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<ul class="summary-list"><li>Leading crypto exchage Binance temporarily halted withdrawals of the USDC stablecoin on Tuesday.</li><li>Customers have pulled over $2 billion in funds in 24 hours as concerns about its stability grow.</li></ul>Binance has temporarily paused withdrawals of a major stablecoin after customers pulled over $2 billion in funds, as worries about the crypto exchange's stability grow after the collapse of FTX.The world's largest crypto exchange will freeze all withdrawals of <a href="https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/usd-coin/">USD Coin</a> while it conducts a "token swap" to boost its holdings of the dollar-pegged token, CEO Changpeng Zhao said Tuesday."On USDC, we have seen an increase in withdrawals," the Binance boss, commonly known as "CZ", <a href="https://twitter.com/cz_binance/status/1602579499903852544">tweeted</a>.Binance has faced questions over transparency about its reserves and reports of an imminent investigation by US prosecutors in recent days, which have rattled some crypto investors in the wake of the collapse of now-bankrupt rival FTX.Binance requires traditional fiat currency held by a New York bank to swap some of its <a href="https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/paxos-standard/">Paxos Standard</a> and <a href="https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/binance-usd/">Binance USD</a> stablecoins for USDC, so that it has sufficient holdings of the token for withdrawals to continue, Zhao added."The banks are not open for another few hours," he said. "We expect the situation will be restored when the banks open."USDC has its value fixed at $1, and it is used by some crypto traders as a place to park their cash at times of high uncertainty or volatility.The stablecoin maintained its dollar peg Tuesday, while <a href="https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/bnb/">Binance Coin</a> — a native token that is seen as reflecting customers' trust in the exchange — had slipped 5.12% to trade at just under $269 at last check Tuesday.Binance halted USDC withdrawals after customers pulled over $2 billion worth of cryptocurrency from the exchange Monday, according to data from blockchain intelligence platform <a href="https://twitter.com/nansen_ai/status/1602618067598442503">Nansen</a>.Those withdrawals came after <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/binance-is-trying-to-calm-investors-but-its-finances-remain-a-mystery-11670679351">top accountants</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/JohnReedStark/status/1601760070806560768">legal experts</a> slammed a proof of reserves report published last week, where Binance claimed its <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/currencies/btc-usd">bitcoin</a> holdings were overcollateralized – which would mean it held more than enough of the token to cover its losses in case of a default.US prosecutors are revving up to charge CZ's crypto group for violating anti-money-laundering regulations from 2018 onwards, <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/idUSL8N3321X6">Reuters</a> reported Monday. The report said Binance processed <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/currencies/crypto-binance-reportedly-processed-over-10b-in-illegal-payments-2022-2022-12">over $10 billion worth of illegal payments</a> in 2022.In <a href="https://twitter.com/cz_binance/status/1602590863451889665">follow-up tweets</a> Tuesday, CZ called on Binance customers to avoid acting based on "FUD" – an acronym for the feelings "fear, uncertainty, and doubt" that crypto bulls believe drive some traders away from the digital asset space.Crypto investors are on alert for any sign that the problems that helped pull down FTX could spread to other platforms. The now-bankrupt crypto exchange collapsed after facing a liquidity squeeze, and over 1 million customers may have lost money, according to NPR.At the request of the US, authorities in the <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/sam-bankman-fried-arrested-in-the-bahamas-authorities-say-2022-12">Bahamas arrested FTX's founder and former CEO Sam Bankman-Fried</a> on Monday. He faces allegations he illegally misused billions of dollars in FTX customer funds to prop up sister trading firm Alameda Research.Binance representatives declined to comment further on this story.Read more: <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/currencies/nouriel-roubini-dr-doom-binance-chanpeng-zhao-cz-ftx-sbf-2022-11">Nouriel Roubini slams Binance boss CZ as a 'walking time bomb' and says crypto is totally corrupt</a>

Crypto exchange Binance freezes withdrawals of stablecoin USDC as rattled investors pull $2 billion in funds

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Binance froze withdrawals of a staked Ankr protocol token Friday.</li><li>The exchange's chief executive Changpeng Zhao said the crypto could have been targeted by hackers.</li></ul>Binance said Friday that it will freeze withdrawals of a cryptocurrency that derives part of its value from a link to the exchange's own native <a href="https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/bnb/">Binance Coin</a> token.Chief executive Changpeng Zhao said withdrawals of Ankr's <a href="https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/bnb/">Reward Bearing Staked BNB</a> coin would be paused while Binance probed a potential attack by hackers.The token, which held around $123 million of assets and was intended to offer Binance Coin holders returns via staking, crashed 99.5% Friday to trade at $1.51."Initial analysis is developer private key was hacked, and the hacker updated the smart contract to a more malicious one," <a href="https://twitter.com/cz_binance/status/1598575867311132673">'CZ' said on Twitter</a>. "Binance paused withdrawals a few hours ago."Binance has also frozen around $3 million that hackers moved to its centralized exchange, he added.Hackers have relentlessly targeted digital assets in 2022 with more than $3 billion wiped from the sector this year, according to Chainalysis.Binance's freezing of Ankr's token comes at a time when investors are worrying about contagion from the implosion of rival exchange FTX and a brutal crypto winter that has seen bitcoin's price fall 63% year-to-date, with the token trading at just under $17,000 at last check.Read more: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/sam-bankman-fried-criminal-liability-lawyers-ftx-collapse-bankruptcy-crypto-2022-11">Sam Bankman-Fried said he doesn't think he's criminally liable for FTX's implosion, but that his lawyers don't want him speaking publicly</a>

Binance has frozen withdrawals of a crypto linked to its own token that looks like it's been hacked, CEO 'CZ' says

