A White House spokesperson has declined a response to reporters after one asked whether United States president Joe Biden would return former FTX chief Sam Bankman-Fried’s $5.2 million in campaign funds.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre avoided answering questions from Associated Press reporter Zeke Miller in a 13 December presser, with the latter asking “Will the president return that donation?”
Miller continued: “Does he call on all politicians who got campaign donations that may have come from customer money to return those funds?”
Responding, Jean-Pierre said: “I’m covered here by the Hatch Act [and am] limited on what I can say […] Anything that’s connected to political contributions, from here I would have to refer you to the DNC (Democratic National Committee).”
Jean-Pierre’s comments refer to the Hatch Act, which bans executive branch employees from joining political campaigns.
The exchange continued, with Miller hitting back, stating: “I’m asking the President’s opinion though.”
Jean-Pierre responded, stating: “I just can’t talk to political contributions or anything related to that I cannot speak about it from here […] even his opinion, even his thoughts about the contributions, donations — I cannot speak […] about that from here.”
The Unravelling of FTX
The comments come after Bahamian authorities arrested the ex-FTX executive for mishandling funds and committing fraud. Additional penalties include breaking campaign finance laws, contribution breaches, contributing funds in others’ names, and obstructing the Federal Election Commission’s duties.
According to figures from the campaign contributions website Open Secrets, he contributed $5.2 million in donations, just second to Michael Bloomberg’s $56 million. He also donated $36.8 million to candidates of the Democratic Party for its 2022 midterm election cycle.
Authorities may force donor recipients to return the funding, totalling up to $73 million, after FTX, research wing Alameda Research, and 130 affiliated companies filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on 11 November. Multiple politicians have passed the donations to other charities to avoid association with FTX.
Los Angeles, California, 15th December, 2022, Chainwire
Web3 Sports prediction app Maincard and Myria are joining forces to expand the appeal of NFTs. Maincard will benefit from Myria’s scalability focus as a trusted Ethereum L2 solution through the partnership.
Maincard recently announced its main net launch on the Polygon network. The Web3 sports prediction game went live the day before the 2022 Fifa World Cup kicked off. Core benefits of the platform include novel gameplay dynamics, NFT support, and the ability to earn rewards.
In late November, Maincard unveiled its first prize fund draw. A total of 6,000 MATIC tokens were distributed to the top and most active players on Maincard.io. Users who own a Maincard NFT can place wagers on upcoming events supported by the platform. Whether one wants to place many bets or a few small ones, all options are available within a fair and transparent ecosystem.
Although Maincard is built on Polygon, it is fully compatible with other EVM blockchains. In addition, the collaborative effort with Myria, a trusted Ethereum L2 solution focusing on growth and security, marks a significant milestone. Moreover, Myria is designed to focus on the future of gaming and unlocking the various benefits blockchain technology provides to that industry.
Several games exist under the Myria banner, including Metarush, Metakart, and Block Royale. Adding a Web3 sports prediction app highlights the potential of Myria and its overall scalability. Moreover, the team is confident NFTs represent much more than virtual art. Non-fungible tokens can serve utility and entertainment purposes, as illustrated by Maincard.
The play-and-earn nature of Maincard caters to a global audience of sports fans and enthusiasts. Users earn cryptocurrency for correct predictions involving sporting fixtures. Users who earn the most MainCoins receive their share of the prize fund. However, those who make inaccurate predictions will see their Maincard NFT’s life decrease. Restoring life is possible with MainCoins. The currency will also make its way to various exchanges in Q1 2023.
The partnership with Myria coincides with Maincard adding an NHL sportsbook to its Web3 sports prediction platform. Other support sports on the app include soccer, basketball, and the League of Legends esports scene. More sports will be added over time.
About Maincard
Maincard is a fantasy sports platform deployed on the Polygon network. The app enables gamers to speculate on the outcome of sporting fixtures against one another, receiving rewards via cryptocurrency or NFTs for making correct predictions. The application launched its main net after thorough testing just six months after its founders came up with the idea to spur Web3 adoption via gaming. Maincard hopes its innovative game mechanics will help encourage Web3’s mass adoption among the more than five billion sports fans worldwide.
