SBF sent home and Binance gets Voyager assets: Hodler’s Digest

Top Stories This Week

SBF sent home after his parents put up their house to cover his astronomical bail bond

Sam Bankman-Fried will spend the holidays with his family in Palo Alto, California, after his parents secured $250 million in bail funds with the equity in their home. Among the conditions of the bail are home detention, location monitoring and his passport surrender. The former FTX CEO signed surrender documents on Dec. 20, allowing his extradition from the Bahamas to the United States, where he faces eight charges that could keep him behind bars for the rest of his life. Bankman-Fried will now wait for his sentence at home with his family.

Caroline Ellison and Gary Wang plead guilty to fraud charges

Former Alameda Research CEO Caroline Ellison and FTX co-founder Gary Wang have pleaded guilty to federal fraud charges. Ellison, however, is working on a plea deal with the Office of the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, which would evade all the seven charges against her, resulting in a $250,000 bail bond and prosecution only for criminal tax violations. The agreement doesn’t provide protection against any other charges that Ellison might face from any other authorities. Wang and Ellison are reportedly cooperating with U.S. authorities on investigations related to FTX’s collapse.

Genesis and DCG seek path for the recovery of assets amid liquidity issues

Global investment bank Houlihan Lokey has proposed a plan to resolve the liquidity issues at crypto lender Genesis and its parent company, Digital Currency Group (DCG). The plan, devised by Houlihan on behalf of a committee of creditors, would further provide a path for clients of crypto exchange Gemini to recover assets owed by Genesis and DCG. Genesis platform withdrawals have been suspended since Nov. 16, days after the company disclosed that nearly $175 million of its funds are stuck in an FTX account.

Binance.US set to acquire Voyager Digital assets for $1B

With a bid of $1.022 billion, Binance.US will acquire the assets of bankrupt crypto lender Voyager Digital. The sale, however, is subject to a creditor’s vote and closing requirements. A hearing will also be held by the presiding bankruptcy court to approve the purchase agreement on Jan. 5, 2023. In good faith, Binance has agreed to deposit $10 million and reimburse Voyager for certain expenses up to a maximum of $15 million.

Twitter adds BTC and ETH price indexes to search function

In its latest move into the crypto space, Twitter has added price indexes for Bitcoin and Ether to its search function. The new feature allows users to simply search for the ticker symbol, whether for a stock or crypto, and check price’s graph. Other cryptocurrencies, including Dogecoin, did not make the list. The company plans to expand its coverage in the coming weeks.

Winners and Losers

At the end of the week, Bitcoin (BTC) is at $16,835, Ether (ETH) at $1,218 and XRP at $0.35. The total market cap is at $811.38 billion, according to CoinMarketCap.

Among the biggest 100 cryptocurrencies, the top three altcoin gainers of the week are XDC Network (XDC) at 14.04%, Ether (ETH) at 2.13%, and Pax Dollar (USDP) at 1.47%.

The top three altcoin losers of the week are Chain (XCN) at -39.75%, Filecoin (FIL) at -21.77%, and Trust Wallet Token (TWT) at -19.43%.

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

Most Memorable Quotations

“Regulation should focus on intermediaries (the centralized actors in cryptocurrency), where additional transparency and disclosure is needed.”

Brian Armstrong, CEO of Coinbase

“This is why you have situations like the Mango exploit happen where the exploiter will first steal the funds and then start negotiating. There’s no proper incentive to report.”

Web3 developer

“If you can make a wallet that a billion people use — that’s a huge opportunity.”

Vitalik Buterin,…