<ul class="summary-list"><li><keyword id="11893898" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="crypto" source="Orion">Crypto</keyword> lender Celsius has frozen all withdrawals, swaps and transfers between accounts.</li><li>The network's founder Alex Mashinsky pledged to revolutionize finance and has said he "hates the banks".</li></ul>Major crypto lender <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/category/celsius-network?r=US&amp;IR=T">Celsius Network</a> froze all of its customers' accounts Monday — after promising for years that it wouldn't act like a traditional bank.Celsius founder Alex Mashinsky has repeatedly criticized traditional financial institutions, arguing that they lock up investors' hard-earned savings to boost their own balance sheets."I hate the banks," he told <a href="https://cryptobriefing.com/mashinsky-costco-crypto-celsius/">Crypto Briefing</a> last year. "You can't retire when you make 1% on your savings - the Fed is screwing all Americans, so the banks can put more profit on their balance sheets."Mashinsky has also promised in the past to "<a href="https://twitter.com/mashinsky/status/1383176516083847170?lang=en-GB">unbank the banked and bank the unbanked</a>". He spoke at November's Web Summit in Lisbon wearing a T-shirt that read "banks are not your friends". With cryptocurrencies plummeting, Celsius moved to <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/currencies/crypto-lender-celsius-freeze-withdrawals-transfers-accounts-market-tumble-bitcoin-2022-6">freeze all withdrawals, swaps, and transfers between accounts</a> Monday."We are taking this necessary action for the benefit of our entire community in order to stabilize liquidity and operations," Celsius said in a <a href="https://blog.celsius.network/a-memo-to-the-celsius-community-59532a06ecc6">blog post</a>, citing "extreme market conditions" as the reason for the move. It managed $11.8 billion in assets as of May 17, The Wall Street Journal <a href="https://affiliate.insider.com?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.wsj.com%2Farticles%2Fbig-crypto-lender-celsius-freezes-all-account-withdrawals-11655096584" rel="nofollow sponsored noindex">reported</a>, and it says it has 1.7 million users. During the 2008 financial crisis, rumors that the UK's Northern Rock would act similarly led to a <a href="https://www.investopedia.com/terms/b/bankrun.asp">bank run</a> - when investors line up to withdraw their cash because they believe that a financial institution may be about to go bust.Many influential crypto entrepreneurs have promised to develop a new financial system that cuts out unnecessary middlemen and makes finance cheaper and more democratic. But in a <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/opening-bell-fresh-crypto-market-crash-2022-6?r=US&amp;IR=T">nightmarish 2022</a>, critics have accused leading crypto firms of exploiting their customers in a similar manner to the banks they have pledged to replace.Last month, Terra's UST stablecoin lost its peg, causing its sister luna token to crash to $0. <a href="https://www.insider.com/terra-luna-ust-cryptocurrency-crash-may-bitcoin-algorithmic-stablecoin-2022-5">That left some investors stomaching thousands of dollars worth of losses</a>.The project's founder Do Kwon — <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/currencies/terra-usd-ust-luna-do-kwon-poor-critics-crypto-crash-2022-5">who had previously mocked one of his critics for being "poor"</a> — has since been accused of <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/investment/news/terras-do-kwon-accused-of-siphoning-funds-from-network-before-the-crash-again/articleshow/92178844.cms">siphoning up to $80 million a month from Terra before his two cryptocurrencies crashed</a>.Similarly, regulators have previously questioned Celsius over its high-yield products - which some have likened to a <a href="https://rorodi.substack.com/p/the-biggest-crypto-lending-company?s=r">Ponzi scheme</a>. The states of New Jersey, Texas, and Alabama all slapped the company with a cease and desist order last year, according to <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-09-17/texas-moves-against-celsius-over-unregistered-securities?sref=M8H6LjUF#xj4y7vzkg">Bloomberg</a>.Some analysts have even warned that crypto may be experiencing the equivalent of a bank run, with investors rushing to sell their tokens as digital assets' value continues to plummet. In the aftermath of Celsius' announcement, the network's native token <a href="https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/celsius/">cel</a> nosedived 49% and <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/currencies/bitcoin-price-today-cryptocurrencies-celsius-collapse-inflation-dampen-confidence-2022-6">bitcoin fell to an 18-month low</a>."Crypto fans have become used to volatile rides, but these rollercoaster descents are increasingly hard to stomach," Susannah Streeter, a senior <keyword id="11893875" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="markets" source="Orion">markets</keyword> analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, said.Some of the world's highest-profile investors and economists are vocal in their criticism of the likes of <keyword id="11893902" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="bitcoin" source="Orion">bitcoin</keyword> and the crypto ecosystem. Former Microsoft boss Bill Gates said recently he would never own any crypto as it is not "adding to society." And Warren Buffett, the 91-year old boss of Berkshire Hathaway, has said more than once that bitcoin is not for him. "If you told me you owned all the bitcoin in the world and you offered it to me for $25, I wouldn't take it," Buffett said at Berkshire's <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/warren-buffett-charlie-munger-bitcoin-crypto-cryptocurrency-investing-berkshire-hathaway-2022-4?utm_medium=ingest&amp;utm_source=markets">annual shareholder meeting last month</a>. "What would I do with it?"Read more: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/crypto-investing-binance-claim-retail-traders-bitcoin-service-outages-regulation-2021-12?r=US&amp;IR=T">'Crypto investors aren't stupid, but nobody stands up for us.' We spoke to retail traders who lost up to $200,000 in the Binance outage about their 2,000-person campaign against the world's largest crypto exchange.</a>

Crypto lender Celsius is freezing withdrawals - after its founder promised to reinvent the financial system and never act like a traditional bank

<ul class="summary-list"><li>As many crypto exchanges are downsizing, <keyword id="11896045" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="binance" source="Orion">Binance</keyword>'s CEO said the company was expanding its hiring.</li><li>The company currently has 2,000 open roles, according to founder Yi He.</li></ul>The CEO of the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/binance-ceo-interview-profile-how-he-built-largest-crypto-exchange-2021-5">world's largest cryptocurrency exchange</a>, Binance, said the company would be doubling down on hiring despite the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/crypto-investing-bitcoin-ethereum-defi-winter-buying-opportunity-wisdomtree-onramp-2022-6">"crypto winter."</a>"We have a very healthy war chest; we, in fact, are expanding hiring right now. If we are in a crypto winter, we will leverage that. We will use that to the max," Binance founder and CEO <keyword id="11909185" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="changpeng-zhao" source="Orion">Changpeng Zhao</keyword> said via video at the crypto-focused Consensus 2022 this past weekend in Austin, Texas, according to <a href="https://fortune.com/2022/06/13/crypto-layoffs-hiring-freeze-binance-expanding-cz-changpeng-zhao/">Fortune</a>. "We currently have more than 2,000 roles open from engineers, product, marketing to business development," Binance co-founder Yi He told Fortune. "The crypto space is still in its early stages, and bull markets tend to care more about price while bear markets have more value-conscious teams that continue to build the industry. We see this as a great time to bring on top talent."The cryptocurrency market reached a record market value of $3 trillion in November, per <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-06-13/bitcoin-sinks-to-18-month-low-as-us-inflation-impact-spreads">Bloomberg.</a> Crypto exchanges rode on the wave and splurged on marketing campaigns to make their presence felt. <keyword id="11895315" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="coinbase" source="Orion">Coinbase</keyword>, for example, spent a reported $14 million on a <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/coinbase-superbowl-ad-shows-bouncing-qr-code-blank-screen-2022-2">30-second Super Bowl ad slot</a> in February. And <keyword id="12551782" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="crypto-com" source="Orion">Crypto.com</keyword> forked out a reported $700 million to have Staples Center in Los Angeles <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/staples-center-la-being-renamed-crypto-com-arena-2021-11">renamed the Crypto.com Arena</a> for the next two decades. But this year, the cryptocurrency market tumbled as investors diverted their money away from digital tokens into other assets that guarantee better returns. The market value fell below $1 trillion on Monday, according to Bloomberg. With investors holding off on buying and selling these digital currencies, crypto trading platforms have seen their revenues dry up.<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/cryptocom-layoffs-260-workers-5-percent-employees-announcement-2022-6">Crypto.com</a> and <a href="https://www.gemini.com/blog/a-message-from-cameron-and-tyler">Gemini</a> announced in recent weeks that they were going to lay off workers amid turbulent market conditions. <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/coinbase-is-withdrawing-job-offers-and-extending-hiring-freeze-2022-6">Coinbase</a> said on June 2 that it was freezing hiring and withdrawing job offers, and on Monday, the CEO of crypto firm BlockFi <a href="https://twitter.com/BlockFiZac/status/1536372338379608065?s=20&amp;t=EV4GWFuAzhnIsKvO9snrTg">said</a> the company would be laying off 20% of its employees.<h2>A Utah resident sued Binance's American affiliate for falsely marketing a crypto-token as a safe asset</h2>Zhao's comments on Binance's "healthy war chest" comes as the company contends with a <a href="https://ecf.cand.uscourts.gov/doc1/035122018770">lawsuit</a> that alleges it falsely advertised stablecoins <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/terra-luna-cryptocurrency-crash-stablegains-2022-6">Terra USD and Luna</a> as "fiat-backed." Zhao acknowledged at the conference that Binance could do more to educate users about <keyword id="11895317" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="cryptocurrencies" source="Orion">cryptocurrencies</keyword>, per Bloomberg. The meltdown of the two stablecoins wiped out a combined market value that once peaked at $60 billion, and drove <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/terrausd-luna-60-billion-crash-sparks-fears-suicide-self-harm-2022-6">several investors to desperation</a>. "These assertions are without merit and we will defend ourselves vigorously," a Binance spokesperson told <a href="https://www.reuters.com/business/finance/binance-us-exchange-sued-by-crypto-investor-over-stablecoin-collapse-2022-06-13/#:~:text=NEW%20YORK%2C%20June%2013%20(Reuters,collapse%20in%20value%20last%20month">Reuters</a>.Binance did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.

