{"id":24338,"date":"2022-12-13T21:02:29","date_gmt":"2022-12-13T21:02:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/?p=24338"},"modified":"2023-03-20T16:52:36","modified_gmt":"2023-03-20T16:52:36","slug":"crypto-collapse-regulatory-altruism-at-ftx-sam-bankman-fried-arrested","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/2022\/12\/13\/crypto-collapse-regulatory-altruism-at-ftx-sam-bankman-fried-arrested\/","title":{"rendered":"Crypto collapse: Regulatory altruism at FTX \u2014 Sam Bankman-Fried arrested"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><i>By <\/i><b><i>Amy Castor<\/i><\/b><i> and <\/i><b><i>David Gerard<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li aria-level=\"1\">Send us money to keep writing these delightful and informative newsletters! Our work is funded via our Patreons \u2014 here\u2019s<a href=\"https:\/\/www.patreon.com\/amycastor\"> Amy\u2019s<\/a>, and here\u2019s<a href=\"https:\/\/www.patreon.com\/davidgerard\/overview\"> David\u2019s<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li aria-level=\"1\">Our patrons can also get a couple of<a href=\"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/bitcoin-it-cant-be-that-stupid.png\"> \u201cBitcoin: It Can\u2019t Be That Stupid<\/a>\u201d stickers just by messaging one of us and asking.<\/li>\n<li aria-level=\"1\">David has<a href=\"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/2020\/11\/26\/get-signed-copies-of-libra-shrugged-and-attack-of-the-50-foot-blockchain\/\"> signed author copies of his books<\/a> for sale.<\/li>\n<li aria-level=\"1\">Sign up on<a href=\"https:\/\/amycastor.com\/\"> Amy\u2019s blog<\/a> to see every new post she makes as it goes up, and<a href=\"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/#byemail\"> click here and enter your email address<\/a> for every new post on David\u2019s blog as it goes up.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&#8220;This isn&#8217;t sailors needing to get worried when they see the rats swimming for shore, this is watching rat-Noah march the cockroaches onto a tiny ark two by two while flipping your captain the bird.&#8221; \u2014 Cyrano4747 (SomethingAwful) on Sequoia marking their FTX investment down to $0<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/2022\/12\/13\/crypto-collapse-regulatory-altruism-at-ftx-sam-bankman-fried-arrested\/poor-thanks-to-ftx\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-24339\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-24339\" src=\"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/poor-thanks-to-ftx.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"510\" height=\"315\" srcset=\"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/poor-thanks-to-ftx.jpg 680w, https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/poor-thanks-to-ftx-300x185.jpg 300w, https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/poor-thanks-to-ftx-348x215.jpg 348w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 510px) 100vw, 510px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><small><i>Image by <\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/www.reddit.com\/r\/cryptocurrencymemes\/comments\/zhgede\/saw_this_near_my_neighborhood_merry_xmas\/\"><i>npcdad on Reddit<\/i><\/a><\/small><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3>What are you gonna do, arrest me?<\/h3>\n<p>\u201cTake the money and run\u201d is a plan with just two parts. Sam Bankman-Fried completely failed to get around to the second part.<\/p>\n<p>After SBF\u2019s extensive tour of confessing financial crimes to anyone from the press who would listen, the Weasel of Wall Street was arrested in the Bahamas at the request of the U.S. on Monday, December 12, where he awaits extradition. [<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/sdnynews\/status\/1602451395910803457\"><i>Twitter<\/i><\/a><i>; <\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/latraelrahming\/status\/1602446687712473088\"><i>Twitter<\/i><\/a><i>; <\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnbc.com\/2022\/12\/12\/ftx-founder-sam-bankman-fried-arrested-in-the-bahamas-after-us-files-criminal-charges.html\"><i>CNBC<\/i><\/a>]<\/p>\n<p>The Southern District of New York has charged SBF on eight counts of wire fraud, commodities fraud, securities fraud, money laundering, and conspiracy to violate campaign finance laws. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.justice.gov\/usao-sdny\/pr\/united-states-attorney-announces-charges-against-ftx-founder-samuel-bankman-fried\"><i>press release<\/i><\/a><i>; <\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/www.justice.gov\/usao-sdny\/press-release\/file\/1557571\/download\"><i>indictment<\/i><\/a><i>, PDF<\/i>]<\/p>\n<p>The SEC filed its complaint against SBF on December 12, alleging that FTX raised more than $1.8 billion, including $1.1 billion from 90 US-based investors, in an &#8220;orchestrated scheme to defraud equity investors.\u201d He led them to believe FTX had appropriate controls when it did not. The complaint charges him with defrauding investors \u2014\u00a0not customers. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.sec.gov\/news\/press-release\/2022-219\"><i>SEC<\/i><\/a><i>; <\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/www.sec.gov\/litigation\/complaints\/2022\/comp-pr2022-219.pdf\"><i>complaint<\/i><\/a><i>, PDF<\/i>]<\/p>\n<p>The SEC complaint makes one thing clear: Sam was an idiot.<\/p>\n<ol start=\"83\">\n<li>At the same time, Bankman-Fried sought emergency funding from other investors, including U.S. investors, to cover a shortfall at FTX of approximately $8 billion. As part of this effort, Bankman-Fried circulated a balance sheet to potential investors that listed a negative $8 billion entry labeled as a \u201chidden, poorly internally labeled \u2018fiat@ account.\u2019\u201d This entry was a reference to the above-described fiat@ftx.com account and reflected FTX customer funds deposited in Alameda\u2019s bank accounts.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>The CFTC has charged SBF, FTX, and Alameda with fraud on customers, and in fraudulent material misstatements and omissions. The CFTC claims SBF sought to buy Voyager and BlockFi this year, &#8220;at least in part to gain access to additional sources of capital &#8230; to fill the hole in customer funds that had been created.&#8221; [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cftc.gov\/PressRoom\/PressReleases\/8638-22\"><i>Press release<\/i><\/a><i>; <\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cftc.gov\/media\/7986\/enfftxtradingcomplaint121322\/download\"><i>complaint<\/i><\/a><i>, PDF<\/i>]<\/p>\n<p>You will enjoy Matt Levine&#8217;s detailed explanation of the SEC and CFTC complaints and what they mean. [<i><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/opinion\/articles\/2022-12-13\/how-to-do-fraud-at-a-futures-exchange\">Bloomberg<\/a><\/i>]<\/p>\n<h3>Caroline gets a lawyer<\/h3>\n<p>Caroline Ellison, CEO of FTX\u2019s trading arm Alameda, is in New York, and has lawyered up at last. Ellison is being represented by two lawyers from WilmerHale: Stephanie Avakian, a former enforcement division chief at the SEC, and Anjan Sahni, a former federal prosecutor. \u201cSahni and Avakian have both visited the Southern District prosecutors\u2019 office in Lower Manhattan in the past week, but it\u2019s unclear whether their visits were related to Ellison.\u201d Unlike SBF, Ellison has had the good sense to shut up. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/news\/articles\/2022-12-10\/caroline-ellison-hires-sec-s-former-top-crypto-cop-for-ftx-probe\"><i>Bloomberg<\/i><\/a>]<\/p>\n<p>Ellison has not been charged as yet, but from the SEC complaint against Sam:<\/p>\n<ol start=\"84\">\n<li>During a meeting with Alameda employees on or about November 9, 2022, Ellison admitted that she, Bankman-Fried, Wang, and Singh were aware that FTX customer funds had been used by Alameda.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>One specific thing that Federal prosecutors are looking into is whether FTX and Alameda crashed Terra-Luna, only to be caught up in the falling dominoes. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2022\/12\/07\/business\/ftx-sbf-crypto-market-investigation.html\"><i>NYT<\/i><\/a>]<\/p>\n<p>We\u2019re still not clear on whether Alameda was one of the traders that crashed Terra-Luna \u2014 but that crash took down a pile of other crypto firms, and those firms crashing caused the massive hole in Alameda\u2019s books that was then patched with customer funds from FTX. If Alameda fired the first shot directly into their own leg, that would be extremely crypto, as well as extremely funny.<\/p>\n<p>Another topic of investigation is whether hundreds of millions in funds (presumably cryptos) were moved from the US to the Bahamas on the day of the Chapter 11 filing in Delaware. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/news\/articles\/2022-12-10\/us-probes-ftx-founder-for-fraud-examines-cash-flows-to-bahamas\"><i>Bloomberg<\/i><\/a>]<\/p>\n<p>FTX\u2019s inner management had an internal chat group called \u201cWirefraud\u201d. Just do all the prosecutors\u2019 work for them, hey. Participants included SBF, Zixiao \u201cGary\u201d Wang, FTX engineer Nishad Singh and Caroline Ellison. SBF tweeted denying he was in any such group \u2014 shortly before he was arrested. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.afr.com\/companies\/financial-services\/ftx-s-inner-circle-had-a-secret-chat-group-called-wirefraud-20221213-p5c5sx\"><i>AFR<\/i><\/a><i>; <\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/SBF_FTX\/status\/1602419187296641024\"><i>Twitter<\/i><\/a>]<\/p>\n<p>Our question is: where&#8217;s Gary Wang, the secret third FTX guy?<\/p>\n<h3>SBF doesn\u2019t speak to Congress \u2014 John Jay Ray does<\/h3>\n<p>Being put into a cell meant that SBF wasn\u2019t available to testify to the House Finance Committee today, after Maxine Waters\u2019 staff had spent so long setting it up. Just think of all the extra crimes SBF would have blithely confessed to!<\/p>\n<p>We do have SBF\u2019s planned introductory testimony. It\u2019s a \u201ctalk\u201d with numbered and lettered sections, subsections and sub-subsections. SBF apologises for messing up, and blames everything on others \u2014 mostly John Jay Ray\u2019s Chapter 11 team. He thinks FTX US is solvent, and the Chapter 11 team should not have closed it. He is very upset that the Chapter 11 team isn\u2019t interested in his assistance. There\u2019s also a whole page blaming Binance. Sam just worked too hard and cared too much, see. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.forbes.com\/sites\/stevenehrlich\/2022\/12\/13\/exclusive-transcript-the-full-testimony-sbf-planned-to-give-to-congress\/\"><i>Forbes<\/i><\/a>]<\/p>\n<p>Ray\u2019s introductory testimony reiterates the themes of <a href=\"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/2022\/11\/17\/declaration-of-john-jay-ray-ftx-is-worse-than-enron\/\">his searing first-day declaration:<\/a> this was a clown financial firm run by clowns, and worse than Enron. [<a href=\"https:\/\/docs.house.gov\/meetings\/BA\/BA00\/20221213\/115246\/HHRG-117-BA00-Wstate-RayJ-20221213.pdf\"><i>Testimony<\/i><\/a><i>, PDF<\/i>]<\/p>\n<p>Molly White live-tooted John Jay Ray\u2019s testimony on Mastodon. Highlights include: [<a href=\"https:\/\/hachyderm.io\/@molly0xfff\/109506881073887478\"><i>Mastodon<\/i><\/a>]<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li aria-level=\"1\">Poor documentation of loans by SBF: &#8220;in one instance he signed as both the issuer of the loan as well as the recipient of the loan.&#8221;<\/li>\n<li aria-level=\"1\">Ray has been sharing his findings with the SDNY and the SEC.<\/li>\n<li aria-level=\"1\">Ray distinguishes between &#8220;sophisticated&#8221; crimes at Enron, and &#8220;old-fashioned embezzlement&#8221; at FTX.<\/li>\n<li aria-level=\"1\">&#8220;Our keys aren&#8217;t stored in a centralized location. We don&#8217;t know where all of our wallets are. Passwords were sometimes kept in just plaintext format.