ChainCatcher news, according to DLNews, FTX announced a settlement agreement with the cryptocurrency trading platform Bybit, which will pay $228 million in settlement fees, while FTX will withdraw the related lawsuit.According to the settlement agreement, FTX will recover $175 million worth of digital assets from the Bybit platform, while Bybit's investment division Mirana Corp. will acquire additional assets, including BIT tokens, for $53 million. Previously, FTX had accused Bybit's affiliated accounts of transferring $327 million in assets on the eve of its collapse, preventing other users from withdrawing funds.Earlier this month, the compensation plan approved for FTX is expected to allocate at least $12.6 billion to affected users. The compensation plan will be initiated within 60 days after the effective date, with the specific date yet to be determined.

ChainCatcher news, Arkham officials stated that the bankrupt cryptocurrency lending company BlockFi received nearly 250 million USDC from Coinbase Prime two days ago. Previously, BlockFi was approved by a U.S. court to repay 100% of customer funds.

ChainCatcher news, according to Cointelegraph, the Canadian cryptocurrency exchange platform ezBtc and its founder David Smillie misappropriated approximately 13 million Canadian dollars (about 9.5 million US dollars) of customer cryptocurrency assets and used these funds for gambling, thereby deceiving customers.The ezBtc platform permanently closed around September 2019 and was dissolved in 2022, claiming to store all users' cryptocurrency investments in cold wallets. During its operation from 2016 to 2019, ezBtc accumulated over 2,300 bitcoins and more than 600 ETH from cryptocurrency investors.According to the BCSC panel, Smillie used nearly one-third of user funds for gambling and personal use. ezBtc transferred a total of 935.46 bitcoins and 159 ethers to Smillie's exchange accounts or to CloudBet and FortuneJack. Transfers to these two gambling sites were sometimes made directly from ezBtc and sometimes indirectly from ezBtc to Smillie's exchange accounts before being transferred to the gambling sites.

ChainCatcher news, according to Finance Feeds, the bankrupt cryptocurrency lending institution BlockFi has received court approval to repay its customers and unsecured creditors. The U.S. Bankruptcy Court in New Jersey approved the company's plan on Thursday, allowing BlockFi to repay 100% of customer funds. This cryptocurrency lending institution sought court approval to monetize its $874.5 million claim against FTX for an amount significantly higher than face value. The court's approval means that customers can now receive a full refund of their assets.The company stated that while the recovery of assets cannot eliminate the impact of the financial crisis, "effectively distributing 100% of the claim value to customers in the near future will be a very positive outcome." The company indicated that the process of ultimately distributing assets to U.S. customers could begin within 90 days. However, due to regulatory challenges, international customers may have to wait longer.

ChainCatcher news, in the lawsuit by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) against Binance Holdings Limited, the motion order from the District Court of Columbia approves BAM Trading Services Inc. and BAM Management US Holdings Inc. to invest part of their customers' fiat currency funds in U.S. Treasury bonds. BAM Trading and BAM Management are the U.S. entities operating Binance.US, which means that currently only Binance.US is authorized to invest part of customer assets in U.S. Treasury bonds.

ChainCatcher news, according to Cointelegraph, a recently exposed email by The Wall Street Journal reveals that the SBF (Sam Bankman-Fried) family is suspected of using FTX funds for political donations, involving amounts exceeding $100 million. These funds are allegedly illegally sourced from FTX customer funds, aimed at influencing the 2022 elections, and have triggered multiple legal lawsuits.The email details the involvement of SBF's father, Joe Bankman, in financial strategy advice related to political donations, as well as records of SBF's mother, Barbara Fried, and his brother, Gabriel Bankman-Fried, directing funds to various political entities and causes. Former Federal Election Commission Chairman David Mason pointed out that Joe Bankman may face legal liability for violating campaign finance laws. Previously, former FTX digital market co-CEO Ryan Salame was sentenced to 7.5 years for related charges.