World's largest crypto exchange Binance says it's hiring for more than 2,000 roles amid a multi-trillion dollar slump in the crypto market

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Investors are worried that cracks are starting to appear at Binance after the shocking collapse of FTX.</li><li>The crypto exchange giant faces questions about its reserves, and it is under investigation by the DOJ.</li></ul>Customers drained billions of dollars from Binance's crypto platform last week — just one reason the spotlight is on the company in the wake of the FTX implosion.Spooked investors are on the alert for signs of trouble <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/currencies/will-crypto-market-recover-outlook-expert-forecasts-trading-volume-decline-2022-12">after the collapse</a> of now-bankrupt FTX, the <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/currencies/sam-bankman-fried-ftx-crypto-exchange-valuation-billionaire-bitcoin-ethereum-2022-2">once-$32 billion</a> crypto empire founded by Sam Bankman-Fried. Some are worried that cracks may be starting to appear at Binance.Here are 5 things to know about what's happening at Binance, and why it's got the crypto community wondering.<h3>People are worried about Binance's holdings of customers' funds</h3>After FTX's bankruptcy showed its <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/currencies/sam-bankman-fried-arrest-ftx-users-say-no-relief-bankruptcy-2022-12">coffers were bare</a>, crypto firms came under pressure to show their customers' holdings were safe and they could pay up if there was a <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/currencies/binance-ftx-acquisition-sam-bankman-fried-insolvency-rumors-contagion-fears-2022-11">rush of withdrawals</a>. On top of that, Reuters reported that FTX's Bankman-Fried <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/currencies/ftx-crash-client-funds-alameda-binance-sbf-sec-cftc-probe-2022-11">quietly transferred at least $4 billion</a> in user funds to sister trading firm Alameda Research after it suffered losses.Binance sought to boost confidence in its own business by getting a "<a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/currencies/crypto-proof-of-reserves-what-means-not-enough-ftx-binance-2022-11">proof of reserves</a>" report. It <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/currencies/binance-donald-trump-accountant-mazars-proof-of-reserves-crypto-bitcoin-2022-11">enlisted accounting firm Mazars</a> to verify its holdings, to maybe reassure customers their funds are still in their accounts and not loaned out.But <a href="https://twitter.com/JohnReedStark/status/1601760070806560768">legal experts</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=binance%20nouriel&amp;src=typed_query&amp;f=top">others</a> said the platform's users shouldn't be satisfied with the Mazars report, as it didn't dig into how good the financial controls were. Even though it suggested Binance's situation was solid, it also showed bitcoin liabilities were <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/binance-is-trying-to-calm-investors-but-its-finances-remain-a-mystery-11670679351">$245 million bigger</a> than assets, an the WSJ reported.Nearly half of <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/currencies/crypto-news-binance-reserves-are-mostly-busd-binancecoin-cz-sbf-2022-11">the company's $75 billion reserves</a> are in its own stablecoin BUSD and its native token binance coin (BNB), according to Bloomberg.On Friday, the accounting firm <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/currencies/cryptocurrency-ftx-binance-proof-of-reserves-auditor-mazars-halts-work-2022-12">suspended its proof-of-reserves work with Binance</a> and other crypto clients "due to concerns regarding the way these reports are understood by the public," the <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/bb50a204-5239-4db0-9964-c3bf9339c594">FT reported</a>.<h3>Customers pulled a net $3 billion in funds in the space of a day</h3>Binance has seen heavy withdrawals in recent days as questions about its reserves and a <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/currencies/crypto-binance-reportedly-processed-over-10b-in-illegal-payments-2022-2022-12">DOJ investigation </a>built. Meanwhile, the <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/currencies/crypto-ftx-sam-bankman-fried-arrest-charges-hearing-maxine-waters-2022-12">arrest of FTX founder Bankman-Fried</a> eroded trust in crypto further.On Tuesday, Binance logged its highest daily withdrawals since June, with net outflows of $3 billion over just 24 hours, according to <a href="https://twitter.com/nansen_ai/status/1602673823651864577">Nansen data</a>. The exchange was forced to temporarily <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/currencies/crypto-binance-freeze-usdc-withdrawals-changpeng-zhao-cz-ftx-collapse-2022-12">freeze withdrawals</a> of <a href="https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/usd-coin/" rel=" nofollow">USD Coin</a> while it boosted its holdings of the stablecoin.Just over a month ago, the crypto giant held $69.5 billion in digital assets in publicly disclosed wallets, <a href="https://twitter.com/nansen_ai/status/1603949786771517440">according to Nansen</a>. That total's now $54.7 billion due to large withdrawals and price fluctuation, it said.<h3>There's a DOJ investigation into Binance focused on money laundering</h3>Adding fuel to the fire were reports the US Justice Department has been investigating Binance over the company's compliance with financial crime rules.Prosecutors are <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/currencies/crypto-binance-reportedly-processed-over-10b-in-illegal-payments-2022-2022-12">considering</a> whether to file criminal charges against its founder Changpeng Zhao and other executives, according to <a href="https://www.reuters.com/markets/us/us-justice-dept-is-split-over-charging-binance-crypto-world-falters-sources-2022-12-12/">Reuters</a>. These would cover money laundering conspiracy, unlicensed money transmission, and criminal sanctions violations.Reuters calculated that Binance processed over $10 billion in illegal payments in 2022 and said it tried to evade regulators, which the <a href="https://twitter.com/binance/status/1602287184400326656">crypto giant disputed</a>.<h3>Binance CEO "CZ" isn't fazed and says it's business as usual</h3>Zhao, commonly known as "CZ", has <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/currencies/crypto-news-binance-says-assets-backed-one-to-one-ftx-2022-12">doubled down on trying to ease</a> customers' worries about Binance's liquidity. He's <a href="https://twitter.com/cz_binance/status/1602590863451889665" rel=" nofollow">pushed back</a> against what he sees as "FUD" — the spread of baseless fear, uncertainty and doubt."People can withdraw 100% of the assets they have on Binance. We will not have an issue at any given day," he told CNBC on Thursday. "Crypto businesses have to hold user assets one-to-one, and that's what we do."Earlier in the week, Zhao <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/currencies/binance-outflows-billion-ceo-cz-ftx-cryptocurrency-markets-exchange-bankman-2022-12?utm_medium=ingest&amp;utm_source=markets" rel="">shrugged off</a> the heavy outflows from the exchange as "business as usual". And after Binance lifted its freeze on USDC withdrawals, he welcomed the welcomed the events as a credibility-building <a href="https://twitter.com/cz_binance/status/1602905590384181248">"stress test"</a> of the exchange's resilience.<h3>But he warned Binance staff there's a "bumpy" road ahead </h3>While Zhao played down concerns, issues remain. The young billionaire told staff that FTX's problems have put "a lot of extra scrutiny and tough questions" on Binance, which need to <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/currencies/crypto-binance-ceo-cz-warns-staff-bumpy-times-unfreezes-withdrawals-2022-12">weather a confidence crisis</a>."While we expect the next several months to be bumpy, we will get past this challenging period — and we'll be stronger for having been through it," he said in a memo viewed by Bloomberg.

