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First Mover Americas: Bankman-Fried Pleads Not Guilty

The latest price moves in crypto markets in context for Jan. 4, 2023.

FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried pleaded not guilty to eight criminal charges. (David Dee Delgado/Getty Images)
FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried pleaded not guilty to eight criminal charges. (David Dee Delgado/Getty Images)

This article originally appeared in First Mover, CoinDesk’s daily newsletter putting the latest moves in crypto markets in context. Subscribe to get it in your inbox every day.

Latest Prices

CoinDesk Market Index (CMIP) 837 +11.3 ▲ 1.4% Bitcoin (BTC) $16,823 +108.5 ▲ 0.6% Ethereum (ETH) $1,252 +37.0 ▲ 3.0% S&P 500 futures 3,863.25 +17.3 ▲ 0.4% FTSE 100 7,598.41 +44.3 ▲ 0.6% Treasury Yield 10 Years 3.79% ▼ 0.1 BTC/ETH prices per CoinDesk Indices, as of 7 a.m. ET (11 a.m. UTC)

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Sam Bankman-Fried pleads not guilty to fraud and conspiracy charges. Bankman-Fried, who is facing eight criminal charges including wire fraud and campaign-finance violations, pleaded not guilty to all charges via his lawyer at a hearing in federal court in New York. The former CEO of the now-bankrupt crypto exchange FTX made his second appearance in the courthouse on Tuesday. At his first appearance last week, he was released on a personal recognizance bond, and shortly after, flew back to his parents' home in California. His not guilty plea was expected, according to an earlier report in the Wall Street Journal.

Bitcoin miner Core Scientific (CORZ) will shut down 37,000 mining rigs it hosts for Celsius Mining. Core turned the machines off after moving to reject its contract to host the equipment. The two firms have been engaged in litigation over the 2020 deal, which Core Scientific says is costing it $2 million in revenue per month. Both companies are in Chapter 11 bankruptcy: Celsius Mining filed last July, along with its parent company, Celsius Network, and Core filed last month.

Shiba Inu-themed BONK tokens are yielding nearly 1,000% for Solana liquidity providers. Bonk, which was issued on Dec. 25, has returned 2,220% to traders in the past week, with a 150% rise in the past 24 hours alone. The token was airdropped to Solana NFT (non-fungible token) communities and creators, which led to quick hype and trading volumes for the token. Early investors aren’t the only ones gaining, however. Liquidity pools on Solana-based decentralized exchanges such as Orca have attracted over $20 million in volume for trading pairs involving BONK.

Chart of the Day

(Source: Glassnode, Decentral Park Capital)
(Source: Glassnode, Decentral Park Capital)
  • The chart shows bitcoin's perpetual futures funding rates going back to late October.
  • The recent positive flip in funding rates suggests investors with long positions are paying short sellers to keep their bullish positions open.
  • "Moderately positive aggregate funding rates indicate traders are taking a predominantly bullish stance," Lewis Harland, portfolio manager at Decentral Park Capital, said.

Omkar Godbole


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Lyllah Ledesma

Lyllah Ledesma is a CoinDesk Markets reporter currently based in Europe. She holds a master's degree from New York University in Business and Economics and an undergraduate degree in Political Science from the University of East Anglia. Lyllah holds bitcoin, ether and small amounts of other crypto assets.

Lyllah Ledesma
Omkar Godbole

Omkar Godbole is a Co-Managing Editor on CoinDesk's Markets team based in Mumbai, holds a masters degree in Finance and a Chartered Market Technician (CMT) member. Omkar previously worked at FXStreet, writing research on currency markets and as fundamental analyst at currency and commodities desk at Mumbai-based brokerage houses. Omkar holds small amounts of bitcoin, ether, BitTorrent, tron and dot.

Omkar Godbole