Coming soon: When nerdy gamer Sam Bankman-Fried rocketed to fame as the world’s richest 29-year-old, he pledged to donate his billions to good causes. But then his crypto exchange FTX collapsed Billions of dollars were missing, and Sam was in handcuffs. Those who knew him were left wondering — who was Sam really? A well-meaning billionaire who made a mistake? Or a calculating con man? From Wondery and Bloomberg, the makers of The Shrink Next Door, comes a new story of incredible wealth,...

It’s been another wild week of financial mayhem connected to crypto. But this time the crisis focused on banks.  It started earlier this month [March], when Silvergate Capital shut down operations. The California-based bank serviced various crypto companies like Coinbase and Gemini. But its most notorious clients included the now-bankrupt crypto exchange FTX and its sister firm Alameda. As these two giants faltered, Silvergate suffered a series of financial difficulties and fell under...

Listen to Bloomberg Crypto on the iHeartRadio App, Apple Podcasts or  Spotify. Last year, just before the crypto winter had hit in earnest, Princeton University opened up “The Center for the Decentralization of Power Through Blockchain Technology”. The Center was funded in part by a $20 million gift from prominent Princeton alumni including Mike Novogratz, CEO of Galaxy Investment Partners, and Joe Lubin, co-founder of the Ethereum crypto platform. The university says the Center focuses on...

Listen to Bloomberg Crypto on the iHeartRadio App, Apple Podcasts or  Spotify. Some might argue that the popularity of NFTs faded as quickly as it rose. NFTs boomed in early 2022 when the crypto mania was at fever pitch. But a steep decline in sales and prices quickly followed, as 2022’s crypto winter set in, and digital asset bankruptcies piled up, culminating with the collapse of FTX late last year. But as we move into 2023, some crypto traders and NFT owners are cautiously optimistic,...

The last 12 months or so have been a particularly grueling season for crypto. And as we head into the spring months of 2023, we’re getting a better sense of what the slump in crypto prices has meant for the companies that shape the fledgling industry.  One of the biggest consequences digital asset firms are now finding is the need to make job cuts. Since the start of 2023, more than 15 crypto companies have posted labor force cuts including big names like Galaxy Digital, Genesis Global, and...

Argentina is one of the countries with the highest rates of inflation in the world -  currently hovering at close to 100%.  The nation is also one of the countries with the biggest population of crypto enthusiasts. In this environment, digital currencies can be perceived as a safer bet than the peso.  This popular enthusiasm for digital tokens has faced pushback from the country’s central bank. But ever since the crypto winter has stepped up volatility, and exchanges like FTX collapsed,...

Legal battles, circling regulators and a troubled bank. It's all happening in crypto this week.  Court is in session as Grayscale challenges the SEC over the prospects for a Bitcoin ETF, while themselves facing a lawsuit filed by FTX’s Alameda Research.Voyager won a key court ruling that would a proposed sale to to Binance US to proceed despite the objections of multiple federal and state regulators.And speaking of regulators: US officials showed up at Silvergate’s California headquarters...

Bloomberg’s stacy-marie ishmael interviewed Jeremy Allaire, Chief Executive Officer of Circle Internet Financial Ltd. to discuss stablecoins and his views on crypto regulation. The CEO of the Boston-based firm behind the second-largest stablecoin, USDC, told Bloomberg that the US Securities and Exchange Commission is “not the right regulator” for the tokens. So who should regulate them? Listen to this episode to find out. Subscribe to the Bloomberg Crypto Newsletter at...

Listen to Bloomberg Crypto on the iHeartRadio App, Apple Podcasts or  Spotify. Voyager. Celsius. Genesis. And of course, FTX. All major crypto companies that went bankrupt last year. All names we’ve talked a lot about on this podcast.  But even if you’ve heard of these companies, did you know there’s a tax season quirk for US investors who had digital tokens tied up in accounts on these platforms? These investors have lost access to these funds while bankruptcy cases wind through the court...

Over the past few weeks, we've seen US regulators, both federal and state in some cases -  take aim at crypto companies with accusations of fraud and unregistered securities offerings.  These moves sent shockwaves through the digital asset industry.  And the new regulations have also raised concerns about potential over regulation. On the other side of the Atlantic, the UK and EU are taking a different approach.  The UK Treasury has recently proposed new rules for crypto-related businesses...

It’s been three months since one of the most influential crypto exchanges collapsed into bankruptcy. FTX’s demise brought with it a wave of financial uncertainty and distress in the crypto industry. But it also had an effect on the small islands where the crypto exchange had established its headquarters: the island nation of the Bahamas. This is not the Caribbean’s first financial crisis. History suggests it won’t be the last. But it is perhaps one of the highest profile losses, and...

Last month marked the one-year anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which has had a devastating impact on Ukraine's economy, people and landmarks. In this episode, we consider the nuanced role that crypto has played so far in the conflict.  Plus, a review of what's happening with Bitcoin miner Marathon Digital: The company was supposed to report earnings this week, but instead announced it’s restating financials from previous quarters. We’ll explain what, if anything, accounting and...

