Crypto Market Overview November 29th | Dex-Trade

BlockFi Sues Sam Bankman-Freed Over Robinhood Stocks

Cryptocurrency lender BlockFi, which filed for bankruptcy protection just yesterday, filed a lawsuit against Robinhood (HOOD) stock, which Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF), founder of the infamous cryptocurrency exchange FTX, bought back in October through his firm Emergent Fidelity Technologies. According to the Financial Times (FT), BlockFi's tokenized HOOD shares were used as collateral by the lender. However, it should be borne in mind that even at the time of their purchase by SBF, the tokens belonged to a bankrupt project. After they were bought by BlockFi and the dramatic collapse of FTX, the shares simply collapsed, which may have been one of the reasons for the bankruptcy of the crypto lender. The lawsuit states that on Nov. 9, BlockFi and Emergent Fidelity Technologies entered into a payment guarantee agreement with an unnamed borrower, pledging unnamed shares of common stock as collateral. The FT, citing legal correspondence, reports that the borrower was Alameda Research, which is also owned by SBF. In order to raise money to support FTX before the crash, Bankman-Fried was rumored to be attempting to sell shares of Robinhood even after the collateral agreement with BlockFi, according to rumors in the crypto community. If these rumors are true, then SBF will literally find itself in a legal "environment."

 

Mauricio Di Bartolomeo Announced the Dismissal of the Ledns’ Leadership

Co-founder of crypto lender Ledn, Mauricio Di Bartolomeo, announced today that after lengthy negotiations, the founders of the company came to an agreement on the optimal number of employees, as a result of which they had to fire senior data engineer Guido Pettinari, coordinator Lígia Robinson and commercial director Denis Nagasaki. Ledn develops and sells lending, savings and trading products for crypto holders in over 130 countries. Today, the company is facing a crisis that has been linked to Ledn's former main lending partner, Genesis Global Capital (GGC). In November, GGC suspended withdrawals of customer deposits amid the collapse of FTX, but the company has not filed for bankruptcy. Some time later, Ledn management announced that it had no joint operations with GGC, as it reduced the concentration of risks by diversifying the pool of credit partners. According to Di Bartolomeo, Ledn and GGC have not had an active credit relationship since October this year. At this point, it's not clear exactly what the cuts are at Ledn and exactly how many people currently work for the company. Judging by the profiles on LinkedIn, 102 social network users identify themselves as employees of the company. At the same time, the company's profile says that its staff consists of 51 to 200 employees.

 

Kevin O'Leary Tried to Save FTX Before It Crashed

Shark Tank star Kevin O'Leary aka Mr. Wonderful, talked about how he and Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) almost raised $8 billion from institutional investors to save the distressed FTX, but once the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) investigation into the crypto exchange became public ) and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), all interested investors disappeared. As a reminder, O'Leary is still a paid spokesperson for FTX and has invested in the company personally. Before filing for bankruptcy on FTX on Nov. 11, he spoke to a number of potential investors interested in acquiring a stake in the crypto exchange. O'Leary also spoke directly to the SBF and noted that his approach was very rational. However, the founder of FTX told O'Leary early on in the crash that regulators would "react violently" to the situation, and as soon as there were reports that the SEC, DOJ and other global regulators were approaching FTX, the proposals to rescue the project immediately ended. However, O'Leary believes that if the sovereign wealth fund or other buyers put up about $4 billion, then investors would feel confident keeping their assets in FTX: “So really what was on the table and being debated all around the world was you could buy a $32 billion asset for $4 billion.” But, as we have already noticed, an extremely profitable transaction for someone did not have time to be completed.