BlockFi - The 55 million Robinhood shares SBF pledged to Zac Prince are being called into bankruptcy, and the BlockFi lawyers are suggesting this is a  bad faith move to make the situation more complex. It's been estimated that BlockFi owes up to $10 billion to more than 100,000 customers, and the top three creditors are owed $1.3 billion alone.   

Celsius - The UCC in Celsius is trying to enforce clawbacks from retail users who withdrew funds within 90 days before the bankruptcy.   

Anti-CBDC Act - Crypto-friendly congressman Tom Emmer just introduced a new Bill that will block the Federal Reserve from issuing a CBDC in the US, working on a CBDC in private, or using a CBDC to control the economy.  Operation Choke Point - a description of all the pressure to the crypto industry from banks in the past few months.

Full blog here.

BlockFi sent an email to creditors indicating that the court approved the procedures for the claims process.  - If you disagree with the amounts they sent out, you need to file a Claims Form by March 30. The court has agreed to redact creditor names.  UCC committee is objecting to the release of the funds that were in the non-interest-bearing wallets.  

For customers - the claims process must bolster your personal position as much as possible.

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)’s complaint against Kraken alleges that Kraken sold an investment contract to the general public where investors transferred certain assets to Kraken for staking in exchange for annual investment returns (Kraken Staking Program). Kraken settled this action with a $30 million fine, 66.6% of its revenue from American users.  

Full blog here: https://www.hodder.law/post/sec-s-enforcement-action-against-kraken

FTX: - SBF was ordered not to use signal. He's been contacting Rayne Miller asking to reconnect and collaborate.  - Bankman-Fried's lawyer, Mark Cohen, objected to the prosecution's proposed amendments to his client's bail, saying his client needed to communicate with some former employees, including his therapist, George Lerner. - Mr. Cohen also moved to eliminate an existing bail condition prohibiting Bankman-Fried from accessing or transferring any Alameda or FTX assets, including any cryptocurrency held in FTX.  BlockFi - Still waiting on the judge to decide the fate of the non-interest bearing wallet holders.  Celsius - Celsius Examiner's report showed Mashinsky pocketed nearly $70 million and used the word "ponzi" seven times.   Bitcoin - Ordinals are causing a blocksize debate amongst maxi's.

A new report from CNBC.com shows that BlockFi had over 1.2 million tied up with FTX. Almost half of Blockfi’s assets were tied to FTX.  

The lawyers for Celsius said the bids were lowball, and they didn’t consider selling the assets. Instead, they are trying to create an equity offering, so creditors get equity in the mining company, similar to what Simon Dixon proposed in the summer. There would be a fund that would have access to all litigation recovery, and the recovery token could pay dividends.  

Celsius said they would not apply for licenses, so they need to find a partner to help facilitate the reorganization.

Internet censorship has been happening in communist countries like China, Iran, and North Korea for years, but now it’s coming to the western world too. The US, Canada, the UK, and Europe all have online speech-censoring legislation pending.

Full Blog here.

Blockfi published a presentation outlining its coming bankruptcy proceedings. It said it reached out to 106 potential buyers shortly after its first bankruptcy hearing and will seek the court’s approval for the bidding to begin on January 30, 2023.   

Full blog here.

Check out the 2023 Crypto Predictions from:
Sasha Hodder
Rare Scrilla (2:48)
Layah Heilpern (4:20)
Theo Goodman (5:26)
Lyn Ulbricht (8:50)
Tone Vays (10:00)
Mike in Space (11:11)
Leah Wald (12:30)
Ido Alexander (14:25)
Doug TenNaple (15:00)
Bill Wise (19:04)
Bitboy (19:44)
Remo (20:10)
Gideon Heilpern (22:10)
Constant (22:46)
Crypto Lama (23:55)
Johnny Dollar (25:00)
Tatiana Moroz (25:35)
Vakeraj (26:00)
David Foox (27:00)
Leon Siegman (28:00)
Kane Mayfield (29:45)
Droplister (31:00)
Eric Hess (33:00)
Nathan Holowaty (34:00)
Guy Malone (34:34)
Sketch McGuinney (35:40)
Thomas (36:00)

BlockFi filed for Ch 11 Bankruptcy in NJ on Cyber Monday, after halting withdrawals on November 10.  The SEC and various state regulators put a real damper on their business when it was sued for $100 million, and forced to shut down its interest accounts in the US.  BlockFi nearly went bankrupt in July, and FTX swooped in and offered a $400 million line of credit, and an offer to buy the Company for up to $240m.

Talking with BitBoy Crypto about the FTX Collapse, the regulatory ramifications, twitter, Kanye West, and more.

This episode of the HODLCast was recorded on Wed, Nov 9, 2022.   The FTX exchange has imploded, it turned out they were gambling with user's funds while lobbying for industry regulation in DC. FTX global, US, and Alameda Research all filed bankruptcy on Friday, and then got hacked late in the evening, draining all accounts to zero.   Decentralized exchanges fix this intermediary risk. People can hold their own assets, and transactions are fully transparent and operate on code. Anyone in DC who actually cares about protecting people should promote self-custody. Sadly, this type of situation gives the takeaway that crypto is the wild west and needs policing. However, perhaps this situation can be an example of the industry settling its own issues. FTX’s insolvency was exposed by the market and maybe it will be solved by the market.