Stacy Elliott

Terra Founder Do Kwon Back in Jail in Montenegro, Bail Revoked

Terraform Labs co-founder Do Kwon has had his bail revoked in Montenegro, according to a report from Bloomberg. The high court of Montenegro in Podgorica overturned a decision from two weeks ago to release Kwon and Terraform's former chief financial officer Han Chong-joon on €400,000 ($436,000) bail each. At the time, the court had ordered that the men would be placed under house arrest in Montenegro while they awaited trial. Bloomberg reports that Kwon "remains in jail" now following today's de

Ledger Delays Plans for Private Key Recovery Service Following Controversy

After a week of vicious backlash from the crypto community, hardware wallet company Ledger has delayed the release of its private key recovery service. "We've heard your feedback on Ledger Recover," the company said from its main Twitter account yesterday, announcing plans to host a town hall over Twitter Spaces at 12:30 p.m. EST on Tuesday, May 23. On Tuesday morning, Ledger Chief Technology Officer Charles Guillemet said on Twitter that the company has "decided to accelerate our open-sourcing

MiCA Spurs Surge in VC Funding for EU-Based Crypto Startups

An influx of VC funding has flowed into the European crypto market over the past couple months—something executives have said is because of the landmark crypto regulation in the European Union. Markets in Crypto Assets (MiCA), is a regulatory framework that was approved earlier this year and will likely become law in July this year. The legislation aims to regulate crypto assets and those engaged in transacting them, whether they are people or entities. That makes it the first major step towards

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis: Image: Shutterstock

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis Bans CBDCs in the State

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed a bill on Friday banning the use of a "centralized digital dollar," otherwise known as a central bank digital currency or CBDC, in the state. DeSantis has been relentless in his attacks on a CBDCs, saying last week that they were part of "woke politics" that he wants to combat. Now the portion of Florida law that defines money explicitly notes: "The term does not include a central bank digital currency." During the press conference, DeSantis posited that Pres

Anthony Scaramucci Is Bullish As Ever, Says Bitcoin Is 'Definitely A Commodity’

For all the knocks he’s taken from and over his interest in crypto markets, Skybridge CEO Anthony Scaramucci says he hasn’t lost any enthusiasm for Bitcoin. “I’m not a cold figure in this space. I’m not an evangelist. I’m not one of these religious figures that’s going to chant ‘Bitcoin über alles’ no matter what is going on in life,” he told Decrypt during a recent interview for the gm podcast. “So I want to frame it from that perspective, and then tell you that I’m more bullish now than I’ve

A Bitcoin mining farm. Image: Shutterstock

Marathon Digital CEO: Bitcoin Mining Bill 'Won’t Change Our Minds About Texas'

The Texas Bitcoin mining bill that the industry didn’t think would make it out of committee did. Then it cleared the State Senate, too—each time with the backing of unanimous votes. Despite the consternation from Bitcoin miners about the proposal that would cut into their earnings, Wednesday’s vote to send SB-1751 to the Texas House of Representatives happened in a mostly empty room during the local and uncontested session. That means, so far, things are proceeding as Marathon Digital CEO Fred T

Shanghai Arrival Could Push Major Players to Disembark

The Ethereum network’s just completed Shanghai upgrade represents a glowing exit sign for some centralized entities. The update, which went live on Wednesday at 6:27 p.m. EST, made it possible for validators who secured the network with more than 18 million ETH to initiate withdrawals. Those withdrawals fall into two main categories: partial withdrawals, which allow validators to collect their rewards and leave at least 32 ETH deposited to keep generating rewards, and full withdrawals, which pul

FTX CEO Slams Exchange for Keeping Private Keys on Amazon Web Services

Nothing against Amazon Web Services. Very nice tool, but it’s not for a multibillion dollar company’s private keys—or anyone’s private keys, really. He didn’t write it that way in the interim report he filed yesterday, but it’s not hard to imagine FTX CEO John Ray III, who’s overseeing the company’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy restructuring, chastising its use of AWS the same way he did its use of QuickBooks for accounting. "Nothing against QuickBooks. Very nice tool," Ray said while testifying before

Hut 8 Mining CEO Jaime Leverton on the gm podcast. (Art: Grant Kempster)

Is Texas Still 'Very Open for Business' for Bitcoin Mining?

Up until quite recently, Texas was “very open for business, as it were, for Bitcoin mining.” That’s how Jaime Leverton, CEO of Canadian Bitcoin miner Hut 8, put it on the latest episode of Decrypt’s gm podcast. “They have in West Texas, in particular, a lot of renewable assets that are looking for stable base loads like a Bitcoin miner can provide,” she said. “So I think it was just a really, really nice fit between the needs of the state and what a Bitcoin miner can uniquely provide as really

The SEC is the United States primary financial regulator. Image: Shutterstock.