&#8221;<\/li>\n<li aria-level=\"1\"><a href=\"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/2022\/11\/25\/crypto-collapse-ftx-first-day-hearing-genesis-screws-dcg-silvergate-bank\/\">The Blockchain Eight<\/a> try to pin FTX\u2019s failure on SEC chair Gary Gensler \u2014 after they\u2019d told Gensler to back off from FTX.<\/li>\n<li aria-level=\"1\">Ray can\u2019t get information on the Bahamas bankruptcy. \u201cThe pushback that we&#8217;ve gotten is sort of extraordinary in the context of bankruptcy.\u201d He believes that SBF was attempting to undermine the US proceeding.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Update:<\/b> Here&#8217;s Molly&#8217;s writeup of the day. [<i><a href=\"https:\/\/newsletter.mollywhite.net\/p\/the-charges-against-sam-bankman-fried\">Substack<\/a><\/i>]<\/p>\n<h3>The nuanced ingredient is crime<\/h3>\n<p>Crypto was mysteriously starting to move off FTX on November 11 and 12 \u2014 so John Jay Ray cut off outside access to FTX servers.<\/p>\n<p>Peter Greaves of PwC, the joint liquidators in the Bahamas bankruptcy proceeding, has asked the judge in the U.S. Chapter 11 proceeding in Delaware to compel Ray to give them access to the FTX platform again. PwC wants access to trading platform data, FTX email records, internal Slack chats, FTX Google Drive documents and QuickBooks accounts. Yes, the billion-dollar trading platform ran on QuickBooks. [<a href=\"https:\/\/storage.courtlistener.com\/recap\/gov.uscourts.deb.188450\/gov.uscourts.deb.188450.198.0.pdf\"><i>Doc 198<\/i><\/a><i>, PDF<\/i>; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnbc.com\/2022\/12\/09\/bahamas-files-emergency-motion-in-ftx-case-for-access-to-customer-data.html?utm_term=Autofeed&amp;utm_medium=Social&amp;utm_content=Main&amp;utm_source=Twitter#Echobox=1670630351\"><i>CNBC<\/i><\/a>]<\/p>\n<p>Genesis Block Trading was an OTC (over-the-counter) desk and Hong Kong\u2019s largest Bitcoin ATM player. Genesis Block was part-owned by Alameda. Dirty Bubble is pretty sure it was just a front for Alameda to bring in retail money: \u201cBlockchain transfers suggest Genesis Block was little more than a nameplate, as the funds transferred to Genesis Block appear to have flowed directly to Alameda Research.\u201d One former employee told the Financial Times: \u201cPeople were literally lining up around the corner with bags of cash at Genesis Block, sometimes they shut the door saying they were out of bitcoin.\u201d Genesis Block was involved in SBF\u2019s supposed \u201ckimchi premium\u201d arbitrage origin story. [<a href=\"https:\/\/dirtybubblemedia.substack.com\/p\/blockchain-evidence-suggests-genesis\"><i>Dirty Bubble<\/i><\/a><i>; <\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/content\/68dbe10a-fa38-443a-9790-dc96f2d8979a\"><i>FT<\/i><\/a><i>, <\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/archive.vn\/U9SuP\"><i>archive<\/i><\/a>]<\/p>\n<p>Bloomberg, the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal and the Financial Times have filed a motion in the FTX bankruptcy, requesting that FTX be required to unseal customer and creditor lists \u2014 just like in any other bankruptcy. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.courtlistener.com\/docket\/65748821\/196\/ftx-trading-ltd\/\"><i>Doc 196<\/i><\/a><i>, PDF<\/i>]<\/p>\n<p>The purchase of Voyager Digital by FTX US is officially dead. Voyager gets to keep FTX\u2019s $5 million deposit, though. [<a href=\"https:\/\/document.epiq11.com\/document\/getdocumentbycode?docId=4127299&amp;projectCode=VDH2&amp;source=DM\"><i>Joint stipulation<\/i><\/a><i>, PDF<\/i>]<\/p>\n<p>Earlier, <a href=\"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/2022\/11\/25\/crypto-collapse-ftx-first-day-hearing-genesis-screws-dcg-silvergate-bank\/\">we wrote about Silvergate<\/a>, the actual-money banker for most of US crypto. Silvergate sent a letter to shareholders assuring them it had conducted \u201csignificant due diligence\u201d on FTX and Alameda Research. