Need to know what happened in crypto today? Here is the latest news on daily trends and events impacting Bitcoin price, blockchain, DeFi, NFTs, Web3 and crypto regulation.
Sam Bankman-Fried’s criminal trial continued on Oct. 30, where he was asked to explain his previous derogatory remarks toward regulators. Meanwhile, CME now ranks second in the list of BTC futures exchanges and a hacker has reportedly stolen $4.4 million in crypto from 25 users that appear to be connected to LastPass.
Bankman-Fried grilled on his approach to crypto regulation
Former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried was asked at his criminal trial to express his true feelings toward crypto regulation after it came to light that he had made disparaging remarks in the past.
Assistant U.S. Prosecutor Danielle Sassoon reportedly asked Bankman-Fried if he recalled his previous Twitter statements where he supported crypto regulation. “I don’t remember,” he said. Sassoon then asked, “But in private, you said, fuck regulators, right?”
“I said that once,” he replied.
OK – now SBF trial with Sam Bankman-Fried still on direct, this afternoon the cross. Inner City Press is on it https://t.co/lPLqNVJIBf &https://t.co/mdnD76vUQ7 Exhibits https://t.co/VGsnx6gqxd book https://t.co/1w2tkmrTvA and will live tweet, thread below pic.twitter.com/HmDmEG3fL8
— Inner City Press (@innercitypress) October 30, 2023
Bankman-Fried’s criminal trial is expected to conclude early next week. The former FTX boss faces a slew of criminal charges, including wire fraud, securities fraud and money laundering. He has pleaded not guilty to all charges put forward by the prosecution.
CME becomes second-largest Bitcoin futures exchange as open interest surges
The Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME), a regulated derivatives exchange that lists Bitcoin BTC futures, now stands just behind Binance in terms of notional open interest to rank second in the list of BTC futures exchanges.
CME’s open interest hit $3.58 billion on Oct. 30, pushing the regulated derivatives exchange platform to jump two positions from the previous week. The CME overtook Bybit and OKX with $2.6 billion and $1.78 billion in open interest, respectively, and is just a few million away from Binance’s $3.9 billion.
CME’s rising open interest not only helped the regulated futures exchange to climb to the second spot among futures crypto exchanges but also saw its cash-settled futures contracts exceed 100,000 BTC in volume. The rising interest of traders in the Bitcoin futures market has also propelled the CME to attain 25% of the Bitcoin futures market share.
A majority chunk of investment into CME futures has come via standard futures contracts, indicating an influx of institutional interest as Bitcoin registered a massive double-digit surge in October, helping it reach a new one-year high above $35,000.
Crypto thief steals $4.4M in a day as toll rises from LastPass breach
At least 25 people have reportedly seen $4.4 million in crypto vanish from across 80 wallets due to a 2022 data breach affecting password storage software LastPass.
In an Oct. 27 X (Twitter) post, pseudonymous on-chain researcher ZachXBT said they and MetaMask developer Taylor Monahan tracked the fund movements of at least 80 wallets compromised on Oct. 25.
Just on October 25, 2023 alone another ~$4.4M was drained from 25+ victims as a result of the LastPass hack.
Cannot stress this enough, if you believe you may have ever stored your seed phrase or keys in LastPass migrate your crypto assets immediately. pic.twitter.com/26HsxrlnCb
— ZachXBT (@zachxbt) October 27, 2023
“Most, if not all, of the victims are longtime LastPass users and/or confirm having stored their [crypto wallet] keys/seeds in LastPass,” Monahan said in an accompanying Chainabuse report.
In December 2022, LastPass disclosed an attacker leveraged information previously stolen in a breach that August to target a LastPass employee, snagging their credentials and decrypting stored customer information.
Also stolen was a backup of encrypted customer vault data which LastPass warned could be decrypted if the attacker brute force guesses the account’s master password.
This article does not contain investment advice or recommendations. Every investment and trading move involves risk, and readers should conduct their own research when making a decision.
