🐻 How everything FTX touches turns into FUD 🕸️

It's a big week for crypto and stocks. SBF will speak in front of Congress, US CPI numbers will drop and FOMC rate hike decision will be announced. Are you spooked yet?

On the bright side, SBF has apparently finally been arrested by Bahamian authorities 🙌.

In this issue, we're digging into the latest FUD caught in the web of FTX drama:

• Are crypto publications trustworthy? For the past year, SBF has been secretly funding The Block, a major crypto publication. Who can we even trust at this point?

• Is the Binance FUD legit? Reports claim that the DOJ may file criminal charges against Binance for alleged money laundering and sanctions violations. Is this legit?

• Did FTX mastermind the LUNA crash? US prosecutors are investigating SBF's role in manipulating the market that led to the infamous Terra/LUNA crash.

1/ Are crypto publications trustworthy?

Since the FTX fallout, the media portrayal of Sam Bankman-fried and his criminal partners has been rather...disappointing.

And it all makes sense. For one, we've learned that through FTX/Alameda, SBF had been donating and funding popular media publications.

Elon Musk, the king of calling people out on Twitter even took a stab at it by pointing out the strangely close ties between SBF and traditional media.

Though SBF claims that the media funding was purely intended to support good journalism and not an attempt to influence editorial coverage, we can't help but think otherwise.

Last week, another publication caught in SBF's dirty web of corruption was revealed. For the past year, SBF had secretly been funding the popular crypto publication, The Block.

As revealed in a thread by Michael McCaffrey (The Block CEO) and an exclusive by Axios, there were 3 main loans received from SBF:

1/ A $12M loan to fund a buyout and make The Block 100% independent. 2/ A $15M loan to "strengthen the business’s position".3/ A $16M loan which was used, in part, to purchase an apartment in the Bahamas. How ironic, right?

This totalled to more than $40M in loans from SBF - not exactly a small amount that could easily be disregarded in the editorial room. Though the funds were secretly accepted by McCaffrey in private without anyone's knowledge, the implications are clear.

Naturally, as part of the announcement, McCaffrey confirmed his departure from The Block as CEO. At this point, who can we even trust anymore? Definitely not media publications, political parties and Kevin O'Leary 🤦.

2/ Is the Binance FUD legit?

Unlike the media, one person, in particular, has been very vocal about the corruption. CZ of Binance has been making quite a name for himself as crypto's new savior with his candidness about SBF and efforts to bring transparency to centralized crypto.

Shortly after the FTX fallout, Binance published their Proof of Reserves to prove that Binance covers all of user assets 1:1.

However, some people weren't satisfied with it, including Jesse Powell, former CEO of Kraken. Notice a pattern with all these centralized exchanges calling each other out 🤔?

Powell's main riff against the published Proof of Reserve is that it doesn't verify Binance's liabilities.

Well, surprise 👻! The FUD has now caught up with the U.S. Department of Justice who is considering filing criminal charges against Binance and its execs.

Apparently, there has been an ongoing investigation for the past four years on Binance's money laundering and sanctions violation. The prosecutors are now split between aggressively going after Binance, or taking more time to review the evidence.

But aren't there bigger fish to fry right now?

In response to the FUD, Binance has issued an official statement denying the allegations.

With the reveal of all the media and political entanglements associated with SBF, it's become more challenging than ever to determine what information is true or compromised.

Either way, you should probably self-custody your assets for peace of mind 👀.

3/ Did FTX mastermind the LUNA crash?

It seems like everything always comes back to Terra/LUNA, the first major domino to fall in 2022.

Earlier this year, TerraUSD infamously lost its 1:1 dollar peg after flooding the market with LUNA tokens to maintain its dollar value. According to a newly released New York Times report, the crash was a result of a major sell order of TerraUSD issued by FTX. An unnamed source claims that FTX was trying to short the price of LUNA to make a "fat profit".

Of course, Do Kwon, the face of the Terra/LUNA crash would take this opportunity to piggyback off the claims and put the blame on SBF.

But it's not just Do Kwon who is trying to seek redemption. Zhu Su of 3AC is also speaking out against SBF as a major culprit.

3AC is the bankrupt hedge fund that went under as a result of the Terra/LUNA crash. As Alameda's once revival, Zhu Su implies in a tweet that SBF purposely took down his firm and the whole ecosystem along with it.

To be fair, none of these disgraced CEOs speaking out are trustworthy. They're all trying to take the target off their back and will use any opportunity to do so. What a sticky web of lies we're caught in right now 🤦.

In other news

• Starbucks launches their beta web3 platform to gamify brand loyalty.

• Dozens of major celebrities are being sued for endorsing BAYC NFTs, including Justin Bieber, Madonna, Steph Curry and more.

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