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.sec.gov\/Archives\/edgar\/data\/1312109\/000131210922000233\/ex991-letterfromsilvergate.htm\"><i>SEC<\/i><\/a>]<\/p>\n<p>Moonstone, owned by Farmington, was the tiny bank that FTX <a href=\"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/2022\/12\/04\/crypto-collapse-ftx-headed-for-examiner-bahamas-crypto-shenanigans\/\">bought a share in and then pumped a lot of cash through.<\/a> The local paper investigates. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.spokesman.com\/stories\/2022\/dec\/04\/moonstone-how-a-state-charter-for-a-tiny-bank-in-f\/\"><i>Spokesman<\/i><\/a>]<\/p>\n<p>Sam\u2019s parents, Joseph Bankman and Barbara Fried, will not be teaching at Stanford next year. [<a href=\"https:\/\/stanforddaily.com\/2022\/12\/07\/sam-bankman-frieds-parents-will-not-be-teaching-at-stanford-law-school-next-year\/\"><i>The Stanford Daily<\/i><\/a>]<\/p>\n<p>In the days leading up to FTX\u2019s collapse, when people should have been frantically grabbing their money, Larry Cermak from The Block vigorously defended the company\u2019s solvency. \u201cI think the chance of FTX insolvency is near 0%. Clearly there are liquidity issues as people are withdrawing out of caution.\u201d [<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/lawmaster\/status\/1589514046201802753\"><i>Twitter<\/i><\/a><i>, <\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/archive.ph\/E28aZ\"><i>archive<\/i><\/a>]<\/p>\n<p>The Atlantic interviews James Block, <i>a.k.a.<\/i> \u201cMike Burgersburg\u201d of Dirty Bubble Media, about his part in FTX\u2019s downfall. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/technology\/archive\/2022\/12\/cryptocurrency-ftx-collapse-dirty-bubble-media\/672440\/\"><i>The Atlantic<\/i><\/a>]<\/p>\n<h3>The Block: trustworthy crypto news, brought to you by your friends at FTX<\/h3>\n<p>Crypto news site The Block was secretly funded with money funneled to its CEO\u2019s LLCs from SBF\u2019s Alameda Research. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/2022\/12\/09\/bankman-fried-funded-crypto-news-site-block\"><i>Axios<\/i><\/a><i>; <\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/medium.com\/the-block-crypto\/ceo-transition-e2700caed741\"><i>Medium<\/i><\/a><i>, <\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/archive.vn\/wip\/kAR4c\"><i>archive<\/i><\/a>]<\/p>\n<p>The Block\u2019s Mike McCaffrey had three loans from SBF. $12 million (April 2021) went to buy out The Block; $15 million (Jan 2022) was used to fund The Block; $16 million was used by McCaffrey to buy an apartment in the Bahamas.<\/p>\n<p>McCaffrey has resigned, and has been replaced by chief revenue officer Bobby Moran. McCaffrey is still a majority equity holder in The Block.<\/p>\n<p>The writers and researchers of the Block are shocked, and say they had no idea their boss was in hock to SBF. Please ignore the pictures of them out partying with Sam, that\u2019s just keeping up with the industry. [<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/davidgerard\/status\/1601633732565565440\"><i>Twitter<\/i><\/a>]<\/p>\n<p>Mike Dudas founded The Block in 2018. The Block ran on a subscription model, but this wasn\u2019t enough to pay the bills \u2014 it bled money for years. Dudas had raised $3.5 million from venture capitalists, but that was barely enough to keep the lights on. The company lost $747,000 in 2018 and was on track to lose more in 2019. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.crunchbase.com\/organization\/the-block-crypto\/investor_financials\"><i>Crunchbase<\/i><\/a><i>; <\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/modernconsensus.com\/uncategorized\/the-block-mike-dudas-1-75-million-investment-pitch-deck\/\"><i>Modern Consensus<\/i><\/a><i>, 2019, <\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/archive.vn\/A32wm\"><i>archive<\/i><\/a>]<\/p>\n<p>McCaffrey took over in April 2020, at age 24. In April 2021, McCaffrey led a buyout of all of The Block&#8217;s seed investors. The company became employee owned, and McCaffrey was the sole director. Dudas figured McCaffrey got the money from his wealthy family, LOL. [<a href=\"https:\/\/fortune.com\/2020\/04\/21\/the-block-names-new-ceo-crypto-site\/\"><i>Fortune<\/i><\/a><i>, 