Market Update, May 9th 2024

• Regulator cracks down on Robinhood: The SEC has issued a Wells Notice informing the crypto arm of Robinhood that it will face upcoming enforcement action. Robinhood maintained the crypto token assets in question are not securities and expressed readiness to contest any charges.?
• Grayscale's Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) reverses four-month outflow trend, BTC remains stable: The ETF saw significant new inflows and contributed to a positive shift in the overall spot Bitcoin ETF market. Meanwhile, the price of BTC remained stable over the past week as investors settle into what analyst described as “post-halving boredom.”
• Binance CEO Richard Teng calls for release of Tigran Gambaryan: Nigerian authorities have detained the crypto exchange’s compliance officer on charges related to illegal transaction.?
• Hacker responsible for stealing $125M from Poloniex in November moves $35.3M worth of Ethereum and Bitcoin: Some of the funds were moved to the sanctioned mixer Tornado Cash, in attempts to obscure the origins of the stolen funds.

Lawyers charged with overseeing FTX said Tuesday that customers with assets on the crypto exchange when it went bankrupt in November 2022 will receive their money back, plus interest. As part of the plan, FTX creditors and thousands of customers expect to receive 118% of the assets held on FTX via cash payments. FTX said in a press release that the total value of cash available for distribution will be between $14.5 billion and $16.3 billion.

"We are pleased to be in a position to propose a chapter 11 plan that contemplates the return of 100% of bankruptcy claim amounts plus interest for non-governmental creditors,” FTX CEO John J. Ray III said in a statement.

The news comes roughly 17 months after FTX went bankrupt, with customers losing some $8 billion almost immediately. FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried resigned as CEO soon afterward. In March, Bankman-Fried was sentenced to 25 years in prison for a litany of fraud and conspiracy violations he committed while CEO.

After FTX collapsed, Ray, who had previously overseen Enron’s unwinding, took over as CEO, saying the mess he inherited was “unprecedented.” But FTX lawyers were able to pool together money the company had amassed through successful investment in startups and digital currencies that have soared in value since the exchange went under.

Lawyers have not settled on an exact timeline for the payouts, but the plan is likely to take months and still needs sign off from the federal judge overseeing the bankruptcy.

There’s one other major downside for FTX customers. If they held BTC at the time of the bankruptcy, they would be entitled to a payout of BTC’s value in November 2022 (about $18K) and not the current price of BTC (about $62K).

?? Key Components of an Anti-Money Laundering Program

Anti-Money Laundering (AML) refers to the set of processes, regulations, and rules that combat money laundering, terrorist financing, theft, and other financial fraud. Some of the notable illegal activities that AML programs target include tax evasion, market manipulation, public fund misappropriation, and trading in illicit goods. Global AML regulators have fought money-laundering operations for decades, and AML imperatives also apply to the financial technology (FinTech) sector and cryptocurrencies.

If you’d like to read more → gemini.com/blog/ftx-customers-to-be-redeemed-robinhood-receives-wells-notice-from-sec-and