Nearly a full year after the crushing collapse of FTX, formerly the second-largest cryptocurrency exchange globally, founder and chief executive Sam Bankman-Fried is set to appear before the US courts on numerous counts of fraud and money laundering.
Bankman-Fried’s rap sheet spans wire fraud, securities fraud and even illegal political donations, which if found guilty of, could lead to multiple lifetimes in jail.
The 31-year-old’s trial begins today in Manhattan, New York, where he will attempt to paint a sympathetic picture to members of the jury.
Meanwhile, on the spot markets, bitcoin’s stellar start to the month took a turn for the worse yesterday, with the BTC/USDT pair falling nearly 2% by the session’s close.
At the time of writing, the benchmark cryptocurrency was trading just above £27,600, having been rejected at the 200-day moving average trend line.
Bitcoin remains 2% lower over six months – Source: tradingview.com
The second-largest cryptocurrency Ethereum (ETH) suffered a worse hit on Monday, falling more than 4% by the end of the session.
Currently swapping for $1,665, ether is nearly 5% higher week on week, as is bitcoin.
Checking in on the altcoin space, Solana (SOL) remains the runaway leader of the top-20 pack, surging forward to the seventh position on the tables.
Solana was battered after the FTX collapse in 2022 due to its exposure to former FTX head Sam Bankman-Fried. It has since recovered 140% year to date.
Most other blue-chip altcoins are in the green on a week-on-week basis, including BNB, Ripple (XRP), Cardano (ADA) and Dogecoin (DOGE).
Global cryptocurrency market cap fell overnight to $1.09 trillion, with bitcoin dominance staying strong above 50%.