Most crypto enthusiasts pride themselves on being tech visionaries. After all, they were among the first to back innovative blockchain technologies and even embrace Web3 and NFTs. Now there’s a new innovation that's captured the public imagination, and it's getting a lot of buzz in the crypto world too. It’s ChatGPT. Late last year, OpenAI's new chatbot sparked a conversation about the future of artificial intelligence. People on the internet were going CRAZY about its ability to craft...

The Bank of England and the UK Treasury are moving forward with a plan to launch a digital currency. It’s being called the CBDC, or Central Bank Digital Currency, dubbed (or nicknamed) 'Britcoin.'The action is part of a global effort to stay ahead of various new currency options and prepare for a future in which consumers adopt card payments backed by companies instead of by governments. But, some critics are calling it a "solution in search of a problem", particularly in light of the...

The story of crypto lender Celsius Network’s bankruptcy officially began last summer, when it filed for Chapter 11 and cited a severe liquidity crisis. At the time, FTX and its CEO were still heralded as promising figures in the industry, even as companies and users were struggling to get by in the midst of a grueling crypto winter.  But now, we're getting a glimpse of just how bad things were at Celsius, almost from its inception. The recent release of a final independent examiner's report...

In a major twist in the digital-assets world, Bitcoin has added nonfungible tokens (NFTs) to its blockchain. The new protocol that makes them is called “Ordinals.” And just like anything in crypto, fierce debate has ensued about this on social media. Bitcoin NFT proponents call the move a game-changer. Naysayers worry about potential pitfalls of Bitcoin NFTs — like rising transaction costs and environmental concerns. Higher fees could push Bitcoin away from its primary use as a decentralized...

Coinbase released quarterly earnings this week, providing an etch-a-sketch road map of what’s ahead for digital asset investors. Regardless, the darkening outlook for Coinbase’s business of stablecoins and staking is having an impact. The company had been counting on these business threads to help jump-start growth. But regulators are pushing for increased scrutiny of these offerings.  Also this week: A lot of action is happening on Bitcoin. Plus, FTX Japan has resumed withdrawals....

Want to hear a big number? How about $3.8 billion. That’s the amount of crypto that hackers managed to steal last year. That’s a new record. The company behind that report, Chainalysis, also found that one specific hacking group was responsible for a huge chunk of that stolen crypto. If you guessed that hacking group was Lazarus, connected to North Korea, you’d be correct.  Lazarus allegedly stole $1.7bn in 2022, compared with only $400 million worth of crypto the year before. It further...

Over the course of the crypto winter we’ve seen companies falling like dominos. Several have filed for bankruptcy, with consequences that continue to reverberate across markets. In July 2022, Celsius became the first of the major crypto companies to seek bankruptcy protection, but it would be far from the last. Now, consumers and courts alike are grappling with what these collapses mean. Regulators have sharpened both their rhetoric and their actions against crypto companies and individuals...

Bitcoin “evangelist” Roger Ver has said in at least one interview ... when he was a little boy, he wanted to be a garbage truck driver. That way, he  could drive heavy machinery around his neighborhood and get to talk to everyone. Fast forward, to the recent past and Roger Ver actually DOES, talk to a LOT of folks…Just not  while collecting their trash. He was instead promoting Bitcoin as the future of money and finance so much so that people started calling him “Bitcoin Jesus.” According to...

It's a holiday in the US, an opportunity to look back on one of our popular episodes. It was recorded with Joe Weisenthal from the Bloomberg Odd Lots podcast shortly after FTX declared bankruptcy and Sam Bankman-Fried was arrested. We talked to Joe about “the box." Back in April 2022, long before Sam-Bankman Fried was tweeting threads about the collapse of his FTX empire, he joined the Odd Lots podcast and talked about this "box" - his metaphor for describing the crypto practice of “yield...

After years of inaction, regulators appear to be coming for crypto. State regulators in New York this week took aim at stablecoin issuer Paxos and its relationship with crypto exchange Binance.  The Securities and Exchange Commission is also pushing ahead with a plan that would make it harder for investment firms to work with cryptocurrency companies.  Bloomberg reporters Allyson Versprile & Emily Nicolle join this episode with the latest. Subscribe to the Bloomberg Crypto Newsletter at...

Over the past several months, regulators have watched crypto company after crypto company file for bankruptcy. Some crypto founders have become fugitives from the law, and others have been arrested for allegedly breaking laws. Some customers have lost a lot of money, and the prospects for recovery are in some cases, bleak. And after months on the sidelines, now, regulators have begun fighting back. In the first two months of this year alone, we’ve seen a couple of really significant...

The best known figure of the FTX bankruptcy is - of course - its notorious former CEO Sam Bankman-Fried. But there were dozens of other top executives at the firm. Some of them with titles ranging from Chief Technology Officer to Business Development.  Prosecutors are likely scrutinizing them to better understand what role they played at Alameda.   At issue is the alleged illegal transfer of billions of customer dollars from FTX to its sister company Alameda Research. So any employees...