Caroline Ellison Speaks on the FTX-Binance War: Hodler Digest, October

This week's main news

Caroline Ellison wanted to resign but feared banking on FTX.

Former Alameda Research CEO Caroline Ellison testified for more than 10 hours this week at the Sam Bankman-Fried trial, providing in-depth details about the events that anticipated the FTX disaster in November 2022. From Ellison's testimony, jurors learned she planned to leave Alameda. Months before the crash, however, he was scared to bank on FTX amid the crypto market crash. A recording was also entered into evidence in the case this week showing the exact moment Ellison told employees about Alameda's use of FTX's customer deposits. Among the key moments of Bankuman-Fried's trial were the revelations of falsified balance sheets to defraud crypto lenders, as well as the testimony of BlockFi CEO Zach Prince. Check out this week's highlights from the Cointelegraph team on the ground.

Months before the collapse of crypto exchange FTX, former CEO Sam Bankman-Fried was “aggressive” about buying shares in Snapchat, raising capital from Saudi royalties and getting regulators to take control of rival crypto exchange Binance, according to court testimony. week as part of an ongoing criminal trial. Bankman-Fried believed that Binance had released Alameda's balance to the media in 2022. According to a document dated November 6, 2022, Banman-Fried wrote that Binance “has been engaged in a PR campaign against us.” He continued, Binance “shed balance sheet; Blog about it; Feed it to Coindesk; They then publicly announced that they would be selling $500m of FTT while telling their customers to beware of FTX.

The SEC will reportedly not appeal the court's ruling on the Grayscale Bitcoin ETF.

The United States Securities and Exchange Commission reportedly has no plans to appeal a recent court ruling in favor of grayscale investments. The ruling requires the SEC to review the company's position in the Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) application. The SEC's decision not to appeal does not necessarily mean that the grayscale application is ready for approval. If the reports are true, the SEC will need to follow the court's August order and review Greyscale's application to convert the Greyscale Bitcoin Trust into a spot Bitcoin ETF.

Terraform Labs argues that Citadel Securities had a hand in the stablecoin collapse.

Terraform Labs has once again pointed the finger at market maker Citadel Securities for its role in a “concerted, deliberate effort” to depeg its TerraUSD stablecoin in 2022. Force Citadel Securities to prepare documents related to the trade by May 2022 when TerraUSD makes a classic dip. In a motion filed by Terraform, it argued that the documents were critical to its defense in a February filing by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission alleging that Terraform Labs and its founder, Do Kwon, were “involved in orchestrating a multibillion-dollar crypto-asset fraud.” However, Citadel Securities previously denied trading of the TerraUSD stablecoin until May 2022.

MasterCard announces the results of a successful packaged CBDC trial

Mastercard has completed a trial involving central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) on different blockchains, similar to Bitcoin and Ethereum. The trial was conducted in partnership with the Reserve Bank of Australia and the country's Digital Finance Collaborative Research Centre, CBCC. The Mastercard solution enables a CBDC holder to purchase a non-fungible token (NFT) listed on Ethereum. “The process ‘locks' the required amount of pilot CBDC on RBA's pilot CBDC platform and creates the same amount of capped pilot CBDC tokens on Ethereum,” the payment processor said.

Winners and losers

At the end of the week, Bitcoin (BTC) at $26,892, Ether (ETH) at $1,551 and XRP at $0.48. According to CoinMarketCap, the total market cap is $1.05 trillion.

Among the largest 100 cryptocurrencies, the top three altcoin gainers for the week were Loom Network (LOOM) at 86.71%, Trust Wallet Token (TWT) at 16.72%, and Tether Gold (XAUt) at 5.16%.

The top three altcoin losers of the week were Mantle (MNT) at -17.27%, Rocket Pool (RPL) at -14.39% and Avalanche (AVAX) at -13.39%.

Be sure to read Cointelegraph's market analysis for more information on crypto prices.

The most memorable quotes

“It's our homework, really. To truly educate people about the benefits of using blockchain.

