Bitcoin is closing in on $90,000 as crypto enthusiasts bet on United States President-elect Donald Trump taking a hands-off approach to digital currencies.The world’s most popular cryptocurrency hit a record high of $89,637 on Tuesday, continuing its explosive rally since the US presidential election on November 5. The commodity has gained more than 30 percent since election day, with investors anticipating Washington to take a turn towards more crypto-friendly policies under Trump.During his first term as president, Trump called Bitcoin a “scam” and complained that the currency was “competing against the dollar”.The Republican, however, radically changed course during his re-election campaign to cast himself as a crypto champion.Among other promises, Trump has pledged to turn the US into “the crypto capital of the planet” and to replace the chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission, Gary Gensler, who led efforts by President Joe Biden’s administration to increase oversight of the sector.In September, Trump announced the launch of his own crypto venture, World Liberty Financial, along with his family members.“Obviously [it’s] a clear Trump trade as he is so supportive of the industry, and this can only mean more demand both for crypto stocks as well as the currencies themselves,” said Nick Twidale, chief market analyst at ATFX Global in Sydney.“The fact that Bitcoin was trading near all-time highs when the election result came through meant that it had clean sky above.”Despite their enthusiastic following, Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are widely viewed as speculative assets and are known for experiencing wild […]

Bitcoin surged to a record high of $89,000 on Tuesday as investors pumped money into cryptocurrencies following the election of Donald Trump as United States president, who has turned from a cypto-sceptic to an investor himself.Bitcoin, the oldest and the largest crypto currency, has seen its value go up by 30 percent in the past week. It is not the only cryptocurrency on the move. Since Trump’s victory, Dogecoin — a currency backed by Trump ally Elon Musk — has surged 152 percent. Cryptocurrency is a “digital alternative” to traditional money and works online without a central authority. But it has long also been very volatile and has faced government curbs in several parts of the world.So how is the crypto spike linked to Trump’s election and will the new US administration ease regulatory frameworks around crypto?What explains the crypto surge since Trump’s win?Analysts believe Trump’s embrace of cryptocurrencies during the presidential campaign and his venture into crypto trade is luring investors on the expectation that the new administration would be crypto-friendly.The Trump campaign accepted donations in cryptocurrency and he also appeared at industry events, promising to make the US “the crypto capital of the planet”.In late September, Trump and his three sons – Donald Jr, Eric, and Barron – unveiled his latest entrepreneurial endeavour, World Liberty Financial. Billed as a decentralised finance (DeFi) money market platform, this new venture introduced a proprietary cryptocurrency dubbed $WLFI.Although details of the new venture are unclear, many pro-crypto enthusiasts see this as a […]

Former cryptocurrency executive Nishad Singh, who once shared a $35m Bahamas penthouse with FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried, has been spared prison time by a judge for his role in the theft by his imprisoned former boss of about $8bn in customer funds from the now-bankrupt exchange.During a hearing in Manhattan federal court on Wednesday, United States District Judge Lewis Kaplan imposed no prison time, but ordered three years of supervised release. Kaplan credited Singh for cooperating with prosecutors and coming clean about his actions in what they have called one of the biggest financial frauds in US history. Singh, who had pleaded guilty to six felony counts of fraud and conspiracy, testified last year as a prosecution witness in the trial that led to Bankman-Fried’s conviction on fraud and other charges. Singh, in a plea deal with prosecutors, admitted to his role in the fraud and for serving as a “straw donor” in some of Bankman-Fried’s millions of dollars in political donations.“I am overwhelmed with remorse for the harm that I participated in and that I caused to so many innocent people,” Singh told the judge at the hearing. “I strayed so far from my values.”Prosecutors had urged leniency for the 29-year-old Singh, FTX’s former chief engineer, in light of his cooperation. His defence lawyers recommended he serve no prison time.Bankman-Fried, 32, is serving a 25-year prison sentence imposed by Kaplan stemming from FTX’s November 2022 collapse.Last month, Kaplan sentenced Caroline Ellison, Bankman-Fried’s former girlfriend and an executive at FTX’s sister […]

