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The Roundup: Heists, hacks, and hucksters
Adam Morgan-McCarthy
December 29, 2023
Adam here.
The past year had it all in crypto.
In the words of US Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Gary Gensler: “Hucksters. Fraudsters. Scam artists. Ponzi schemes. The public left in line at the bankruptcy court.”
His comparison to the lawless 1920s set the tone to his crackdown this year, which mounted with a barrage of enforcement actions.
Capping the year: the conviction of Sam Bankman-Fried and renewed optimism about new Wall Street Bitcoin ETFs.
Here are some of the biggest stories DL News covered in its inaugural year.
Happy new year,
Adam
In September Mark Cuban, entrepreneur and owner of the Dallas Mavericks, told DL News he had been the victim to a hack — after our reporters notified him of some strange activity in a wallet linked to him. Cuban lost around $870,000, but said it could have been worse.
A jury found FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried guilty of all seven charges of fraud and conspiracy, exactly one year after publication of the exposé that brought down his crypto empire.
Terraform Labs co-founder Do Kwon was arrested in Montenegro in March. He was travelling on a forged Costa Rican passport as he attempted to stay a step ahead of an international police dragnet.
In the culmination of one of the most anticipated investigations in the history of the crypto industry, Binance founder and CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao in November agreed to step down and to plead guilty to willfully violating the Bank Secrecy Act.
Crypto is expanding in the European Union, with almost 1,000 virtual asset services providers registering in 2023.
Macro Hive analysts see ‘grey swans,’ or unforseen events that could affect the crypto industry next year. Dalvir Mandara and Bilal Hafeez investigate why and how Gensler leaving office would affect the market.
Post of the year
Today we charged Binance Holdings Ltd. (Binance); U.S.-based affiliate, BAM Trading Services Inc., which, together with Binance, operates Binance.US; and their founder, Changpeng Zhao, with a variety of securities law violations.
sec.gov/news/press-rel…
— U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (@SECGov)
5:55 PM • Jun 5, 2023
DL News is an independent news organisation that provides original, in-depth reporting on the largely misunderstood world of cryptocurrency and decentralised finance. From original stories to investigations, our journalism is accurate, honest and responsible.
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