Binance, the world's biggest crypto exchange, is now under intense scrutiny after the FTX debacle. Here are 5 things you need to know.

<ul class="summary-list"><li>The Bahamas securities regulator has frozen the assets of FTX Digital Markets, an FTX subsidiary.</li><li>It said it's aware of statements suggesting the firm mishandled, mismanaged, or transferred client assets to Alameda Research.</li></ul>Sam Bankman-Fried's bad week has just gotten worse. Certain assets of FTX Digital Markets — a subsidiary of Bankman-Fried's FTX crypto exchange — have been frozen by the Bahamas securities regulator, the authorities said in a <a href="https://www.scb.gov.bs/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Securities-Commission-Statement-on-FTX-101122-Final.pdf">media release on Thursday</a>Attorney Brian Simms, K.C. was appointed as a provisional liquidator, after the authorities petitioned the Supreme Court of The Bahamas, the the release states.FTX, <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/currencies/sam-bankman-fried-ftx-crypto-hong-kong-bahamas-relocates-headquarters-2021-9">which relocated its headquarters</a> from Hong Kong to the Bahamas in September 2021, has been embroiled in a liquidity crisis for days. The Securities Commission of the Bahamas said in the announcement it's aware of statements suggesting FTX mishandled, mismanaged, or transferred the assets of clients to Alameda Research, Bankman-Fried's crypto trading firm. "Based on the Commission's information, any such actions would have been contrary to normal governance, without client consent and potentially unlawful," the Bahamian securities regulator added.<a href="https://www.reuters.com/technology/exclusive-behind-ftxs-fall-battling-billionaires-failed-bid-save-crypto-2022-11-10/">Sources told Reuters</a> <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/currencies/ftx-crash-client-funds-alameda-binance-sbf-sec-cftc-probe-2022-11">Bankman-Fried</a> had transferred $4 billion from FTX to Alameda earlier in 2022 without telling anyone, the news agency reported on Thursday. The Bahamian securities commission added it has determined the "prudent course of action" was to put FTX Digital Markets into provisional liquidation so as to "preserve assets and stabilize the company."<h2>Bankman-Fried's running pillar to post to raise funds for FTX</h2>Bankman-Fried had told investors that the firm faces bankruptcy if it did not receive emergency funding, <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-11-09/ftx-investors-told-that-without-more-capital-bankruptcy-likely">Bloomberg</a> reported earlier on Thursday, citing a person with direct knowledge of the matter. FTX faces a shortfall of up to $8 billion and was trying to raise $4 billion to stay solvent, per Bloomberg. Later in the same day, <a href="https://twitter.com/FTX_Official/status/1590763245488713729">FTX</a> announced on Twitter it reached an agreement with Tron, a crypto network, for the transfer of Tron-based assets from FTX to external wallets.The turmoil at FTX kicked off over the weekend with a very public Twitter feud between Bankman-Fried and <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/zhao-changpeng-binance-billionaire-crypto-mcdonalds-fast-food-wealth-lifestyle-2022-10?utm_medium=ingest&amp;utm_source=markets">Binance CEO Changpeng "CZ" Zhao.</a> The latter tweeted on Sunday that Binance would be liquidating all its FTT tokens — a crypto token native to FTX — due to "recent revelations." He didn't specify his concerns at the time, but a <a href="https://www.coindesk.com/business/2022/11/02/divisions-in-sam-bankman-frieds-crypto-empire-blur-on-his-trading-titan-alamedas-balance-sheet/">November 2 CoinDesk report</a> had been stoking market fears about FTX's liquidity position. Bankman-Fried then hit back at Zhao on Monday, tweeting: "a competitor is trying to go after us with false rumors," per media reports including <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2022-11-08/binance-s-zhao-sbf-ed-ftx-s-bankman-fried">Bloomberg</a> and <a href="https://www.reuters.com/technology/ftxs-founder-dismisses-balance-sheet-concerns-false-rumors-2022-11-07/">Reuters.</a>Bankman-Fried and Zhao then appeared to have made up with as both announced a <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/currencies/binance-ftx-sam-bankman-fried-cryptocurrency-rescue-deal-alameda-ftt-2022-11?utm_medium=ingest&amp;utm_source=markets">Binance deal to acquire FTX.</a> But <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/currencies/binance-ftx-sam-bankman-fried-cryptocurrency-rescue-deal-alameda-ftt-2022-11?utm_medium=ingest&amp;utm_source=markets">Binance</a> called off its acquisition plan on Wednesday, <a href="https://twitter.com/binance/status/1590449161069268992">citing issues</a> "beyond our control or ability to help."The drama weighed on market sentiment, sparking a rush for withdrawals. Around $6 billion was withdrawn from FTX in the 72 hours preceding Tuesday morning, <a href="https://www.reuters.com/business/finance/crypto-exchange-ftx-saw-6-bln-withdrawals-72-hours-ceo-message-staff-2022-11-08/">Reuters</a> reported, citing a message Bankman-Fried sent to staff. FTX did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.

