November 15, 2022

The biggest crypto news and ideas of the day

Were you forwarded this newsletter? Sign up here.

Don't want this newsletter? Unsubscribe

Supported by

Hello and welcome to The Node. This is Daniel Kuhn and Xinyi Luo, here to take you through the latest in crypto news and why it matters. In today's newsletter:

In the news: A court filing shows FTX's possible creditors, FTX hacker becomes 35th largest ETH holder and the CFTC pushed back against amicus briefs in Ooki DAO lawsuit.
The Takeaway: A look at Sam Bankman-Fried's situation, following a New York Times puff piece.

– D.K.

Today's must-reads

Top Shelf

FTX May Have Over 1M Creditors: A court filing revealed that FTX may have more than one million creditors and its new leadership is in touch with regulators. The document was filed to the federal court late Monday, providing the first true glimpse of FTX's last day before it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

Meanwhile, the perpetrator of a multi-million dollar hack of FTX on Friday night has converted the stolen funds to DAI stablecoins bridged onto the Ethereum network. The attacker is the 35th-largest owner of ETH, with an ill-gotten bounty of over 288,000 tokens.
Investigators have reportedly found a papertrail of KYC information linking the attacker to an account on crypto exchange Kraken, after hastily paid TRX token fees.

FTX Fallout Contagion Spreads Across Solana: More than $700 million has exited Solana-based decentralized apps, including many backed by Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder of the bankruptcy FTX crypto exchange and prominent Solana booster. The "total value locked," or TVL, on Solana DeFi has dropped to just over $300 million, while the Solana Foundation itself losing "tens of millions."

Venture firms Multicoin Capital and Sino Global, prominent Solana investors, are reporting multimillion-dollar losses as Liquid Global, which was bought by FTX earlier this year, halts withdrawals.

CFTC Pushes Back Against Amicus Briefs in Ooki DAO Lawsuit: The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) on Monday hit back against four "friend of the court" briefs filed on behalf of Ooki DAO, a decentralized autonomous organization that the CFTC sued in September for allegedly violating federal financial laws. The agency repeated claims the DAO illegally offered leveraged and margin crypto trading products to U.S. investors.

Of particular note, the CFTC is taking aim at the DAO's decision not to wrap itself in a corporate structure.

– D.K. and Xinyi Luo

Don't want to miss out on the Web3 revolution? Few platforms make it easier to join than Nexo.

For starters, you can buy BTC, ETH, and 50+ more coins instantly with a card. On the Nexo Exchange, you can swap 300+ pairs and get up to 0.5% in crypto rewards on each transaction.

The gem in the all-in-one suite is the Earn Crypto Interest product. What sets it apart is that the interest you earn compounds automatically and is paid out to your wallet daily.

To top it all off, Nexo makes it easy to borrow funds against your crypto, starting at 0% APR. Their pioneering Instant Crypto Credit Lines have stood the test of time thanks to fundamental principles such as overcollateralization and robust risk management.

Create your Nexo account today and get everything for your crypto from a single, secure platform.

Disclaimer: The Earn Interest Product is not available for citizens or residents of certain jurisdictions, including where restrictions may apply, such as the USA, Bulgaria, Estonia.

Putting the news into perspective

The Takeaway

AI Artwork SBM Sam Bankman-Fried (DALL-E/CoinDesk)

Let's Talk About the New York Times' 'Puff Piece' on Sam Bankman-Fried

Following the publication of a New York Times profile that "whitewashes" FTX ex-CEO Sam Bankman-Fried's alleged crimes, D.K. looks at the media's role in his rise and fall. Bankman-Fried built a crypto trading empire grounded in public trust – and has now lost it all. Read the full article here.

As the fallout from FTX's collapse cascades across crypto markets, how can you minimize your crypto tax burden and stay above water? For Tax Week presented by Koinly, CoinDesk presents a series of guides, features and interviews covering practical tax questions.

Why NFT Tax-Loss Harvesting Remains a Challenge for Investors

What does it mean for your tax bill if you lost money trading illiquid non-fungible tokens?

The Tax Impact of This Year's Platform and Protocol Failures

The Celsius Network bankruptcy and the failure of Terra have caused many questions for taxpayers caught in the middle.

Overheard on CoinDesk TV...