Nfts
Crypto NFT Today: Week 4 of March
Welcome to another edition of Crypto NFT Today! The last two weeks have been full of unmissable events that will determine the future of blockchain, cryptocurrency and NFTs.
With FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried sentenced to 25 years in prison, Giga Energy’s Bitcoin mining in Argentina, and much more, there’s plenty of essential news you should know. So let’s go ahead and see what happens!
FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried sentenced to 25 years in prison
On March 28, FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried was sentenced to 25 years in prison sentence for his involvement in a massive fraud and conspiracy that led to the downfall of his crypto exchange and its affiliated hedge fund, Alameda Research.
The verdict, handed down in Manhattan federal court, fell short of the 40 to 50 years requested by federal prosecutors, but exceeded the five to six and a half years proposed by Bankman-Fried’s defense team. Expressing concern about possible future wrongdoing, Judge Lewis Kaplan convicted the 32-year-old and ordered the forfeiture of $11 billion to the U.S. government.
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Giga Energy mines Bitcoin in Argentina
Texas A&M University graduates Brent Whitehead and Matt Lohstroh have been engaged in bitcoin mining in the East Texas oil fields since 2019. Their company, Giga Energy, aims to use flared natural gas to produce electricity for bitcoin mining operations, known for their significant energy consumption.
Giga Energy recently announced its expansion into Argentina, marking its first venture outside the United States and Shanghai. Working with Phoenix Global Resources, an oil and gas company operating in Mendoza, and IT services provider Exa Tech, Giga plans to establish a two-megawatt bitcoin mining facility atop Vaca Muerta.
Bitcoin Spikes in the Last Week of March
At the beginning of the last week of March, Bitcoin surged, recovering the $70,000 threshold. According to Coin Metrics, the price of the leading cryptocurrency jumped 7.8% to $70,995.48, briefly touching $71,239.31 late in the afternoon coinciding with the stock market close. Ether also saw a 7.4% increase, reaching $3,634.80, with most other cryptocurrencies following suit.
MicroStrategy, often considered a proxy for The price of Bitcoin, saw a notable increase of 21%, while Coinbase saw an increase of 9%. The mining sector also benefited from Bitcoin’s rebound, with Riot Platforms up 9%, CleanSpark up 19% and Cipher Mining up 13%.
KuCoin accused of violating anti-money laundering laws
On March 26, the US federal government prosecutors filed charges against crypto exchange KuCoin and two of its founders for allegedly violating anti-money laundering laws. Prosecutors say the U.S.-operated exchange misled at least one investor about its U.S. operations and neglected to register with U.S. government authorities or establish an anti-money laundering program silver.
According to the U.S. Department of Justice indictment, KuCoin and its founders Chun Gan and Ke Tang ran the exchange as a money transfer business serving more than 30 million customers. However, they would not have implemented a know your customer (KYC) or anti-money laundering (AML) program until 2023. Even after implementation, the KYC program would not have expanded to existing customers. Neither Gan nor Tang have been arrested, as stated in a DOJ press release.