Coinbase has agreed to cough up a total of $100 million to bring an end to an investigation into failures of its anti-money laundering (AML) and know-your-customer (KYC) measures.

The exchange announced on Wednesday that it will pay $50 million to the New York Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) and will invest the same amount in bringing these programs up to standard.

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December meant only one thing: ’tis the season for media outlets to churn out articles wherein crypto ‘experts’ share their bitcoin and ethereum price predictions for the upcoming year. “$250,000!” one cries out. “No, $500,000!” another ‘analyst’ boldly bellows.

Hark! Thou art all mistaken. For last December, the cryptocurrency market was sharply falling from an unprecedented all-time high. Bitcoin price had peaked at $69,000 on November 10, and began falling rapidly to under $50,000 by early December.

By scouring last year’s articles about price predictions, it’s clear that a steep drop in just a month wasn’t enough to keep the loudest voices in crypto quiet. Predicting bitcoin and ethereum’s price is a fool’s errand. Here’s what those who did it anyway had to say.

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On New Year’s Day, the market capitalization of crypto assets totaled $2.4 trillion. At press time, it has declined 64% to $845 billion.

Plenty of events dragged everything down this year. Here are the top crypto headlines of 2022.

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There was a time when it was easy to be seen as brilliant in crypto. All you had to do was find someone with a great idea -- preferably someone who didn't like to pay attention in meetings -- and throw a bunch of money at them. If you were really brilliant, you would even work out a deal where they'd eventually give you all of that money back. In business, this is called synergy.

Nowadays, things aren't so simple. Pesky people want to know what your 'due diligence' process is, and ask how you failed to recognize the billions of dollars of fraud happening in the company you owned a big chunk of. Many investors tend to act as though they were caught unawares -- but perhaps we must consider that it's just an act.

If it's not an act, at the very least it's a dereliction of responsibility.

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Popular streamer and serial NFT project founder DNP3 has admitted to using investor funds to fuel his gambling addiction.

In a statement issued on January 3, the streamer revealed that over the past year, he’s become addicted to gambling and has pumped “every dollar he could find” into the Stake crypto casino. 

The social media star has over one million followers and subscribers across Twitter, Twitch, Instagram, and YouTube and is particularly well-known for highly-publicized acts of generosity, including handing out huge sums of money to other streamers.

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On Monday, Gemini co-founder Cameron Winklevoss published an open letter to fellow billionaire Barry Silbert, the chief exec of Digital Currency Group (DCG), explaining Gemini’s side of an ongoing dispute with DCG and its subsidiary, Genesis Global Trading.

In the letter, Winklevoss gave Silbert a short deadline to publicly commit to resolving the situation that led to Gemini Earn suspending withdrawals. The famous twin accused Silbert of ignoring previous attempts to work together, claiming the DCG chief hoped that it would “just magically go away.”

He claims Silbert agreed to meet to discuss a proposal and then never followed through when Gemini submitted two. Now, Winklevoss demands that Silbert commit to finding common ground by January 8.

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A crypto advocate and US political consultant named Samuel Armes has said he helped form key strategies later outlined in the ‘1776 Returns’ document -- a crucial file in the Proud Boys conspiracy case.

An interview between Armes and the US House Select Committee investigating the January 6 insurrection was released among a raft of transcripts last week. It shows that Armes had ties to the Proud Boys through his connections in the crypto industry. However, the links go further back.

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Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder of now-bankrupt FTX and Alameda Research, is reportedly expected to plead not guilty at his arraignment for eight charges including wire fraud, conspiracy to commit money laundering, and conspiracy to break campaign finance laws.

Several alleged co-conspirators, including Caroline Ellison, former CEO of Alameda Research, and Gary Wang, FTX co-founder, have already pleaded guilty to charges related to the same scheme. There are also ongoing CFTC and SEC civil suits being brought against Bankman-Fried which allege both commodities fraud and securities fraud.

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2022 has been rough year for bitcoin news as a series of industry implosions have sent the coin’s price tumbling by around 63% year-to-date. (To be fair, Bitcoin performed no worse than the broader crypto sector, which declined from $2.3 trillion to $846 billion this year. Even the NASDAQ stock market declined -29%.)

Fortunately, several big events advanced the Bitcoin network and put it on a firmer footing for the future. Of course, many challenges remain.

Here is a quick round-up of the major headlines telling the story of bitcoin’s 2022.

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The special agent heading up the Internal Revenue Service’s Criminal Investigation division (IRS-CI) says that crypto companies will need to work closely with federal agencies if they want to build legitimacy.

Speaking to the Wall Street Journal (WSJ), New York-based special agent Thomas Fattorusso also claimed that the only way forward for agencies trying to regulate and fight crime within the space is to work hand-in-hand with those operating in it.

“Cryptocurrency is here to stay,” said Fattorusso (via WSJ).

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