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About Myria
Myria is the first Ethereum Layer 2 scaling solution built for gaming. We make digital asset trading and blockchain gaming easy with our all-in-one platform, including the Myria NFT marketplace, Myria Wallet, Myria Game Platform, and a decentralized exchange. With the mission of enabling more people to build, experience and enjoy the benefits of blockchain and the metaverse, we are building a suite of developer tools including easy-to-use API integrations and SDKs for developers to easily harness our platform infrastructure to unlock the potential of blockchain. This suite of infrastructure will also underpin the expansive blockchain gaming ecosystem being developed by our gaming division, Myria Studios.
Myria Studios has a variety of free-to-play AAA blockchain games in the pipeline, spanning across genres from light-hearted multiplayer obstacle course games, action-packed battle-royale shooter games, and everything in between.
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London, United Kingdom, 15th December, 2022, Chainwire
Games Metaverse Platform Virtua will Collaborate with JLINGZ Esports to Build Unique Fan Experiences in the Metaverse.
Jesse Lingard and his JLINGZ esports brand have announced a partnership with games metaverse Virtua, which will see the England international and Premier League footballer expand his esports brand into the metaverse.
Working with Virtua will give Jesse Lingard, affectionately known to his global fan base as JLINGZ, the opportunity to reach the fans of the future and expand into Web3. This partnership will encompass metaverse esports, digital collectibles, access to exclusives, virtual spaces and video games.
To celebrate the announcement Virtua will give away Jesse Lingard VFLECT digital collectible avatars to the first 1,000 people to sign up, details of which can be found on the JLINGZ Virtua website.
The JLINGZ Esports partnership will headline the sports zone on Virtua Island, where fans will be able to support metaverse esports teams and play NFT/casual games in the metaverse. The sports zone will incorporate other celebrity and brand partnerships, creating further merchandising and digital ownership opportunities.
Virtua has successfully launched its games metaverse through partnerships with leading brands and celebrity figures, including Williams Racing, Legendary Entertainment, The Hero ISL, Shelby America, and Kevin Hart.
Jesse Lingard, JLINGZ Esports: “I’m always looking for interesting and exciting ways to engage with fans that are passionate about football, fashion and esports, that’s what the JLINGZ Esports brand is all about. Virtua is the perfect partner to explore the opportunities in the metaverse and meet fans in this exciting new space.”
Jawad Ashraf, CEO and co-founder, Virtua, added: “Jesse is a Web3 enthusiast, global sports personality and owner of a vibrant esports team, his brand transcends many different fan bases. His profile is perfect the Web3 audience, he’s a natural fit for the Virtua metaverse and we are delighted to be working with him to bring the JLINGZ Esports brand into the space.”
Jesse has been playing at the highest levels of European football for clubs including Manchester United, West Ham United and Nottingham Forest for over a decade. He’s also represented England 32 times, scoring six goals including a goal against Panama in the 2018 FIFA World Cup.
Jesse epitomizes the modern footballer and engages with the next generation of football fans on the platforms they feel most comfortable with. His unique style and enigmatic celebrations have formed a tight bond with young fans in particular. He currently has over 10m followers across Instagram and TikTok.
Interested in learning more about the collaboration and for a chance to win one of 1,000 Jesse Lingard VFLECTs? Sign up to the project mailing list on JLINGZ Virtua.
About Virtua
Virtua is a games metaverse that provides immersive Web3 gaming and digital collectible experiences through its interactive virtual environments, curated marketplace and brand partnerships.
About JLINGZ
JLINGZ esports, Europe’s most exciting esports org was launched by Nottingham Forest midfielder Jesse Lingard last year. The org has quickly risen through the esports ranks in its debut year with some of the world’s top teams competing across Halo and Rainbow 6 Siege. The JLINGZ logo is taken from Jesse’s iconic celebration and has been quickly replicated by fans across the globe.
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A United States federal court judge ordered the Commodities Future Trading Commission (CFTC) to proceed with its lawsuit against executives from the Ooki decentralised autonomous organisation (DAO), it was reported on Monday.
According to documents, District Judge William Orrick ordered authorities to slap bZeroX founders Tom Bean and Kyle Kistner.
Authorities recently charged the two executives in September over alleged illegal commodities offerings. Following its rebrand to the Ooki DAO, Judge Orrick restructured the lawsuit.
