This week in crypto: SBF explained FTX’s collapse in an interview

Key takeaways

• Sam Bankman-Fried granted an interview to explain the circumstances behind FTX’s collapse.

• Nexo and Gemini gain regulatory approval in Italy.

• NFTs are now live on the Uniswap network.

SBF takes responsibility for FTX’s collapse

The former CEO of FTX explained in an interview earlier this week that he is responsible for the collapse of the cryptocurrency exchange. According to SBF, a lot of people were hurt by the exchange’s collapse, and that is on him. He said;

“I really, deeply wish that I had taken a lot more responsibility for understanding what the details were of what was going on. I should have been on top of this, and I feel really, really bad and regretful that I wasn’t. A lot of people got hurt. And that’s on me.”

The interview didn’t get him many sympathisers in the crypto space, with Galaxy Digital CEO Mike Novogratz, calling for SBF’s arrest and other people involved in FTX’s collapse.

The CEO of BlackRock, Larry Fink, also revealed earlier this week that the firm invested $24 million in FTX through a fund of funds it manages. However, the asset management fund said it would wait to see how the situation plays out. 

Bankman-Fried maintains that FTX US is solvent and withdrawals could resume shortly. However, there are no reports that withdrawals on the US arm of the FTX exchange have resumed.

NFTs are now available on Uniswap

Uniswap, the leading decentralised exchange in the world, announced earlier this week that nonfungible tokens are now available on its network. Uniswap said its users can now trade NFTs across major marketplaces to find more listings and better prices.

The DEX also launched an aggregator to deliver better prices, faster indexing, safer smart contracts, and efficient execution. At the time of its launch, Uniswap said it supports NFT marketplaces, including, OpenSea, X2Y2, LooksRare, Sudoswap, Larva Labs, X2Y2, Foundation, NFT20, and NFTX.

Nexo and Gemini gain regulatory approval in Italy

Nexo and Gemini have become the latest crypto companies to gain regulatory approval in Italy, following the footsteps of Binance, Coinbase, and Crypto.com. The approval means that Nexo and Gemini can now offer virtual asset services to Italian citizens.

Nexo revealed that it plans to legally issue cryptocurrency lending services to Italian citizens as it also seeks to expand its services across EU member states.

Stripe launches fiat-to-crypto payment service

Payment processing platform Stripe has re-entered the cryptocurrency space. The company announced earlier this week that it had launched a fiat-to-crypto payment service for Web3 businesses.

Web3 application developers can now customise and integrate the new Stripe widget into decentralised exchanges, NFT platforms, crypto wallets, and other decentralised apps (DApp). Thus, allowing their customers to instantly buy cryptocurrencies in the applications. 

Ankr and Helio suffer exploits

Another week, another crypto hack. This week, infrastructure provider Ankr and stablecoin issuer Helio Protocol suffered exploits, losing approximately $20 million in the process. 

https://twitter.com/ankr/status/1598624443642703872 

Helio lost $15 million worth of BUSD stablecoins, while Ankr revealed that the attacker drained $5 million worth of BNB from their liquidity pools.