Grace Sabandar, Founder of Indonesia Blockchain and Metaverse Center

“Crypto-asset markets, including DeFi, do not represent meaningful threats to financial stability at this point.”

European Securities and Markets Authority

“I was worried about getting a customer out of FTX, this withdrawal, hurting people. […] I didn't feel good. If people know [about Alameda using FTX funds]They all try to get out of FTX.

Caroline Ellison, former CEO of Alameda Research

“The fact that Hamas-linked digital wallets are accepting millions of dollars in cryptocurrency is alarming and should be a wake-up call to lawmakers and regulators.”

Elizabeth Warren, US Senator

“Bitcoin and Ethereum may seem like opposites, but they can coexist and support each other.”

Botanix Labs CEO Willem Shiro

“People who believe SBFraud is a ‘good guy' mistake and FTX is growing too fast and is all out of it should never control other people's money.”

John Deaton, lawyer and crypto lawyer

Forecast of the week

Ethereum's Loss Against Bitcoin Reaches 15 Months – Can ETH Price Reverse Course?

The price of Ethereum's native token Ether is trading at a 15-month low against Bitcoin, and the lowest since Ethereum converted to proof of stake. The ETH/BTC pair dropped to 0.056 BTC earlier this week. In doing so, the pair broke above the 200-week exponential moving average (200-week EMA, the blue wave) near 0.058 BTC, adding risks to the 2023 lows.

The 200-week EMA has historically served as a reliable support level for ETH/BTC bulls.

ETH/BTC faces similar selling risks in 2023 after losing the 200-week EMA as support. In this case, the next lower target is near the 0.5 Fibonacci line at 0.051 BTC in 2023, a decrease of about 9.5% from the current price levels.

Conversely, if it takes the 200-week EMA as support, the price of ETH may rise to the 50-week EMA (red wave) near 0.065 BTC.

FUD of the week

Mistake or embezzlement? User pays $1.6 million for CrypToadz NFT.

One of CrypToadz's NFTs, whose average price does not exceed $1,000, was bought for a staggering 1,055 bundles of Ether, worth $1.6 million. The CrypToadz Collection was launched in 2011. During the NFT boom of 2021, $38 million worth of Ether was traded in the first 10 days on the market. The price an anonymous user paid for the NFT raised questions among the community. Two weeks ago, this item was bought for 0.95 ETH (around $1,600), selling for a thousand times higher.

As the USDR stablecoin fell to $0.53, however, the team promised to provide solutions.

The USDR, the real estate-backed stablecoin, lost its peg against the U.S. dollar after the rush to redeem liquid assets such as JPY left Treasuries. USDR, backed by a mix of cryptocurrencies and real estate holdings, is a real protocol, decentralized financial project that seeks to tokenize housing and other real-world assets. During the crisis, one trader was reported to have lost 131,350 USD for 0 USD coins and completely lost his investment.

HTX returns $8 million in stolen funds, rewards hackers with 250 ETH

Huobi Global's crypto exchange HTX confirmed the return of funds stolen by a hacker in late September and offered a 250 Ether bonus after solving the problem. One of HTX's hot wallets was flushed with 5,000 ETH on September 25, which was roughly $8 million at the time. Shortly after the hack, the company contacted the hacker and claimed to know their identity. HTX eventually offered to pay a 5% bonus worth around $400,000 and not face any legal action if they returned 95% of the funds before the October 2 deadline.

Beyond Crypto: Zero-Knowledge Proofs Reveal Power from Voice to Finance

Emerging cryptographic technology can help address two gaps in the 21st century: privacy and truth.

Eleanor Terrett on fakes and better crypto industry

Fox Business Producer Eleanor Terrett's Followers in SEC v. Ripple exploded after she started commenting on the lawsuit.

SBF alleges Chinese bribery, Binance explains account suspension: Asia Express

SBF allegedly paid Chinese authorities $150 million in bribes to unblock accounts, Binance confirms banning Hamas users, on the other hand, Huobi hacker returns all stolen $8 million.

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Cointelegraph magazine writers and reporters contributed to this article.