Author: Steven Sahiounie

The army of professionals working on the FTX bankruptcy case has billed a collective $38 million plus expenses for the month of January, according to court records. Bankruptcy administrators have retained law firm Sullivan & Cromwell as counsel. They have also retained Quinn Emmanuel Urquhart & Sullivan as well as Landis Rath & Cobb to act as special counsel for the proceedings. Consultancy AlixPartners was retained to primarily conduct forensic analysis on DeFi products and tokens in FTX’s possession. Meanwhile, the financial services firms Alvarez & Marsal as well as Perella Weinberg Partners were retained to sort through FTX’s accounting records…

Hear Alex Thorn share his take on “Bitcoin and Inflation: It’s Complicated” at Consensus 2023. Good morning. Here’s what’s happening: Prices: Crypto is flat as traders await U.S. central bank Chair Jerome Powell’s next comments. Insights: Exposure to China and the subsidies it is receiving may be hurting Filecoin’s growth. Crypto Flat as Powell Heads to Congress Good morning Asia, here’s how the markets are moving today. Bitcoin and ether are opening the Asia business day flat. The world’s largest digital asset is down 0.2% to $22,412 while ether is stuck at $1,565. Trading volume is significantly down, according to CoinGecko data, with…

The United Arab Emirates has been taking more cargoes of Russian crude oil, according to ship tracking data and trading sources, in another example of how Western sanctions on Russia have adjusted traditional energy trade flows. Russia has been selling both crude and refined products at discounted prices after international sanctions over its war in Ukraine, which Moscow calls a “special military operation”, left it with fewer buyers. The development also highlights growing cooperation between Russia and top (Persian) Gulf oil producers, such as Saudi Arabia and the UAE. (Persian) Gulf Arab states have resisted US pressure to help isolate…

Paris/London CNN — French schools, airports and trains will face heavy disruption Tuesday for the sixth time this year, as unions galvanize people nationwide in protest against government plans to raise the retirement age for most workers. Paris is expected to bear the brunt of the protests, with most lines on the metro running only at the busiest times, according to the city’s transport agency RATP. The main education trade union FSU said Sunday that 120 schools would close for the day and 60% of primary school teachers would be on strike in the French capital. France’s civil aviation authority, meanwhile, has asked airlines to reduce scheduled…

China has a new foreign minister. This is his warning to the US Sri Lanka expects final approval from the International Monetary Fund for a $2.9 billion loan in the third or fourth week of this month, the president said on Tuesday, adding that new support from China means all funding requirements had been met. The country of 22 million people is struggling with its worst economic crisis since independence from Britain in 1948. President Ranil Wickremesinghe told parliament there were signs the economy was improving but there was still insufficient foreign currency for all imports, making the IMF deal…

Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH), two of the most popular cryptocurrencies in the world, have been unable to halt their losses and are still trading in the red below the $23,000 and $1,600 marks, respectively.  Traders are hesitant to place any strong bids ahead of a critical week of economic developments in the United States. This week will see the release of nonfarm payroll statistics and remarks by US Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, making it a crucial moment for the market. BTC has faced difficulties in rising above the $22,800 level, and if the bears succeed in pushing the price below its…

The XRP price has risen by 2% in the past 24 hours, reaching $0.369805 after the cryptocurrency market barely moved overnight. The coin has fallen by 2.5% in the past week and by 10% in the last 30 days, caught up in the negative market sentiment that has arisen out of the news of Silvergate Bank’s financial difficulties. However, the ongoing Ripple-SEC case looks as though it could end up having a positive outcome for XRP. Judge Analisa Torres has granted Ripple’s motion to exclude testimony from a so-called expert witness called by the SEC, while she has also denied the…

Singapore authorities have launched a probe into Do Kwon’s Terraform Labs, the entity that developed the now-collapsed TerraUSD stablecoin. According to a Monday report by Bloomberg, Singaporean police sent an emailed statement announcing that “investigations have commenced in relation to Terraform Labs.” It added that the inquiries are “ongoing,” and Kwon is not currently in the city-state. The announcement comes less than a month after the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) sued Terra founder Do Kwon and his organization Terraform Labs for securities fraud. “[The SEC] today charged Singapore-based Terraform Labs PTE Ltd and Do Hyeong Kwon with orchestrating a multi-billion dollar crypto…

Meta is expected, as soon as this week, to begin a second round of job cuts in four months Meta, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, is planning a new series of layoffs affecting thousands of employees as soon as this week, Bloomberg reported on Tuesday. In November, the social networking giant announced a major cost-cutting plan that included sacking nearly 11,000 people, or some 13% of its workforce. The upcoming dismissals would be in addition to those. The staff reductions are being driven by the company’s financial targets, according to people familiar with the matter, as cited…

Moscow says it has halted deliveries to via the “Druzhba” pipeline due to nonpayment Poland will demand compensation from Russia over the ongoing halt in crude supplies to its refineries, Daniel Obajtek, CEO of the country’s leading oil refiner and retailer Orlen, announced on Monday. Russian state-owned pipeline operator Transneft, which runs the a section of the “Druzhba” (“Friendship”) connector explained that in late February, Moscow suspended crude supplies after Poland stopped paying for deliveries. Company spokesman Igor Demin noted that “routing orders with confirmed resource and transit payments were not processed,” and that “operational changes were made to the schedule, excluding supplies for…