Former Alameda Research CEO Caroline Ellison received a two-year prison sentence on Tuesday for her role in the FTX fraud. Judge Lewis A. Kaplan ordered Ellison to forfeit $11 billion and serve three years of supervised release post-incarceration.

Kraken, a major cryptocurrency exchange, has finalized its acquisition of Coin Meester (BCM), one of the oldest registered crypto broker firms in the Netherlands. This strategic move, announced on September 24, significantly expands Kraken's European presence.

Coinbase plans to introduce its cbBTC token on the Solana blockchain, as announced by Hassan Ahmed, the company's Singapore Country Director, at Solana Breakpoint 2024. 

Top stories in the Crypto Roundup today:

• FTX Fallout: Caroline Ellison's Cooperation Yields 2-Year Sentence
• Kraken Expands European Footprint with Strategic Dutch Acquisition
• Coinbase Plans cbBTC Launch on Solana to Expand the Token's Reach
• Open Interest on Centralized Exchanges Drops 15.7%

FTX Fallout: Caroline Ellison's Cooperation Yields 2-Year Sentence

Former Alameda Research CEO Caroline Ellison received a two-year prison sentence on Tuesday for her role in the FTX fraud. Judge Lewis A. Kaplan ordered Ellison to forfeit $11 billion and serve three years of supervised release post-incarceration.

The 29-year-old will serve time in a minimum-security facility near Boston. Despite sympathy for Ellison's situation, Kaplan stressed the magnitude of the FTX collapse, describing it as one of the greatest financial frauds ever perpetrated in the country.

Kaplan praised Ellison's cooperation, stating he had never seen a cooperator quite like her in his 30-year career. However, he maintained the case's severity warranted prison time, explaining that such a serious case couldn't warrant a complete exemption from incarceration.

Prosecutors deemed Ellison's testimony crucial in convicting Sam Bankman-Fried, who received 25 years. Assistant U.S. Attorney Danielle Sassoon contrasted Ellison's proactive cooperation and remorse with Bankman-Fried's behavior.

Ellison's defense sought time served plus probation, citing extraordinary cooperation and low recidivism risk. Her lawyer, Anjan Sahni, argued she was led astray by Bankman-Fried but had since regained her moral compass.

Addressing the court, Ellison apologized to FTX customers, colleagues, friends, and family while expressing difficulty in comprehending the pain she had caused. Ellison reflected on her journey, saying she would have found it unbelievable in 2018 that she would plead guilty to fraud. She described how each stage of the process made it increasingly difficult to extricate herself, expressing regret for not being braver.

Ellison must surrender within 45 days to begin her sentence. As a federal crime, she'll serve at least 75% before parole eligibility.

Kraken Expands European Footprint with Strategic Acquisition

Major cryptocurrency exchange Kraken has finalized its acquisition of Coin Meester (BCM), one of the oldest registered crypto broker firms in the Netherlands. This strategic move, announced on September 24, significantly expands Kraken's European presence.

The acquisition grants Kraken a registered virtual asset service provider (VASP) license in France and Poland, in addition to its Dutch operations. Brian Grahan, Kraken's managing director for Europe, emphasized that this positions Kraken among the few entities in Europe, combining global scale with compliant offerings and superior client experiences.

This development comes just ahead of the Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) bill implementation, set for December 30. MiCA represents the first comprehensive regulatory framework for the crypto industry in the European Union.

Kraken has been strategically expanding its European footprint over the past two years, anticipating MiCA. The exchange now offers regulated VASP services directly or through partnerships in several European countries, including Germany, Spain, Italy, Belgium, Ireland, France, Poland, and the Netherlands.

Grahan noted that the European crypto market's fragmentation and increasing competition may lead to consolidation, presenting an opportunity for Kraken to grow its market share. He highlighted the BCM acquisition as a key milestone in leveraging Kraken's strong position in euro volume and liquidity.

The impending MiCA bill is poised to make the EU the first jurisdiction with a holistic digital asset regulatory framework, attracting attention from other major crypto firms. For instance, Coinbase selected Ireland as its European hub in October 2023, preparing for MiCA's implementation.

Coinbase Plans cbBTC Launch on Solana to Expand the Token's Reach

Nasdaq-listed cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase plans to introduce its cbBTC token on the Solana blockchain, as announced by Hassan Ahmed, the company's Singapore Country Director, at Solana Breakpoint 2024. Ahmed cited user preference for Solana as a key factor in this decision but did not provide a specific timeline for the launch.

The cbBTC token, Coinbase's version of wrapped bitcoin, was initially launched last week on Ethereum and Base networks after being teased in August. This ERC-20 token is backed 1:1 by Bitcoin held by Coinbase and is designed for users seeking to provide Bitcoin liquidity to DeFi protocols in Ethereum and Base ecosystems or use it as collateral for other assets.

Coinbase introduced cbBTC following changes in the ownership of the competing WBTC token. At launch, the company expressed intentions to expand cbBTC support to additional blockchain networks. Currently, the Coinbase-wrapped Bitcoin has a market capitalization of approximately $137 million.

During the panel discussion, Ahmed also commented on institutional involvement in Web3, praising Jump Crypto's work with the Firedancer validator client on Solana as the most impressive example of institutions aiding blockchain diversification. He emphasized the importance of client diversity as a core component of the Nakamoto coefficient, noting that the launch of Frankendancer and Firedancer would significantly enhance Solana's network decentralization.

At the Breakpoint event, Jump Crypto's chief science officer Kevin Bowers, announced that Frankendancer, a prototype of Firedancer, had launched on the Solana mainnet while Firedancer was running on the testnet. Frankendancer and Firedancer are designed to support Solana alongside the Agave validator client in a dual system for improved efficiency.

Liam Heeger, a blockchain engineer for Firedancer, added that the full non-voting, non-block-producing Firedancer validator client has been operational intermittently for about two months.

Open Interest on Centralized Exchanges Drops 15.7%

 

Last month, open interest on retail derivatives exchanges dropped by 15.7% to $45.8 billion in a decline that came amid a surge in liquidations triggered by falling TradFi indices and growing worries surrounding the Japanese Yen carry trade.

The Yen carry trade involves borrowing Japanese Yen at low interest rates to earn yield overseas and was negatively affected by the Bank of Japan raising interest rates earlier this year.

Dig deeper via CCData’s latest Exchange Review report.

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