🐻 How's crypto doing?

🦃 Surviving dinner conversations this Thanksgiving

Author

Build in Bear
November 24, 2022

Hi friends, welcome back to Web3 Seems Legit. To all our US friends, Happy Thanksgiving! We hope crypto isn't on the menu today for dinner table conversations 🙂.

In this issue, we're giving you a birds-eye view on how the overall state of the industry is doing:

  • Latest FTX updates. The bankruptcy court hearing has begun and SBF is having a relaxing time in the Bahamas with his parents. No, we're not kidding.

  • How is the rest of crypto doing? Hold your breath, no major dominoes have fallen this week yet, but we can never be certain.

  • Which brands are still building? Despite the FUD, mainstream brands and institutions are continuing to progress their web3 initiatives. We're not dead yet!

Latest FTX updates

It's been almost two weeks since major exchange FTX filed for bankruptcy. As the court hearing begins, more details of the criminal operations that Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) was running are revealed daily.

  1. It seems like SBF and his crew weren't the only ones enjoying the Bahamas. FTX purchased 19 properties in the Bahamas totalling $121 million, including one for SBF's parents. Hard to believe that his highly educated Stanford professor parents that specialized in tax laws had no idea what his son was doing.

2. Instead of being in custody, SBF confirms that he will still be speaking at a NY Times event next week (11/30). Other speakers include the President of Ukraine, Larry Fink, Janet Yellen, Mike Pence and more. Seriously? How obvious are they making it?

3. CoinDesk leaks a letter SBF sent to FTX employees. To save you the trouble, SBF blames the downfall on the crashing crypto market and subsequent bank run - nothing to do with him stealing customer funds.

4. The first court hearing took place. Here are some of the highlights:

  • It's been confirmed that a "substantial amount" of customer assets are missing.

  • The new CEO believes that some former employees are "compromised", but no details yet.

  • Information on FTX's biggest creditors will remain anonymous for now.

  • After duelling it out, it has been agreed upon that the liquidation proceedings will move from the Bahamas to Delaware, where the Chapter 11 case is being handled. Prior to this, there was speculation that the Bahamian government was in cahoots with SBF to keep the assets in the Bahamas.

So TL;DR 👇

How is the rest of crypto doing?

As the FTX case continues to unravel by the day, let's check up on how the rest of crypto is doing.

Genesis/DCG/Grayscale

  • Genesis' attempt to raise a $1 billion emergency loan isn't working, forcing them to slash their target to $500 million.

  • Despite reports, Genesis says they have no plan to imminently file bankruptcy.

  • DCG (Genesis' parent company) and all their umbrella holdings including Grayscale Trust (GBTC) were suspected to also be in trouble. However, on-chain sleuths believe that they may actually be fine.

    Coinbase

    • CZ of Binance stirs up FUD by questioning Coinbase's finances.

    • Brian Armstrong of Coinbase quickly defends their financials, stating that they hold 2 million BTC, worth about $39.9 billion as of 9/30. CZ deletes his tweets shortly afterwards.

    Which brands are still building?

    While the headlines are filled with FUD and SBF love stories, big brands and businesses are paying no attention and continuing to build and launch their web3 initiatives.

    1. Luxury car manufacturer, Porsche, teases their entrance into web3.

    2. Reebok filed trademark applications for various NFT goods and services.

    3. JP Morgan's crypto wallet is now an officially registered trademark.

    For those who are still here, we're thankful for you. Let's keep building!

    Memes of the week

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