FTX’s Sam Bankman-Fried continued to hold the industry’s attention hostage after a public back-and-forth between Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D-CA) and yet more sparring with Binance’s CEO.
Maxine Waters was also the chair of House Financial Services Committee’s Twitter chat. Activated last week, with the California politician inviting SBF to testify before the committee and even complimenting his “candid” discussion around the collapse of FTX.
It wasn’t until this week, though, that her tone changed. “It is imperative that you attend our hearing on the 13th,” wrote Waters.
The Hearing, first announced days after FTX’s bankruptcy filing in November, is expected to unpack a bit more about how one of the industry’s largest crypto exchanges collapsed, leaving millions of investors without access to their money.
It is essential that you attend the hearing on the 13th. We are open to scheduling additional hearings if we have more information. (3/3)
After SBF’s waffling, claiming that he didn’t have enough information to be of use, Waters reminded viewers at home that a subpoena was “definitely on the table” should the former crypto founder fail to appear.
SBF seemed to be satisfied with this result and decided to continue the project. Candidat discussion.
“I still do not have access to much of my data—professional or personal,” he tweeted. “There is a limit on what I can say and I won’t be as helpful or as helpful as I would like. However, the committee believes it would still be helpful so I am willing and able to testify on the thirteenth.
1) I do not still have access to a lot of my data, personal or professional. There is a limit on what I can say and I may not be as helpful as I would like.
However, the committee believes it would still be beneficial so I am willing and able to testify on the thirteenth. https://t.co/KR34BsNaG1
After Binance’s CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao called SBF’s behavior “unhinged” after CZ backed out of last month’s FTX buyout, the former Jane Street trader was quick to fire back.
“You won,” he tweeted. “There’s no need to lie, now, about the buyout.”
If we didn’t pay an additional $75m, you threatened to walk away.
We did it anyway, because we felt more confident that Binance wouldn’t be on our table.
Also, it turns out that working at Jane Street doesn’t quite have the same veneer as many previously thought. Well, at least in terms of where the “top-tier engineers” go.
I went to MIT & studied CS, one year under SBF
Palantir was the place where the top-tier engineers went when he graduated from engineering school in 2014.
If you didn’t pass the interview, it was Dropbox/FB etc
If the bottom wasn’t already in, crypto’s latest obsession with ChatGPT may have finally signaled its arrival.
With BitcoinEthereum trading sideways and volumes drying up, Twitternauts spent much of the week forcing a robot to answer the industry’s biggest questions.
Perhaps if the technology were launched a bit earlier, Sam wouldn’t be scrambling to communicate with investors accurately.
Crypto developers also spent the week getting OpenAI’s ChatGPT to spin up code for various crypto staples, like mixers, decentralized exchanges, and wallets.
Crypto Twitter even got the robot to flip Trump, historically anti-Bitcoin, to wax poetic about the market’s largest orange coin.
Stablecoin giants meet
This week Coinbase Also, a minor update was made to the platform and a major step in the stablecoin battles.
The San Francisco-based crypto exchange is now offering zero-fee conversions for investors looking to swap from Tether’s USDT to Circle’s USDC.
Remember: Coinbase is a member of the two-firm consortium called Centre, which launched USDC stablecoin in 2018.
The move comes on the heels of Circle’s less-than-bullish financial year, with the firm postponing its plans to go public. Thus, adding this new incentive to hop out of the market’s largest stablecoin and into Circle’s offering comes across as a pretty clear attempt to shore up the firm’s position in the market.
For some, though, the move came across as “desperate.”
