Kalam Crypto #56: SBF pleads not guilty, Ethereum Shanghai Upgrade & more

This week, cautious optimism as markets are slightly in the green, but we won’t talk about it. In other news, SBF enters a not guilty plea, Ethereum Shanghai upgrade date, and beef of the week between Gemini’s Winklevoss twins and DCG’s Barry Silbert.

09 Jan, 2023

CoinMENA Team

Author

"The only thing that interferes with my learning is my education." Albert Einstein

Ahlan wa sahlan, and welcome to the 56th edition of CoinMENA's weekly newsletter, Kalam Crypto. This week, cautious optimism as markets are slightly in the green, but we won’t talk about it. In other news, SBF enters a not guilty plea, Ethereum Shanghai upgrade date, and beef of the week between Gemini’s Winklevoss twins and DCG’s Barry Silbert. All that and more, so let's dive into this week's letter, and talk crypto:

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Global News 🌍

SBF pleads not guilty: It appears SBF will take his chances in the court of law. The former CEO of FTX has pleaded not guilty to federal charges, including wire fraud and conspiracy to defraud the United States. SBF is currently under house arrest after posting a $250m bail bond, and his trial is set to begin in October. He will have an uphill legal battle as his two closest business partners, CEO of Alameda Research Caroline Ellison and his co-founder Gary Wang, plead guilty and are cooperating with investigators. In related news, SBF has filed a court action seeking to block debtors from taking control of his $450 million stake in Robinhood. The petition said that SBF is relying on his Robinhood shares to fund his criminal defense.

Ethereum Shanghai Upgrade: Want to withdraw your staked ETH? Soon you might be able to. The Shanghai upgrade, set to launch in March, will focus exclusively on ETH withdrawals. If you recall, after the Merge in September, when Ethereum transitioned from proof of work to proof of stake, the withdrawal function was not enabled in order to preserve network stability. To meet the March deadline, developers aim to release a public test network for the Shanghai upgrade by the end of February.

Beef of the week 🥩

Winklevoss Twins vs. Barry Silbert: In a Twitter post, Cameron Winklevoss, co-founder of crypto exchange Gemini, has accused Digital Currency Group (DCG) and its CEO Barry Silbert of "bad faith stall tactics" in a dispute over $900 million in customer funds from Gemini's Earn program that is currently locked up in Genesis, a crypto financial services firm owned by DCG. Silbert countered that DCG offered its own proposal to Gemini on December 29 but has not received a response. Meanwhile: a group of Gemini customers has filed a request for class-action arbitration against Genesis Global Capital and DCG. Keep an eye on Twitter for the latest drama.

CoinMENA News 🗞

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Tweet of the week 🐥

Quiz Corner ✅

Last week’s question: What are Non-Fungible Tokens?

Answer: Crypto assets

This week’s question: Bitcoin was the only form of cryptocurrency until the year: