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Policy

Chinese Bribes, Thai Prostitutes and an End to the Lies: Caroline Ellison’s Explosive Second Day of Testimony Against Sam Bankman-Fried

The former Alameda Research CEO wept on the witness stand during her second day of testimony in Sam Bankman-Fried's fraud trial.

Caroline Ellison, the government's star witness in their case against FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried, leaving court on Tuesday, Oct. 11 following her first day of testimony. (Danny Nelson/CoinDesk)

Finance

JPMorgan Debuts Tokenized BlackRock Shares as Collateral with Barclays

BlackRock said tokenization of money market fund shares as collateral in clearing and margining transactions would dramatically reduce the operational friction in meeting margin calls.

JP Morgan office (Matthew Foulds/Unsplash)

Policy

SBF's Lawyers Want to Ask Caroline Ellison About FTX's Anthropic AI Stake

Ellison, the former Alameda CEO, testified Tuesday that she was consulted on FTX's investment portfolio.

Caroline Ellison leaves the courthouse on Oct. 10, 2023 (Elizabeth Napolitano/CoinDesk)

Tech

Israeli Crypto Firms Scramble to Deal With War, in Between the Sirens

Few operational disruptions were reported, but some crypto employees were getting called up for reserve duty. Executives and developers coped with the stress of attending funerals, responding to security warnings and encountering supermarket shortages.

Tel Aviv skyline. (Gilad Avidan/Creative Commons, modified by CoinDesk)

Policy

Grocery Chain Trader Joe’s Sues Unaffiliated Crypto Project That’s Using Its Name; JOE Token Sinks

The grocer alleged the Trader Joe decentralized exchange chose a similar name to benefit from the former’s popularity.

Trader Joe is making changes to its tokenomics. (Trader Joe)

Policy

Bankman-Fried Seeks to Probe Lawyers’ Involvement in $200M ‘Sham’ Alameda Loans

The defendant in a multi-billion fraud trial is pressing to blame legal advice, despite judicial reluctance to let him.

Sam Bankman-Fried outside court in July 2023. (Nikhilesh De/CoinDesk)

Policy

What to Expect When Caroline Ellison Takes Stand in Sam Bankman-Fried's Trial

The former Alameda CEO will “tell you about how she and the defendant stole money customers entrusted to FTX,” a prosecutor said. Defense’s cross-examination may get personal.

Sam Bankman-Fried (left) and Caroline Ellison (CoinDesk archives, @carolinecapital, modified by CoinDesk)

Tech

Israel War Prompts Crypto Firms Including Fireblocks, MarketAcross to Start Aid Fund

The organization will host a multi-signature wallet to collect donations for Israelis in multiple cryptocurrencies, including bitcoin (BTC) and ether (ETH) as well as the dollar-linked stablecoins USDT and USDC.

(Eduardo Castro/Pixabay)

Policy

DOJ Wants to Block Sam Bankman-Fried From Bringing Up Anthropic AI Raise in Court

FTX owns a stake in Anthropic which was worth $500 million last year.

FTX's Sam Bankman-Fried exiting a federal courthouse in New York last year. (Nikhilesh De/CoinDesk)

Policy

Former Alameda Research CEO Caroline Ellison to Testify Tuesday in Sam Bankman-Fried Trial

Gary Wang, a former top lieutenant in Bankman-Fried’s empire, testified that Alameda had “special privileges” at FTX that allowed the hedge fund to spend $8 billion of exchange customers’ money.

Sam Bankman-Fried (Liz Napolitano/CoinDesk)