It feels like Earth-shattering developments upending the entire crypto industry are becoming a November tradition! Last year, it was FTX’s collapse. This year, it’s Binance paying billions.   

What happened: The world’s largest crypto exchange, will pay US$4.3 billion after pleading guilty to charges of money laundering, unlicensed money transmitting, and sanctions violations. As part of the deal, founder Changpeng “CZ” Zhao will step down as CEO.

After securing enough Adderall to finally stand trial, ex-FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried was ready to sit before the judge in a last-ditch effort to save himself from the slammer. 

What happened: SBF took to the stand yesterday to testify in his own defence after the prosecution rested its case. In a surprise twist, the jury was not present for it — the judge dismissed them so that he could determine for himself if SBF’s testimony was permissible. 

Lawmakers in the U.S. are cracking down on cryptocurrency to disrupt funding to Hamas, bringing attention (once again) to digital currency’s darker uses.

Driving the news: The U.S. Treasury Department has proposed rules that would classify cryptocurrency mixers — which take funds, mix them with those from other users and return them to make tracing difficult — as money laundering tools that threaten national security.

As the trial of FTX founder Sam Bankman Fried crosses the halfway point, we thought we’d give you an update on how it’s going. Spoiler alert: Not great, for SBF.

Driving the news: It looks increasingly unlikely that SBF will beat the seven federal criminal charges levied against him, multiple former federal prosecutors told The Washington Post. 

If you were kicking yourself last year for not getting in on the NFT craze, we’ve got good news... but if you have a stockpile of Bored Apes collecting digital dust, maybe skip to the Saturday crossword. 

Driving the news: A new report from crypto company dappGambl found that ~95% of all NFTs are now essentially worthless, with ~23 million people holding onto these “assets.”

In what would be the most shocking comeback since Michael Jordan returned to the NBA (pick either time that it happened), bankrupt crypto exchange FTX wants a fresh start. 

What happened: Current CEO John Ray III has begun looking for interested parties to help revive its flagship international crypto exchange, per The Wall Street Journal. 

The cryptocurrency sector is facing an existential crisis courtesy of Uncle Sam.

Driving the news: The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) set the stage for a high-stakes showdown with the biggest players in crypto last week, filing lawsuits against Binance and Coinbase, the largest crypto exchanges in the world and the US, respectively.

Like the Blue Jays in 92/93, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has gone back-to-back. Back-to-back with crypto lawsuits, that is.

Would you let a company scan your eyeball in exchange for some digital tokens? OpenAI CEO Sam Altman is betting that your answer will be: “Yes, absolutely, where do I sign?!”