Bahamas freezes certain FTX assets, further crippling Sam Bankman-Fried's troubled crypto trading firm

<ul class="summary-list"><li><keyword id="11985141" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="ukraine" source="Orion">Ukraine</keyword>'s deputy prime minister called on <keyword id="11893898" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="crypto" source="Orion">crypto</keyword> exchanges to block all Russian addresses on Sunday.</li></ul><ul class="summary-list"><li>It's time to "sabotage ordinary users," he said, after Western allies imposed new sanctions on some Russian banks.</li></ul>Ukraine's vice prime minister has called on crypto exchanges to block the accounts of Russian customers as the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/live-updates-russia-ukraine-crisis-2022-2">Russia-Ukraine crisis</a> escalated over the weekend. "I'm asking all major crypto exchanges to block addresses of Russian users," Mykhailo Fedorov said on <a href="https://twitter.com/FedorovMykhailo/status/1497922588491792386?s=20&amp;t=-WURfVy9O3JyuLzN8P8WZg">Twitter</a> on Sunday."It's crucial to freeze not only the addresses linked to Russian and Belarusian politicians, but also to sabotage ordinary users," he added.On Saturday, Western powers moved to isolate <keyword id="11894337" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="russia" source="Orion">Russia</keyword> from the global financial system, by <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/us-eu-announce-some-russian-banks-removed-from-swift-2022-2">removing some of its banks from the SWIFT banking system</a>. They also put restrictive measures on the Russian central bank's $630 billion in international reserves — paralyzing its assets, according to EC President Ursula von der Leyen.Russians <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/ruble-hits-record-low-russians-rush-withdraw-us-dollars-atms-2022-2">rushed to withdraw foreign currencies</a> from bank ATMs as the ruble sank nearly 30% against the dollar. With access to those currencies limited, <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/currencies/sam-bankman-fried-crypto-ftx-ukraine-russia-cash-war-donations-2022-2">decentralized and unregulated crypto transactions become potentially more attractive</a>, analysts say. But some crypto exchanges pushed back against the Ukrainian minister's call, as proponents of digital currencies <a href="https://twitter.com/davidgokhshtein/status/1498024541519495175">reacted negatively</a>."I understand the rationale for this request but, despite my deep respect for the Ukrainian people, Kraken cannot freeze the accounts of our Russian clients without a legal requirement to do so," Kraken CEO Jesse Powell <a href="https://twitter.com/jespow/status/1498112741684363265">said on Twitter</a> early Monday."Russians should be aware that such a requirement could be imminent," he added.In his six-part Twitter thread, Powell pointed out the requirement for Russians could be imposed by their own government — as seen in Canadian authorities' response to crypto fundraising for the trucker blockade — or by foreign states like the US, to turn Russians against their leaders. "Besides, if we were going to voluntarily freeze financial accounts of residents of countries unjustly attacking and provoking violence around the world, step 1 would be to freeze all US accounts," the crypto exchange founder said. "As a practical matter, that's not really a viable business option for us."Crypto exchange Binance also rejected the suggested move, telling Bloomberg that it wouldn't unilaterally freeze the accounts of millions of innocent users as this would fly in the face of <keyword id="11892695" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="cryptocurrency" source="Orion">cryptocurrency</keyword>'s principles. While Binance refused to this request it has committed to donating at least <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/binance-to-donate-us-10-million-to-ukraine-humanitarian-effort-1031235545">$10 million</a> to support Ukraine during the invasion, and created a crypto-first crowdfunding site to provide aid to Ukraine. <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/live-updates-russia-ukraine-crisis-2022-2" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Insider's live blog of the invasion</a> is covering developments as they happen.Read more: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/russia-ukraine-invasion-stock-market-analysis-crypto-investing-strategy-outlook-2022-2?r=US&amp;IR=T" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">What does Russia invading Ukraine mean for markets? 13 investing experts share their outlook on the Fed's likely response, short- and long-term trades, and whether bitcoin can ever become a 'safe-haven' asset</a>

Ukraine calls on crypto exchanges to block Russian addresses, saying it's 'time to sabotage ordinary users'

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Sam Bankman-Fried's crypto exchange FTX collapsed in a matter of days and has started Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings.</li><li>The FTX fiasco is the latest in a series of meltdowns to rock the crypto world this year.</li></ul>The <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/currencies/bitcoin-price-crypto-winter-crash-slump-interest-rates-regulation-ubs-2022-1">crypto winter</a> is getting worse, and FTX is its latest victim.Less than a year after it boasted a $32 billion valuation, the crypto exchange, owned by <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/ftx-crypto-king-sam-bankman-fried-rise-and-fall-2022-11">Sam Bankman-Fried</a>, faced a "liquidity crunch" that forced it to try to sell itself to rival Binance. After Binance <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/currencies/binance-ftx-sam-bankman-fried-cryptocurrency-rescue-deal-alameda-ftt-2022-11">walked away</a> from the deal, citing issues "beyond our ability or control to help," FTX <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/currencies/ftx-kraken-rescue-liquidity-crisis-binance-takeover-sam-bankman-fried-2022-11">scrambled to find an infusion of cash elsewhere, but failed</a>.Consequently, FTX said Friday it had <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/currencies/ftx-bankruptcy-sam-bankman-fried-ceo-crypto-binance-alameda-markets-2022-11">begun Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings</a>. Bankman-Fried has also stepped down as CEO.The fallout is wide-ranging. Contagion fears sprung up last week, fueled by reports of heavy exposure to FTX's native token on the balance sheet for trading firm Alameda Research, also owned by Bankman-Fried. The value of the overall crypto sector <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/currencies/crypto-prices-bitcoin-bnb-binance-ftx-takeover-liquidity-crunch-sbf-2022-11">dropped 12%</a> over a day to $911 billion, according to CoinMarketCap. JPMorgan strategists say the FTX debacle <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/currencies/ftx-alameda-bankman-fried-crypto-bitcoin-price-regulation-bailouts-leverage-2022-11">could transform the industry</a>.Here's what crypto's latest blowup could mean:<h2>Regulators might crack down, or at least try</h2>Crypto has famously had little oversight, partly by nature."The separation of crypto from the regulator was a design choice," said David Yermack, the Albert Fingerhut Professor of Finance and Business Transformation and chair of the finance department at NYU's Stern School of Business. "But that has its costs and benefits. One of the costs is that you're vulnerable to these kinds of events."There's rampant speculation in the market, but regulators haven't caught up."Regulators are still trying to figure out what they're going to do and how they're going to act," said Bankrate.com analyst James Royal, who writes about wealth and investing. "It's been a long time coming, and it's a real wild west out there for anybody who is trading crypto."Regulating crypto may require proactive involvement from exchanges themselves."There's no central node and there's no leadership, no board of directors, nobody that the government can reach out to to provide the data and to take orders that might come from a court and actually freeze somebody's accounts or put liens on their assets," Yermack said. "It's something the government may wish to regulate, but it's not going to happen without the cooperation of some of the players in the industry."<h2>Big banks could be less likely to let people trade crypto</h2>Financial institutions like Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, and Morgan Stanley <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/crypto-projects-and-plans-at-top-wall-street-banks">tried to capitalize on the crypto boom last year</a> with services like trading crypto futures or derivatives.But the crypto winter may put pressure on banks to reconsider offering these services and try to distance themselves instead, Royal says.<h2>Crypto exchanges should watch for contagion risk</h2>Other exchanges and companies should be on high alert for continued fallout."There could very well be a contagion where people start to withdraw assets on other platforms because they saw what happened here and they wonder where else could this occur next," Yermack said. "There may be exchanges that have not done anything to call into question their stability, who are just bystanders, but nevertheless get sucked into it."<h2>Investors should be wary</h2>People already invested should take steps to protect their assets."There's a lot of confusion, lack of clarity, lack of transparency in how these exchanges are holding funds," Royal said. "If you're holding [crypto] on an exchange, you need to understand how it's held and what recourse you have if your exchange goes bankrupt."The firestorm should also be a cautionary tale of the perils of investing in crypto in the first place, he added."As an investor, you should be seriously questioning what you're investing in if it can evaporate over a weekend," Royal said. "The prices are entirely based on sentiment and belief in the future of crypto...If that belief goes away, you've got nothing."

