Crypto Critics' Corner

Bennett and Cas are joined by Katie Baker, a journalist at The Ringer, to discuss her time spent at the trial, how social media and sh*tposting are playing a role, and her most recent article, which encapsulates the story unfolding better than anything written thus far.

Read Katie's article here: https://www.theringer.com/tech/2023/10/16/23919236/sam-bankman-fried-sbf-trial-caroline-ellison-testimony-ftx-cryptocurrency

Bennett and Cas are joined by Danny Nelson of CoinDesk to discuss the ongoing trial of Sam Bankman-Fried and the testimony of Nishad Singh and Can Sun.

CoinDesk coverage of the trial

https://www.coindesk.com/sam-bankman-fried-trial-live-coverage-news/

Danny Nelson's newsletter about accounting Santa Clause

https://www.coindesk.com/policy/2023/10/19/judge-kaplans-ire-hits-all-lawyers-in-the-sam-bankman-fried-case/

Danny article about Nishad Singh cross

https://www.coindesk.com/policy/2023/10/19/judge-kaplans-ire-hits-all-lawyers-in-the-sam-bankman-fried-case/

Protos coverage of the trial

https://protos.com/sbftrial/

Sam Bankman-Fried on Good Morning America

https://youtu.be/0Hxf4Vf54PI

Sam Bankman-Fried's defense finally wakes up

https://www.theverge.com/2023/10/17/23921745/sam-bankman-fried-nishad-singh-house-loan

This video was recorded on October 19th, 2023.

Bennett and Cas discuss Farmington State Bank/Moonstone Bank, the Washington State bank that Alameda Research invested in - valuing at an unbelievable $150 million.

Additional resources:

Initial Protos coverage of Moonstone

https://protos.com/the-curious-case-of-ftx-and-farmington-state-bank-aka-moonstone/

Moonstone Bank executives explain relationship with Alameda Research

https://protos.com/exclusive-moonstone-bank-explains-ties-with-alameda-research/

Federal Reserve explains Moonstone Bank decision

https://protos.com/exclusive-the-fed-responds-to-the-moonstone-bank-mystery/

Protos coverage of Federal Reserve cease and desist

https://protos.com/alameda-funded-bank-farmington-state-gets-cease-and-desist-from-fed/

Federal Reserve cease and desist

https://www.federalreserve.gov/newsevents/pressreleases/files/enf20230817a1.pdf

Litecoin acquires stake in bank

https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2018/07/11/litecoin-foundation-acquires-99-of-bank-in-payments-partnership/

Bennett and Cas are joined by Nikhilesh De of CoinDesk to discuss the ongoing trial of Sam Bankman-Fried, and specifically the testimony of Gary Wang and Caroline Ellison.

Additional resources:

CoinDesk coverage of the trial

https://www.coindesk.com/tag/sbf-trial/

Nik's newsletter about the trial

https://www.coindesk.com/policy/2023/10/13/things-sbfs-defense-lawyers-should-be-freaking-out-about/

Bennett's newsletter about the trial

https://us2.campaign-archive.com/?u=16a900a42513fb7998acad86d&id=4f3209dbfb

Protos coverage of the trial

https://protos.com/sbftrial/

Business Insider Alameda Research All Hands call

https://www.businessinsider.com/alameda-all-hands-meeting-caroline-ellison-shut-down-audio-2023-10

Liz Lopatto Article: 'Sam Bankman-Fried is a Terrible Boyfriend'

https://www.businessinsider.com/alameda-all-hands-meeting-caroline-ellison-shut-down-audio-2023-10

Sketch of Caroline from Nik

https://twitter.com/nikhileshde/status/1711886306131812441

This video was recorded on October 15th, 2023.

Bennett and Cas discuss the evolving banking situation in the cryptocurrency industry, and how hard it is for companies to maintain banking relationships.

Read more: https://cryptocriticscorner.com/2023/10/13/episode-134-can-crypto-companies-get-bank-accounts/

Additional resources:

CoinDesk article about Bitstamp

https://www.coindesk.com/business/2023/10/09/bitstamp-courts-european-banks-as-regions-incoming-crypto-rules-boost-confidence/

Protos article about Prager Metis

https://protos.com/accounting-apocalypse-ftx-auditor-prager-metis-sued-by-the-sec/

Protos coverage of Moonstone

https://protos.com/tag/moonstone/

This episode was recorded on October 9th, 2023.

Bennett Tomlin and Cas Piancey are joined by David Z. Morris to discuss the trial of Sam Bankman-Fried, and the testimony against him so far. This includes longtime friend Adam Yedidia, FTX leader Gary Wang, and investor Matt Huang.

Additional resources:

Protos coverage of the trial

https://protos.com/sbftrial/

Bennett newsletter about opening statements

http://us2.campaign-archive.com/?u=16a900a42513fb7998acad86d&id=4f3209dbfb

Semafor reporting on loans

https://www.semafor.com/article/12/07/2022/charity-money-launched-sam-bankman-frieds-empire

Tara Mac Aulay tweet about leaving

https://twitter.com/Tara_MacAulay/status/1592985303262072834?cxt=HHwWhMDU1a_stZssAAAA

WSJ reporting on XRP bet

https://www.wsj.com/amp/articles/alameda-sam-bankman-fried-ftx-crypto-crash-11672434101

Reporting on MobileCoin losses

https://protos.com/mobilecoin-the-project-that-doomed-ftx-a-year-before-terra-luna/

WSJ reporting on Cohen & Everdell

https://www.wsj.com/articles/sam-bankman-frieds-defense-team-led-by-battle-tested-lawyers-11673217199

Where to find David:

Flesh/Markets

https://davidzmorris.substack.com/

Protos

https://protos.com/author/dmorris/

Unchained

https://unchainedcrypto.com/author/davidz/

Twitter

https://twitter.com/davidzmorris

This video was recorded on October 8th, 2023.

Today Bennett and Cas discuss the SEC's settlement with the creators of an NFT called Stoner Cats and whether or not it means any NFTs offering royalties to creators could be considered securities.

Today Bennett and Cas are joined by Eric Roesch to discuss Elon Musk, ESG (environmental, social, governance), and the Golden Age of Fraud.

Roesch, an environmental policy expert, tells us about the history of ESG, why it doesn't effectively combat the issues it claims to, and how Elon Musk - the wealthiest man in the world - has used ESG, government subsidies, and asking for forgiveness instead of permission to hoodwink the American public.

This episode was recorded September 20th, 2023.

Today Bennett and Cas talk about Sam Bankman-Fried's parents, Joseph Bankman and Barbara Fried, who are alleged to be holding onto property and money that the FTX and Alameda Research estates are looking to claw back.

Read more about it here.

This episode was recorded on September 20th, 2023.

Today Bennett and Cas are joined by Leo Schwartz from Fortune to discuss his feature article about Circle, USDC, and why the stablecoin can't seem to overtake Tether in marketcap or volume.

Read the article here.