The Block
Quick Take Sam Bankman-Fried’s latest motion for release was denied by a court of appeals. Former FTX CEO will remain in jail pending his sentencing on March 28.
Quick Take UK investment funds have been given the green light for tokenization by a government working group, according to trade body The Investment Association. The collaboration with the UK Treasury and financial regulator the FCA aims to improve efficiency, transparency and international competitiveness in the investment management sector.
Quick Take A Montenegro court approved Do Kwon’s extradition to South Korea and the U.S. A final decision on which country takes precedence rests with Montenegro’s Minister of Justice.
Quick Take Wallet of Satoshi has removed itself from the U.S. Apple and Google app stores, confirming it will not serve customers in the country going forward. The popular Bitcoin Lightning app did not specify the reason for the decision but sought to assure existing customers in the U.S. that their funds were safe and available to transfer to another wallet.
Quick Take Sam Bankman-Fried, the former CEO of the collapsed crypto exchange FTX, now uses mackerel fish as currency in prison for services like haircuts, according to the Wall Street Journal. Mackerel, colloquially referred to as “macks,” has become the go-to currency in federal prisons since a ban on cigarettes in 2004.
Quick Take South Korea’s central bank is set to launch a pilot program to test a digital currency with 100,000 citizens in 2024. In collaboration with the country’s financial authorities, the initiative aims to address challenges in the existing financial system and explore new digital transaction methods.
Quick Take The price of Bitcoin has broken $39,000 for the first time since April 2022. Excitement around potential spot Bitcoin ETFs has led Bitcoin to rally in recent months.
Quick Take Decentralized exchanges Velodrome and Aerodome, which operate on Optimism and Base, respectively, had their frontend domains compromised for the second time in just days. The domains have again been restored, according to both teams.
Quick Take Tensions heat up as top lawmakers try to get crypto provisions into end-of-year bills and top Republican House Financial Services Committee Chair Patrick McHenry threatens to upend the National Defense Authorization Act.
Quick Take An NFT project aiming to mint 2,015 Vitalik Buterin-themed NFTs caused a brief spike in Ethereum gas fees and became the top gas guzzler for a moment. The project aims to add 10 MB of data onto Ethereum when completed via JPEG mining, a type of NFT creation that uploads actual image data to the blockchain.
