Sam Bankman-Fried May Be Extradited to the US Amid FTX Investigation: Report

The United States and Bahamas authorities are discussing the possibility of bringing Sam Bankman-Fried to the US for questioning as new legal proceedings against FTX and its former CEO were also launched on Wednesday. SBF’s collapsed crypto exchange FTX, which filed for bankruptcy in the US last week, has fanned fears about the future of the crypto industry after it outlined a ‘severe liquidity crisis’. Since then, the regulators have opened investigations and the lawmakers have called for clearer rules on how the industry operates.

Citing multiple sources involved in the discussions, a Bloomberg report stated that “conversations between law-enforcement officials in the two countries have intensified in recent days,” and that Bankman-Fried has been “cooperating” with the Bahamian authorities, who interviewed him on Saturday.

The report said no one involved in the collapse of FTX and Alameda has been arrested or taken into custody yet. The US Justice Department, the US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, and the Royal Bahamas Police’s financial crimes unit all declined to comment as of Wednesday morning.

In addition to the former CEO, FTX co-founder Gary Wang and director of engineering Nishad Singh are still in the Bahamas and remain “under supervision” by local authorities. Over the weekend, there were rumours that Bankman-Fried and Alameda CEO Caroline Ellison were looking to flee to Dubai.

On Tuesday evening, SBF posted a series of tweets claiming that “to the best of [his] knowledge,” Alameda had more (illiquid) assets than liabilities marked to market; Alameda had a margin position on FTX International; and that FTX.US still had enough to repay all its customers. “Not everyone necessarily agrees with this,” he wrote.

He claimed that his one goal is to “do right by customers” and that he’s been meeting in person with regulators. He didn’t specify which regulators, representing which countries. He said that there was too much leverage, “more than I realised. A run on the bank and market crash exhausted liquidity.”


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Michael Saylor Calls Sam Bankman-Fried the ‘The Wolf of Wall Street’ of Crypto

Microstrategy founder and Bitcoin supporter Michael Saylor has come down heavy on fallen FTX founder and former billionaire Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF). “I think this (crypto) crash expedites regulatory action,” Saylor said in an interview. “I mean, in a way, SBF is like the Jordan Belfort of the crypto era. Instead of The Wolf of Wall Street, they’re going to make a movie called The King of Crypto.” Belfort was found guilty of stock market manipulation in 1999 for which he eventually spent 22 months in prison.

Speaking to Yahoo Finance, Saylor claimed that Sam Bankman-Fried “was using stolen money” and co-operated with corrupt regulators to keep his business going. The market turmoil and volatility would be suitable for Bitcoin and a “handful” of other coins because it would wipe out thousands of pointless cryptocurrencies, said Saylor.

Saylor also brought forward the point that most of the crypto projects are unregistered securities backed by nothing. On top of that, they are being traded on unregulated exchanges, most of which are being operated offshores. He also believes that the proof-of-stake tokens are backed by nothing and possess a similar risk. It is worth highlighting that Ethereum transitioned to the PoS mechanism this year.

MicroStrategy’s CEO believes that this crash is an eye-opener and an educational moment for the crypto community.

“This is simply a very expensive lesson for the crypto ecosystem and (on) the difference between crypto and Bitcoin. This is going to be really helpful for Bitcoin because this is an educational moment, and people are realising the benefits of buying a crypto asset that’s backed by the world’s most powerful computing network,” says Saylor.

Talking about Bitcoin, Michael Saylor mentioned that the asset is now moving into strong hands, and there is massive institutional and investor interest in the asset.

Saylor is an avid supporter of the crypto industry and has been very vocal about his support for Bitcoin. He also took on Twitter to address the FTX crash and said that the crypto industry would succeed when it’s about registered digital assets trading on registered digital exchanges.


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Michael Saylor Steps Down as MicroStrategy CEO to Focus on Bitcoin Acquisition Strategy

Cloud software company MicroStrategy has announced that Michael Saylor, a Bitcoin maximalist who has served as the company’s chief executive officer since 1989, will step down as CEO and transition to a new role of executive chairman to focus even more significantly on the firm’s Bitcoin holdings. Phong Le, the company’s president, will assume the role of CEO at MicroStrategy after Saylor, which is currently the public company with the largest Bitcoin treasury. The changes take effect starting Monday, August 8.

Saylor stated in a press release that as executive chairman, his focus will be solely on “Bitcoin acquisition strategy and related Bitcoin advocacy initiatives.” At the same time, Le will manage the company’s day-to-day operations.

Saylor had been Microstrategy’s CEO since its creation, while Le, who joined the company in 2015, has served as President since July 2020. The press release credited Le with “delivering one of the [company’s] best operational and financial years” in 2021.

In 2000, Saylor famously lost $6 billion (roughly Rs. 48,008 crore) in a single day after the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) brought charges against his company. His company managed to capture the spotlight after adopting Bitcoin as its reserve asset in a surprise move in August 2020.

Microstrategy was the first publicly listed business to start acquiring Bitcoin as part of its treasury, which paved the way for other tech companies such as Tesla to add the cryptocurrency to their own balance sheets.

While Tesla sold its Bitcoin holdings in the recent market downturn, today’s earnings report indicates that as of June 30, MicroStrategy still held 129,699 Bitcoin, a sum worth approximately $2.98 billion (roughly Rs. 23,844 crore) dollars at current prices.

The firm has consistently refused to alter its outlook on the digital asset, despite the price of Bitcoin plunging below $30,000 (roughly Rs. 24 lakh) in May, which meant MicroStrategy was in the red on its average purchase price.


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MicroStrategy’s Michael Saylor Believes Bitcoin’s Current Volatility Is Irrelevant

MicroStrategy CEO Michael Saylor claims that Bitcoin’s near-term volatility is largely irrelevant once you understand its fundamentals and how difficult it would be to create something better. In an interview, Saylor said that he isn’t perturbed by Bitcoin’s price swings in recent times while adding that BTC has to fall at least 95 percent for the company to consider selling any of its accumulated reserves. Saylor further added that people who have invested at least $100 (roughly Rs. 7,770) in Bitcoin can speak about it but others shouldn’t have any opinion about it.

“Bitcoin is the most certain thing in a very uncertain world, it’s more certain than the other 19,000 cryptocurrencies, it’s more certain than any stock, it’s more certain than owning property anywhere in the world,” he said in an interview with The Block.

Many analysts have been saying that Bitcoin and the broader crypto market have entered a bear market. Commenting on it, the MicroStrategy CEO said he wouldn’t like to focus on near-term prices.

“I don’t know if it’s a bear market or not, but if it is a bear market, then we had three of them in the last 24 months. If you’re not planning to hold it for four years, you’re not really an investor at all, you’re a trader, and my advice for traders is don’t trade it, invest in it,” he added.

MicroStrategy started adding Bitcoin to its balance sheet back in August 2022. In less than two years it has already amassed 129,218 Bitcoins. Currently, Bitcoin is trading close to the company’s average purchase price of $31,537 (roughly Rs. 24.5 lakh).

Michael Saylor also happens to be one of the most bullish people on Bitcoin and its future. Right in the mid of a heavy market correction in May 2022, Saylor spoke to Yahoo Finance recently where in an interview, he said that his company will continue to buy Bitcoin forever.


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