Crypto Market Overview January 17th | Dex-Trade

'I Considered Him a Friend': Anthony Scaramucci on SBF Betrayal

During a panel discussion at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Managing Partner of SkyBridge Capital, Anthony Scaramucci, detailed his close relationship with former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Freed (SBF), his family, and how he felt after the extent of the FTX collapse became known: “I had a close relationship with [Sam Bankman-Fried], I considered him a friend. So I have to tell you that the betrayal and fraud—it's bad on a lot of different levels. It certainly hurt me reputationally.." And added: “If anybody here has read Dante Alighieri’s Inferno, you know what the ninth circle of Hell is reserved for. It’s for the betrayal of a friend who lives with the devil—the ninth circle of hell on the frozen lake.” However, despite the gloomy images, Scaramucci said that Bankman-Fried's actions do not mean the end of blockchain or cryptocurrency, so he is not going to stop taking risks and talks about "a Decades of Wins, Losses, Bulls & Bears." Notably, in September 2022, two months before FTX filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, a subsidiary of FTX Ventures bought Scaramucci's 30% stake in SkyBridge Capital for about $45 million. bought the assets of crypto companies and said that these actions contribute to the speedy overcoming of the crypto winter. How young we were three months ago...

 

Su Zhu and Kyle Davis from 3AC Open New Crypto Exchange

The co-founders of failed giant crypto fund Three Arrows Capital (3AC), Su Zhu and Kyle Davis, are currently giving pitches to potential investors to raise $25 million in seed capital that will be used to create an entirely new cryptocurrency exchange known as GTX. GTX will enable crypto holders to go public and trade in a $20 billion ecosystem that includes assets from companies such as BlockFi, Celsius, FTX and Mt.Gox, among others, according to an investor press release. Among other things, this indicates that GTX intends to allow the trading of bankruptcy filings of crypto companies. The platform also wants access to the securities lending industry, which is now valued at a total of $2 trillion. It is noteworthy that, together with Zhu and Davis, people from the CoinFLEX crypto platform that crashed as a result of the collapse of the Terra Form ecosystem are also working on the creation of GTX. In July, the site also imposed withdrawal limits and laid off a significant portion of its staff. It is also known that Leslie Lamb, formerly Head of Institutional Sales at Amber Group, will take on the role of Chief Marketing Officer for GTX. At the same time, Kent Dog, who most recently worked for Alibaba, will take on the role of chief technology officer for the new cryptocurrency platform.

 

The Central Bank of Georgia Is Preparing to Launch a Pilot Digital Lari Project

The National Bank of Georgia (NBG) is about to release a whitepaper called “Digital Lari,”which will allow potential partners to submit their proposals before the launch of the test phase of the Georgian CBDC project. A pilot version of a central bank digital currency was originally expected in 2022, but the NBG has postponed the trials to this year. According to the Vice Governor, Papuna Lezhava, the document will be published in the first half of 2023 and shortly thereafter, the authorities, together with a key partner of the project, will discuss how long it will take to implement it. According to the official, several alternative approaches to testing the digital lari have already been approved. It is known that at the first stage it will be a rather limited pilot version. Thanks to the data obtained at this stage of testing, it will be possible to assess the technical characteristics of the asset. The goal of the NBG is to ensure financial and price stability through the introduction of CBDC into the economic ecosystem. However, the need for a CBDC is also related to the need to better meet the demands of the digital economy and improve the effectiveness of economic policies. Lezhava also stressed that the state-backed coin will have the status of legal tender in Georgia: “The digital lari will become a cheaper, more secure and faster means of payment than the current fiat lari in its cash and non-cash forms. The services of intermediaries, commercial banks or payment systems, will not be required to carry out operations with the digital lari.”