2020; <\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/2021\/04\/16\/block-crypto-media\"><i>Axios<\/i><\/a><i>, 2021; <\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/2022\/12\/09\/the-block-founder-says-hes-exploring-ways-to-get-the-publication-into-trustworthy-hands\/\"><i>TechCrunch<\/i><\/a>]<\/p>\n<p>McCaffrey said he took the loan because The Block was in a \u201cprecarious place\u201d in 2021. [<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/McCaffrMike\/status\/1601304760174669825\"><i>Twitter<\/i><\/a>]<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/2020\/02\/28\/critical-journalism-in-the-crypto-ice-age\/\">You can\u2019t make money in crypto news<\/a> unless you become part of the crypto PR machine. Promote crypto, do whatever you can to lure more retail dollars into the space, and there are plenty of companies who will send you money.<\/p>\n<p>Some outlets work on a patronage model \u2014 Coindesk is funded by crypto conglomerate DCG, Decrypt is a project of ConsenSys, <a href=\"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/2019\/05\/01\/breaker-mag-is-shutting-down\/\">Breaker<\/a> was a project of <a href=\"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/2022\/07\/25\/news-whats-the-tory-crypto-story-us-stablecoin-bill-facebooks-libra-even-deader-the-ignominious-death-of-singulardtv-and-breaker\/\">SingularDTV<\/a>. Binance has bought a share of Forbes, presumably in the hope of greater than zero influence.<\/p>\n<p>If your benefactor is FTX, one of the biggest players in the crypto space, and one of Tether\u2019s biggest customers, it is possible that your stances on certain crypto companies will adjust accordingly.<\/p>\n<p>Both Amy and David have written for The Block. They pay in full on time, which is the highest praise a freelancer can give a publisher. Keep it up, guys!<\/p>\n<br><br><div align=\"center\"><p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.patreon.com\/bePatron?u=8420236\"><img src=\"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/become_a_patron_button.svg\" alt=\"Become a Patron!\" title=\"Become a Patron!\" width=217 height=51><\/a><br><p style=\"align:center;\" class=\"patreon-badge\"><i>Your subscriptions keep this site going. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.patreon.com\/bePatron?u=8420236\">Sign up today!<\/a><\/i><\/p><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The nuanced ingredient is crime.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":24339,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2653,3344,1986,3349,3353,3341,167,3035,3333,484,1798,3345,3348,280,3315,1133,1134,3352,594,3350,3346,3347,1085,2491,33,1545,3343,1086,2697,3351,3342],"class_list":["post-24338","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorised","tag-alameda","tag-anjan-sahni","tag-bahamas","tag-bloomberg","tag-bobby-moran","tag-caroline-ellison","tag-cftc","tag-dirty-bubble-media","tag-farmington-state-bank","tag-financial-times","tag-ftx","tag-gary-wang","tag-genesis-block","tag-hong-kong","tag-john-jay-ray","tag-larry-cermak","tag-mike-dudas","tag-mike-mccaffrey","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-times","tag-nishad-singh","tag-peter-greaves","tag-pwc","tag-sam-bankman-fried","tag-sec","tag-silvergate-bank","tag-stephanie-avakian","tag-the-block","tag-voyager-digital","tag-wall-street-journal","tag-wilmerhale"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/poor-thanks-to-ftx.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24338","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24338"}],"version-history":[{"count":21,"href":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24338\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25125,"href":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24338\/revisions\/25125"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24339"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24338"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24338"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24338"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}