What the collapse of FTX means for the future of crypto

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Nishad Singh was the top engineer at FTX. </li><li>He testified at the Sam Bankman-Fried trial that he was 'suicidal' over the crypto scam. </li></ul>Nishad Singh thought he misunderstood.It was September 2022 and he was in a small groupchat with <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/gary-wang-agreed-cooperate-sbf-trial-first-meeting-prosecutors-2023-10">FTX executive Gary Wang</a>, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/caroline-ellison-testify-criminal-trial-ftx-collapse-sam-bankman-fried-2023-9">Alameda Research CEO Caroline Ellison</a>, and the owner of both companies, Sam Bankman-Fried.In the chat, Wang had just said that Alameda, the cryptocurrency trading firm, was borrowing $13 billion from FTX, the popular cryptocurrency exchange.Singh thought that couldn't possibly be right, he testified Monday in the criminal trial against Bankman-Fried.FTX didn't even have $13 billion.Alarmed, Singh, the top engineer at FTX, called for an emergency meeting with the group. He turned to Bankman-Fried, who was sitting next to him in their office in the Bahamas.Bankman-Fried appeared unsurprised to hear about the $13 billion figure and made "a false excuse for dodging the meeting," Singh said.Singh met with Bankman-Fried's other lieutenants in the groupchat. His fears were confirmed.According to Wang and Ellison — both of whom have also testified in the trial in the downtown Manhattan courtroom this month — Alameda Research had been taking money not just from FTX's profits, but from the deposits of ordinary customers. Wang, Ellison, and Bankman-Fried had known for months, according to court testimony.If those customers wanted to withdraw their money from the exchange, FTX wouldn't have the funds to make them whole.That evening, Singh said in court, he met with Bankman-Fried privately on the balcony of <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/sam-bankman-fried-sbf-bahamas-mansion-penthouse-condo-photos-2023-10">their shared penthouse in a luxury resort in the Bahamas</a>, which had been purchased for $35 million by Alameda Research. Bankman-Fried sat on a chaise lounge chair while Singh paced between the towering columns that framed towering views of the Atlantic Ocean.Bankman-Fried expressed regret at even bringing up the topic in the groupchat, Singh said. He said he'd been living with the stress over the billions of dollars in funds for about a year."Yeah, this has been taxing me some 5 to 10% of my productivity," Bankman-Fried said, according to Singh's testimony Monday."I think this is going to be doing a lot more damage to me, hitting me a lot harder," Singh responded.<div type="image" title="Nishad Singh." height="1400" width="1867" msid="104503087" hostid="261"></div><h2>Singh pleaded guilty in the plot to take money from FTX customers</h2>Singh is set to continue answering questions under oath Tuesday under cross-examination from Bankman-Fried's legal team.In his testimony so far, Singh has described his time working for Bankman-Fried, first as a software engineer for Alameda and later for FTX.Singh was close with Bankman-Fried's family, befriending his brother Gabe Bankman-Fried, in high school. Unlike most other FTX employees, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/ftxs-nishad-singh-embarrassed-bankman-frieds-flashy-spending-2023-10">Singh had a stake in the company</a>, accepting shares instead of bonuses on top of his $200,000 annual salary starting in 2020.He ultimately accrued a 6 to 7% ownership share in FTX, he said, making him an on-paper billionaire. Starting in December 2021, he moved to the Bahamas to live in the penthouse, which was shared with his girlfriend, Bankman-Fried, and other members of Bankman-Fried's inner circle, including Wang, Ellison, and <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/sam-bankman-fried-trial-former-roommate-adam-yedidia-immunity-testimony-2023-10">developer Adam Yedidia</a>.<div type="image" title="Nishad Singh." height="1400" width="1867" msid="104503087" hostid="261"></div>According to prosecutors, Bankman-Fried defrauded FTX's customers and investors, and Alameda's lenders, through the scheme where he siphoned money from FTX customers into Alameda Research, which he owned.Singh — along with Ellison, Wang, and another FTX executive, Ryan Salame — all pleaded guilty to the conspiracy. Singh's guilty plea includes six criminal counts, and he said he was testifying as part of a cooperation agreement in hopes of getting a lighter sentence than the 75-year maximum for the charges."I've always been intimidated by Sam," Singh testified Monday. "Sam's a formidable character. Brilliant. And so I had a lot of respect for him.""Over time, that eroded, and I became distrustful," he continued.Before the September 2022 realization that Alameda was taking FTX customer money, Singh had participated in fraudulent activity in other ways.At the end of 2021, FTX had made around $950 million in revenue, Singh said. He testified Monday that, at the end of December in 2021, Bankman-Fried asked him to juice FTX's revenues by about $50 million by making new transactions and then backdating them in the company's transaction history. Those falsified figures were given to investors to make it seem like the company had $1 billion in revenue that year, Singh said.In another instance, also in 2021, a flaw in FTX's margin trading system had led to a $1 billion loss. At Bankman-Fried's direction, Singh transferred the losses to Alameda to hide it from FTX's investors, Singh testified.Earlier in 2022, Singh had some inkling that things weren't all right with how Alameda's funds were accounted for on FTX's platform. That June, he was roped into a project to figure out the true value of Alameda's balances on FTX after <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/sam-bankman-fried-trial-adam-yedidia-bug-8-billion-alameda-2023-10">a bug misrepresented the number by about $8 billion</a>. Alameda was billions of dollars in the red, but Singh testified that he believed the company had assets elsewhere and that the company was still solvent and customer funds were untouched.But when Singh saw that Alameda had taken customer funds, he believed that crossed a line, he said."I was blindsided and horrified," he said on the witness stand Monday. "I felt really betrayed, that five years of blood, sweat, and tears from me and so many employees, driving towards something that I thought was a beautiful force for good, had turned out to be so evil."