After weeks of negotiations on a potential buyout of Zipmex, venture capital fund V Ventures has reportedly reached a deal to acquire the embattled cryptocurrency exchange. V Ventures, a subsidiary of Thoresen Thai Agencies (TTA) public company, is looking to purchase a 90% stake in Zipmex crypto exchange, Bloomberg reported on Dec. 2. The VC fund is about to acquire Zipmex for about $100 million in digital assets and cash, anonymous sources familiar with the matter claimed. Citing a court hearing on Friday in Singapore, the report says that Zipmex was offered $30 million in cash and the rest in …

An interview between the Former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried ‘SBF’ and George Stephanopoulos aired on Good Morning America on Dec. 1. In the interview, SBF was insistent that FTX was not a “Ponzi scheme” but was “a real business.” The former CEO also denied any knowledge of FTX customer deposits being used to pay Alameda Research’s creditors, as reportedly claimed by Alameda’s CEO Caroline Ellison. According to him, he had no knowledge of “any improper use of customer funds”. Bankman-Fried also admitted to not spending any time and effort trying to manage risk on FTX. He shared: "There is something …

Italy is planning to tighten regulations on digital currencies by expanding its tax laws to include cryptocurrency trading in 2023, according to budget documentation released on Dec. 1. Included in its 2023 budget are plans to impose a 26% levy on profits larger than 2000 euros ( $2,062.3) made on cryptocurrency trading, according to Bloomberg. Prior to this proposal, digital currencies had lower tax rates because they were previously considered “foreign currency." In the proposed bill, taxpayers will have the option to declare the value of their digital asset holdings as of Jan. 1, and pay a 14% tax. This …

The price of GMX rallied to its second-highest level in history on Dec. 1 as traders assessed the decentralized exchange's ability to evolve as a serious competitor to its top rival Uniswap (UNI). GMX established an intraday high of $54.50 in a recovery that started on Nov. 29 from $40.50. Its rally's beginning coincided with crypto research firm Delphi Digital's tweet on the GMX decentralized exchange, as shown below. GMX beats Uniswap in fees for the first time Notably, GMX had earned about $1.15 million in daily trading fees on Nov. 28, which surpassed Uniswap's $1.06 million trading fees on …

Cryptocurrency exchange Binance is working with accounting firm Mazars as part of its proof-of-reserve (PoR) audits triggered by the fall of FTX. Mazars, the accounting firm that worked for former United States President Donald Trump’s company, was appointed as an official auditor to conduct a “third party financial verification” as part of Binance’s PoR updates, The Wall Street Journal reported on Nov. 30. The accounting firm is reportedly already reviewing all Binance’s publicly shared information on Bitcoin (BTC) PoR and will also be verifying future updates and tokens, a spokesperson for Binance reportedly said. “The first verification update for BTC …

Former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried apologized or admitted failure at least 12 times during his appearance at the New York Times' DealBook Summit on Nov. 30. In a wide-ranging video interview, Bankman-Fried was asked to answer a number of questions surrounding the downfall of the now-defunct exchange, with some even suggesting that some of his statements could be used to incriminate him in legal proceedings. In a Nov. 30 Twitter post, crypto attorney Jeremy Hogan, Partner at Hogan & Hogan said that the “light cross-examination” of Bankman-Fried at the DealBook Summit has already returned “at least 3 incriminating statements so …

Huobi and Poloniex announced a strategic partnership on Nov. 30. Reports of a planned merger of the two cryptocurrency exchanges emerged and were denied last week. The two exchanges will “progressively cooperate” on Huobi’s HT coin ecosystem development, connectivity, liquidity sharing and global compliance. Beginning in December, the Huobi Advisory Board will make a monthly evaluation of all Poloniex projects, with top performers potentially directly listed on Huobi, the exchange stated. Talk of a merger began with a tweet from Wu Blockchain. Poloniex is by far the larger of the two exchanges. It is not available to U.S. users. The …

Cryptocurrency exchange Kraken announced on Nov 30, that it has made “one of the hardest decisions” to cut down its global workforce by approximately 1,100 people, making up approximately 30% of its total workforce, amid current market conditions. According to the CEO and co-founder Jesse Powell, Kraken had to triple its workforce due to the fast-growing crypto ecosystem, and the current pullback takes the company’s team size back to where it was 12 months ago. Powell shared in a tweet; "Macro was already tough and we held out but recent industry woes diminished near-term optimism about a crypto bound." Rough …

Bitcoin (BTC) has shrugged off the weakness in the United States equities markets and is attempting to start a recovery on Nov. 30. Buyers are attempting to achieve a monthly close above $17,000. This suggests that the selling that had picked up due to the FTX crisis may be reducing. Usually, smaller investors panic and dump their holdings in a bear market but it has been the opposite with Bitcoin investors. According to Glassnode data released on Nov. 27, investors holding less than one Bitcoin, also called shrimps, bought 96,200 Bitcoin since the FTX crash. Along similar lines, investors holding …

Singapore government-owned investment firm Temasek has suffered a lot more than just financial losses due to investing in FTX, according to Deputy Prime Minister Lawrence Wong. Wong, who is also the finance minister, believes that Temasek’s $275 million investment in FTX has caused significant damage to the company’s reputation. The official addressed the growing criticism over Temasek’s FTX exposure at a parliament meeting on Nov. 27, according to a report by the South China Morning Post. The prime minister emphasized that the collapse of FTX was a result of a “very badly managed company” as well as possible fraud and …

Cryptocurrency exchange Binance plans to reenter the Japanese market after acquiring a 100% stake in a licensed crypto service provider in the country, Cointelegraph Japan reported. In an official public announcement on Nov. 30, Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao said the crypto exchange was committed to re-entering the Japanese market under regulatory compliance. The acquisition of Sakura Exchange BitCoin (SEBC), a Japan Financial Services Agency-licensed business, would mark the re-entry of global exchange in the Japanese market after four years. #Binance Acquires JFSA Registered Sakura Exchange BitCoin, Committed to Enter Japan Under Regulatory Compliancehttps://t.co/xfdnaY2hiO — CZ Binance (@cz_binance) November 30, 2022 …

Cryptocurrency exchange CrossTower Inc has agreed to buy digital asset trading platform BEQUANT, which comes after months of window shopping by CrossTower for crypto companies, including a recently revised offer for Voyager Digital's assets. The Nov. 28 acquisition will provide CrossTower with over 600 new professional exchange clients in addition to its existing clientele. The incoming clients are based across the United States, Europe, Asia, and Latin America and are collectively making over $400 billion annually. The purchase comes as CrossTower CEO Kapil Rathi stated on Nov. 24 that CrossTower has long been on the lookout to buy digital asset …