Caroline Ellison, the former business partner and girlfriend of cryptocurrency fraudster Sam Bankman-Fried, has been sentenced to two years in prison for her role in one of the biggest financial frauds in history.Ellison, the CEO of Alameda Research and Bankman-Fried’s on-and-off girlfriend, was a key prosecution witness in last year’s trial that saw the founder of the ill-fated crypto exchange FTX sentenced to 25 years in prison. Ellison pleaded guilty to seven charges, including fraud, shortly after the collapse of FTX in 2022, crimes carrying a maximum sentence of 110 years in prison.But both the judge and prosecutors said that Ellison deserved leniency for cooperating with investigators, including testifying against Bankman-Fried over the course of three days at his trial.United States District Judge Lewis A Kaplan said on Tuesday that Ellison’s cooperation had been “very substantial”, but a prison term was justified despite her lawyers’ request for a non-custodial sentence given the magnitude of the fraud.“There’s no way you’re ever going to do something like this again, I am persuaded,” Kaplan said.“But here’s the thing: this was, if not the very greatest financial fraud ever perpetrated in this country or anywhere else, close to it.”Kaplan said he would recommend that Ellison be held in a minimum-security prison.During Bankman-Fried’s trial, Ellison testified that he directed her and others to dip into FTX customers’ funds to carry out riskier transactions via sister company Alameda Research, buy real estate and make political donations.Bankman-Fried testified in his own defence at his trial, accusing Ellison […]

A United States court has ordered bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange FTX to pay $12.7bn in relief to its customers, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission has said.FTX drew customers in with “an illusion that it was a safe and secure place to access crypto markets,” then misappropriated their customer deposits to make its own risky investments, CFTC Chairman Rostin Behnam said in a statement on Thursday.The repayment order implements a settlement between the CFTC and the bankrupt crypto exchange, which has committed to a bankruptcy liquidation that will repay customers whose deposits were locked during its late 2022 collapse.FTX has said that its customers will receive 100 percent recovery on their claims against the company, based on the value of their accounts at the time it filed for bankruptcy.The CFTC agreement resolves a potential roadblock to that repayment, ensuring that the government’s lawsuit against FTX will not reduce the funds available to its customers. The CFTC agreed not to collect any payment from FTX until all its customers are repaid, with interest.The CFTC settlement requires FTX to pay $8.7bn in restitution and $4bn in disgorgement, which will be used to further compensate victims for losses suffered during the exchange’s collapse.FTX did not immediately respond to a request for comment.Its founder Sam Bankman-Fried was sentenced in March to 25 years in prison for stealing $8bn from customers. He has appealed the conviction.FTX has used its bankruptcy to reach settlements with US regulators and former business partners and to sell assets that had been purchased with misappropriated customer funds, including real […]

Ryan Salame, the former co-CEO of FTX’s Bahamian subsidiary and a top lieutenant of the bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange’s founder, Sam Bankman-Fried, has been sentenced to 90 months in prison, United States federal prosecutors have said.Salame pleaded guilty in September to making tens of millions of dollars in unlawful campaign donations to boost causes supported by his boss. His seven-and-a-half-year prison sentence, announced on Tuesday, was longer than the five to seven years sought by prosecutors.Bankman-Fried was sentenced earlier this year to 25 years in prison for stealing $8bn from FTX customers. A jury found him guilty in November on seven fraud and conspiracy counts stemming from FTX’s 2022 collapse, which prosecutors have called one of the biggest financial frauds in US history. Bankman-Fried has appealed the conviction and the sentence.Prosecutors say Salame, Bankman-Fried and former FTX engineering chief Nishad Singh used FTX customer funds to donate to political candidates supporting crypto-friendly legislation.Salame’s lawyers have tried to distance him from the FTX fraud. “He was duped, as was everyone else, into believing that the companies were legitimate, solvent and wildly profitable,” they said in a filing earlier in May ahead of the sentencing.In addition to the prison term, Salame, 30, was sentenced to three years of supervised release and ordered to pay more than $6m in forfeiture and more than $5m in restitution, prosecutors said in a statement.“Salame’s involvement in two serious federal crimes undermined public trust in American elections and the integrity of the financial system,” said Damian Williams, US Attorney […]