He said: “It seems clear in this case that Ooki DAO has actual notice of the litigation,” Judge Orrick wrote. “But to provide the best practicable notice, the CFTC should serve at least one identifiable Token Holder if that is possible.”
Previous lawsuit filings faced headwinds from Ooki DAO supporters, who urged the CFTC to serve the organisation directly with lawsuits.
Supporters filed numerous amicus briefs urging Judge Orrick to permit the use of Ooki DAO’s chat box.
Continuing, Orrick wrote: “At the hearing, the CFTC asserted it knew that some of Ooki DAO’s Token Holders reside and conduct business in the United States because the two founders of Ooki DAO’s predecessor entity, bZeroX LLC, are Token Holders who reside in the United States.”
He added: “This was new information to me. Neither the complaint nor the CFTC’s Motion for Alternative Service mention that the former founders, [Bean and Kistner], are or have been Token Holders […] The CFTC is now ORDERED to serve Bean and Kistner, in their roles as Ooki DAO Token Holders.”
Charges served in September included illegally offering “illegally offering leveraged and margined retail commodity transactions in digital assets” via its former platform.
Sam Bankman-Fried, the former chief executive for now-bankrupt crypto exchange FTX, has denied knowledge of the “Wirefraud” secret group chat.
The group reportedly consists of former executives from the exchange platform and its research wing, Alameda Research.
Bankman-Fried took to social media to hit back at an Australian Financial Review (AFR) report on 12 December accusing the disgraced crypto executive of being involved in the Signal-based group chat.
According to the report, the collective included Nishad Singh, former FTX engineer, Caroline Ellison, Alameda Research chief executive, Zixiao Wang, FTX co-founder, and others. It added group members used the encrypted chat to share information about the two firms prior to their collapses.
He said in a tweeted response to the article: “If this is true then I wasn’t a member of that inner circle (I’m quite sure it’s just false; I have never heard of such a group)
SBF Arrest, Potential Subpoena
The news comes as US officials expected the former exec to remotely join a United States House Committee hearing on Tuesday to testify on the events leading up to FTX’s collapse.
He was arrested a day before the hearing by Bahamian authorities on charges of wire and securities fraud, mishandling funds, and money laundering, among others.
Maxine Waters, House committee chair, later stated on Monday he would be unable to attend the hearing due to the arrest. The announcement comes after he was also expected to attend a further Senate Committee on Banking hearing on 14 December. His lawyers refused to accept a subpoena, Senators Pat Toomey and Sherrod Brown noted in a Monday joint statement on the matter.
The news comes just days after the United States Department of Justice (DoJ) launched an investigation to determine whether Bankman-Fried had committed fraud and funds offshoring days ahead of the crisis.
FTX suffered a huge liquidity crunch and subsequent bank run in mid-November, leading to the exchange’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy on 11 November along with Alameda and 130 affiliates.
Cynthia Lummis, a pro-cryptocurrency Senator in the United States, has voiced continued support for using Bitcoin for her retirement plans.
Working with Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, Lummis has proactively backed cryptocurrency regulations, namely after joining Semafor, an online media outlet, on Monday.
In the article, she stated that the ongoing cryptocurrency crisis had not deterred her from supporting Bitcoin and that she still backed people adding the digital asset to their 401(k) retirement packages.
Speaking at the meeting, she said: “I’m very comfortable with making sure that people can include Bitcoin in their retirement funds because it’s just different than other cryptocurrencies […] I personally believe that because there are only going to be 21 million Bitcoin that are mined, that Bitcoin will go up.”
In a recent tweet, she slammed FTX, stating its actions were “good, old-fashion fraud” and urged authorities to “ensure everyone who committed crimes is held accountable for what they did.”
She added she hoped her colleagues would support and pass the Lummis-Gillibrand Responsible Financial Innovation Act to “prevent future collapses like FTX.”
The news backtracks from previous stances the politician held in June last year, where she aimed to include specified cryptocurrencies.
She said at the time: “I’d also like to see individuals be able to use Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies of their preference that are safe, that have met the hurdles of anti-money laundering and Bank Secrecy Act.”
Conversely, Senators Elizabeth Warren, Richard Durbin, and Tina Smith, among others, have called for Fidelity Investments to cancel its Bitcoin-based retirement package plans in a recent letter, citing the ongoing FTX collapse.
