Almost all FTX, all the time

#Web3Weekly: Nov. 20–26, 2022

This post is adapted from a recent edition of my newsletter #Web3Weekly. If you’d like to receive it in your inbox every Sunday, subscribe here.

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but on the bright side, I am well-practiced at it:

• FTX had its initial hearing in a U.S. bankruptcy court in Delaware, highlighted by some blistering remarks from its own lawyer criticizing the exchange’s top management. FTX counsel James Bromley said FTX was a “different sort of animal” and was run as “a personal fiefdom of Sam Bankman-Fried,” the exchange’s founder who recently resigned as CEO. Bromley added: “Unfortunately, the FTX debtors were not particularly well run, and that is an understatement.”
• ColdFusion’s Dagogo Altraide just posted a nice half-hour explainer of the FTX mess and how it came about. Handy background for anyone who would like to get up to speed on the situation quickly, I think.
• Crypto lender Genesis Global Capital is racing to raise money to cover its losses related to FTX. Meanwhile, regulators from Alabama and several other U.S. states are investigating whether Genesis violated securities laws in their jurisdictions.
• Coinbase shares hit an all-time low of $41.23 per share on Monday, knocking the company’s valuation as a public company below $10 billion for the first time. Shares have since staged a partial comeback, recently trading above $44 per share. But investors generally remain wary of crypto exchanges for now.
• CoinMarketCap began publishing data about trading activity on major crypto exchanges. The popular data site has also created a proprietary ranking system that factors in CoinMarketCap’s assessment of the reliability of data reported by each trading venue.
• Just over half of all Bitcoin network addresses are now showing net losses from holding the popular cryptocurrency. This is the first time the proportion of accounts in the red has risen over 50% since March 2020, CoinDesk reports.
• New York became the first U.S. state to ban new crypto mining operations at fossil fuel plants.
• World Crypto Day is set for Jan. 3. A grassroots coalition is organizing the event with a focus on investor education. Nice!
• The inaugural American Metaverse Summit & Awards will take place March 2023 in Miami. Nominations for the awards portion of the event are welcome through Dec.2 here.
• Slate’s Alex Kantrowitz says a single strategic mistake, repeated across most Big Tech companies, led to their recent round of disappointing earnings: They all failed to anticipate a post-lockdown resumption of people spending more time on (gasp!) offline activities. Hmmm…

That’s it for now. Thanks for spending some time with the newsletter today! If you would like to receive updates like this in your inbox every Sunday, please join our email list here.

As ever, a brief disclaimer: This content is intended for journalistic purposes only, not as investment advice. For the latter, please DYOR and consult appropriate financial pros to make the most suitable choices for your individual needs.

Best wishes for a healthy and productive week ahead.