This week in crypto we’ve seen rumours of a lending platform CEO being arrested, Terra founder Do Kwon face a new enemy, Roger Ver unmasked as Coinflex’s $47 million man and more, and much more. But which story has made the top spot?
Let’s find out!
No. 3 – Celsius Feels the Heat
It’s been a busy week for Celsius, which was forced on Monday to deny that CEO Alex Mashinsky was prevented from leaving the U.S. after it was alleged that he was stopped from flying to Israel. Celsius executives have instead spent the week deciding whether or not to file for bankruptcy, with suggestions that Goldman Sachs is readying a $2 billion deal to buy it up, with customers still unable to access their funds.
However, Goldman may have had second thoughts when it was revealed on Wednesday that Celsius’ assets-to-equity ratio is 19:1—almost double that of the average U.S. bank.
Ouch.
No. 2 – Three Arrows Capital Liquidated
Our second biggest story this week was the liquidation of famed hedge fund Three Arrows Capital, which has been clinging on like Rocky in round 12 for the past few weeks. Having been dealt a triple blow by LUNA, stETH, and GBTC all falling on hard times and with creditors filing lawsuits against it like there’s no tomorrow, a court in the British Virgin Islands, where the firm is registered, ordered the hedge fund to be liquidated.
The ‘crypto contagion’, which started with the Terra collapse in May, has now claimed several victims including now Three Arrows, whose collapse will have a knock-on effect to its own creditors, with more collapses possible.
No.1 – ‘Bitcoin Jesus’ Seeking Salvation
The biggest story of the week concerns ‘Bitcoin Jesus’ Roger Ver, who it appears lost $47 million leverage trading on Coinflex, of which he is a shareholder, money he is now failing to pay back. Coinflex was forced to pause customer withdrawals last week after a “high integrity person of significant means” was encountering a liquidity problem, leading to the company needing to launch a new token to try and bail itself out.
Ver was unmasked by a Twitter user but denied it, saying in fact that Coinflex owed him money, leading to Coinflex both confirming the rumours and stating unequivocally that Ver was the party who was in debt, giving everyone a good laugh – except those with funds on Coinflex.
Honourable Mentions
While these stories may have been the pick of the bunch, this week has also seen some other belters, including:
Grayscale is suing the SEC after its Bitcoin ETF was rejected
Do Kwon is being targeted by hacking group Anonymous
OpenSea got hacked and its entire email database leaked
Craig Wright is seeking the owner of the 1Feex wallet…kind of
We’ll be back next Friday to see which stories ruled the roost that week!