<div type="image" title="sam bankman fried" height="1666" width="2500" msid="104503088" hostid="261"></div><h2>'Sam has some physical twitches for when he gets angry'</h2>Singh considered leaving the company "every day," he said in court. But he stuck around, believing the best approach would be to make FTX as successful as possible, hoping that its profits could fill the hole created by Alameda's borrowing. He believed FTX would have to fake it 'til it made it."How could I live with myself if my departure precipitated a fall that might have been avoidable?" he said.Singh pressed Bankman-Fried to wind down w<a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/ftxs-nishad-singh-embarrassed-bankman-frieds-flashy-spending-2023-10">hat he saw as precipitous spending,</a> cut back on investments, and find new sources of funds.A month after the September meeting, Bankman-Fried went on a trip to several Gulf states in the Middle East with Anthony Scaramucci, who had invested in FTX, to try to raise more funds. When he returned, the FTX CEO told Singh that he believed he could get $5 billion more in investments, Singh testified.But the hole at that point was $13 billion deep. Meeting in Bankman-Fried's room in their Bahamas apartment, Singh asked what else they could do to get more money quickly."Sam was on edge, and I felt he was very mad at me for talking about this," Singh said. "It was tense. There were long periods of silence."He was visibly upset, according to Singh."Sam has some physical twitches for when he gets angry," he said.<div type="image" title="FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried leaves Manhattan federal court in New York, Thursday, Feb. 16" height="3656" width="5484" msid="104503089" hostid="261"></div>The "physical tells for when he is thinking hard or is upset" were "on display," Singh said."Puffed out his chest, had his hands back, he was grinding his finger, closing his eyes, grinding his teeth or tongue in his mouth," Singh said. "When he opened them to respond, he would sort of glare at me with some intensity.""This didn't happen for the whole conversation, but it did happen at specific points," Singh continued. "Like when I asked, 'Dear god, what else is there? Give me some updates.'"Singh said Bankman-Fried handled the meeting poorly."I ended up apologizing to him at the end for asking for the meeting because I could tell it was so unwelcome," he said.In her own testimony earlier in the trial, Ellison said that Bankman-Fried didn't raise any money from the trip.Singh got sucked into Bankman-Fried's efforts to burnish FTX's reputation in other ways. In October and November, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/sbf-political-donations-2-executives-republicans-democrats-woke-prosecutors-2023-2">he participated in a straw donor scheme</a> to give money to Democratic candidates and political action committees.In reality, Singh testified, Salame — who himself later <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/ftx-ryan-salame-guilty-plea-sam-bankman-fried-trial-2023-9">pleaded guilty to breaking campaign finance laws</a> by funneling FTX funds to Republican candidates — had access to one of his bank accounts and made the donations with political consultants. All Singh did was press buttons to approve wire transfers and write blank checks for donations, he testified. (<a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/sam-bankman-fried-sbf-fraud-trial-ftx-explainer-2023-10">Prosecutors have charged Bankman-Fried with campaign finance violations</a>; a separate trial on those charges is scheduled for next year.)<h2>I'd been suicidal'</h2>By November, Singh's fears were coming through. The crypto news publication <a target="_blank" href="https://www.coindesk.com/business/2022/11/02/divisions-in-sam-bankman-frieds-crypto-empire-blur-on-his-trading-titan-alamedas-balance-sheet/">Coindesk published an article</a> about a leaked copy of Alameda's balance sheet, which illustrated some of the unusually close ties between it and FTX — although <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/alameda-all-hands-meeting-caroline-ellison-shut-down-audio-2023-10">Ellison testified earlier this month</a> that the companies were even more closely integrated than it appeared.FTX customers began to withdraw their funds from the platform en masse, and FTX didn't have their money.Singh suggested freezing withdrawals until they could figure out another step, like persuading Binance, a bigger cryptocurrency exchange that Bankman-Fried considered a rival, to purchase FTX.<div type="image" title="sam bankman fried lewis kaplan court illustration" height="2268" width="3024" msid="104503090" hostid="261"></div>Bankman-Fried and Ellison dismissed the idea "in a kind of annoyed way and proceeded" to draft tweets falsely claiming that FTX and Alameda were solvent.In the chaos, Singh said, he asked Bankman-Fried to forgive all of the loans he had taken from FTX.Bankman-Fried appeared inclined to grant the request, according to text messages shown as evidence in the trial. But Singh decided not to go through with it."It felt wrong. I mean, I was fine giving up my personal assets. I'd taken on debts and given up my assets for the company countless times," Singh said. "But I understood the purpose of this exercise to be, you know, to fool a US regulator and to fool employees of the company, and I wasn't comfortable with that."As the chaos continued to roil FTX, Bankman-Fried, Ellison, and other executives pointed fingers at each other while employees and customers demanded answers, Singh said. Singh urged them to come clean, even if it meant disclosing his own role in the cover-up. He had little to lose."I'd been suicidal for some days," Singh said.Besides, he wanted them to focus on the problem at hand."People weren't being productive," Singh said. "Now more than ever, to salvage whatever we could, FTX employees needed to be productive, and resolving the blame game quickly and definitively seemed like it would be a path towards that."On November 11, Singh resigned from FTX and its caretaker CEO immediately declared bankruptcy. Around a week later, he met with prosecutors for the first time. He was on his way to a cooperation agreement

