SBF to return to US; Core Scientific files for bankruptcy; Deribit transfers ETH to Alameda

The biggest news in the cryptoverse for Dec. 15 includes SBF’s extradition to US approved, Deribit transferred 10k ETH to Alameda, Core Scientific files for Chapter 11 and more in this CryptoSlate Wrapped Daily.

CryptoSlate Top Stories

SBF to return to U.S. immediately in hopes of securing bail

FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried should be handed over to US authorities today, Dec. 21, as reports surfaced that he has agreed to the extradition. According to an affidavit, the former CEO of FTX consented to be extradited partly in the interest of making his customers whole.

Jerone Roberts, SBF’s attorney, requested immediate extradition which has been granted according to Bloomberg. He will return to the U.S. “accompanied by FBI agents on a non-commercial aircraft.” A video of SBF arriving at the courthouse in the Bahamas accompanied by FBI officials was also released by Bloomberg.

FTX creditors seek priority payout for $1.6B locked in custody wallets

A group of FTX customers seeking priority repayment of roughly $1.6 billion locked in their custody wallet on the bankrupt FTX exchange, the Financial Times reported.

Counsel to Eversheds Sutherland Erin Broderick said:

“If the assets belong to the customer, there is no line. It’s just their assets.”

Broderick added that FTX’s terms of service support custody clients to gain access to their trapped funds.

Evershed Sutherland said it will proceed with the legal process from January 2023 and expects it to go smoothly.

Deribit transferred 10,000 ETH to an Alameda address in the past 10 days

Data from Etherscan showed that a Deribit 9-labeled address has transferred a total of 10,000 ETH to an address associated with Alameda Research. The address held a total of 12,812.6 ETH at press time.

The 10,000 ETH was broken into five transactions of 2,000 ETH, with the first one sent on Dec. 10. The Deribit address currently holds around 3,473 ETH and just over 766,351 USDC.

The nature of Deribit’s transfers to the Alameda-linked address is still unknown. The Panama-based exchange is yet to comment on the transfers.

Bitcoin miner Core Scientific files for bankruptcy, has over $1B in liabilities

Publicly traded crypto miner Core Scientific filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Dec. 21 at the Southern District of Texas bankruptcy court.

According to court documents, the miner has liabilities between $1 billion- $10 billion. It has over 1,000 creditors, with the largest unsecured claim owed to B. Riley Financial –the bankrupt firm owes the investment bank $42.36 million.

Core Scientific joins the growing list of capitulated crypto miners during the current bear market. In September, Compute North filed for bankruptcy.

Dogecoin continues slide as Musk confirms Twitter CEO resignation

Dogecoin is among one of the worst performers over the last 24-hours after Elon Musk confirmed he will resigned from the role of Twitter CEO.

On Dec. 5, DOGE recorded a local high of $0.11172, but mounting sell pressure since then has resulted in 37% losses that bottomed at $0.07003 on Dec. 19.

Rumors were, Dogecoin, Musk’s favorite cryptocurrency would benefit from a Twitter integration, triggering the buying frenzy.

Some seven weeks since Musk took over, there has been no confirmation of DOGE integration. What’s more, it is unclear whether Musk’s resignation could help or hinder such a proposal.

Research Highlight

Research: BTC is now cheaper than the all-in-sustaining cost of mining BTC

The cost of Bitcoin (BTC) is now cheaper than the cost of mining one Bitcoin, according to the Difficulty Regression Model.

As per data obtained from Glassnode, the current cost of mining one Bitcoin is $18.8k, whereas the cost of one Bitcoin is $16,5771.8.

Bitcoin Hashrate measures the amount of processing and computing power given to the Bitcoin network by miners. The Bitcoin hash rate currently stands at 246.062 EH/s, according to Trading View.

There is a possibility that a number of Bitcoin mining operations will be forced out of business if bitcoin prices do not rise or fall lower.

Around the Cryptoverse

Justin Sun claims Hong Kong is a crypto policy testbed for China

Tron founder, Justin Sun, told Bloomberg that China is keeping an eye on the impact of Hong Kong crypto regulations. Speaking on Bloomberg TV, Sun commented,

“Right now they are using Hong Kong as an experiment base so they can see all the feedback, all the results, once they adopt crypto. That’s why I’m super bullish and looking forward to seeing the results of all the Hong Kong crypto policy.” “

Mainland China is currently closed to the crypto industry for the most part but Sun predicted “opening up overall crypto policy in China.”