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I’ve been taking a little bit of an electronics detox, which means I haven’t been my telephone — or laptop computer — for many of this week. As a reporter, that appears ridiculous. However once I say I’ve spent the previous few days within the Southern District of New York (SDNY) federal court docket, that may make extra sense, on condition that they confiscate most individuals’s electronics (as I discovered, this contains AirPods!).
The SDNY is changing into a second house for me as a result of the extremely anticipated trial for Sam Bankman-Fried, sometimes called SBF, has begun. In case you don’t know who he’s or what he’s allegedly carried out, we’ve acquired a refresher for you.
Earlier than FTX collapsed and filed for chapter, Bankman-Fried additionally apparently had a plan to purchase off former President Trump, to get him to not run for re-election, creator Michael Lewis shared in a 60 Minutes broadcast interview. How a lot would that value? Apparently, $5 billion.
I’ll be in-and-out of the courthouse over the following six weeks, following the trial intently. Prosecutors shared that Matt Huang, co-founder and managing companion of Paradigm, and Gary Wang, co-founder of FTX, are on the docket to testify this week as witnesses.
Previous to Paradigm, Huang was a companion at Sequoia Capital; each companies beforehand invested in FTX, so we think about the testimony will dive into buyers’ losses from the crypto change’s downfall.
As for Wang, properly, he co-founded FTX with Bankman-Fried however agreed to take a plea deal in December 2022. This implies Wang is cooperating with authorities in change for a greater sentencing, which the decide presiding over the case talked about to jurors on Wednesday.
For probably the most in-depth trial protection up to now, take a look at the whole lot that has transpired under.
The SBF Trial
- SBF’s trial has began, that is how he and FTX acquired right here
- Was FTX an empire ‘constructed on lies’ or a startup that ‘grew too shortly’? (TC+)
- SBF’s trial guarantees to be simply as riveting as the remainder of the FTX drama (TC+)
- US authorities confirms it didn’t supply any plea offers to Sam Bankman-Fried
- Meet the 12 jurors on Sam Bankman-Fried’s trial
This week in web3
- Three Arrows Capital co-founder Zhu arrested in Singapore airport, sentenced 4 months in jail
- Web3 funding is down once more because the crypto winter drags on (TC+)
- Kenyan legislative committee requires Worldcoin shutdown within the nation
- Pudgy Penguins’ strategy will be the reply to fixing NFTs’ income issues (TC+)
The most recent pod
For this week’s episode, Chain Response (and Jacquelyn) did a crossover episode with Alex Wilhelm, editor in chief of starcrypto+ and co-host of Fairness, starcrypto’s podcast centered on the enterprise of startups.
The extremely anticipated prison trial for Sam Bankman-Fried, former CEO of now-bankrupt crypto change FTX, began on Tuesday to find out whether or not he’s responsible of seven counts of fraud and conspiracy.
Jacquelyn has been on the bottom on the Southern District of New York courthouse, listening in to the trial in the identical room as Bankman-Fried, so there was heaps to speak about.
We dove deep into what transpired the primary two days of Bankman-Fried’s trial, in addition to who the jurors are, the primary two witnesses and who else is anticipated to talk. We additionally acquired into the nitty-gritty particulars, which you’ll’t examine on a transcript.
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Observe the cash
- Resy and Eater co-founder raises $24 million for Blackbird, a restaurant loyalty platform
- Web3 social app Phaver raised $7 million from Polygon Ventures and others
- Cicada, a credit score threat agency centered on blockchain infrastructure, raised $9.7 million
- DeFi spinoff lending platform ParaFinance raised $5 million
- Web3 esports startup NexGami raised $2 million in seed funding
This record was compiled with data from Messari in addition to starcrypto’s personal reporting.
What else we’re writing
Need to department out from the world of web3? Listed below are some articles on starcrypto that caught our consideration this week.
- The worldwide VC market continues to stumble (TC+)
- Three weeks later, buyers are nonetheless not terribly enthusiastic concerning the huge Cisco-Splunk deal (TC+)
- What’s at stake within the Supreme Courtroom’s landmark social media case
- AWS, Microsoft and Google face UK competitors probe over cloud lock-in practices
- At One Ventures’ $375 million new fund reveals local weather tech continues to be sizzling (TC+)
Observe me on Twitter @Jacqmelinek for breaking crypto information, memes and extra.