Fears over Silvergate, $8 billion hole at FTX, senators seek Binance numbers: Hodler's Digest, February 26 - March 4

Top stories this week Silvergate stock plunges after delayed filing raises doubts over future

after postponing the filing of its annual 10-K financial report, raising fears of an upcoming bankruptcy filing. The collapse of cryptocurrency banking could prove costly for the rest of the industry. Within 24 hours of the announcement, Coinbase, Circle, Bitstamp, Galaxy Digital, and Paxos completed their individual partnerships with Silvergate to some extent. MicroStrategy and Tether have publicly denied any significant exposure to the bank. On March 2, Silvergate's stock fell more than 50% on the NYSE.

FTX presentation shows 'massive shortfall' in company assets

revealed a "massive shortfall" in its holdings of digital assets and fiat currencies, with billions in customer funds missing from both the exchange and its US-based arm, FTX US. In total, FTX recorded a deficit of $8.6 billion across all wallets and accounts, while FTX US recorded a deficit of $116 million. Among the headlines of the week was former FTX engineering director Nishad Singh on wire fraud as well as the wire and commodities fraud conspiracy. Singh's call follows a number of close associates of Sam Bankman-Fried who have reportedly agreed to cooperate with U.S. prosecutors in recent months.

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Celsius Custody customers finally start withdrawals 263 days after freeze

Celsius customers were able to withdraw funds following a freeze before it filed for bankruptcy. Affected customers received an email listing those who were eligible to withdraw funds a few weeks ago, followed by another on March 2 notifying them that withdrawals were available. Customers who held funds in deposit accounts – only available to US residents – were able to withdraw 94% of their original funds. Customers who have transferred funds from earning or borrowing accounts to deposit accounts can currently withdraw 72.5% of the funds.

Senator Elizabeth Warren and colleagues demand to see Binance balance sheets

led by Elizabeth Warren have sent a letter to Binance CEO Changpeng "CZ" Zhao and Binance.US CEO Brian Shroder expressing concern over a number of aspects of the crypto exchange's operations and asking companies their balance sheets. The senators claim the companies evaded US regulators and sanctions and facilitated the laundering of at least $10 billion. Binance reportedly has outstanding regulatory and enforcement issues in the US

Jack Dorsey's Decentralized Twitter Rival Enters the App Store

is progressing the development of Bluesky, a decentralized alternative to Twitter. A private beta test of the mobile app is available in the Apple App Store as an invite-only app, allowing select people to try out the new social media experience by creating an account via an ID code. invitation. Bluesky is built on the AT protocol, a new federated social network that incorporates ideas from the latest decentralized technologies.

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