It read: “As with all financial products, price fluctuations are an expected feature of the market — and it is shortsighted to believe that setbacks in an industry are an indication that it won’t experience long-term growth.”
Ray Youssef, chief executive of Paxful, has become one of the latest supporters of self-custody wallet ownership amid the ongoing FTX crisis and its aftermath.
The executive said in an 11 December tweet: “[I] will be sending an email every week strongly advising our people to never keep savings on any exchange, including [Paxful]. This is the way! Self custody your savings ALWAYS!”
According to reports, Paxful manages over 11 million users. His comments come as multiple exchanges, including Kraken, Binance, and Crypto.com have also vowed to publish proof-of-reserves (PoR) on their websites.
FTX Collapse Sparks Self Custody Movement
The news comes after Sam Bankman-Fried, the former chief executive of the collapsed cryptocurrency platform, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on 11 November along with its research firm, Alameda Research, and 130 affiliated enterprises.
Fresh allegations have surfaced that Bankman-Fried had mismanaged and misappropriated funding via Alameda research, triggering firms to publish PoF to ensure the liquidity of their platforms.
Youssef added in his public message he had never mishandled any of the funds on his exchange, stating:
“My sole responsibility is to help and serve you. That’s why today I’m messaging all of our [Paxful] users to move your Bitcoin to self-custody. You should not keep your saving on Paxful, or any exchange, and only keep what you trade here.”
He also pledged to delist Ether (ETH) as a tradable asset due to an alleged lack of integrity compared to Bitcoin’s ecosystem. Similar delistings of ETH come after Jeremy Garcia, Satoshi’s Journal founder and chief executive, slammed Ethereum’s protocol.
Many have responded positively to his efforts to educate crypto holders, with other Twitter users adding their expertise and suggestions.
The news comes after Binance chief executive Changpeng Zhao (CZ) urged investors to transfer holdings to self-custody wallets following the FTX crash. He stated in a recent tweet that self-custody was a “fundamental human right” and called for cryptocurrency holders to “make sure you [do] it right.”
CoinCorner and Bitnob have teamed up to offer global users cross-border transactions for multiple fiat currencies, a 12 December blog post revealed amid the ongoing crypto market crisis.
The new partnership aims to circumvent centralised third-party funds transfers across the Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) region. Such entities slow processing times and charge hefty fees per transaction.
Despite this, the new joint effort will allow Bitcoin (BTC) holders on the Lightning Network in regions such as the United Kingdom, European Union, and specified African nations to conduct transactions.
It conducts transactions on the network by instantly converting funds to BTC and then to the selected local currency, depositing the converted funds to the recipient holder wallet.
The group’s Send Globally option will allow users to send fiat currencies such as British Pound Sterling (GBP) and Euros (EUR) to Nigeria, Ghana, and Kenya, or NGN, GHS, and KES, respectively.
CoinCorner Chief Executive Danny Scott, said,
“The remittance market is a huge opportunity for Bitcoin. The borderless nature of Bitcoin has always made it a great tool for sending money around the world, but now with the Lightning Network, sending Bitcoin is instant and very low cost. By partnering with Bitnob to provide a seamless cross-border experience using Bitcoin and the Lightning Network, we hope to remove some of the friction and cost that customers experience when using traditional FX and money remittance companies.”
Africa and Remittances: By the Numbers
According to Tongayi Choto, co-founder for AfriBlocks, sending around $200 USD to Zimbabwe from the UK costs roughly $9.42 to $34.52, with an average sending fee of $15.57.
Other locations such as China accumulated average costs of $11.54, and remittances to Poland cost senders roughly $8.48, with UK-Zimbabwe fees skyrocketing 45.54 percent more than those to Poland.
2016 World Bank figures estimated a 5 percent reduction in remittance service fees to African senders would save immigrant families over $16 billion a year. Despite this, 80 percent of financial institutions in Africa restrict remittances, citing Nigeria remains one of the top nations for remittances.
The news comes as many African nations turn to cryptocurrency platforms to buy, sell, and transfer crypto globally to avoid fees and restrictions from traditional money transfer companies.
One such platform, Mara, has backed 2 million possible Nigerian users with a novel cryptocurrency wallet for both crypto and fiat wallet holdings. The initiative also aims to educate African users on money and asset management and offer resources for doing so.
