SBF’s new charges, Shapella’s fork date, emojis as financial advice

Top Stories This Week

Silvergate stock plunges after delayed filing raises doubts over future

Silvergate made headlines this week after postponing the filing of its annual 10-K financial report, raising fears of an upcoming bankruptcy filing. The collapse of the cryptocurrency bank could prove costly for the rest of the industry. Within 24 hours after the announcement, Coinbase, Circle, Bitstamp, Galaxy Digital and Paxos confirmed that they will scale back their individual partnerships with Silvergate in some capacity. MicroStrategy and Tether joined a number of firms publicly denying any meaningful exposure to the bank. On March 2, Silvergate’s stock plummeted by over 50% on the NYSE.

FTX presentation shows ‘massive shortfall’ in firm’s assets

Bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange FTX has revealed a “massive shortfall” in its digital asset and fiat currency holdings, with billions worth of customer funds missing from both the exchange and its United States-based arm, FTX US. In total, FTX recorded an $8.6 billion deficit across all wallets and accounts while FTX US recorded a deficit of $116 million. Among the week’s headlines, former FTX engineering director Nishad Singh pleaded guilty to charges of wire fraud along with wire and commodities fraud conspiracy. Singh’s plea follows a number of Sam Bankman-Fried’s close associates reportedly agreeing to cooperate with U.S. prosecutors in recent months.

Celsius Custody customers finally begin withdrawals 263 days after freeze

For the first time in 263 days, Celsius customers have been able to withdraw funds following a freeze before its bankruptcy filing. Affected customers received an email listing those who were eligible to withdraw funds a few weeks ago, followed by another on March 2 notifying them that withdrawals were available. Customers who held funds in custody accounts — only available to U.S. residents — were able to withdraw 94% of their original funds. Customers who transferred funds from earn or borrow accounts to custody accounts can currently withdraw 72.5% of funds.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren and colleagues demand to see Binance’s balance sheets

Three United States senators led by Elizabeth Warren have sent a letter to Binance CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao and Binance.US CEO Brian Shroder expressing concern over a number of aspects of the crypto exchange’s operations and asking the companies for their balance sheets. Senators claim the companies evaded U.S. regulators and sanctions, as well as facilitated the laundering of at least $10 billion. Binance is reportedly preparing to settle outstanding regulatory and law-enforcement issues in the U.S.

Jack Dorsey’s decentralized Twitter rival enters app store

Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey is making progress in the development of Bluesky, a decentralized Twitter alternative. A private beta test of the mobile application is available in the Apple App Store as an invite-only app, allowing certain persons to try out the new social media experience by creating an account via an invite code. Bluesky is built on the AT protocol, a new federated social network that integrates ideas from the latest decentralized technologies.

Winners and Losers

At the end of the week, Bitcoin (BTC) is at $22,352, Ether (ETH) at $1,562 and XRP at $0.36. The total market cap is at $1.02 trillion, according to CoinMarketCap.

Among the biggest 100 cryptocurrencies, the top three altcoin gainers of the week are Maker (MKR) at 29.45%, yearn.finance (YFI) at 21.79% and Stacks (STX) at 21.51%.

The top three altcoin losers of the week are Conflux (CFX) at -20.20%, Optimism (OP) at -17.94% and Hedera (HBAR) at -16.27%.

For more info on crypto prices, make sure to read Cointelegraph’s market analysis.

Most Memorable Quotations

“Thanks to crypto we were able to cover some of our defenders’ immediate needs, there was literally no other way at the time.”

Alona Shevchenko, co-founder of…