'I'd been suicidal for days': Sam Bankman-Fried lieutenant testifies about immense pressure to keep FTX crypto scam going &mdash; before it all crashed

Hi, Aaron Weinman here. Let's talk quantitative traders, or "quants." They're arguably Wall Street's most-prized mathematicians.They ply their trade at hedge funds or high-frequency trading firms, and they're known to pocket a pretty penny.Take Daniel Morillo — he spent decades developing quant-trading research but in 2020 he became chief investment officer at Opendoor Technologies, the online buyer and seller of homes.Morillo is the latest "quantrepreneur" in <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/quantrepreneurs-wall-street-quant-traders-build-silicon-valley-unicorn-2022-3">Insider's series</a> about quants who ditched Wall Street for startups.Let's dig into <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/why-daniel-morillo-left-citadel-to-supercharge-ibuying-at-opendoor-2022-6">his story</a>.If this was forwarded to you,<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/subscription/newsletter/10-things-on-wall-street"> sign up here</a>. Download Insider's app <a href="https://www.insider.com/app">here</a>.<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/why-daniel-morillo-left-citadel-to-supercharge-ibuying-at-opendoor-2022-6"></a>1. Daniel Morillo helped supercharge the algorithmic homebuying business at Opendoor. His experience in algorithmic trading, data science, and modeling for quant-trading research has helped the antiquated online homebuying industry morph into a marketplace for a raft of property owners.But his move to Opendoor came out of left field.Born and raised in Ecuador, Morillo came to the US in the mid-1990s. He worked at PanAgora Asset Management, BlackRock, and in 2015 he joined Ken Griffin's Citadel. He was head of equity-quant research and had strong relationships at the hedge fund, where he managed 70 people.And despite multiple attempts by Bay Area friends to snare Morillo's services, a move to the disruptive tech world seemed out of the question.He was skeptical of some startups, and questioned whether they were truly innovative.But Opendoor was different. It offered Morillo a chance to apply algorithmic trading to an industry in need of technological change.Here's why Morillo — one of Wall Street's top quants — ditched the lucrative hedge-fund space for Opendoor, and <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/why-daniel-morillo-left-citadel-to-supercharge-ibuying-at-opendoor-2022-6">helped turn the homebuyer into a market maker in its own right.</a>In other news:<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/how-to-get-job-crypto-exchange-binance-secretive-investigations-regulation-2022-6"></a><div type="image" title="Binance" height="2559" width="3412" msid="92363908" hostid="261" sizebytes="451996"></div>2. As the crypto market dips at a mile-a-minute pace, Binance has built a 150-person investigations team. Top government agents who have taken down criminals have flocked to the crypto exchange, and here they share <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/how-to-get-job-crypto-exchange-binance-secretive-investigations-regulation-2022-6">what it takes to get in on the secretive group</a>.3. Crypto lender Babel <keyword id="11895316" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="finance" source="Orion">Finance</keyword> has stopped letting users take out their holdings. Hong Kong-based Babel said it was freezing withdrawals due to "liquidity pressures," becoming <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/crypto-lending-babel-freeze-withdrawals-for-users-celsius-bitcoin-selloff-2022-6">the second platform</a> to do this after <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/celsius-crypto-lending-customers-frozen-withdrawals-liquidity-defi-2022-6">Celsius</a> halted withdrawals earlier this month.4. Trading firm Jump, however, is doing the opposite to most crypto businesses. Jump Crypto is hiring, not firing folks, and everyone's energized as summer interns arrive, <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-06-17/jump-trading-prowls-for-edge-with-crypto-winter-hammering-peers?sref=ipW5reFz">according to Bloomberg</a>.5. Deutsche Bank has started installing Movius, an app that helps track communications, on its bankers' phones, the <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/79475094-11da-43ca-ab1e-6951b241594a?accessToken=zwAAAYF9ie6Hkc95R1CUEdpDytOrHmlRskFZSg.MEQCIDD7UiTf7XwP2IBEzhLpI11jyvLFTKmYZKZhpf1k8KN8AiAZfIvXlSw8Jk1Uue8HEASLTk_P19lIRu_B3XXxL4fgRQ&amp;sharetype=gift?token=5294232a-f108-4ee3-8bab-f5eaf5d0a42e">Financial Times reported</a>. The installation is in response to regulatory probes that have bankers fretting over how they use their cell phones, particularly communications on unauthorized messaging <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/credit-suisse-anthony-kontoleon-removal-messaging-app-06-2022">apps like WhatsApp</a>.6. Klarna is in talks with investors about a deal that values the firm at about $15 billion, <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/fintech-giant-klarna-slashes-fundraising-ambition-11655417674">according to the Wall Street Journal</a>. The valuation — a significant dip from $46 billion last June — comes after the BNPL <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/klarna-updated-severance-package-layoffs-similar-to-airbnb-2022-6">fintech laid off about 10% of its staff in May</a>.7. Slaughter and May is letting its lawyers bring their doggos to work. The London-based "magic circle" firm is implementing the pooch policy amid <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/magic-circle-law-firm-lets-lawyers-bring-dogs-to-work-2022-6">a tussle for top legal talent</a>.8. On the subject of pets, Lex the horse was seized in a tax fraud case. But it was sold back to its owner after the authorities realized how <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/authorities-sold-seized-horse-back-to-owner-cost-keeping-it-2022-6">costly it is to maintain a stallion</a>.9. A former partner at Apollo talked about the inner workings of private equity. But in the book "Two and Twenty," the author <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/sachin-khajuria-apollo-global-book-review-two-and-twenty-2022-6">failed to support his argument with the relevant data</a>, Jonathan A. Knee writes in this Insider opinion piece.10. Wall Streeters are back on the road and are rekindling their love for frequent-flyer programs. Here are a few reviews, offers, and rewards for <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/personal-finance/best-credit-cards">21 of the best credit cards of June 2022</a>.Done deal:<ul><li>Targa Resources will <a href="https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2022/06/16/2464369/0/en/Targa-Resources-Corp-to-Acquire-Lucid-Energy-from-Riverstone-Holdings-and-Goldman-Sachs-Asset-Management-for-3-55bn-Provides-Updated-2022-Standalone-Financial-Outlook.html">acquire natural gas processor Lucid Energy</a> from Riverstone Holdings and Goldman Sachs Asset Management for $3.55 billion.</li></ul>Keep up with the latest business news throughout your day by checking out <a href="https://newsletter.businessinsider.com/click/28123302.82840/aHR0cHM6Ly9saW5rLmNodGJsLmNvbS90aGVyZWZyZXNoP25yX2VtYWlsX3JlZmVyZXI9MSZ1dG1fc291cmNlPVNhaWx0aHJ1JnV0bV9tZWRpdW09ZW1haWwmdXRtX2NvbnRlbnQ9T3BlbmluZ19iZWxs/5cf970723f92a452082ea752B6c914e3a" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Refresh from Insider</a>, a dynamic audio news brief from the Insider newsroom. <a href="https://newsletter.businessinsider.com/click/28123302.82840/aHR0cHM6Ly9saW5rLmNodGJsLmNvbS90aGVyZWZyZXNoP25yX2VtYWlsX3JlZmVyZXI9MSZ1dG1fc291cmNlPVNhaWx0aHJ1JnV0bV9tZWRpdW09ZW1haWwmdXRtX2NvbnRlbnQ9T3BlbmluZ19iZWxs/5cf970723f92a452082ea752C6c914e3a" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Listen here.</a>Curated by Aaron Weinman in New York. Tips? Email <a href="mailto:aweinman@insider.com">aweinman@insider.com</a> or tweet <a href="https://twitter.com/aaronw11">@aaronw11</a>. Edited by Jordan Parker Erb and Lisa Ryan in New York.

You Searched For "binance withdrawal freeze" and got 11 results

Crypto exchange Binance freezes withdrawals of stablecoin USDC as rattled investors pull $2 billion in funds

George Glover

Binance has frozen withdrawals of a crypto linked to its own token that looks like it's been hacked, CEO 'CZ' says

George Glover

Crypto lender Celsius is freezing withdrawals - after its founder promised to reinvent the financial system and never act like a traditional bank

George Glover

World's largest crypto exchange Binance says it's hiring for more than 2,000 roles amid a multi-trillion dollar slump in the crypto market

Weilun Soon

Binance, the world's biggest crypto exchange, is now under intense scrutiny after the FTX debacle. Here are 5 things you need to know.

Zahra Tayeb

Bahamas freezes certain FTX assets, further crippling Sam Bankman-Fried's troubled crypto trading firm

Huileng Tan

Ukraine calls on crypto exchanges to block Russian addresses, saying it's 'time to sabotage ordinary users'

Adam Morgan McCarthy

What the collapse of FTX means for the future of crypto

Sarah Jackson

'I'd been suicidal for days': Sam Bankman-Fried lieutenant testifies about immense pressure to keep FTX crypto scam going before it all crashed

Jacob Shamsian

The quant who left Citadel for Opendoor

Aaron Weinman

How to invest as the conflict in Ukraine intensifies: A complete guide to protecting your portfolio as global markets react to Russia's invasion

Business Insider

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