SEC’s Coinbase Insider Trading Case Is Coming to a Close

Ex-Coinbase product manager Ishan Wahi and his brother Nikhil could soon reach a settlement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission over insider trading charges against them, according to court filings. The SEC and the Wahis filed a joint motion on Monday asking that the Commission be given more time to respond to the Wahis’ November motion to have the charges dismissed. “At this time, the SEC has an agreement in principle with Ishan Wahi to resolve all of the SEC’s claims in this matt

Tron founder Justin Sun. Image: Tron Foundation

His Excellency Has No Status: Justin Sun Is No Longer a Diplomat

Tron founder and Huobi adviser Justin Sun didn’t seem to want anyone to know he’s had to add an extra “ex” to “his excellency,” an honorific that he’s been proudly using for over a year. The Granada Government named Sun as its ambassador and permanent trade representative to the World Trade Organization in December 2021. But only seven months later, the New National Party that appointed him lost the general election to the National Democratic Congress. After the NDC took over, “all ambassadors w

Former Binance US CEO Catherine Coley (Image: Binance US)

Ex-Binance US CEO Catherine Coley Hires Attorney for CFTC Lawsuit: Report

Ex-Binance US CEO Catherine Coley has hired an attorney to advise her in the Commodities Futures Trading Commission’s lawsuit against Binance, an anonymous source told Reuters. Coley is said to have hired Sullivan & Cromwell partner James McDonald, a former director of enforcement at the CFTC until 2020. Sullivan & Cromwell did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Decrypt on Thursday. The CFTC filed its lawsuit against Binance on Monday, a move that the crypto exchange called “u

Judge Again Orders 3AC Co-Founder to Surrender Financial Documents

The U.S. judge overseeing Three Arrows Capital’s bankruptcy proceedings has again ordered co-founder Kyle Davies to turn over financial documents. After filing an opinion on the matter last week, U.S. Judge Martin Glenn signed what’s now the second order giving Davies fourteen days to turn over financial records related to his insolvent crypto hedge fund or be held in contempt. That means his new deadline to cooperate with the liquidators is April 13. The last deadline was March 16. This is not

What the Binance CFTC Lawsuit Means for Crypto

The Commodities Futures Trading Commission’s enforcement action against Binance could shutter the crypto behemoth if the regulator's requests for injunctive relief and penalties stick—but there’s a lot more to the Commission's lawsuit to unpack. The CFTC filed its lawsuit against Binance on Monday morning, which the company has said was “unexpected and disappointing,” citing its ongoing cooperation with regulators. The company also said in its statement that it has invested heavily in its compli

Sam Bankman-Fried is currently awaiting trial for wire fraud and other criminal charges. Image: Shutterstock

Sam Bankman-Fried Charged With Bribing Chinese Government Officials

Former CEO and founder of FTX Sam Bankman-Fried has been hit with an additional bribery charge, according to a superseding indictment unsealed Tuesday. Prosecutors allege that Bankman-Fried directed $40 million in cryptocurrencies to "one or more Chinese government officials in order to influence" them to unfreeze accounts owned by FTX's sister trading firm Alameda Research. Bankman-Fried's lawyer, Mark. S. Cohen, did not immediately respond to Decrypt's request for comment. In the newly unseale

Software firm Microstrategy went all in on Bitcoin. Image: Shutterstock

MicroStrategy Repays Silvergate Loan, Spends $150M Buying More Bitcoin

Software company MicroStrategy, the largest corporate holder of Bitcoin, has fully prepaid the $161 million outstanding balance on its $205 million loan from Silvergate Bank. By doing so, the company has ended its credit agreement with Silvergate and reclaimed the 34,619 BTC that was being held as collateral against the loan, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing. In the same SEC filing, MicroStrategy also disclosed that between February 16 and March 23, it spent $150 million

Block Stock Dives on Short-Seller Report Claiming It 'Misled Investors'

Notorious short-selling firm Hindenburg Research has Square parent company Block Inc. in its crosshairs, accusing the company of fraud, predatory practices, and inflating user counts in a report released Thursday morning. “In sum, we think Block has misled investors on key metrics, and embraced predatory offerings and compliance worst-practices in order to fuel growth and profit from facilitation of fraud against consumers and the government,” the firm wrote in its report. As a disclaimer on the

SEC Warns Coinbase of Enforcement Over Its Staking Rewards Products

Coinbase received a Wells Notice from the Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday, alleging that the company's staking products constitute unregistered securities. The notice also mentions "aspects of Coinbase's exchange... and Coinbase Wallet." A person familiar with the matter told Decrypt that Coinbase is "confident it will be able to defend its position in court." The source also said Coinbase leadership is frustrated that the SEC has allowed American investors to participate in cryp

Why True Decentralization at Scale Is Hard and Rare: Gnosis Co-Founder

Gnosis co-founder and COO Friederike Ernst doesn’t like seeing “decentralization” thrown around as a superficial marketing term. It’s why she takes such pride in the fact that it’s very affordable right now—1 GNO token, about $108 at the time of writing—to become a validator on the Gnosis Chain. For context, it costs 32 ETH, worth almost $58,000, to become a validator on the Ethereum network. That low bar to entry has helped the Gnosis Chain, one of the earliest Ethereum sidechains, amass more

Coinbase is a popular Bitcoin trading platform. Image: Shuttersock

Coinbase Is Speeding Up Plans to Expand Outside the US

Coinbase has been setting its sights on growth outside the U.S., but declined to comment directly on a report from Bloomberg saying it’s already talking to international clients about those plans. Instead, a Coinbase spokesperson told Decrypt in an email that the company is accelerating work on its “Go Broad, Go Deep” strategy, revealed earlier this month, which includes growing its presence on every continent except for Antarctica. “Our international expansion drive will focus on high-bar regul

Coin Prices

Stories by Stacy Elliott