This week in crypto: SBF arrested in The Bahamas

• Authorities have arrested Sam Bankman-Fried in the Bahamas.

• Binance reserves are accounted for, says CryptoQuant.

• Ark Invest continues to invest in Coinbase.

Sam Bankman-Fried has been arrested

Sam Bankman-Fried, the former CEO of FTX cryptocurrency, was arrested in The Bahamas earlier this week. The former billionaire now faces extradition to the United States, where he would face numerous charges by both the Securities and Exchange Commission and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York.

A Bahamian judge denied SBF bail as he is deemed a flight risk. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York charged SBF with eight criminal counts. Meanwhile, the SEC also charged Sam Bankman-Fried with allegedly orchestrating a scheme to defraud equity investors in FTX Trading.

According to John J Ray III, FTX had no record-keeping whatsoever and accused the cryptocurrency exchange of committing old-fashioned embezzlement. 

Binance reserves are accounted for

Blockchain analytics provider CryptoQuant revealed earlier this week that it had verified Binance’s proof of reserve in its recently released audit report. The report analysed the recently released proof-of-reserves by Binance. 

There has been a lot of FUD around Binance over the past few days, with a surge in withdrawals on the platform. Changpeng Zhao, the CEO of Binance, told CNBC that the cryptocurrency exchange could meet 100% of withdrawals on its platform. He said;

“People can withdraw 100% of the assets they have on Binance; we will not have an issue on any given day. Binance doesn’t operate on a fractional banking system.”

Cathie Wood’s Ark Invest mops up more Coinbase stocks

Ark Invest acquired Coinbase stocks on two separate occasions last week. At the start of the week, Ark Invest acquired over 78,000 Coinbase stocks, despite the declining price of the company’s shares.

Before the end of the week, Ark Invest spent $3.2 million on Coinbase shares, bringing its total to 58 million. The investment came despite the fact that Coinbase’s CEO revealed the company expects its 2022 revenue to decline by 50% or more from what it generated in 2021.

Microsoft drops the hammer on cryptocurrency mining on its online services

Cloud computing giant Microsoft announced earlier this week that it had placed new restrictions on activities like cryptocurrency mining. As a result of this latest development, users will now require written pre-approval from the company before they can be allowed to use Microsoft Azure for mining cryptocurrencies.

Brazil is next to launch a CBDC

The president of the Brazil Central Bank, Roberto Campos Neto, announced earlier this week that they are preparing to launch a Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) in 2024.

The central bank is also planning to carry out a pilot program alongside other financial institutions before the implementation of the CBDC.