SBF wants out of jail except for weekends, as SEC seeks assistance from South Korea

Happy Sunday!

Once again, the legal profession provides us with much of our Snapshot of the crypto space as Sam Bankman-Fried wants out of jail except for weekends, the US Securities and Exchange Commission seeks help from South Korea, creditors of bankrupt crypto lender Celsius are set to vote, and Gemini says an SEC lawsuit is unclear. Read on!

Here are some stories we’re looking at right now.

SBF wants only weekends in jail

Disgraced FTX co-founder Sam Bankman-Fried wants to be released from jail five days a week to help prepare his defence. His trial begins Oct. 2.

Lawyers for SBF, who was taken into custody last week, allegedly for attempting to tamper with witnesses, said in a letter to US District Judge Lewis Kaplan that the former crypto mogul wasn’t able to properly review the many documents pertaining to his case while locked up at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, according to Bloomberg.

Bitcoin mining costs vary widely

There are enormous differences in electricity expenses for individual Bitcoin miners, Cointelegraph reported, citing research by CoinGecko.

Producing one Bitcoin in Italy costs $208,560, while in Lebanon the electric bill is about 783 times cheaper, the data shows. Only 65 countries are profitable for solo Bitcoin miners, based on household electricity costs, with 34 of them in Asia, and only five in Europe.

SEC seeks help from Seoul

The US Securities and Exchange Commission can obtain help from South Korea to question Do Kwon’s Terraform Labs co-founder, Daniel Shin, US District Judge Jed Rakoff ruled.

The SEC wants to question Shin in relation to its case accusing Kwon of market manipulation that destroyed at least $40 billion in crypto value, Bloomberg reported. Rakoff said a 1970 treaty allows evidence to be sought internationally.

Celsius asset-sale vote set

Creditors of bankrupt crypto lender Celsius will vote on a plan to sell assets to the Fahrenheit consortium, CoinDesk reported.

Disclosures filed in proceedings supervised by New York Bankruptcy Judge Martin Glenn indicate that creditors may recover 67% to 85% of holdings. The company’s former chief executive, Alex Mashinsky, was arrested in July on fraud charges, which he has denied.

Gemini brief opposes SEC lawsuit

Crypto exchange Gemini filed a brief in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York as part of an effort to dismiss an SEC lawsuit, Cointelegraph reported.

The SEC alleges that the Gemini Earn program broke regulations by offering unregistered securities. Gemini’s filing argues that the SEC fails to make clear exactly what constitutes a violation of the regulations.

What we’re reading around the web

The acronym crypto really needs is DPS: Drama Per Second — Fortune

Bitcoin casinos and burger joints selling Tether — how Hong Kong fell back in love with crypto — DL News

Scientists Uncover Biological Echoes in Powerful AI Transformer Models — Decrypt