This week on Crypto Twitter: SBF stopped! Binance Withdrawals Spike! The former president launches NFTs!

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Illustration by Mitchell Preffer for Decrypt

Just when you thought the torrent of gossip was starting to die down in Cryptoville this week, crypto Twitter was slammed with a deluge of news that brought it back to its usual state: a hive of gossip, hot, judgments and speculations.

Two of the three bombs dropped on Monday, giving people all week to chew on them. The first was the arrest of disgraced former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried in the Bahamas. He was charged with conspiracy, wire fraud, money laundering by the Justice Department and securities violation by the SEC, among other charges.

Predictably, Twitter was everywhere.

On the same day, a leaked email from SBF to the Attorney General of the Bahamas, dated November 10, revealed that the former multi-billionaire said he was cautiously optimistic that [FTX] will be able to weather the turmoil and have enough liquidity for all client withdrawals.

Given the timeline of events, we can, with the added benefit of hindsight, infer that he was probably definitely lying.

The official statement from the Bahamas Attorney General’s office following his arrest stated: It has been deemed appropriate that the Attorney General seek the arrest of SBF and hold him in custody pursuant to our nations extradition law . Ouch!

Mattie Fairchild, chief marketing officer for metaverse crypto gaming platform Core Games, pointed to the distinct atmosphere on Twitter that day.

“SBF just got shut down” twitter sounds a LOT like “did you feel that earthquake in SF rn?” Twitter

Mattie Fairchild (@Scav) December 12, 2022

Due to her arrest, U.S. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said she was disappointed SBF was no longer attending a DC hearing scheduled for this week. It should be noted that SBF refrained from appearing in court earlier on Monday, fearing that his appearance would cause a paparazzi effect. Damned if he does, damned if he doesn’t.

Bankman-Fried was scheduled to testify in court tomorrow. Tonight he was arrested.

While I’m disappointed that we don’t have the opportunity to present our line of questioning, we look forward to more information being revealed and justice being served in this matter. https://t.co/HS9u1n5Kur

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) December 13, 2022

Meanwhile, crypto-friendly US Senator Cynthia Lummis called the FTX saga a good old-fashioned cheat.

People have lost their hard earned money and they deserve justice for any wrongdoing. I hope my colleagues will share my desire to pass the Lummis-Gillibrand Act on Responsible Financial Innovation. This comprehensive legislation would prevent future meltdowns like FTX.

Senator Cynthia Lummis (@SenLummis) December 13, 2022

As if all of that wasn’t bad enough, SBF also found itself in hot water from League of Legends publishers Riot Games. You know the old adage, the higher they go, the lower they fall? This is definitely not applicable to SBF game skills.

What’s new with Binance?

The other big talking point this week was the rise in Binances infamy. On Monday, Tom Wan, an analyst at crypto investment products firm 21.co, tweeted that a lot of money appeared to be leaving the centralized exchange.

24 hours later, the exchange had processed net outflows of more than $2 billion between Monday and Tuesday, the most since June, according to Nansen data.

On Wednesday, it emerged that CEO Changpeng CZ Zhao told staff he expects the next few months to be bumpy. The leader remained impassive as the outings mounted.

We saw some drawdowns today (net $1.14 billion). We have seen this before. On some days we have net withdrawals; some days we have net deposits. As usual for us.

In fact, I think it’s a good idea to test withdrawals on each CEX in turn.

1/2 https://t.co/uF9lLPDSyS

CZ Binance (@cz_binance) December 13, 2022

On Saturday, CZ warned supporters against FUD.

Remember:

Maximum greed occurs at the top. Maximum fear occurs at the bottom.

Not financial advice. Just state a fact.

CZ Binance (@cz_binance) December 17, 2022

Trump launches blockchain Trump Cards

Former US President and 2024 presidential candidate Donald Trump announced his first steps into crypto on Thursday with the release of a collection of NFT Trump cards.

Is it us, or are these allocations a bit sus?

Interesting Trump Admin NFT wallet pre-minted 1000 (2%) but has 25% 1/1 and 33% autographs. Come on Trump come on.

0xfb65415ca83b69da9bc56b4c9c2334fa402bacd7

Unknown (@unknown_woman) December 16

And who, or what, was going on here?

jfc, someone accepted franklin’s weth offer on this monkey overnight, then immediately proceeded to acquire over 160 digital trump trading cards

more than one hundred and sixty

per card between 0.265 and 13.5 eth (~$16,000)

$16,000 asset jpeg and link to collection in next tweet pic.twitter.com/3cFQC3E6S0

Phomo (@phomo_eth) December 17, 2022

Maybe that explains it?

Ok, were lost again.

Looks like Christmas came early in the Trump household this year.

I guess it went exactly as everyone expected: absolutely chaotic and more than a little questionable. I guess it runs in the family.

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