 20 percent of the existing GBTC shares, which are now trading at a 49 percent discount to its net asset value (NAV).
The SEC cited a lack of regulatory monitoring in a brief earlier this month as the reason Grayscale's attempt to convert its Bitcoin trust into an ETF was unsuccessful many times. Read details here

Binance has reached a deal with Voyager Digital to buy the assets of insolvent crypto lender, defeating competitors like CrossTower, Wave Financial, and INX.
The proposal from the US division of the largest crypto exchange "sets a clear path forward for Voyager customers' funds to be unlocked as soon as possible, and returned to them in the form of the cryptocurrencies previously held in their Voyager accounts," according to an official post from Binance.US.
Brian Shroder, CEO & President of Binance.US, said, “Our bid is a reflection of our guiding principle that customers should come first.” Take a look

The SEC and Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) should consider banning cryptos, according to Sherrod Brown, chairman of the US Banking Committee.
During an appearance on NBC's "Meet the Press" on December 18, Brown however clarified that enforcing a ban would be challenging. “We want them to do what they need to do at the same time, maybe banning it, although banning it is very difficult because it would go offshore, and who knows how that would work,” he said.
Brown said he shared the "same thought" as Senator Jon Tester, who thinks cryptos should be outlawed, in answer to a host's earlier query. Read more here

A new Bill being drafted in Nigeria may allow local regulators to accept cryptos as investment capital, according to a report by the local news portal Punch.
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and Nigeria’s Securities and Exchange Commission will have specific responsibilities for overseeing digital currencies if the proposed Investments and Securities Act, 2007 (Amendment) Bill is passed, according to Babangida Ibrahim, chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Capital Market and Institutions, who spoke to Punch. Ibrahim did not give a timetable for when the law would be passed.
Nigeria banned institutions from supporting crypto transactions in 2017. Read more here

In an unexpected decision following reports over the weekend that FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried will turn himself into US custody, Bahamian magistrate Shaka Serville has ordered that Bankman-Fried be sent back to the Bahamian prison. The disgraced crypto tycoon, who demanded to view a copy of his federal indictment, will be sent back to Fox Hill prison.
Last week, Bankman-Fried's legal counsel hinted that they might contest his extradition. Several reports then reported over the weekend that he will instead waive off his extradition fight and return to the US to face criminal charges. Chaos ruled in open court this morning, with Bankman-Fried noticeably nervous while wearing a blue suit and a white button-down shirt. Read more here

According to The Telegraph, Joseph Edmund Johnson, the brother of former UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, quit his advising position with a Binance subsidiary firm. The March 2018 debut of the payment technology business Bifinity, formed by Binance, included Joseph Johnson as an advisor.
According to the Telegraph, he had been in that position since September but resigned last week as a result of Binance's growing demands for openness. In June of this year, Binance was prohibited by UK regulators from providing financial services.
The company was alleged to be ineligible to provide regulated services in the UK by the Financial Conduct Authority, the country's financial watchdog organisation. The Block previously revealed that Binance applied for the necessary regulatory permits in November. Read more here