Singapore, Singapore, 12th December, 2022, Chainwire
BinaryX launches a new 220,000 BNX Cyber Incubation Fund, aimed at driving the growth and adoption of Web3 games.
The fund, supported by the project team, seed investors and members of the BNX community, will be used to invest in on-chain gaming projects that utilize or are experimenting with blockchain technology. BinaryX is also offering advisory services alongside the fund to bolster support for projects under the fund.
The fund will be used to provide resources and all forms of support for games at any stage, including early-stage, and late-stage development.
BinaryX Incubation Fund Distribution Breakdown
The fund distribution comes from the overall BinaryX fund as pictured below:
BinaryX will allocate 8% of their overall funds to the Cyber Incubation Fund, the amount is $12 million USD at the time of writing.
Rudy, Head of Growth at BinaryX, said:
“BinaryX is committed to accelerating the adoption of Web3 technologies in gaming. The fund is not limited to supporting blockchain games already in the space, but also traditional developer teams who want to experiment with blockchain in their games or NFTs. We believe in the overall growth and adoption of blockchain within the gaming ecosystem, and we will strive to support any project that is promising to that effect.”
Since launching the incubation arm mid-2022, BinaryX has invested in and incubated 2 GameFi projects. Its portfolio includes SHIT games, and Rh!noX NFT collection, with several exciting projects underway.
BinaryX will accelerate its search and adoption of projects in need of incubation, and offer support across all stages, including early-stage and late-stage development.
With this incubation arm, BinaryX aims to connect projects with BinaryX’s network of resources, advisors and investors to help projects go to launch. The Incubation Fund is open to receive applications and all year round, providing iterative support to any project at any stage of development.
The news comes amidst already refuted rumours that BinaryX is selling tokens. To reiterate their stance, Rudy said, ‘We would like to emphasize that there was no foul play from our team. We are entirely focused on our games, and we have been communicating our upcoming plans transparently.’ The team has just arranged a DAO vote to decide on the buy back plan for BNX, and are working to execute it alongside other strategic plans for long-term growth, including the development of their latest game, CyberLand.
About BinaryX
BinaryX is the GameFi platform behind play-to-earn games CyberDragon and CyberChess, both of which run on the BNB chain.
BinaryX began as a decentralised derivative trading system. The team gradually evolved into developing decentralised video games, and is now transitioning to becoming a GameFi platform offering IGO services to bridge Web2 developers to Web3.
As one of the top 10 projects on the BNB Chain, BinaryX has a vast community of more than 100k coin holders and 17K monthly active wallets. It is also one of the largest metaverse projects by trading volume on the BNB chain. BinaryX also has a token, $BNX, that has consistently demonstrated strong performance despite the bear market.
For more details and information about BinaryX, please visit www.binaryx.pro
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Bybit, a rising cryptocurrency exchange, has pledged to boost its transparency in a bid to retain customers following the FTX collapse, it was reported on Monday.
In a 10 December announcement, it said it had opened a Merkle Tree Proof of Reserve (PoF) system to verify its holdings as well as personal assets on the exchange.
It will also verify wallet ownership on a 1:1 ratio via the crypto platform. Clients with funding and trading accounts, as well as Bybit Earn holdings, can use the feature.
Ben Zhou, Bybit co-founder and chief executive, said at the time:
“The cryptographic solution brings forth a crypto-native, trustless model of providing verifiable evidence of our on-chain holdings and liabilities.”
The company statement continued, stating it would “spare no effort to ensure next-level reliability,” citing recently published wallet addresses and a Nansen dashboard.
The exchange will also back withdrawals and prevent risks with its additional steps, while also publishing Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) wallet information. The news comes after the company published reserve wallet addresses in mid-November following the FTX crisis.
Additional companies, including Binance, the world’s largest crypto exchange, as well as Crypto.com and Kraken, have launched similar transparency initiatives to ensure liquidity of their respective exchanges.
The news comes after Jesse Powell, Kraken’s chief executive and co-founder, slammed crypto exchanges for using Merkle Tree figures to prove their crypto reserves, stating such efforts were “pointless.”
He urged enterprises to publicly disclose liabilities in PoR reports to avoid hiding crypto balances with negative reserves, among others.