US prosecutors seize $700 million in assets from FTX’s Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF)

FTX’s Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) will be subject to approximately $700 million worth of assets forfeiture if convicted of fraud.

In accordance with CNBC, the current CEO of FTX, John Ray, would be trying to rescue the funds from the exchange. Alleging that they are “depositors’ funds.” Meanwhile, 55 million Robinhood shares are under court battle between BlockFi lawyers and SBF representatives.

US prosecutors had claimed that Robinhood’s shares had been bought with stolen customer funds. Since months before the FTX bankruptcy, SBF boasted that it had bought a 7.6% stake in Robinhood, which it described as an “attractive investment”.

Days ago, the SEC indicted FTX’s Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) for: use of FTX client funds in his Alameda Research fund, undisclosed preferential treatment Alameda received at FTX. Thus, such as the dangerous exposure of FTX to the Alameda fund, who transferred their assets to illiquid tokens such as FTX, FTT.

FTX reset might fail due to user trust

Several crypto industry commentators have expressed skepticism about FTX CEO John Ray’s vision of potentially rebooting the crypto exchange. Citing trust issues and “second class” treatment of customers as reasons users may “not feel safe to come back.”

Former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried tweeted on January 20 praising John Ray for seeing an FTX reboot. Suggesting that it is the best move for your clients.

This came after John Ray told The Wall Street Journal on Jan. 19 that he was considering reviving the cryptocurrency exchange to make users whole.

Ray noted that despite top executives being accused of criminal misconduct, stakeholders have shown interest in the chances of the platform coming back, viewing the exchange as a “viable business.”

Bitcoin price briefly topped $23,000

The price of Bitcoin managed to trade for a few hours at $23,329 after experiencing a significant increase of more than 10% in the last 24 hours.

However, the largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization has pulled back a bit and is currently trading at $23,206. According to what our internal crypto online tool points out, registering a growing variation of 6% in the last 24 hours.

The BTC price has experienced an impressive rally since the beginning of the year. And, it has shot up more than 35% in the last 14 days, which shows the confidence in Bitcoin from investors.

US Home Loan Banks Lent Billions of Dollars to Crypto Banks

The US Federal Home Loan Banking System (FHLB) is lending billions of dollars to two of the largest cryptocurrency banks in an effort to mitigate the effects of a surge in withdrawals. According to a report in The Wall Street Journal on January 21.

The FHLB is a consortium of 11 regional banks in the United States that provide funds to other banks and lenders. Founded during the Great Depression to support housing finance, the system has $1.1 trillion in assets and more than 6,500 members.

Traditional finance has remained immune to crypto contagion following the FTX collapse, but FHLB lending to crypto-exposed banks could increase that risk, the report notes.

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