Happy Saturday!
We have courtroom drama today. The US Securities and Exchange Commission may appeal a federal judge’s ruling last week in the Ripple case, and the $4.5 billion Bitfinex hacking and laundering case finally reached a plea deal. Disgraced crypto mogul Sam Bankman-Fried is accused of leaking a colleague’s diary to the New York Times, and a report says ISIS allies are raising funds with crypto. Read on.
These are some stories we’re looking at right now.
SEC may appeal Ripple ruling
The US Securities and Exchange Commission said a federal judge’s ruling in the Ripple crypto case last week was wrong, and signalled that it may appeal, the Wall Street Journal reported.
District Judge Analisa Torres sided with Ripple Labs in ruling that much of its sales of cryptocurrency XRP did not violate the law. Do Kwon, the jailed co-founder of crypto company Terraform Labs, is among others trying to use the ruling to defeat an SEC lawsuit, the Journal noted.
Bitfinex case reaches plea deal
A couple accused of laundering $4.5 billion in cryptocurrency stolen in a 2016 hack of crypto exchange Bitfinex has reached a plea deal, court documents show.
Heather Morgan and her husband Ilya Lichtenstein, who were arrested in 2022, are accused of conspiring to launder more than 100,000 Bitcoin stolen when a hacker attacked Bitfinex.The Bitcoin was worth $71 million when hacked, but had appreciated to more than $4.5 billion by the time they were arrested. Prosecutors are seeking the forfeiture of about $3 billion in assets.
SBF accused of leaking diary
The US Department of Justice accused disgraced former FTX chief Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) of leaking the diary of ex-Alameda Research CEO Caroline Ellison to the New York Times, according to a CoinDesk report.
The Times published an article that featured Ellison’s writing, prompting the DOJ to seek a ban on all out-of-court statements made by those involved in the case to help assure a fair and untainted trial.
ISIS terrorist allies using crypto
Terrorist groups associated with ISIS are using crypto to raise funds, blockchain analytics firm TRMLabs said in a report.
TRM Labs found on-chain evidence over the past year that pro-ISIS networks in Tajikistan, Indonesia, Pakistan and Afghanistan have used crypto to help conduct their activities.
Twitter plans to limit direct messages
Twitter said it plans to introduce daily direct message limits for unverified users, without specifying what the limits will be.
Twitter Support said the platform will “soon be implementing some changes in our effort to reduce spam in Direct Messages,” adding that “Unverified accounts will have daily limits on the number of DMs they can send.”
What we’re reading around the web
Savvy trader pounced on $125m Multichain hack to execute ‘smartest arb in crypto history’ — DL News
Craig Wright Will Be Able to Fight Bitcoin Copyright Claim in UK After Winning Appeal — CoinDesk
Ripple Europe chief guns for UK licence after ‘huge win’ in US XRP case — DL News