SBF May be Brought to US for Questioning, FTX Australia’s Financial License Suspended, FTX Bahama-based Subsidiary Files for Bankruptcy

Get your daily, bite-sized digest of cryptoasset and blockchain-related news – investigating the stories flying under the radar of today’s crypto news.__________

Legal news

American and Bahamian authorities are reportedly discussing the possibility of bringing FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried to the United States for questioning, Bloomberg reported citing people familiar with the matter. The conversations between law-enforcement officials in the two countries have intensified in recent days as they investigate the former CEO’s role in the FTX collapse, it said.The Seoul Southern District Prosecutors’ Office raided Chai Corporation, a payments technology company founded by Terraform Labs cofounder Daniel Shin, Forkast reported. It allegedly summoned Shin earlier this week as part of another investigation into the selling of pre-issuance Luna tokens.

Regulation news

Australia’s financial markets regulator, Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC), has suspended FTX Australia’s financial license until May 2023, “after it was placed into voluntary administration on 11 November 2022,” said the announcement. Until December 19, FTX Australia can continue to provide limited financial services that relate to the termination of existing derivatives with clients, it added.Binance has secured Abu Dhabi regulator’s approval for crypto custody services, CEO Changpeng Zhao announced. Specifically, it has received a Financial Services Permission (FSP) from the Financial Services Regulatory Authority (FSRA) in the Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM).

Exchange news

FTX Digital Markets, FTX’s Bahamas-based subsidiary, filed for bankruptcy on Tuesday in the US. According to Reuters, citing a court filing, it is seeking protection from creditors under Chapter 15 of the US Bankruptcy Code.Bitfinex said on Tuesday that it was suspending deposits of FTX’s FTT tokens until further notice, effective immediately. It also recently revealed its proof of reserves.Analytics firm Nansen published a Twitter thread on Tuesday showing more deposits on observed exchanges than withdrawals in the prior 24 hours. Bitfinex led the total ERC20 token Netflow with $318 million in digital coins, followed by Binance and Crypto.com. Binance led the overall deposits with some $1.45 billion.Gate.io said that it has been conducting 100% proof-of-reserves (PoR) audits since 2020. Per the announcement, its latest PoR was investigated by third-party auditing firm Armanino, and the exchange was required to provide it with all wallets for an on-chain verification. The total amount of all audited ethereum (ETH) held by Gate.io amounts to 269,035.

Metaverse news

BNB Chain has launched Football Fiesta, which it described as a football experience in the metaverse. It is an ecosystem-wide initiative that has drawn in over $600,000 in prizes, said the press release.

Gaming news

ZEBEDEE, a payment processor for the gaming industry, and Ready Player Me, a cross-game avatar platform for the metaverse, announced a partnership to connect Ready Player Me’s work with interoperable avatars and ZEBEDEE’s work with interoperable virtual economies. A press release said that the first version of Ready Player Me integration will be introduced into the ZEBEDEE app later this year, when users will be able to create their own avatars and use them inside ZEBEDEE.