ChainCatcher news, according to market news, FTX founder SBF stated that he did not deceive anyone or take customer funds.

ChainCatcher news, according to The Block, accounting expert Peter Easton testified in the SBF criminal trial that Alameda Research's FTX account balances were negative throughout 2021 and 2022, and he believes that customer funds must have been used.According to Easton, many of Alameda's venture capital investments and Bahamian real estate transactions were paid for with FTX customer funds.

ChainCatcher news, according to CoinDesk, former Alameda Research CEO Caroline Ellison testified in court that it was FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried who instructed her to commit crimes. Ellison stated that Alameda misappropriated FTX customer funds for investments and political donations; after being appointed CEO of Alameda Research, she continued to report to SBF, and despite her requests, she did not have equity in Alameda, owning only a small portion of FTX; SBF instructed them to borrow as much money as possible and had mentioned wanting to buy more FTT.SBF's lawyer stated in last week's opening remarks that Caroline Ellison ignored SBF's instructions to hedge Alameda's trades, which could have mitigated some losses.

ChainCatcher news, according to CryptoPotato, FTX co-founder Gary Wang revealed more details about the corrupt relationship between Alameda Research and its exchange during the trial of Sam Bankman-Fried on Friday.Wang testified that the functionality required for Alameda to siphon off customer funds was embedded in FTX's computer system as early as 2019.Additionally, Alameda received three privileges on FTX compared to other customers. One of these was allowing Alameda to trade with more funds than it actually had in its account. As Wang previously testified, Alameda could withdraw unlimited funds from FTX.This functionality was later exploited, withdrawing $8 billion worth of fiat and cryptocurrency, exceeding the amount the trading firm held in its accounts—roughly the same gap FTX faced last November when it failed to meet customer withdrawal requests. Wang clarified that the extra funds came from FTX customers who had not explicitly chosen to lend their funds.

ChainCatcher news, according to WSJ reports, informed sources say that a few months before the collapse of FTX, some of its U.S. employees discovered a so-called "backdoor" on the platform, which Alameda Research allegedly used to extract billions of dollars in customer funds from FTX.The employees who discovered this issue reported it to senior management in their department, and some claimed that management discussed the issue with an assistant to FTX founder SBF. However, the issue was never resolved. In the summer of 2022, senior team members who raised concerns about Alameda's special privileges over FTX were fired.This "backdoor" played a significant role in the charges against SBF, who is on trial in federal court in New York for fraud charges, which began this week. The former FTX head has pleaded not guilty to all charges.Prosecutors claim that SBF secretly ordered the programming of "special features" to steal FTX customer funds, including granting Alameda the ability to handle FTX's massive pool of funds. Court documents reveal that a line of code hidden deep within FTX's code allowed Alameda to have liabilities of up to $65 billion on FTX.

ChainCatcher news, according to Cointelegraph, the crypto lending company Celsius Network told the judge at a hearing on October 2 seeking approval for its restructuring plan that it plans to start repaying customers by the end of the year.Celsius's legal advisor Christopher Koenig stated in the opening remarks that the new company, named "NewCo," will receive $450 million in seed funding from the litigation process. Additionally, a document from September 29 shows that Celsius plans to use $2.03 billion in Bitcoin and Ethereum, as well as shares of the new company, to partially repay creditors.The judge presiding over the case is considering whether to approve Celsius's restructuring plan. The plan also requires approval from regulatory agencies. Reports indicate that although the restructuring plan has received support from most creditors and has been passed, it still faces opposition from some creditors.

