Tim Draper doubles down on the world’s #1 digital asset at $250,000, saying $3.6 million worth of bitcoin was stolen.

And of course, Sam Bankman-Fried pleaded not guilty earlier this week, setting the stage for an October trial unless a deal is struck between the 30-year-old founder of FTX and federal prosecutors. Our white-collar attorney contact recommends watching this space closely over the coming weeks and months.

Anyway, give me a shout on Twitter @mdecambre and at MarketWatch at mark@marketwatch.com.

Sign up for Distributed Ledger here.

Quote of the week

Silvergate

Cryptocentric bank Silvergate Capital Corp. SI
Amid the chaos that followed FTX’s bankruptcy in November, it was forced to sell assets at a huge loss to cash out $8.1 billion. The bank posted an update on Thursday, saying it had lost $718 million as a result of the sale of assets at a loss.

“We have taken proportionate steps to ensure that we maintain cash liquidity to support potential deposit flows and currently maintain a cash position in excess of our digital asset deposits,” said Silvergate chief executive Alan Lane. record.

Silvergate is also reducing its workforce by about 200 employees, or 40% of its workforce, “to take into account the economic realities facing businesses and the industry today.”

Prediction and “halving”

Tim Draper (again) is betting that bitcoin prices will reach $250,000 per coin by the end of 2023. Of course, he made a similar bet in 2022, as he showed on his shirt in his next tweet.

Despite his relentlessly bullish view of bitcoin prices, it’s worth noting that bitcoin’s most recent ‘halving’ or ‘halving’, which happens every four years, ultimately saw bitcoin rise to a new high of $65,000 in 2021. accompanied by the last such event was in 2020.

The halving means that rewards for those who support bitcoin by verifying transactions will literally be halved. This halving will bring the reward to 6.25 bitcoins and will fall to 3.125 in March 2024.

William Cai, co-founder and managing partner of asset management firm Wilshire Phoenix, said his outlook for bitcoin is quite positive.

“Crypto has shown to be very resilient in 2022, and as the space moves forward in 2023, we are looking forward to a positive and exciting year,” he said in emailed comments.

“We will see continued price volatility in 2023 with several countering factors such as an uncertain overall economic environment, technical rather than fundamental pressures and continued institutional acceptance, but possible FTX-like events and related regulatory actions,” he said.

Hacked Luke

Luke Dashjr is off to a rough start to 2023. A bitcoin developer says via Twitter that he lost “mostly” all of his bitcoin due to the hack.

Dashjr does not understand how a crypto wallet is hacked. He was only hacked when cryptocurrency exchanges Coinbase and Kraken alerted him to attempts to access his accounts.

The developer is known for making significant contributions to bitcoin mining technology and code. Perhaps ironically, he has described himself as a radical in cybersecurity and has long held that bitcoin is not as secure as its proponents would like to think.

Genesis cuts

Genesis Global Trading is cutting 30% of its workforce, according to MarketWatch sister publication The Wall Street Journal.

“As we continue to address unprecedented industry challenges, Genesis has made the difficult decision to reduce our headcount globally. These measures are part of our ongoing efforts to move our business forward,” the spokesperson was quoted as saying.

The company, part of Barry Silbert’s Digital Currency Group consortium, has been in trouble since cryptocurrency prices began unraveling this summer with the collapse of hedge funds Three Arrows and trading platform Celsius.

The collapse of FTX aggravated his problems.

A land of confusion

Meanwhile, Gemini Trust cryptocurrency co-founder Cameron Winklevoss accused Silbert’s DCG of bad faith tactics in the dispute over the $900 million frozen funds.

In the open letter was published on TwitterWinklevoss alleged that DCG and its crypto-brokerage unit Genesis owed more than $900 million to users of Gemini’s Earn program.

Under Gemini Earn, investors loaned Gemini crypto assets in exchange for high interest payments. The twins then loaned the digital assets to Genesis. But Genesis halted all withdrawals and transactions in early November as it hit the bankrupt cryptocurrency FTX, causing a liquidity crisis for Gemini.

MarketWatch’s Mike Murphy reports that last week investors sued the Twins, as well as Winklevoss and his twin brother Tyler, accusing them of fraud and selling the interest-bearing accounts without registering them as securities.

Silbert and the Winklevoss twins went back and forth:

Too deep?

Genesis told its customers that they needed more time to resolve issues in the credit department. It has previously warned that it may have to file for bankruptcy protection if solutions are not forthcoming.

MarketWatch’s Steve Goldstein, citing research firm Messari, notes that there are many questions about Genesis’ debt and its debt to other entities within DCG, including Grayscale Bitcoin Trust GBTC..

Does DCG or Genesis own the $700M Grayscale Bitcoin Trust? DCG extended a $1.1 billion note to Genesis.

It might be time to pay the gunman soon.

Crypto in an instant

Bitcoin prices rose 1.7% last week and traded around $16,337 on Thursday, according to FactSet.

Ether rose 4.7% to $1,250.70, FactSet data showed.

Meanwhile, FTX native coins, also known as FTT tokens, traded at $0.930835, up 5.8% in the past seven days, according to data provider CoinGecko.

Crypto companies, funds

Coinbase Global Inc shares COIN
increased by 1.1% during the week and reached $34.46. MicroStrategy Inc. MSTR
has risen 10.7% to $157.81 for the week so far.

Crypto mining company Riot Blockchain Inc. RIOT
It rose 26.5% to $4.25 on Thursday. Competitor Marathon Digital Holdings Inc. MARA shares
has risen nearly 30% over the past week to $4.15. Ebang International Holdings Inc. EBONY
It was trading at $3.51 last week, up 34.5%.

Overstock.com Inc. shares OSTK
traded at $17.96, down 3.3% on the week.

Block Inc. SQ shares,
formerly known as Square, is up 8% for the week to date at $65.31. Tesla Inc. Shares TSLA
It decreased by 6.5% to $110.52.

PayPal Holdings Inc. PYPL
trading around $76.99, up 11.7% on the week. Nvidia Corp. NVDA
It rose 0.6% last week to $143.49.

Advanced Micro Devices Inc. Shares AMD
remained virtually unchanged at $63.40 during the week.

ProShares Bitcoin Strategy BITO among cryptocurrency funds
Thursday rose 2.6% to $10.63, while its counterpart Short Bitcoin Strategy ETF BITI
It decreased by 2.5% to $39.07. Valkyrie Bitcoin Strategy ETF BTF
Up 2.3% to $6.69, while the VanEck Bitcoin Strategy ETF XBTF
Up 2.5% to $17.15.

Grayscale Bitcoin Trust rose more than 8% to $8.40.

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