• Specs ⌐◪-◪
  • Posts
  • 10/11/23: SBF's Ex-Girlfriend Shares His Secret Dream 🤡🏦🏛️

10/11/23: SBF's Ex-Girlfriend Shares His Secret Dream 🤡🏦🏛️

Author

Valko
October 11, 2023

Top News

  • 🤡 SBF told his ex-girlfriend there was a 5% chance he’d be POTUS

  • 🏦 JPMorgan goes live with its first blockchain-based settlement

  • 🏛️ State Regulators intervene to support SEC in case against Coinbase

Sam Bankman-Fried thought there was a 5% chance he would be president, Caroline Ellison testified in his trial

Sam Bankman-Fried told Caroline Ellison that he could one day be the US president, she testified on Tuesday.

⌐◪-◪ → SBF’s ex-girlfriend, Caroline Ellison, testified in court yesterday. Just like FTX’s co-founder Gary Wang, she went all in on Sam and did not pull any punches, stating that Sam “directed” her to commit crimes. The best line of the day however, was when she said SBF told her there was a 5% chance he’d become President of the United States. Quite the exepctation for somebody who’s in jail, without internet, and facing up to 115 years (life) in prison.

First Mover Americas: JPMorgan Goes Live With First Blockchain-Based Collateral Settlement

The latest price moves in crypto markets in context for Oct. 11, 2023.

⌐◪-◪ → Blackrock just tokenized shares on JP Morgan’s ‘Onyx’ blockchain, using them as collateral to settle a transaction with Barclays. If seeing these banks use blockchain in the real world doesn’t make you bullish, then I’m not sure what will. My long-term take is that TradFi providers will eventually become portals for “normies” to interact with blockchain technology. For a more detailed explanation of the transaction, check out S4mmy.eth’s breakdown.

U.S. State Regulators Intervene in Coinbase’s Unregistered Securities Case

Amicus briefs filed to support the SEC argue crypto is insignificant, only used for speculation, and captured by existing investor-protection rules.

⌐◪-◪ → SEC vs. Coinbase is the highest-profile legal battle in crypto after the SBF case, but it’s one that matters a lot more in my opinion. Yesterday, two amicus briefs were filed by the NASAA and academics from Georgia State University and Yale Law School. While many view this as a hurdle with harmful long-term implications for crypto, other experts believe these briefs are an act of desperation by pro-SEC boosters. Regardless, don’t get too lost in the SBF sauce, this case is where the real battle is being fought.

Peripheral Vision

⛓️ Crypto & DeFi

  • Amazon & Immutable partner on developer tools for blockchain games

  • Polygon proposes Layer 2 “ApeChain to power ApeCoin ecosystem

  • Anon activist group inscribes top secret US war logs on Bitcoin

  • Bankless shares Op-Ed about Lido’s staking dominance on ETH

  • Reserve expands stablecoin protocol to Coinbase’s Base network

  • Galxe announces $396k refunds to users affected by DNS attack

  • Lido Finance struggles to secure Arbitrum grant funding

  • Instadapp introduces an innovative lending protocol called Fluid

  • IoTeX launches confidential computing hardware stack

🏦 Wallstreet & VC

  • Membrane Labs raises $20 from Point 72 & Jane Street

  • Legendary investor Paul Tudor Jones prefers BTC & gold over stocks

  • Jim Cramer says, “Bitcoin is about to go down big” - nobody cares

  • Startup, Game of Silks, raises $5M for fantasy horse racing

🏛️ Legal & Regulatory

  • SEC investigating Twitter security breach prior to Elon’s acquisition

  • Caroline Ellison says SBF directed her to commit crimes

  • SBF attorneys want to ask Ellison questions about chat auto-deletion

  • SBF attorneys want to include Anthropromophic investment in trial

  • SBF had a twitter thread prepared for Alameda shutdown in Sept. 2022

🌎 Rest of the World

  • Brazil recommends indictment of 3 Binance Execs, including CEO, CZ

  • Zimbabwe debuts gold-backed token, locals accepting payments

  • Hong Kong’s Bitfinex exchange proposes $150M share buyback

  • WOO exchange ends association with 3AC in strategic share buyback

  • Bitstamp crypto exchange to end Canadian service in January

  • Cyprus proposes strict crypto regulations with high penalties

🖼️ NFTs & Metaverse

  • MoMA acquires Refik Anadol’s “Machine Hallucinations”

  • Larva Labs founders tell their CryptoPunks origin story on NFT Now

  • Spencer Ventures buys 3AC’s Pudgy Penguins for mid-six figures

  • UK warns collectors of buying sport and art NFTs

  • AirSwap launches NFT Marketplace to celebrate 6th anniversary

  • Crocs and VeeFriends collab on new Jibbitz charms

Spectacular Shoutouts

FrankNFT.eth, the legendary CryptoPunk who created the V1 wrapper contract loves how short Specs is.

This is the highest form of praise. I work tirelessly to cut through the noise and keep each issue under 3 minutes.

👉 If you like Specs → give us a shoutout on 𝕏!

We feature our best shoutouts here, at the bottom of every issue.