ChainCatcher news, Singapore cryptocurrency company BIGG Digital Assets announced that its cryptocurrency trading platform Netcoins experienced a cyber attack on September 17. The internal control system detected suspicious activity in Netcoins' hot wallet, preventing attempts to withdraw cryptocurrency beyond preset limits, and immediately notified the staff. After an internal investigation, it was determined that a malicious actor accessed the Netcoins network. Netcoins has taken measures to remove unauthorized users and strengthen the security of its network.The vulnerability has now been resolved, and no customer funds or crypto assets were harmed. The coins extracted by the malicious actor only came from Netcoins' operational circulation, estimated to be worth CAD 343,000 (approximately USD 254,000). The malicious actor also unauthorizedly deleted customer personal information during the incident, and this is under investigation. As a precaution, Netcoins has performed a hard reset of all customer passwords and requires all users to set new credentials to access the platform following this incident. Netcoins is investigating the cause and scope of the incident with the assistance of third-party cybersecurity experts and has notified law enforcement.

ChainCatcher message, Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao stated on social media that he has recently seen a lot of negative news or rumors in the community, such as bank runs, lawsuits, closure of fiat channels, product shutdowns, employee turnover, and market exits.Binance has no liquidity issues; all deposits and withdrawals are being handled properly, and all customer funds are safe and 100% guaranteed.At the same time, many positive things are happening at Binance, such as winning lawsuits, managing bank runs and recording deposits, new fiat channels, the exit of old products and the launch of new products, new employees, and new markets. The turnover rate of Binance's founding team may be the lowest among tech startups of similar scale in the world. Binance is committed to building the crypto ecosystem.

ChainCatcher news, documents submitted by FTX creditors represented by current CEO John J. Ray III show that Alameda Research transferred over $900 million to FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF), including a $15.5 million cash transfer, as well as a $3.5 million transfer to former Alameda Research CEO Caroline Ellison.Additionally, $2.5 million of FTX customer funds was used to purchase a yacht for former Alameda Research co-CEO Sam Trabucco. Its exact location remains unknown.

ChainCatcher News, the U.S. Department of Justice has released an updated indictment against FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF), accusing SBF of misappropriating FTX customer funds to make over $100 million in political campaign donations to both Democrats and Republicans ahead of the 2022 U.S. midterm elections.According to the documents, Salam revealed to family members that the purpose of these donations was to "filter out anti-crypto Democrats in exchange for pro-crypto Democrats, and anti-crypto Republicans in exchange for pro-crypto Republicans."

ChainCatcher news, CoinsPaid has resumed processing transactions after service disruption due to a cyber attack on July 22. The company suspects that the attack was orchestrated by the North Korean hacker group Lazarus Group. Additionally, it stated that customer funds are safe, but the company's revenue has been affected.Previous projects that have been attacked by Lazarus include: Sony ($81 million), Axie Infinity ($625 million), Horizon Bridge ($100 million), Atomic Wallet ($100 million), and Alphapo ($60 million).In the coming weeks, CoinsPaid will organize a roundtable meeting with all Lazarus victims to announce a new initiative aimed at minimizing and preventing future attacks of this nature.

ChainCatcher news, according to Bloomberg, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) has required cryptocurrency trading platforms to custody customer assets in a trust by the end of the year. Additionally, Singapore will advance a proposal to ban retail investors from borrowing and staking. The MAS stated in a declaration that, given the extremely high risks and speculative nature of token trading, regulation alone cannot protect consumers from all losses. Retail investors need to be extremely cautious when trading cryptocurrencies. (Source link)

ChainCatcher news, according to the second report released by the FTX debtors on Monday, which details a list of luxury properties purchased with funds from mixed accounts of customer and company assets. The report states that former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried misused customer funds to buy multiple luxury properties worth millions of dollars for employees and their friends and families in the Bahamas, totaling over $243 million.The properties include a six-bedroom, 11,500 square foot penthouse in the Albany resort community, where FTX founder and his associates Caroline Ellison, Nishad Singh, and Gary Wang reside. Additionally, FTX spent over $18 million on a property named "Albany Hive" in the Bahamas, which is an "exclusive luxury community spanning 600 acres," featuring a golf course, equestrian activities, a full-service spa, and other amenities. FTX also spent over $16 million on the "Old Fort Bay Lot A," where homes feature spacious outdoor pools near the water.The FTX debtors claim that FTX currently owes customers approximately $8.7 billion. (source link)